. PATH of UPSC: INTERNATIONAL

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1.Reports

2.Economy

3.Food&Health

4.Employment , Poverty & Women

6.defence

7.NUCLEAR POWERS

8.UN

9.EU

10.Asia

11.Banks of World

12.WTO

13.GLOBAL Orgs

1.REPORTS

HDR Human Development Report by UNDP

HDI Human Development Index : It produced by UNDP (started in 1990) have three parameters in its which are used to rank countries in 4 tier of human development.

Life Expectancy
Educational Attainment
Per capita Income

The HDI was developed by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq & Amartya Sen in 1990 for UNDP.
HDI is divided in 4 tiers such as Low, Medium, High, Very High.
In 2017 HDR ,With HDI value 0.609, India was ranked 131st out of 188 countries and was below the other BRICS nation.
In 2018 , HDR released in Sep 2018 , India climbed up one rank above compare to previous year and ranked at 130th out of 191 countries this year with HDI value at 0.638 while Bangladesh and pak are ranked at 136 & 150 resp.
Norway, SW, Aus, Ireland, Germany are Top rankers.
Nizer, Central african republic, Chad, South Sudan are ranked in bottom.

IHDI : Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI) is a "measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account".

GDI Gender Development Index :

is designed to measure of gender equality.
GDI together with the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) were introduced in 1995 in HDR of UNDP.
The aim of these measurements was to add a gender-sensitive dimension to Human Development Index.

The GDI measures gender gaps in human development achievements by accounting for disparities between women and men in three basic dimensions of human development—health, knowledge and living standards using the same component indicators as in the HDI. It is a direct measure of gender gap showing the female HDI as a percentage of the male HDI.

GII Gender Inequality Index :

an index for measurement of gender disparity that was introduced in the 2010 HDR by UNDP.
It was introduced as an experimental measure to remedy the shortcomings of the previous indicators, the Gender Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), both of which were introduced in the 1995 Human Development Report.

The three dimensions to measure GII are:

Reproductive health (measured by maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates)
Empowerment (measured by proportion of parliamentary seats occupied by females and proportion of adult females and males aged 25 years and older with at least some secondary education)
Labour force participation (economic status, expressed as labour market participation and measured by labour force participation rate of female and male populations aged 15 years and older)

GII is built on the same framework as the IHDI — to better expose differences in the distribution of achievements between women and men.
Higher the GII value the more disparities between females and males and the more loss to human development.

MPI MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY INDEX

Developed by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative(OHPI) supported by UNDP
It was featured in HDR-2010 and replaces Human Poverty Index (HPI) which had been included in HDR since 1997
The method can show the incidence, intensity and depth of poverty, as well as inequality among the poor, depending on the type of data available to create the measure.
Poverty is defined on basis of INCOME , Poor Health, Poor quality of Work & the threat of Violence.

Image result for multidimensional poverty index

The latest MPI report released on 20 Sep 2018 by UNDP shows that in the decade between 2005-06 and 2015-16, India has halved its Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) — an index that looks beyond income poverty to take into account deprivations in health, education, and living standards — 54.7 per cent to 27.5 per cent.

Global Gender Gap Index

Released as part of World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2017 in which India was ranked low at 108th position out of 144 countries in 2017.
First published in 2006 by WEF & examines four overall areas of inequality between men and women in 130 economies around the globe, over 93% of the world’s population.

Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment
Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher level education
Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures
Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio.

Gender Parity Index (GPI) is a socioeconomic index usually designed to measure the relative access to education of males and females. This index is released by UNESCO.

Global Education Monitoring Report by UNESCO

Assessed progress towards the SDG 4 and its 10 targets, as well as other related education targets in the SDG agenda.
Investigates accountability in education, analyzing how all relevant stakeholders can provide education more effectively, efficiently and equitably.
It concludes with concrete recommendations that will help build stronger education systems.

World Economic Outlook (WEO) of IMF

survey conducted and published biannually and partly updated two times a year by IMF
It portrays the world economy in the near and medium context, with projections for up to four years into the future
It forecasts include key macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP, inflation, current account and fiscal balance of more than 180 countries around the globe.
It also deals with major economic policy issues.
In 2019 WEO , Economic slowdown is expected across the world. While Economic growth of India would be better than World's economy as 7.5% growth in 2019 and will be 7.7% growth in 2020-21.

UN's World Economic situation and Prospects :

by UN's Economic and social affairs dept
as per the annual report , Economic growth for world will be 3% in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
7.6% and 7.4% in 2019 and 2020 for India.

Index of Economic Freedom :

published by the Heritage Foundation, an American think-tank.
India moved up to the 130th spot in 2018 index with economic freedom score 54.5 , up from 143 in 2017, two spots below its neighbour, Pakistan and Hence India (now 130th) is surpassed Pakistan( 131st )
India’s position increase because of improvements in judicial effectiveness, business freedom, government integrity, and fiscal health.
Among the 43 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, India was ranked 30th.
Hong Kong topped the Index with rank 1 followed by Singapore , New Zealand, Switzerland, Australlia
China leapfrogs one step ranks at 111st.

Democracy Index report released by Economist Intelligence Unit reported that democracy is declining across the world and kept India as Flawed democracy because less freedom of speech and press in current.

GHI Global Hunger index

Global hunger index based on four key indicators —

Undernourishment,
Child mortality,
Child wasting(low Weight for height)
Child stunting

It is published by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
India stood at 97th position in last year’s rankings. India is ranked 100th out of 119 countries in 2017, and has third highest score in all of Asia .
In the 2018 Global Hunger Index, India was ranked 103rd out of 119 qualifying countries.
India has developed and launched an action plan on ‘undernourishment free India’ by 2022. The plan shows stronger commitment and greater investments in tackling malnutrition in the coming years. India with a relatively high stunting rate of 38.4.

DOING BUSINESS REPORT

A study elaborated by the World Bank Group since 2003 every year that is aimed to measure the costs to firms of business regulations in 189 countries.
It has created an index called ‘The ease of doing business index’ which ranks all the 189 countries annually.
A nation's and MDG 3 on gender equality in education, by 2015.
Through south-south cooperation. The “E” stands for education and the ‘9’ represents the nine highly populated countries : Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Global Firepower Index

Top Ranks - US , Russia, China , India, France

WDI World Development Indicators : by World Bank

provides high-quality cross-country comparable statistics about development and people’s lives around the globe.
WDI now includes 1,400 indicators for over 200 economies and aims to produce a curated set of indicators relevant to the changing needs of the development community.
The new edition includes indicators to help measure the 169 targets of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

WDR World Development Report : by World Bank

It puts out the indicators of global growth, major hindrances in achieving it and lays down concrete steps in resolving those issues.
UNECOSOC and G-20 do not publish reports of general nature that consider the overarching theme of development.

World Bank's Human Capital Index (HCI) as part of the World Development Report 2019.

Theme for the World Development Report (WDR) 2018: “The Changing Nature of Work”.

Human Capital Project (HCP):

As part of this report, the World Bank has launched a Human Capital Project (HCP).

The HCP programme is claimed to be a program of advocacy, measurement, and analytical work to raise awareness and increase demand for interventions to build human capital.
There are three components of HCP- a cross-country human capital measurement metric called the Human Capital Index (HCI), a programme of measurement and research to inform policy action, and a programme of support for country strategies to accelerate investment in human capital.

About Human Capital Index (HCI):

The HCI has been constructed for 157 countries. It claims to seek to measure the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by age 18. The HCI index values are contended to convey the productivity of the next generation of workers, compared to a benchmark of complete standard education and full health.

The HCI has three components:

Survival, as measured by under-5 mortality rates.
Expected years of Quality-Adjusted School which combines information on the quantity and quality of education.
Health environment using two proxies of (a) adult survival rates and (b) the rate of stunting for children under age 5.

Logistics Performance Index (LPI) released by World Bank

It helps countries identify the challenges and opportunities they face in their performance on trade logistics and what they can do to improve their performance.
It is the weighted average of the country scores on six key dimensions:

a) efficiency of the clearance
b) quality of trade and transport related infrastructure
c) ease of arranging competitively priced shipments
d) competence and quality of logistics services
e) ability to track and trace consignments
f) timeliness of shipments in reaching destination within the scheduled or expected delivery time

Global Ranking of the World Bank’s 2016 Logistics Performance Index shows that India jumped to 35th rank in 2016 from 54th rank in 2014 in terms of overall logistics performance.

By recognising the importance of the logistics sector, a new Logistics Division has been created in Department of Commerce to develop and coordinate integrated development of the logistics sector, improvement in existing procedures, identification of bottlenecks and gaps, and introduction of technology based interventions in this sector

World Investment Report or Global Investment Report :

published by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
global FDI flows slid by 13% in 2018 to $1.3 trillion from $1.5 trillion in 2017
while India received $42 billion in FDI in 2018, a growth of 6%.
In 2018 , India’s rank as a source country for FDI fell one notch to the 10th position as it was overtaken by Spain.China stood on 2nd position.

UNCTAD is a permanent intergovernmental body established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1964. Its headquarters are located in Geneva, Switzerland. It is part of UN Secretariat. It supports developing countries to access the benefits of a globalized economy more fairly and effectively.

GII Global Innovation Index

co-published by World-Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Cornell University and INSEAD with CII as a Knowledge Partner since inception, has been ranking world economies including India since 2007 according to their innovation capabilities and outcomes using 82 indicators among a host of other important parameters.
It is computed by taking a simple average of the scores in two sub-indices, the Innovation Input Index and Innovation Output Index.
It is based on both subjective and objective data derived from several sources, including ITU , WB, WEF.
In it’s 2017 GII , India is ranked 60th out of 127 countries. China was ranked 22th.
Topped by Switzerland > Sweden > Netherland > USA > UK

Published on 25th July 2019

India jumps 5 places to 52nd in global innovation index as It maintained its position as the top exporter of IT services.
India maintained its top place in Central and Southern Asia region.
Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi, also featured in the world's top 100 science and technology clusters, according to the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019.
In Global R&D companies, India reached the 15th spot as the second middle-income economy.
Switzerland retained its number-one spot on the GII rankings. It was followed by Sweden, the US, the Netherlands, the UK, Finland, Denmark, Singapore, Germany and Israel in the top 10 places.
GII ranks 129 economies based on 80 indicators, ranging from intellectual property filing rates to mobile-application creation, education spending and scientific and technical publications.
Pakistan ranked at 105th.

International Intellectual Property Index

7th edition with theme “Inspiring Tomorrow” was released by Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) of U.S. Chamber of Commerce on February 7, 2019.
ranks 50 economies (90% of total GDP of world) based on 45 unique indicators across eight separate categories that are critical to an innovation-led economy supported by robust patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secrets protection.
USA tops the index
India climbs 8 Spots in 2019 and ranks at 36th among 50 countries.

World Happiness Report

A measure of happiness published by UN SDSN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
The first World Happiness Report was released on April 1, 2012 as a foundational text for the UN High Level Meeting : Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm, drawing international attention.
India was ranked 133rd among 156 countries in World Happiness Index 2018.
India is ranked 140th among 156 countries in World Happiness Index 2019.
Topped BY : Finland , Norway ,Denmark , Iceland
SAARC nations : Pakistan (75th), Nepal (101st), Bhutan (97th), Bangladesh (115th), Sri Lanka (116th)
Parameters are :

GDP Per capita
Income Freedom
Social Support
Healthy life expectancy
freedom to make life choices
Generosity and absence of corruption

"Illicit Financial Flows to and from Developing Countries: 2005-2014" report : Illicit financial flows (IFFs) from developing and emerging economies kept pace at nearly US$1 trillion in 2014. It was released by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based research and advisory organization.

IDI Inclusive Development Index

released by World Economic Forum as a new metric of national economic performance as an alternative to GDP.
The index takes into account the living standards, environmental sustainability and protection of future generations from further indebtedness.
The index has three individual pillars —

growth and development;
inclusion; and
inter - generational equity.

India is placed at the 62nd place among emerging economies much below China’s 26th position and Pakistan’s 47th.

Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) : released by INSEAD in partnership with The Adecco Group and Tata communications, measures the ability of countries to compete for talent. The index that measures how countries grow, attract and retain talent. India has moved up to the 81st position, but remains a laggard among the BRICS nations.

Global Risks Report is an annual study published by WEF ahead of the Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos which highlights the most significant long-term risks worldwide AND examines some of their root causes: rising inequality, political polarization and nationalism and disruptive technological change.

Global Status Report 2017 :

Towards a zero-emission, efficient, and resilient buildings and construction sector,’ published by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has listed the Energy Management Centre (EMC), an autonomous institution under the Kerala government campus.

EMC campus : built with assistance from Global Environment Fund (GEF), is only LEED Gold certified building in government sector in Kerala.

UN Environment’s Emissions Gap report : It focuses on the difference b/w emissions levels that countries had pledged to achieve under INDCs with limiting warming below 2 degree celsius.

Global Manufacturing Index by World Economic Forum(WEF)

It is WEF’s first ‘Readiness for the future of production report
Developed in collaboration with A T Kearney and calls for new and innovative approaches to PPP are needed to accelerate transformation.
Japan topped the list and followed by South Korea, Germany, Switzerland, China, Czech Republic, the US, Sweden, Austria and Ireland.
India is at the 30th position.

World Press Freedom Index

Published every year since 2002 by Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
is an important advocacy tool based on the principle of emulation between states.
The Index ranks 180 countries according to the level of freedom available to journalists.
It is a snapshot of the media freedom situation based on an evaluation of pluralism, independence of the media, quality of legislative framework and safety of journalists in each country.
It does not rank public policies even if governments obviously have a major impact on their country’s ranking. Nor is it an indicator of the quality of journalism in each country.
In this year’s index, Norway is first for the second year running, followed — as it was last year — by Sweden.
India has dropped from rank 136 last year to rank 138 this year. India fared poorly on indicators such as hate speeches, attacks on journalists on social media, trolling them and targeting their reputation.
SAARC nations: Afghanistan (118), Bhutan (94), Nepal (106), the Maldives (120), and Sri Lanka (131), all performed better than India; with Pakistan (139) and Bangladesh (146) performing worse.
North Korea continues to rank last.

Social Progress Index : An aggregate index of social and environmental indicators that capture 3 dimensions of social progress:

Basic Human Needs,
Foundations of Wellbeing,
Opportunity.

The 2017 Social Progress Index includes data from 128 countries on 50 indicators.

India’s Overall Rank	93
BASIC HUMAN NEEDS	66.74
FOUNDATIONS OF WELLBEING	61.15
OPPORTUNITY	47.29

Environmental Performance Index (EPI) : biennial index is prepared by Yale and Columbia Universities along with World Economic Forum (WEF). India (at 177) is among the bottom five countries on the Index and Bangladesh (179) come in near the bottom of the rankings.

It is a method of quantifying and numerically marking the environmental performance of a state's policies. This index was developed from the Pilot Environmental Performance Index, first published in 2002, and designed to supplement the environmental targets set forth in the United Nations MDGs.

The EPI ranks countries on 24 performance indicators across 10 issue categories which are: Air quality, Water and sanitation, Heavy metals, Biodiversity and Habitat, Forests, Fisheries, Climate and energy, Air pollution, Water resource and Agriculture.
Switzerland is ranked 1st followed by France and Denmark.

UHC Index (Universal Health Coverage) developed by WORLD BANK to measure the progress in health sector of Select countries. India was ranked as 143 out of 190 countries in terms of per capita expenditure on health.

Global FDI Confidence Index :

Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is a shipping and trade index created by the London-based Baltic Exchange that measures change in the cost of transporting various raw materials. The Baltic Dry Index is a composite of 3 sub-indices that measure different sizes of dry bulk carriers or merchant ships: Capesize, Panamax and Supramax.

List of Blueprint priority diseases released by WHO :

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF)
Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease
Lassa fever
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
Nipah and henipaviral diseases
Rift Valley fever (RVF)
Zika
Disease X

Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease, and so the R&D Blueprint explicitly seeks to enable cross-cutting R&D preparedness that is also relevant for an unknown “Disease X” as far as possible.

WHO global air pollution database

monitored 4,300 world cities for their air pollution levels in terms of PM 2.5 levels in the year 2016.
The PM2.5 includes pollutants like sulfate, nitrate and black carbon, which pose the greatest risk to human health.
WHO recently released global air pollution database in Geneva.
More than 80% of people living in urban areas that monitor air pollution are exposed to air quality levels that exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) limits. While all regions of the world are affected, populations in low-income cities are the most impacted.
According to the latest urban air quality database, 98% of cities in low- and middle income countries with more than 100 000 inhabitants do not meet WHO air quality guidelines. However, in high-income countries, that percentage decreases to 56%.
In the past two years, the database – now covering 3000 cities in 103 countries – has nearly doubled, with more cities measuring air pollution levels and recognizing the associated health impacts.
As urban air quality declines, the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma, increases for the people who live in them.
As per the database, 14 out of 15 most polluted cities in the world are from India and the top 14 cities are from India only.
Kanpur is the most polluted city which came on top with PM 2.5 concentration of 173 micrograms per cubic metre.
Other Indian cities that registered very high levels of PM 2.5 pollutants were Kanpur, Faridabad, Gaya, Patna, Agra, Muzaffarpur, Srinagar, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Patiala and Jodhpur followed by Ali Subah Al-Salem in Kuwait and a few cities in China and Mongolia.
The national Capital New Delhi climbed down from the fourth spot, where it appeared in WHO 2015 data, to the sixth spot only.

Earth Charter

an ethical framework for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century.
It provides, therefore, a new, inclusive, integrated ethical framework to guide the transition to a sustainable future.
It began as a UN initiative, but it was carried forward and completed by a global civil society initiative.

WESO World Employment and Social Outlook 2018 :

Published by ILO International Labour Organisation with theme Greening with Jobs.
As per the report, 24 million new jobs are expected to be created globally by 2030, if the right policies to promote a greener economy are put in place.
The creation of the ecosystem services could employ 1.2 billion workers. These services include air and water purification, soil renewal and fertilization, pest control, pollination, protection against extreme weather conditions, farming, fishing, forestry and tourism activities.
The green economy will also enable people to overcome poverty and deliver improved livelihoods for future generations.
Other major reports by ILO are Global Wage Report, Global Employment Trends for Youth and World Social Protection Report

GDP by IMF as per PPP : China ,US, India, Japan, Russia (EU ranks 2nd)

GDP (Nominal) by IMF : US, China, Japan, India, Brazil. Russia (EU ranks 2nd)

‘Reward Work, Not Wealth’ has been released by international rights group Oxfam which highlights as

The richest 1% in India cornered 73% of the wealth generated in the country last year. Besides, 67 crore Indians comprising the population’s poorest half saw their wealth rise by just 1%. The wealth of India’s richest 1 per cent increased by over Rs. 20.9 lakh crore during 2017, an amount equivalent to total budget of the central government in 2017–18, Oxfam India said. This presents a worrying picture of rising income inequality.
Globally, 82% of the wealth generated last year worldwide went to the 1%, while 3.7 billion people that account for the poorest half of population saw no increase in their wealth. 2017 saw an unprecedented increase in the number of billionaires, at a rate of one every two days. Billionaire wealth has risen by an average of 13% a year since 2010—six times faster than the wages of ordinary workers, which have risen by a yearly average of just 2%.
The survey also showed that women workers often find themselves at the bottom of the heap and nine out of 10 billionaires are men. In India, there are only four women billionaires and three of them inherited family wealth.

Hurun Global Rich List 2018

is released by Hurun Report, a ranking of the US-Dollar-billionaires in the world.
Wealth calculations are a snapshot of 31 January 2018.
No. of billionaires by Countries : China > USA > India > UK > Germany
JEFF BEZOS, 54, of amazon adds us$51bn to storm into 1st place
PONY MA of Tencent becomes richest asian
India reclaims 3rd position from Germany, adding 31 billionaires and have 131 billionaires.
Technology key source of wealth, Real estate overtakes manufacturing for second place, followed by investments in fourth place.
Beijing is the ‘Billionaire Capital of the World’ for the third year running, ahead of New York

According to New World Wealth Report, India was ranked 6th in list of wealthiest countries with total wealth of US $8,230 billion in 2017.

Top Rich countries are : USA > China > Japan > UK > Germany > India > France > Can > Aus > Itly

2.ECONOMY

International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) :

is an international organization which conducts agricultural research for rural development, headquartered in Patancheru (Hyderabad) with several regional centres (Bamako (Mali), Nairobi (Kenya)) and research stations (Niamey (Niger), Kano (Nigeria), Lilongwe (Malawi), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Bulawayo (Zimbabwe)).
Since its inception, host country India has granted a special status to ICRISAT as a UN Organization operating in the Indian Territory making it eligible for special immunities and tax privileges.

Middle-Income Trap :

A situation for Middle Income Countries where they are not able to move up to the Higher income status due to the operation of several adverse factors. It is a phenomenon of hitherto rapidly growing economies stagnating at middle-income levels (of per capita income) and failing to graduate into the ranks of high-income countries

Kimberley Process is an international certification scheme that regulates trade in rough diamonds. It aims to prevent the flow of conflict diamonds, while helping to protect legitimate trade in rough diamonds.

KPCS (Process Certification Scheme ) is Not international organisation or agreement but implemented through the national legislations of its participants , is the process established in 2003 to prevent "conflict diamonds" from entering the mainstream rough diamond market by UNGA Resolution 55/56 following recommendations in the Fowler Report.

Conflict Diamonds (aka BLOOD diamonds, war diamonds, hot diamonds, or red diamonds) means rough diamonds used by rebel movements or their allies to finance conflict aimed at undermining legitimate governments. It is mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading army's war efforts, or a warlord's activity.

India was appointed as the Kimberly Process (KP) Vice Chair for 2018 & Chair for 2019.

FSAP Financial Sector Assessment Program :

Established in 1999, is a comprehensive and in-depth assessment of a country’s financial sector.
It is a joint program of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank(WB).
FSAPs analyze the resilience of the financial sector, the quality of the regulatory and supervisory framework, and the capacity to manage and resolve financial crises.
Based on its findings, FSAPs produce recommendations of a micro- and macro-prudential nature, tailored to country-specific circumstances.

For INDIA

The two main Reports of the 2017 India Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) – the Financial System Stability Assessment (FSSA) and Financial Sector Assessment (FSA), were recently released by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
Last FSAP for India was conducted in 2011-12.
The Report providing ‘Detailed Assessment of Observance—Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision’ has been released by IMF and WB and the Report providing ‘Detailed Assessment of Observance of Clearing Corporation of India Limited (CCIL) Central Counter Party (CCP) and Trade Repository (TR)’, was released by World Bank.

CCP Central Counter Party :

an entity that exists in European countries to facilitate trading done in derivatives and equities markets
CCP bear most of the credit risk of buyers and sellers when clearing and settling market transactions. So, it reduces counterparty, operational, settlement, market, legal and default risk for traders.
It provides efficiency and stability to the financial markets in which they operate.

SEBI has entered into a MoU with the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on exchange of information regarding CCPs.

ICAN International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons :

A coalition of hundreds of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), is 10 years old and is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
set about an alternative approach – to raise popular awareness of the issue and to pressure governments to open up a new treaty for signature earlier this year that would seek an outright ban on nuclear weapons.

In July, after pressure from Ican, 122 nations backed a UN treaty designed to ban and eventually eliminate all nuclear weapons. But none of the nine known nuclear powers in the world – including the UK and the US – endorsed it.

ICAN received the NOBLE Prize for PEACE in 2017 for its efforts to convince nuclear powered nations to abandoned the Nuclear weapons.

APG Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering :

It was officially established as an autonomous regional anti-money laundering body in February 1997 at the 4th (and last) Asia/Pacific Money Laundering Symposium in Bangkok.
The APG's role includes assisting jurisdictions in the region to enact laws dealing with the proceeds of crime, mutual legal assistance, confiscation, forfeiture and extradition.
It also includes the provision of guidance in setting up systems for reporting and investigating suspicious transactions and helping in the establishment of financial intelligence units.
The purpose of the APG is to facilitate the adoption, implementation and enforcement of internationally accepted anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing standards set out in the recommendations of the FATF, which is a globally body focussed on money laundering.
The APG undertakes studies of methods and trends of money laundering and the financing of terrorism in the Asia/Pacific region.
The APG allows for regional factors to be taken into account in the implementation of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing measures and provides for peer review by means of a mutual evaluation process.
The APG is voluntary and autonomous. It does not derive from an international treaty nor is it part of any international organization.
India became a member of the APG in 1998.

FATF - FINANCIAL ACTION TASK FORCE (Paris, G7, 1989)

The purpose of the FATF is to develop policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The FATF Secretariat is housed at the headquarters of the OECD in Paris but FATF was established by G-7 Summit that was held in Paris in 1989.
It has a mandate to establish international standards for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
It lays out 40+9 principles to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
India is a member of FATF. India will now have access to information on suspicious financial transactions in Switzerland, China, US and UK who are also a party to FATF.
Other institutions like Enforcement Department, Revenue Intelligence, Economic Intelligence Bureau of India will be able to exchange information on money laundering and terrorist financing.

FSB - FINANCIAL STABILITY BOARD (Basel, G20, 2009)

Based in Basel, Switzerland Established after G20 London summit in April 2009 as a successor to Financial Stability Forum (FSF).
An international body that monitors and makes recommendations about global financial system.
The Board includes all G20 major economies, FSF members, and the European Commission.

BIS Bank for International Settlements

Based in Basel, Switzerland since 1930, with representative offices in Hong Kong and Mexico City, It is An international financial institution owned by central banks which "fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks".
It carries out its work through its meetings, programmes and through the Basel Process – hosting international groups pursuing global financial stability and facilitating their interaction.
It also provides banking services, but only to central banks and other international organizations.

Basel III accord

A global, voluntary regulatory framework on bank capital adequacy, stress testing, and market liquidity risk was developed in response to the deficiencies in financial regulation revealed by the financial crisis of 2007–08.
It was agreed upon by the members of Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in 2010–11, and was scheduled to be introduced from 2013 until 2015; however, changes from 1 April 2013 extended implementation until 31 March 2018 and again extended to 31 March 2019.
Basel III is intended to strengthen bank capital requirements by increasing bank liquidity and decreasing bank leverage(purchase or support).
RBI aims to bring in all commercial banks by March 2019 under Basel III norms.

Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) is a committee of banking supervisory authorities that was established by the central bank governors of the Group of Ten countries in 1974.

Group of Ten (G-10 or G10) refers to the group of countries that agreed to participate in the General Arrangements to Borrow (GAB), an agreement to provide IMF with additional funds to increase it’s lending ability.

G-10 signed the Smithsonian Agreement in December 1971, replacing the world's fixed exchange rate regime with floating exchange rate regime.

GCCS Global Centre for Cybersecurity : based in Geneva, Switzerland, and will function as an autonomous organization under auspices of WEF ( World Economic Forum ) aims to establish the first global platform for governments, businesses, experts and law enforcement agencies to collaborate on cybersecurity challenges and to safeguard the world from hackers and growing data breaches.

ITU International Telecommunication Union of UN

Originally the International Telegraph Union, is a specialized agency of UN that is responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies.
ITU, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a member of the United Nations Development Group and has 12 regional and area offices in the world.
ITU has been an intergovernmental public–private partnership organization since its inception. Its membership includes 193 Member States and around 800 public and private sector companies, and academic institutions as well as international and regional telecommunication entities, known as Sector Members and Associates, which undertake most of the work of each Sector.
It coordinates the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promotes international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, works to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, and assists in the development and coordination of worldwide technical standards.
The ITU is active in areas including broadband Internet, latest-generation wireless technologies, aeronautical and maritime navigation, radio astronomy, satellite-based meteorology, convergence in fixed-mobile phone, Internet access, data, voice, TV broadcasting, and next-generation networks.
The agency also organizes worldwide and regional exhibitions and forums, such as ITU Telecom World, bringing together representatives of government and the telecommunications and ICT industry to exchange ideas, knowledge and technology.

India is ranked 23rd (“maturing category” of the index ) out of 165 nations in the second Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) released by ITU that measures the commitment of nations across the world to cyber security.
India is a member country since 1869 (british times), but it is the Department of Telecommunications that is the nodal agency for such coordination.

SWIFT Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication

A secure financial message carrier that transports messages from one bank to its intended bank recipient.
a global member-owned cooperative have HQ in Brussels, Belgium , founded in 1973 by a group of 239 banks from 15 countries which formed a co-operative utility to develop a secure electronic messaging service and common standards to facilitate cross-border payments. It carries an average of approximately 26 million financial messages each day. In order to use its messaging services, customers need to connect to the SWIFT environment.
Messages sent by SWIFT’s customers are authenticated using its specialised security and identification technology.
Encryption is added as the messages leave the customer environment and enter the SWIFT Environment. Messages remain in the protected SWIFT environment, subject to all its confidentiality and integrity commitments, throughout the transmission process while they are transmitted to the operating centres (OPCs) where they are processed — until they are safely delivered to the receiver.
Its core role is to provide a secure transmission channel so that Bank A knows that its message to Bank B goes to Bank B and no one else. Bank B, in turn, knows that Bank A, and no one other than Bank A, sent, read or altered the message en route. Banks, of course, need to have checks in place before actually sending messages.

o On receiving message through SWIFT, banks abroad (mostly branches of Indian banks) especially in the case of Indian firms provide funds to them.

o This credit which is against import documents is normally for 90 days and this facility is used regularly especially by companies which are in the business of gold, gems and jewellery.

o Companies take recourse to this form of funding as the costs of raising money overseas are relatively lower compared to rupee funding.

o This is essentially a short term foreign currency loan on which banks charge 60 to 90 basis points over the LIBOR.

LIBOR London Interbank Offer Rate :

It is the global reference rate for unsecured short-term borrowing in the interbank market.
It acts as a benchmark for short-term interest rates. It is used for pricing of interest rate swaps, currency rate swaps as well as mortgages.
It is an indicator of the health of the financial system and provides an idea of the trajectory of impending policy rates of central banks.
The Indian equivalent is known as The Mumbai Inter-Bank Offer Rate (MIBOR).

World Government Summit: a global platform dedicated to shaping the future of government worldwide held at Dubai with 6th edition in 2018

Convention on International Transport of Goods Under Cover of TIR Carnets (UN TIR Convention)

Multilateral treaty that was concluded at Geneva on 14 November 1975 to simplify and harmonise the administrative formalities of international road transport. (TIR stands for "Transports Internationaux Routiers" or "International Road Transports".)
Adopted under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
Establishes an international customs transit system with maximum facility to move goods:

in sealed vehicles or containers;
from a customs office of departure in one country to a customs office of destination in another country;
without requiring extensive and time-consuming border checks at intermediate borders;
while, at the same time, providing customs authorities with the required security and guarantees.

TIR convention will boost Indian trade with Central Asian countries and neighbouring countries.
It is considered as India’s counter to China’s OBOR project. It also includes maritime transport but at least a part of transport should be through roadways.

3.FOOD & HEALTH

World Food Day is celebrated on October 16 every year to raise awareness on the issues of poverty and hunger established by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) who concern with food security.

World Food Day is a chance to show our commitment to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 – to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 with Theme: “Change the future of migration. Invest in food security.”

Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint is a voluntary partnership formed by UNEP UN Environment and WHO to prevent exposure to lead, while promoting the phase-out of paints containing lead.

GFAR Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation

an inclusive global mechanism enabling all those concerned with the future of agriculture and its role in development around the world to come together and address key global needs.
GFAR provides an open forum for stakeholders across the agricultural spectrum—from researchers and organizations to farmers—to participate in collaborative discussion and action around the current and future state of agriculture.
Established in 1996, GFAR was formed as a project for resource sharing—a commitment that remains the essential purpose of the Forum today.
GFAR facilitates collaboration, partnerships and sharing of objectives along the complex pathways from research through to development outcomes.
Its headquarters is in Rome, Italy, where it is hosted by FAO.

India has a “serious” hunger problem and ranks 100th out of 119 countries on the global hunger index based on four key indicators — undernourishment, child mortality, child wasting(low weight for height) and child stunting.

It is published by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
India stood at 97th position in last year’s rankings.India is ranked 100th out of 119 countries, and has the third highest score in all of Asia .
India has developed and launched an action plan on ‘undernourishment free India’ by 2022. The plan shows stronger commitment and greater investments in tackling malnutrition in the coming years. India with a relatively high stunting rate of 38.4.

GFFA Global Forum for Food and Agriculture

10th edition on the subject “Shaping the Future of Livestock – sustainably, responsibly, efficiently” is being held during International Green Week (IGW) in Berlin.
International conference for future of the global agri-food industry. It gives representatives from the worlds of politics, business, science and civil society an opportunity to share ideas and enhance understanding on a selected topic of current agricultural policy.

UN World Food Programme : started in 1961

The food assistance branch of UN and the world’s largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security.
The WFP strives to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, with the ultimate goal in mind of eliminating the need for food aid itself.
It is a member of the United Nations Development Group(UNDG) and part of its Executive Committee.
The WFP is governed by an Executive Board which consists of representatives from member states.

The WFP operations are funded by voluntary donations from world governments, corporations and private donors. WFP food aid is also directed to fight micronutrient deficiencies, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, and combat disease, including HIV and AIDS.

IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

International financial institution
Established in 1977 as 13th specialised agency of United Nations
dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries
Headquarters — Rome, Italy
It is one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference
Goal — Empower poor rural men and women in developing countries to achieve higher incomes and improved living
176 countries are members of the IFAD, and these are grouped into 3 countries, comprising

List - A: Developed Countries,
List - B: Oil Producing Countries
List - C: Developing Countries.

India is in List – C, and is one of the founder members of IFAD, and has so far contributed US$ 147.0 million towards IFAD’s resources. India has pledged to contribute an amount of US$ 37 million to the 10th Replenishment Cycle of IFAD (during 2016-18).

Latte Levy Tax — Britain is considering implementing it to curb the consumption of disposable coffee cups.

One legislation passed to make Iceland the first country in the world to legalise equal pay between men and women.

Gig economy a labour market characterized by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs.

Advance Healthcare Directive (or simply ‘Advance Directive’) also known as living will,

Cochrane : “global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers, and people interested in health. Cochrane is for anyone who is interested in using high-quality information to make better health decisions.”

WEEC World Energy and Environment Council

world platform that address serious issues about environment and the challenges to turn to clean, renewable energy. The focus is into the development of energy policy, sustainable strategies, sustainable resource developments and sustainable economic development.
WEEC aim for commitment from governments, its leaders, for lawmakers to do intelligent thinking, get brilliant ideas in directing laws and regulations. With the private sectors cooperation and participation, creating a roadmap toward sustainability for the benefit of all.

World environment award : an international award in the field of environment instituted by the Energy Globe Foundation annually to recognise projects that make careful and economical use of resources and employ alternative energy sources.

Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) has won the 18th Energy Globe World Award -2017 as the one and only organisation from India. KISS won the award in ‘Fire’ Category for green initiatives undertaken by this institute that reduces the ecological footprint for large scale cooking.

UNICEF’s global Every Child ALIVE campaign is an urgent appeal to governments, businesses, health-care providers, communities and individuals to fulfil the promise of universal health coverage and keep every child alive. It is a demand for affordable, quality health care for every mother and newborn. It aims to end NEW born deaths.

UNICEF with GOI :

During the 1970s, UNICEF became a key partner with GOI in the world’s largest rural water supply programme.
UNICEF helped India in developing the India Mark II which is now the world’s most widely used handpump. UNICEF brought drilling rigs to India which could drill boreholes in hard rock. GOI supplied handpumps But, due to some problems, India mark II was later adopted.
UNICEF provided equipment and technical assistance for the first Penicillin Plant established in India.
Within a decade of independence, UNICEF signed an agreement with GOI to fund some cooperative milk processing plants to support white revolution.

Gender issues were mainstreamed into the training and communication strategy for the 2011 Census with the help of UNESCO.
The Government, in partnership with UNICEF, WHO, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary International and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention contributed to almost universal awareness of the need to vaccinate all children under 5 against polio.
As a result of these efforts, India was removed from the list of endemic countries in 2014.

Coordinating center on medicinal plants

CSIR into a MoU with the Regional Center for Science and Technology Transfer (RCSTT) of IORA - Indian Ocean Rim Association for designating Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow (CSIR-CIMAP) as Coordinating Center on Medicinal Plants
IORA Center at CSIR-CIMAP will establish a database on the important medicinal plants, their value added products, related experts and industries of the IORA member states and organize meetings and training programmes to promote trade, commerce and scientific exchanges to complement the strength and limitation of the member states.

IORA Indian Ocean Rim Association or Initiative and IOR-ARC Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation is an international organisation consisting of coastal states bordering the Indian Ocean.

IORA is a regional forum, tripartite in nature, bringing together representatives of Government, Business and Academia, for promoting co-operation and closer interaction among them.
IORA is an association of 21 countries and 7 dialogue partners which have identified 6 areas of cooperation including medicinal plants. The Coordinating Secretariat of IORA is located at Ebene, Mauritius.
The existence of IORA is a reminder of the untapped potential of Indian Ocean regionalism. Nearly five decades ago, in the aftermath of decolonisation, the attempt to bring together the Indian Ocean states faltered amidst deep divisions within the littoral and due to the negative impact of the Cold War.

UN Ocean Conference :

The first large-scale ocean conference devoted for protecting and saving the oceans took place on June 5th-9th 2017 which sought to mobilize action for the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources.
It was hosted at New York, USA with theme “Our oceans, our future: partnering for the implementation of SDG 14”.
It also supports the implementation of SDG 14 Sustainable Development Goal 14 i.e. protect marine and coastal ecosystems.
The conference served as a platform for the world community to discuss innovative ways to sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
The oceans are important as the temperature pattern of oceans drives the climate and weather systems. The oceans also absorb about half of CO2 carbon dioxide emitted by the humans.

Great Pacific garbage patch : also known as Pacific trash vortex

A gyre of marine debris particles in the central North Pacific Ocean discovered between 1985 and 1988.
The collection of plastic, floating trash is located halfway between Hawaii and California.
The patch is characterized by exceptionally high relative pelagic concentrations of plastic, chemical sludge, and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre.
Its low density (4 particles per cubic meter) prevents detection by satellite imagery, or even by casual boaters or divers in the area.
It consists primarily of an increase in suspended, often microscopic, particles in the upper water column.

Global Ocean Commission

It was an international initiative between 2013 and 2016 to raise awareness, and promote action to address, the degradation of the ocean and help restore it to full health and productivity.
Its focus was on the high seas, the vast ocean areas that lie beyond the Exclusive Economic Zones of individual states.
The Commission originated as an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trust, in partnership with Somerville College at the University of Oxford.
It launched in February 2013 and delivered its final report in February 2016.
The Commission included senior political figures, business leaders and development specialists, and consulted and collaborated widely with a diverse group of constituencies, including ocean users, governments, scientists, economists, business leaders and trade unions.
The Commission published its principal report and recommendations, "From Decline to Recovery: a Rescue Package for the Ocean”, in June 2014, and released a follow-up report, "The Future of Our Ocean: Next Steps and Priorities", in February 2016.

International Rare Disease Day : coordinated by EURORDIS & take place last day of February each year to raise awareness amongst the general public and decision-makers about rare diseases and their impact on patients’ lives.

A rare disease aka orphan disease, is any disease that affects a small percentage of the population.

World Water Day 2018

Every year on March 22 with this year’s theme is ‘Nature for Water’.
The campaign which is being run by UN is being called ‘The answer is in nature’ and the motto is to raise awareness on how we nations together can save water by following nature based solutions.
World Water Development Report is also released by UN every year around World Water Day.
The goals of World Water Day are in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6, a program which targets bringing safe drinking water and clean sanitation to everyone around the world.
The UN-Water is responsible for the selection of World Water Day theme every year.

International Day of Forests

Every year observed on March 21^st with 2018 Theme: Forests and Sustainable Cities.

ANUGA Allgemeine Nahrungs- und Genussmittel-Ausstellung (“General Food and Drink Trade Fair")

is described by promoters as the world’s largest and most important food and beverage fair.
“Anuga” takes place every 2nd year in Cologne(Germany) and is sub-divided into 10 separate fairs, each covering a different category.
The event is held in the Koelnmesse, adjacent to the city centre.
ANUGA offers an extensive supporting programme with Lectures, Special exhibition and attractive industry events.
India is to become a co-Partner Country in ANUGA 2017. It gives India an opportunity to showcase its strengths and opportunities to an international audience in the food sector and invite investments.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

A unique global network of policy research centers in Russia, China, Europe, the Middle East, India and USA.
Our mission, dating back more than a century, is to advance peace through analysis and development of fresh policy ideas and direct engagement and collaboration with decision makers in government, business, and civil society..”
Founded in 1910, Carnegie is the oldest international affairs think tank in the United States.

4.Employment , Poverty & Women

UNOSSC United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation :

hosted by UNDP since 1974, was established by UNGA with a mandate to advocate for and to promote, coordinate and support South-South and triangular cooperation globally and UN system-wide basis.
UNOSSC receives policy directives and guidance from UNGA and through its subsidiary body, the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation.
UNOSSC submits its strategic planning frameworks to UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS Executive Board for approval and funding.
It is secretariat to the High-level Committee (HLC) on South-South Cooperation, a subsidiary body of UNGA, which provides policy directives and guidance and reviews worldwide progress in South-South cooperation.
It enables countries of the South – emerging, middle income and least developed – to work together to use their wealth of resources, tangible and intangible, in support of national, regional and global development efforts
It manages the following funds

United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation
Pérez-Guerrero Trust Fund for South-South Cooperation
India, Brazil and South Africa Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation
India-UN Development Partnership Fund

India-UN Development Partnership Fund :

was set up as a partnership between India and UNOSSC United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation.
is managed by UNOSSC
support Southern-owned and led, demand-driven, and transformational sustainable development projects across the developing world.
Focusing on Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States(SIDS), United Nations agencies will implement the Fund’s projects in close collaboration with partnering governments.
Aims to Reducing poverty and hunger, improving health, education and equality, and expanding access to clean water and energy.
Hence It will be utilized to carry out country-level projects catalytic towards achieving the SDGs.
In Feb 2018, India has contributed an additional $1 million. India has contributed USD one million for the rehabilitation efforts in Tonga after Tropical Cyclone Gita caused massive destruction in the Pacific island nation.

LDC : A country is classified among the Least Developed Countries if it meets three criteria:

Poverty – adjustable criterion based on GNI per capita averaged over three years. As of 2015 a country must have GNI per capita less than US $1,035 to be included on the list, and over $1,242 to graduate from it.
Human resource weakness (based on indicators of nutrition, health, education and adult literacy)
Economic vulnerability (based on instability of agricultural production, instability of exports of goods and services, economic importance of non-traditional activities, merchandise export concentration, handicap of economic smallness, and the percentage of population displaced by natural disasters)

LDC criteria are reviewed every three years by the Committee for Development Policy (CDP) of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Most of the African countries and neighbours country of India such as Afghanistan Nepal Bhutan Myanmar Bangladesh Cambodia are listed in the least developed countries.

President of UNGA United Nations General Assembly :

position voted for by representatives in UNGA on a yearly basis.
The President presides over the sessions of the General Assembly.
Miroslav Lajčák of Slovakia is elected as UNGA President of its 72nd session beginning in September 2017.
The First Woman was elected for the position(at 8th session) was Vijay Lakshmi Pandit in 1956 who hailed from INDIA.
She is Only person and Only woman from India till the date to had this position.

Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017 :

Held at Hyderabad with visit of Viyanka Trump and Narendra Modi
preeminent annual entrepreneurship gathering that convenes over one thousand emerging entrepreneurs, investors, and supporters from around the world
It is organized annually since 2010.

The theme for 2017 GES is “Women First, Prosperity for All” to celebrate entrepreneurship in all its strength, diversity and entirety.
The four primary focus areas of GES 2017 are

Digital Economy and Financial Technology
Health Care and Life Sciences,
Energy and Infrastructure
Media and Entertainment

UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

consists of 54 members state, is elected by a 2/3rd majority of UNGA for a three year term.
is one of the six principal organs of UN, responsible for coordinating the economic, social, and related work of 15 UN specialized agencies, their functional commissions and five regional commissions.

It has also held an annual meeting in April with finance ministers heading key committees of the World Bank and IMF.

Some NGOs have been granted consultative status to the Council to participate in the work of the United Nations.

In 2018, India is member of it.

UN Road Safety Trust Fund

Launched by UN to improve road safety worldwide to save lives an prevent the loss of opportunity associated with road accidents.
UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is secretariat for the trust fund.
The fund has potential to galvanise global efforts to address road safety situation, building on progress made and experience gained ov Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.
The fund aims to accelerate progress in improving global road safety b bridging gaps in mobilization of resources for effective action at all levels
The fund will serve as a catalyst for much-needed progress towards the road safety targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.

SDG 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”
Target 3.6: By 2020, halve the number of global deaths from road traffic accidents.
SDG 11: “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”

IAWRT International Association of Women in Radio and Television is a global organization formed by professional women working in electronic and allied media with a mission to strengthen initiatives towards ensuring women’s views and values are integral part of programming and to advance the impact of women in media.

IAWRT organizes conferences, implements projects undertakes activities collaborates with and media organizations. It is in consultative status with United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). IAWRT is managed by international board, which oversees funding initiatives for a number of local chapters and member activities.

Recently 2018 feb India’s first radio festival was recently held in Delhi , organised by IWART in collaboration with UNESCO.

The New International Economic Order (NIEO) was a set of proposals put forward during the 1970s by some developing countries through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to promote their interests by improving their terms of trade, increasing development assistance, developed-country tariff reductions. This order was demanded by the Non-Aligned Movement.

UNDP

A UN global development network HQ in New York City, advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.
It provides expert advice, training and grants support to developing countries, more assistance to least developed countries.
It promotes technical and investment cooperation among nations.
The status of UNDP is that of an executive board within the UNGA.
The UNDP Administrator is the third highest-ranking official of UN after the UN Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General.
UNDP is funded entirely by voluntary contributions from member nations.

Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

An international bill of rights for women adopted in 1979 by UNGA was instituted on 3 September 1981 and has been ratified by 189 states.
Australia's declaration noted the limitations on central government power resulting from its federal constitutional system.
United States and Palau have signed, but not ratified the treaty. INDIA is Member of it and ratified it.
States parties ratifying it to intent enshrine gender equality into their domestic legislation, repeal all discriminatory provisions in their laws, and enact new provisions to guard against discrimination against women.

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)

A UN convention commits its members to elimination of racial discrimination and the promotion of understanding among all races.
It requires its parties to outlaw hate speech and criminalize membership in racist organizations.
Also includes an individual complaints mechanism, effectively making it enforceable against its parties.
This has led to the development of a limited jurisprudence on the interpretation and implementation of the Convention.
The convention was adopted and opened for signature by UNGA on 21 December 1965, entered into force on 4 January 1969.
The Convention is monitored by Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

Have Languages - Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish , India is its Member.

Gevora : world’s tallest hotel, opens in Dubai (UAE).
Swaminarayan temple of Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, the first Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi(UAE) will be completed by 2020.

Demographic Dividend/Gift

The accelerated economic growth that may result from a decline in a country's mortality and fertility and the subsequent change in the age structure of the population.
It occurs when proportion of working people in total population is high because this indicates that more people have the potential to be productive and contribute to growth of the economy.
Mainly when the share of the working-age population (15 to 64) is larger than the non-working-age share of the population (14 and younger, and 65 and older).
Four mechanisms for growth of demographic dividend

Increased Labour supply
Increased in savings
Human capital
Increased Domestic Demand

Demographic Transition : is from high birth and death rates to lower birth and death rates.

Demographic Shift or Population Ageing : Increase in Median age in population due to lower fertility rates and rising life expectancy.

“Demographic TRAP” : “The combination of high fertility (birth rates) and declining mortality (death rates) in developing countries, resulting in a period of high population growth rate (PGR)."

POPULATION AGEING :

Globally, population aged 60 or over is growing faster than all younger age groups.
In 2017, there are an estimated 962 million people aged 60 or over in the world, comprising 13 per cent of the global population.
The population aged 60 or above is growing at a rate of about 3 per cent per year. Currently, Europe has the greatest percentage of population aged 60 or over (25 per cent).
While declining fertility and increasing longevity are the key drivers of population ageing globally, international migration has also contributed to changing population age structures in some countries and regions.
In countries that are experiencing large immigration flows, international migration can slow the ageing process, at least temporarily, since migrants tend to be in the young working ages.
However, migrants who remain in the country eventually will age into the older population.
Societies like USA have considerable number of immigrants augmenting(make greater by adding) their human capital especially in industries like IT.

“immigrating” is the act of entering a foreign country to live while “emigrating” is the act of leaving a country to live in another.

AHWP Asian Harmonisation Working Party

Voluntary non-profit organisation that aims to promote regulatory harmonization on medical device regulations in Asia and other regions in accordance with the guidance issued by International Medical Device Regulators Forums (IMDRF).
Established in 1999 by of 30 national regulators of member countries and industry members. It works in collaboration with related international Orgs such as IMDRF, International Organization for Standardization (ISO), WHO etc.

IMDRF International Medical Device Regulators Forums

A group of medical device regulators from around the world that have voluntarily come together to harmonize the regulatory requirements for medical products that vary from country to country.
WHO and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Life Sciences Innovation Forum's (LSIF) Regulatory Harmonization Steering Committee are official observers
AHWP and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) are both affiliate organisations with IMDRF.

Venezuela, Libya Lose UN Vote for Third Time in 3 Years:

Venezuela (economic and political crisis) and Libya (two rival governments, each backed by an array of militias ) have been suspended from voting in UNGA for the third time in three years because of millions of dollars in unpaid dues to the world body. They can also loose their membership.

CCEM Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers

20th held in Fiji and theme : Sustainability and Resilience: Can Education Deliver?
taking place every three years since 1959, when the first meeting was held in Oxford.
CCEM 2018 is first CCEM since the global community adopted the 2030 agenda for sustainable development in SDGs.
will give education ministers the opportunity to agree on effective strategies to help individual countries achieve SDG4 – inclusive and quality education for all.
Bahamas hosted the 19th Conference, This 20th at Fiji and Kenya will host 21st CCEM.

GANHRI Global Alliance for National Human Rights Institutions

formerly known as International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions, sometimes shortened to the International Coordinating Committee (ICC)
a global network of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) – administrative bodies set up to promote, protect and monitor human rights in a given country.
The ICC (now GANHARI):

Facilitates and supports NHRI engagement with the UN Human Rights Council and Treaty Bodies
Encourages cooperation and information sharing among NHRIs, including through an annual meeting and biennial conference
Undertakes accreditation of NHRIs in accordance with the Paris Principles
Promotes the role of NHRIs within UN and with States and other international agencies
Offers capacity building in collaboration with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCR)
Assists NHRIs under threat
If requested, can assist government to establish NHRIs
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has retained its ‘A’ status of accreditation of GANHRI for fourth consecutive term.

African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)

signed by 44 African countries at a summit of the African Union in Kigali, Rwanda and will be the biggest trade trade agreement since the formation of WTO in 1995.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and most populous country, as well as a host of others did not sign the agreement.

WTTC World Travel and Tourism Council

Non-profit, non-governmental , founded in 1990 , HQ at London
A forum for the travel and tourism industry, made up of members from the global business community and works with governments to raise awareness about the travel and tourism industry.
It is known for being the only forum to represent the private sector in all parts of the industry worldwide.
Its activities include research on the economic and social impact of the industry and its organisation of global and regional summits focused on issues and developments relevant to the industry.
It supplies country indicators for the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, a report published by WEF that ranks selected nations according to the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index.

Colombo Plan is a regional organisation that embodies the concept of collective intergovernmental effort to strengthen economic and social development of member countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The primary focus of all Colombo Plan activities is on human resources development.

It has 27 Members : India, Pak, Afghanistan, USA, SL, Australia and many others

Canada, UK, Cambodia, Vietnam were former members and withdrew from Colombo plan.

——>World’s biggest natural gas hub is Henry Hub in the US state of Louisiana. Gas delivered at this point is the basis of most US natural gas futures.

6.DEFENCE (Cyber , Military )

Budapest Convention on Cybercrime

The first international treaty seeking to address Internet and computer crime by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques, and increasing cooperation among nations.
It was drawn up by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France.
provides for the criminalisation of conduct, ranging from illegal access, data and systems interference to computer-related fraud and child pornography, procedural law tools to make investigation of cybercrime and securing of e-evidence in relation to any crime more effective, and international police and judicial cooperation on cybercrime and e-evidence.

Maldives Crisis

Maldives is one of the world’s most geographically dispersed countries, as well as the smallest Asian country by both land area and population. It is the world’s lowest country, with even its highest natural point being the lowest in the world.
The Maldives archipelago is located atop the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge, a vast submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean, which also forms a terrestrial ecoregion, together with the Chagos and the Lakshadweep.

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World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) is the largest and the most reputable international event among worldwide IT leaders.

It brings together high-level officials from different countries, heads of multinational organizations, universities and scientific research centers, non-governmental organizations’ representatives and many more.

The event includes discussions of legal, political and economic trends affecting IT business processes, presentations of innovative solutions, B2B meetings and so on.

The WCIT has been held since 1978. Previous hosting countries were Canada, the Netherlands, Malaysia, USA, Greece, Australia, China, Spain, Japan, England, France, Denmark, Mexico, Brazil.

World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) is a consortium of associations from the information and communications technology (ICT) industry around the world.

RECENT EVENTS
Russia and Norway recently agreed to improve their military relations in a strategic move and have resolved their four decade old boundary dispute.

Each degree of latitude is approximately 69 miles (111 kilometers) apart.

CAATSA Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act :

A United States federal law that imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea, and Russia. The bill was passed during the 115th Congress, 98–2 in the Senate On August 2, 2017, President Donald Trump signed it into law while issuing two statements simultaneously that he believed the legislation was "seriously flawed.

7..NUCLEAR POWERS

According to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), nine nations — USA, UK, Russia,France

,China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea — possess approximately 16,300 nuclear weapons.

The four groups being – Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement. they are the four key multilateral groups on sensitive and restricted technologies.

MTCR - MISSILE TECHNOLOGY CONTROL REGIME joined by INDIA in June 2016
It is an informal and voluntary partnership between 34 countries to prevent the proliferation of missile and unmanned aerial vehicle technology capable of carrying a 500 kg payload at least 300 km.
Impact on India – It can be assessed in various terms for example - India received first NERPA (akula class) submarines in January 2012, renamed – INS Chakra –from Russia, however didn’t get the long range missile system because of the restriction by treaties like MTCR. This delayed Nuclear Triad capabilities of India, which will be achieved only after induction of INS Arihant – the indigenous nuclear submarine with long range missile carrying capacity (which can carry nuclear warheads).

Wassenaar Arrangement joined by INDIA in Nov 2017
‘The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies’ – is a multilateral export control regime. Every six months member countries exchange information on deliveries of conventional arms to non Wassenaar members. List of restricted technologies is broken into two parts, the ‘List of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies’ (also known as the Basic List) and the ‘Munitions List’.

AUSTRALIA GROUP joined by INDIA in Jan 2018
The Australia Group is control regime and is an informal group of countries (now joined by the European Commission) established in 1985 (after the use of chemical weapons by Iraq in 1984) to help member countries to identify those of their exports which need to be controlled so as not to contribute to the spread of chemical and biological weapons.
With INDIA joined the group on 19th Jan 2018 , It now has 43 members. The name comes from Australia's initiative to create the group. Australia manages the secretariat.
During visit of Obama in 2010, he promised to support India's membership to this group.

NSG – NUCLEAR SUPPLIER GRPUP Yet to be joined by INDIA , Negotiations going on.

It is a multinational body concerned with reducing nuclear proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials that may be applicable to nuclear weapon development and by improving safeguards and protection on existing materials. It was founded in 1974 in response to the Indian nuclear test earlier in that year. The test demonstrated that certain non-weapons specific nuclear technology could be readily turned to weapons development. It works to stop nuclear technology proliferation. At present it has around 46 members.

India has a strong case for membership as it has an impeccable record of non-proliferation. It has already put 12 out of 14 nuclear reactors under IAEA Safeguards. Only two more reactors are required to be notified by 2014. India also has civil nuclear cooperation agreement with many countries.

2005 India US 123 Nuclear Deal

Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA or BARJAM ) commonly known as Iran Nuclear Deal 2015

an international agreement signed between Iran and P5(US, UK, France, Russia, China) + Germany + EU in Vienna in July 2015.
Under the agreement, Iran agreed to

eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium,
cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%
reduce by about 2/3rd the number of its gas centrifuges for 13 years.

For the next 15 years, Iran will only enrich uranium up to 3.67%. Iran also agreed not to build any new heavy-water facilities for the same period of time.
Uranium-enrichment activities will be limited to a single facility using first-generation centrifuges for 10 years.
Other facilities will be converted to avoid proliferation risks.
To monitor and verify Iran's compliance with the agreement, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will have regular access to all Iranian nuclear facilities.
The agreement provides that in return for verifiably abiding by its commitments, Iran will receive relief from USA, European Union & UNSC nuclear-related economic sanctions.

October 13, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that USA would not make the certification provided for under U.S. domestic law, but stopped short of terminating the deal.

On 9th May 2018, US President Trump has withdrawn USA from the Deal and proposed to apply the sanctions back on Iran.

—> Wiesbaden is the city, capital of state Hesse in central Germany. It is situated on the right bank of Rhine River and on the foot of Taunus Mountains.

Wiesbaden Process was initiated by Government of Germany in 2012 to strengthen the implementation of UNSC 1540 through Government-Industry partnerships.

Wiesbaden Conference 2018 was recently held in INDIA.

—> UN UNSC Resolution 1540 (in 2004) establishes LEGALLY BINDING obligations on all States to adopt and enforce appropriate and effective measures to prevent the proliferation to non-State actors of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and their delivery systems.

It requires, therefore that States implement appropriate and effective measures to prevent non-state actors such as terrorists, from obtaining access to weapons of mass destruction (WMD). There are 3 primary obligations of the resolution that

ALL STATES

are prohibited from providing any form of support to non-state actors
must adopt and enforce laws criminalizing the possession and acquisition of such items by non-state actors
must adopt and enforce domestic controls over nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons

International Energy Agency (IEA) a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. The IEA dedicated to responding to physical disruptions in the supply of oil, as well as serving as an information source on statistics about the international oil market and other energy sectors.

IEA acts as a policy adviser to its member states, but also works with non-member countries, especially RUSSIA , INDIA, CHINA

All OECD member states AND Some others countries are members of the IEA.

In March 2017, India joined the IEA as an Association country.

IEF International Energy Forum

an inter-governmental arrangement based in Riyadh set up in 1991 serves as a neutral facilitator of informal, open, informed and continuing global energy dialogue among its members comprising of energy producing and energy consuming states, including transit countries.
The biennial IEF Ministerial Meetings are the world’s largest gathering of Energy Ministers who engage in a dialogue on global energy issues.
72 member countries of IEF, including India, covering all six continents, which are signatories to the Charter of the IEF. Its membership accounts for 90% of global supply and demand for oil and gas.
It’s Executive Board (EB) set up in 2002 comprising of 31 designated representatives of Ministers of the member states comprise the governing board of IEF. It meets twice a year.
International Energy Agency (IEA) and OPEC are non-voting members of the Executive Board.
The board is chaired by the Host State of the next biennial Ministerial Meeting.
Currently, India is the Chair of the Executive Board of IEF.
By virtue of being among the top 11 largest consumers of oil and gas (India is presently 4th largest consumer), India has been the Permanent Member of the Executive Board of IEF since its set-up in 2002.
India had earlier hosted the 5th IEF Ministerial in 1996 at Goa.
India is hosting the 16th International Energy Forum (IEF) Ministerial Meeting in New Delhi.

TIWB Tax Inspectors Without Borders

is a joint initiative of OECD and UNDP supporting countries in building tax audit capacity.
TIWB Programmes complement the broader efforts of the international community to strengthen co-operation on tax matters and contribute to the domestic resource mobilisation efforts of developing countries.

Recently under the Tax Inspectors Without Borders Programme between India and Eswatini India approved the Signing of Terms of Reference (TOR) governing the engagement of the designated Indian Expert to provide tax assistance to Swaziland (now known as Eswatini).

OECD Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development : (HQ at Paris , 1961 , 35 Countries , UN observer)

An intergovernmental economic organisation of 35 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade.
A forum of countries describing themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common problems, identify good practices and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members.
Most OECD members are high-income economies with a very high HDI Human Development Index and are regarded as developed countries.
OECD is an official United Nations observer.
In 1948, the OECD originated as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC),led by Robert Marjolin of France, to help administer the Marshall Plan (which was rejected by the Soviet Union and its satellite states)
This would be achieved by allocating United States financial aid and implementing economic programs for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II.
In 1961, the OEEC was reformed into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development by the Convention on OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and membership was extended to non-European states.
The OECD's headquarters in Paris, France and is funded by contributions from member states at varying rates.
Members: USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea Turkey, Chile, Israel and Many European Countries

—> Russia has expressed to join the OECD but was not considered because the Crimea Crisis for which Russia is responsible.

—> OECD created agencies like OECD Development Centre (1961), International Energy Agency (IEA, 1974), and Financial Action Task Force (FATF, )on Money Laundering.

GCC Members :

All current member states of GCC are monarchies, including three constitutional monarchies (Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain), two absolute monarchies (Oman and Saudi Arabia) and one federal monarchy (UAE which is composed of seven member states, each of which is absolute monarchy with its own emir).

OPEC Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries ( 14 NATIONS, HQ at VIENNA Austria, but founded in Baghdad in 1960)

An intergovernmental organization of 14 nations as of February 2018, founded in 1960 in Baghdad by first 5 members VIKISa (Venezuela, Iran, Kuwait, Iraq & Saudi Arabia).
OPEC had its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, in the first 5 years of its existence and moved to Vienna hence headquartered since 1965 in Vienna, Austria.
As of 2016, the 14 countries accounted for an estimated 44 percent of global oil production and 73 percent of the world's "proven" oil reserves, giving OPEC a major influence on global oil prices that were previously determined by American-dominated multinational oil companies.
OPEC's stated mission is "to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets, in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers, and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry."
The organization is also a significant provider of information about the international oil market.
As of May 2017, OPEC's 14 members :

Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia ((the de facto leader)), Qatar, United Arab Emirates (6 from Middle East) having 48% of World
Venezuela , Ecuador (2 from South America)
Algeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Libya, Nigeria (6 from Africa)
while Indonesia is a former member.

Two-thirds of OPEC's oil production and reserves are in its six Middle Eastern countries that surround the oil-rich Persian Gulf.

OPEC Members :

—> Approval of a new member country requires agreement by three-quarters of OPEC's existing members, including all five of the founders.

—> The formation of OPEC marked a turning point toward national sovereignty over natural resources, and OPEC decisions have come to play a prominent role in the global oil market and international relations. The effect can be particularly strong when wars or civil disorders lead to extended interruptions in supply. In the 1970s, restrictions in oil production led to a dramatic rise in oil prices and OPEC's revenue and wealth, with long-lasting and far-reaching consequences for the global economy. In the 1980s, OPEC started setting production targets for its member nations; and generally when the production targets are reduced, oil prices increase, most recently from the organization's 2008 and 2016 decisions to trim oversupply. Economists often cite OPEC as a textbook example of a cartel that cooperates to reduce market competition, but whose consultations are protected by the doctrine of state immunity under international law. In December 2014, "OPEC and the oil men" ranked as #3 on Lloyd's list of "the top 100 most influential people in the shipping industry".[5] However, their influence on international trade is periodically challenged by the expansion of non-OPEC energy sources, and by the recurring temptation for individual OPEC countries to exceed production ceilings and pursue conflicting self-interests.

Asian premium

The extra charge being collected by OPEC countries from Asian countries when selling oil.
The premium is determined in large part by the official selling prices (OSPs) set by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait, which supply about 15% of the world’s crude among them.
They set differential prices against benchmarks on a monthly basis, adjusting them to account for regional variations.

—> Earlier, Crude flow was from West Asia to North America and the pricing also depended on the market. Now, with the shale revolution (Large reserves of Shale gas were found in USA ), the Crude oil flow has shifted from West Asia to Asia.

RECENTLY in NEWS India is planning to coordinate with China and other Asian countries to voice against the “Asian Premium” being charged by OPEC. Soon, the countries will chalk out the strategy that would result in getting better price from OPEC countries.

BEPS Base erosion and profit shifting

refers to tax planning strategies used by multinational companies that exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules to artificially shift profits to low or no-tax locations where there is little or no economic activity.
The project headed by OECD and was initiated by G20 in 2012.
BEPS concerns strategies which aim to move profits to where they are taxed at lower rates and expenses to where they are relieved at higher rates. The result is a tendency to associate more profit with legal constructs and intangible rights and obligations, and reduce the share of profits associated with substantive operations involving the interaction of people with one another. “While these corporate tax planning strategies may be technically legal and rely on carefully planned interactions of a variety of tax rules and principles, the overall effect of this type of tax planning is to erode the corporate tax base of many countries in a manner that is not intended by domestic policy.

BASEL CONVENTION
Basel Convention is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries (LDCs).
It does not, however, address the movement of radioactive waste.
India is a signatory to the treaty.

BUDAPEST CONVENTION, 2001 - The Convention on Cybercrime

It is the first and only international treaty seeking to address Internet and computer crime by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques, and increasing cooperation among nations. The Convention is the first international treaty on crimes committed via the Internet and other computer networks, dealing particularly with infringements of copyright, computer-related fraud, child pornography, hate crimes, and violations of network security. Its main objective, set out in the preamble, is to pursue a common criminal policy aimed at the protection of society against cybercrime, especially by adopting appropriate legislation and fostering international cooperation.

CHEMICAL WEAPON CONVENTION

The modern use of chemical weapons began with World War I, when both sides to the conflict used poisonous gas to inflict agonizing suffering and to cause significant battlefield casualties. Chlorine, phosgene (a choking agent) and mustard gas (which inflicts painful burns on the skin) were among the chemicals used. The Cold War period saw significant development, manufacture and stockpiling of chemical weapons. The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an arms control treaty which outlaws the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors. Most recently, Syria deposited its instrument of accession to the CWC on 14 September 2013 and agreed to its provisional application pending entry into force on 14 October 2013 and its membership is almost universal.

It is administered by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). As of January 2013, around 78% of the declared stockpile of chemical weapons has been destroyed.

India has destroyed all its weapons, US and Russia has not.

OPCW Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

An intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, which entered into force on 29 April 1997. The OPCW, with its 192 member states, has its seat in The Hague, Netherlands, and oversees the global endeavour for the permanent and verifiable elimination of chemical weapons. The 2013 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the organization because it had, with the Chemical Weapons Convention, ‘defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law’.

India is member of the organisation. while Israel, Egypt, South Sudan and North Korea are NOT members.

It is NOT an agency of United Nations, but cooperates both on policy and practical issues

Nobel Prize :

A set of annual international awards bestowed in several categories by Swedish and Norwegian institutions in recognition of academic, cultural, or scientific advances.
The will of the Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel established the five Nobel prizes in 1895.
The prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace and Physiology or Medicine were first awarded in 1901.
The prizes are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards are awarded for outstanding contributions for humanity in chemistry, literature, peace activism, physics, and physiology or medicine.
The prize is not awarded posthumously; however, if a person is awarded a prize and dies before receiving it, the prize may still be presented.
A prize may not be shared among more than three individuals, although the Nobel Peace Prize can be awarded to organizations of more than three people.
American Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee "for his contributions to the 'green revolution' that was having such an impact on food production particularly in Asia and in Latin America."
In 1913, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the first Indian ever to receive a Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his work Geetanjali, a collection of poems. Popularly known as Gurudev, India's Poet Laureate Tagore was born on 7th May 1861, in Kolkata.
12 Indians won the Nobel Prize. Among the total recipients, 12 are Indians (5 Indian citizens and 7 of Indian origin or residency). Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian citizen to be awarded and Mother Teresa is the only woman in the list.

BOLSA FAMILIA
Bolsa Familia (Family Grant) is a direct cash transfer scheme of Brazil started in 2002. It provides money to the 14 million poor families of Brazil. Conditions for getting this benefit are compulsory vaccination of children and their attendance in schools. According to a recent report by UN, Brazil has seen significant fall in the poverty numbers in the last decade, owing to this scheme.
Bolsa Familia not enhances the incomes of poor, but also target menace of illiteracy and child mortality.

CARICOM or Caribbean Community and Common Market CARTER DOCTRINE

Carter Doctrine is a policy introduced by US during Jimmy carter regime. Its main goal is to safeguard the interests of US in the persian gulf. It states that if the situation warrents, the US can use military in pursian gulf to protect it interests.

OIC Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

An international organization founded in 1969, consisting of 57 member states, with a collective population of over 1.3 billion as of 2009 with 47 countries being Muslim Majority countries.
The organisation states that it is "the collective voice of the Muslim world" and works to "safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony”.
It has permanent delegations to UN and EU. The official languages of the OIC are Arabic, English, and French.(Urdu is NOT)
A few countries with significant Muslim populations, such as Russia and Thailand, sit as Observer States, while others, such as India & Ethiopia, are NOT members.

Gulf Bridge International (GBI)

a private submarine cable system connecting the Gulf countries together and provide onward connectivity to the rest of the world.
Launched in Feb. 2012, connecting the world to the Gulf is designed with a self-healing core ring in the Gulf, with double cable landings at the major terminals of Qatar and Fujairah (UAE) and branched landings in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Oman, and onward connectivity to landing in India and Europe as well.
The GBI Cable System is privately owned by Gulf Bridge International, established in December 2008 with an initial investment of $445 million.

CEDAW

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), also known as an international bill of rights for women was adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly ranking In 2014 on the index is based on the average of 10 subindices –

Starting a business – Procedures, time, cost and minimum capital to open a new business Dealing with construction permits – Procedures, time and cost to build a warehouse
Getting electricity – procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain a permanent electricity connection for a newly constructed warehouse

Registering property – Procedures, time and cost to register commercial real estate
Getting credit – Strength of legal rights index, depth of credit information index
Protecting investors – Indices on the extent of disclosure, extent of director liability and ease of shareholder suits
Paying taxes – Number of taxes paid, hours per year spent preparing tax returns and total tax payable as share of gross profit
Trading across borders – Number of documents, cost and time necessary to export and import Enforcing contracts – Procedures, time and cost to enforce a debt contract
Resolving insolvency – The time, cost and recovery rate (%) under bankruptcy proceeding

report, India ranked 142 among 189 countries.

However, one major criticism of this report is that it looks business from capitalists perspective only and has ignore interest of trade unions and workers as it is apparent that not even a single sub-index out of 10 deals with it.

E7 Countries

The E7 countries are a group of seven emerging countries. They are major emerging economies in the world. China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Indonesia and Turkey are in this group. The E7 are predicted to have larger economies than the G7 countries by 2050. The term was coined by the PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

The E9 is a forum of high-Populated nine countries, which formed to achieve EFA goals (Education For All is a global movement led by UNESCO, aiming to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015. The EFA goals also contribute to the global pursuit of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially MDG 2 on universal primary education

ITLOS International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea :

The Tribunal is an independent judicial body but maintains close links with UN.
The Tribunal and the UN have entered into agreement concerning cooperation and relationship.
UN has granted the Tribunal observer status in UNGA.
The Tribunal is composed of 21 independent members, elected from among persons enjoying the highest reputation for fairness and integrity and of recognized competence in the field of the law of the sea.
Recently, law expert Neeru Chadha has become the first Indian women to elected to ITLOS.
Neeru has also earned a distinction of becoming the second Indian woman to occupy a top position at the United Nations after Lakshmi Pandit who served as the President of UNGA.

8.UN Agencies

TOGETHER Initiative of UN :

Launched in Sep 2016 aims to counter the rise in xenophobia(hate and fear against foreigners) & discrimination.
This was partly in response to the growing refugee crisis in the Middle-east and its repercussions for Europe.
Together is a growing coalition of Member States, private sector, civil society representatives and individuals committed to change negative narratives on migration and to strengthen the social cohesion between host communities and refugees and migrant.
It promotes respect, safety and dignity for refugees and migrants

Spotlight Initiative of EU & UN :

The Initiative is so named as it brings focused attention to this issue, moving it into the spotlight and placing it at the centre of efforts to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
It focuses on eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls VAWAG.
An initial investment in the order of EUR 500 million will be made, with the EU as the main contributor. Other donors and partners will be invited to join the Initiative to broaden its reach and scope.
The modality for the delivery will be a UN multi- stakeholder trust fund, administered by the Multi- Partner Trust Fund Office, with the support of core agencies UNDP, UNFPA and UN Women, and overseen by the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General.

UNCLOS – United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

The Law of the Sea Convention defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of the world's oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources.
UNCLOS came into force in 1994 after a series of UN Conferences on the law of Sea.
It defines 6 major zones.

Among other things it defines EEZs – The EEZs – 200 nautical miles from the baseline – were introduced to halt the increasingly heated clashes over fishing rights, although oil was also becoming important.
It also defines jurisdiction powers of a state in International waters. A coastal state is free to set laws, regulate use, and use any resource within 12 nautical miles.
Although India do not have major maritime conflicts with her neighbours relating to demarcation of boundaries, one particular issue is with Bangladesh in Bay of Bengal.

Another significant law that deals with jurisdiction over international waters is – SUA Convention (Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts of Violence against Safety of Maritime Navigation).
India is signatory to both and these were the two conventions that were often evoked when India held the Italian Ship Enrica Elixia for many days which raised the issue of jurisdiction over the Ship. Italy claimed that it has the jurisdiction since it was travelling under Italy’s flag and under UNCLOS it was the one who has to decide about it. India on the other hand argued that it was under its territory and UNCLOS has provision to that effect, further SUA Convention has precedents and ICJ has also given similar rulings in past.
UDHR UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS 1948

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood,
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person,
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude;
slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms,
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment,
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law,
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law,
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile,
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay,
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized,
Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association and No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

UN PRINICPLE ORGANS
There are six principle organs –

General Assembly
Security Council
Economic and Social Council – The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of UN consists of 54 members state. It is elected by a 2/3rd majority of the general assembly for a three year term
Secretariat
International Court of Justice
Trusteeship Council

UN SECURITY COUNCIL – UNSC
It has 5 permanent members and ten Non permanent members are elected for 2 years.
It imposes sanction, sends peace keeping force and authorizes military action. It consists of five permanent members with veto power and ten non-permanent members, elected on a regional basis for two years. It‘s the only UN organ with authority to enforce binding resolution.
Its peace keepers have received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988. It has successfully operated in Namibia, Congo, Sudan, Rwanda etc. But its activeness related to small countries is absent in case of powerful countries.

It was mostly paralysed during the cold war era. Its permanent members with veto powers, have largely used it to pretect their own strategic interest.

Western intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya (without UNSC approval) speaks volume about intransigence of some members.

US Secretary of state in the recent developments when China and Russia vetoed the Syrian resolution appropriately described that ‘UNSC has been neutered’. After Soviet disintegration, Russia didn’t take a very strong position against US on various matters. Similarly China was also growing but refrained from taking similar stand. However, in recent times both these countries have started taking independent lines which are at times different from that of US. This breaks the Western hegemony in the UNSC.

REFORMS at SECURITY COUNCIL –

Expanding UNSC
Increasing representation of developing countries
There should be alternative mechanism to Veto which is undemocratic

INDIA’s CASE for UNSC –

G-4 group is currently promoting the cause of four nations for membership of UNSC.
One out of every six humans is an Indian
India is world’s biggest and most vibrant democracy
It is responsible and peace loving country
Times have changed and it is now 4th biggest economy.
It contributes significantly to UN peacekeeping operations

UN UNIVERSAL DECLARATION of HUMAN RIGHTS

UDHR is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, 1948 after the Second World War in wake of need for universal rights. It consists of 30 articles which have been elaborated in subsequent international treaties, regional human rights instruments, national constitutions and laws.

They are similar to Bill of Rights of Us and Fundamental Rights in India. Some of them are –

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be
prohibited in all their forms.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal
protection of the law. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
Everyone has the right to a nationality.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. UN WOMAN

It was a new entity created in 2010 to accelerate woman empowerment and gender equality. Four existing UN Bodies dealing with the women’s issues will now come under a single umbrella –

 Division for the advancement of woman
 United Nations Fund for Woman
 International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW)
 Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women
Functions –

To help international bodies in formulation of policies that are favorable to women.
To help member countries establish standards
To hold the UN system accountable in upholding its own standards of gender equality
Help in promoting gender discrimination
WASHINGTON CONSENSUS
In late 1980s the economic growth of the of the Latin American countries like Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina etc. had slowed down abysmally and was not even matching the rate of population growth. At that time English Economist John Williamson had proposed the Washington Consensus to help these developing countries come out of the grip of recession. It had proposed set of 10 policy changes like trade liberalization, Government expenditure cut, Government debt reduction, tax reforms, market determined foreign exchange, liberalization for FDI, Privatization of debt enterprises etc.

WIPO – INTELECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is one of the 16 specialized agencies of UN. WIPO was created in 1967 ‘to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world’. WIPO currently has 184 member states, administers 24 international treaties, and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The current Director-General of WIPO is Francis Gurry.

WCCF World Cities Culture Forum

provides a way for policy makers to share research and intelligence, and explore the vital role of culture in their future prosperity.
began in 2012 with eight members, is a network of 32 key cities today
Mumbai is set to be newest member and the first Indian city on WCCF, a platform for cities to share their culture. BMC municipal corporation will be able to maintain a relationship with the other member cities and Mumbai will be represented on the Forum at all events.

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation :

A specialized agency of UN, a member of UNDG, HQ at Paris, successor of the League of Nations’ International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation.
It aims to contribute to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.
195 member states and 10 associate members.

Recently United States has announced its withdrawal accusing the body of anti-Israel bias
Its Executive Board (EXB) have 58 members elected by the General Conference for 4 years term which examines work for UNESCO and the corresponding budget estimates. It is main organ responsible for all policies and programmes of UNESCO.
In General conference , All members meet every 2 years vote on policies, programs, budget and Elect executive board, DG every 4 year
UNESCO's programs contribute to the achievement of the SDGs defined in Agenda 2030, adopted by UNGA in 2015.

UCCN aka UNESCO creative cities network found in 2004 has 180 cities from 72 countries in its umbrella network. The Indian city to feature in this list is Chennai for music , Varanasi (added as City of Music), Jaipur (City of Crafts and Folk Art)

All creative cities commit to develop and exchange innovative practices to promote creative industries and integrate culture into sustainable Urban Development policies.
It includes cities within its seven creative fields (Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts and Music).

IN NEWS

UNESCO World Heritage Committee has put the West Bank city of Hebron on endangered heritage list. This made Israel angry and triggered a new Israeli-Palestinian spat at the international body.
Hebron is part of the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. The international community considers it to be occupied.
The Old City of Hebron has sites that are holy to both Jews and Muslims, known as either the Tomb of the Patriarchs or the al-Ibrahimi mosque.

Israel had control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, two territories home to large Palestinian populations. Today, the West Bank is nominally controlled by the Palestinian Authority and is under Israeli occupation.

WORLD HERITAGE STATUS : to assist state parties in the challenges of protecting and managing their urban heritage sites.

Conferring the World Heritage status is a 3-step process –

Countries first create an inventory of potential monuments and natural sites and include them in the Tentative List.
From this, they select a few sites and nominate them for final inscription, every year.
UNESCO appoints advisory committees to evaluate the nominations.

UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme : an international initiative launched to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, the ravages of time and climatic conditions, and willful and deliberate destruction

UNESCO's Memory of the World Register

lists documentary heritage of world significance, is a compendium of documents, manuscripts, oral traditions, audio-visual materials, library, and archival holdings of universal value.
Below 3 from India are included in Memory of the World Register.

The Institute of Asian Studies, Tamil Medical Manuscript Collection	1997
Saiva Manuscript in Puducherry	2005
Rigveda	2007

Jikji Prize was established in 2004 in cooperation with the South Korean government to further promote the objectives of the Memory of the World Programme, and to commemorate the 2001 inscription of the country's Jikji on the Register.

List of World Heritage in Danger

The 54 properties which the World Heritage Committee has decided to include on the List of World Heritage in danger in accordance with the Convention.
Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra (2011)
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls (1982)

UNESCO IOC Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission :

A leading a global effort to establish ocean-based tsunami warning systems as part of an overall multi-hazard disaster reduction strategy.
The IOC Tsunami Unit works with Member States, together with other UN agencies and NGOs, to build sustainable tsunami early warning systems.
The Unit’s mission is to ensure appropriate design and development of tsunami warning systems and to ultimately provide adequate protection at local, regional, and global scales.

UNESCO together with UNICEF, WB, UNFPA, UNDP, UN Women and UNHCR organized the World Education Forum 2015 in Incheon, Republic of Korea, adopted the Incheon Declaration for Education 2030, which sets out a new vision for education for the next 15 years.

SESAME synchrotron (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) is the result of many years of intensive negotiation, fund-raising and cooperation hand in hand with UNESCO and other partners.

They are used to study the properties of materials, and to advance research in fields as diverse as medicine, biology, chemistry, the environment or archeology.

SESAME also aims to provide state-of-the-art technological equipment to researchers in the region, helping stem the brain drain to northern countries.

World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development

It is a UN–sanctioned international holiday for the promotion of diversity issues.
It is currently held on May 21 by proclamation of UNGA this holiday due to UNESCO's Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity in November 2001. World culture day on 21st May.
Diversity Day, officially known as "The World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development", is an opportunity to help communities understand the value of cultural diversity and learn how to live together in harmony.
This day was created as a result of the destruction of the Buddha statues of Bamiyan in Afghanistan in 2001.

UN-Habitat or United Nations Human Settlements Programme :

UN agency for human settlements and sustainable urban development was established in 1978 as an outcome of the First UN Conference on Human Settlements and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat I) held in Vancouver, Canada, in 1976.
UN-Habitat has HQ at UN Office at Nairobi, Kenya.
It is mandated by UNGA in 1978 to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group.
The mandate of UN-Habitat derives from the Habitat Agenda, adopted by the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1996.
The twin goals of the Habitat Agenda are adequate shelter for all and the development of sustainable human settlements in an urbanizing world.
UN-Habitat contributes to the overall objective of UN system to reduce poverty and to promote access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
Governing Council of UN-Habitat is the intergovernmental decision-making body for the Programme. Every two years, the Governing Council examines the UN-Habitat's work and relationships with its partners. It is a high-level forum of governments at the ministerial level during which policy guidelines and the organization's budget are established for the next two-year period. The Governing Council meets in Nairobi.
Around 80% of UN-Habitat’s income comes from national governments.
Since January 2018 the Executive Director is Maimunah Mohd Sharif.
India was recently (March 2017) unanimously elected as the President of Un-Habitat. Nodal Ministries from India : Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation; Ministry of Urban Development; NITI AAYOG

UN-Habitat’s various Initiatives

Cities and Climate Change Initiative (CCCI)
Seeks to enhance the preparedness and mitigation activities of cities in developing countries.
It emphasizes good governance, responsibility, leadership, and practical initiatives for local governments, communities, and citizens. Building on UN-Habitat’s long experience in sustainable urban development, the Cities and Climate Change Initiative helps counterparts to develop and implement pro-poor and innovative climate change policies and strategies.
CCCI also is developing a suite of tools to support city leaders and practitioners in addressing the impact of climate change (adaptation) and to help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation).

Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) : Poverty alleviation through promotion of Land reforms
An alliance of international partners committed to increasing access to land and tenure security for all, with a particular focus on the poor and women.
The Network’s partners include international civil society organizations, research and training institutions, bilateral and multilateral organizations, and international professional bodies.

City Prosperity Initiative
A global initiative that enables city authorities, as well as local and national stakeholders, to identify opportunities and potential areas of intervention for their cities to become more prosperous.
Its composite City Prosperity Index made of six dimensions serves to define targets and goals that can support the formulation of evidence-based policies, including the definition of city-visions and long - term plans that are both ambitious and measurable.

World Urban Campaign
Acts as a global advocacy and partnership platform to promote dialogue, sharing, and learning about improving our urban future.
It is driven by a wide range of dedicated partners including civil society organizations, local authorities, the private sector, research institutions, professionals, academia, parliamentarians, trade unions, youth groups, and the media.
The World Urban Campaign is coordinated by UN-Habitat.

Habitat UNI is UN-Habitat’s main mechanism for partnerships with academia and researchers. The partnerships are open, and invites all levels of academia to engage.
UN-Habitat Urban Youth Fund empowers global youth by providing grants and capacity building to selected organizations in developing countries.
Global Public Space Programme aims to improve the quality of public spaces worldwide.
UN-HABITAT’s Urban Planning and Design LAB proposes and implements urban planning projects from neighbourhood to city-wide scale worldwide.

UNESCO :

Executive Board of UNESCO :

The EXB has a four-year term of office and 58 seats.
The executive board is one of the constitutional organs of UNESCO and is elected by the General Conference.
The executive board examines the work for the organization and the corresponding budget estimates.
In practice, the executive board is the main organ responsible for all policies and programmes of UNESCO.

UNESCO General conference:

The general conference consists of the representatives of the states members of the organisation.
It meets every two years, and is attended by member states and associate members, together with observers for non-member states, intergovernmental organisations and non- governmental organisations (NGOs).
Each country has one vote, irrespective of its size or the extent of its contribution to the budget.
The general conference determines the policies and the main lines of work of the organisation. Its duty is to set the programmes and the budget of the UNESCO. It also elects the members of the executive board and appoints, every four years.

WHO FCTC WHO Framework Convention on tobacco control

the first international public health treaty negotiated under the auspices of the WHO to provide a framework for supply and demand reduction measures for tobacco control at the national, regional and global levels.
It envisages elimination of all forms of illicit trade and tobacco products, including smuggling, illicit manufacturing and counterfeiting.

India is a party to WHO FCTC.

FCTC provides an internationally co-ordinated response to combating the tobacco epidemic, and sets out specific steps for governments addressing tobacco use, including to:

Adopt tax and price measures to reduce tobacco consumption.
Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
Create smoke-free work and public spaces.
Put prominent health warnings on tobacco packages.
Combat illicit(Illegal, Unlawful) trade in tobacco products.

IMO International Maritime Organization

known as Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) until 1982 is a specialised agency of UN responsible for regulating shipping.
The IMO was established in Geneva in 1948 and came into force 10 years later, meeting for the first time in 1959.
Headquartered in London, UK & currently has 174 Member States and 3 Associate Members.(India is also Member)
Its purpose is to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping and its remit today includes safety, environmental concerns, legal matters, technical co-operation, maritime security and the efficiency of shipping.
In 1988, IMO made Seaspeak the official language of the seas for Navigation of navigators across the globe. Seaspeak defines the rules of how to talk on a ship's radio. The number of words is limited to ensure that messages and conversations are short and clear.

9.EU and its related bodies

The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union under its current name in 1993. It gave the EU its current shape. The treaty led to the creation of the Euro, and created what was commonly referred to as the pillar structure of the European Union.

The European Union has evolved over time from an economic union to an increasingly political one. The EU has started to act more as a nation state. While the attempts to have a Constitution for the EU have failed, it has its own flag, anthem, founding date, and currency.

EU has a bicameral structure (consisting a ‘Council’ and a ‘Parliament’). The Council of the European Union represents the executive of member states. The strength depends upon the type of issue.

The European Parliament is elected every five years by EU citizens. It is the only directly elected body of the European Union, its members are directly elected by the citizens of the various countries. The European Parliament (EP) forms one half of the EU's legislature - the other half is the European Council. Together with the Council of the European Union (the Council) and the European Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU. However, neither the Parliament nor the Council have the power of legislative initiative. It is the European Commission which wields the power.

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union.

Members are bound to represent the interests of the EU as a whole rather than their home state –neutral from the influences of the governments they came from. This is in contrast to the Council, which represents governments. The Commission operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission. There is one member per member state – proposed by respective governments.

European Council, not to be confused with the Council of the European Union which is a legislative arm as discussed above, comprises the heads of state or government of the EU member states, along with the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, currently Herman Van Rompuy. European Council has no formal legislative power, under the Treaty of Lisbon it defines the general political directions and priorities of the Union. It is thus the Union's strategic and crisis solving body, acting as the collective presidency of the EU.

The European Court of Justice is the highest court in the European Union in matters of European Union law. The ECJ is the highest court of the European Union in matters of Union law, but not national law i.e. it means that court has jurisdiction over the member states in matters of the treaties etc which are applicable to whole EU and not national laws of individual countries.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation that intends to strengthen and harmonise data protection law frameworks across EU.

EUROZONE - a monetary union of 19 of the 28 European Union (EU) member states which have adopted the euro (€) as their common currency and sole legal tender. The other 9 members of the European Union continue to use their own national currencies, although most of them are obliged to adopt the euro in the future.

In 2002, euro notes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 of the member states. Now 17 members are there – April 2011. Estonia was the latest one.

Functioning – It is administered by four main branches – European Commission (Chief Executive Body), European Council, European Parliament, European Court of Justice.

EURASIAN ECONOMIC COMMISSION

A resurgent Russia is planning to re-establish its economic and political power in a number of ways. EEC is one of these steps. It was established in March 2012 and currently has three members – Russia,Belarus and Kazakhstan.

It has plans of expanding it further and including former USSR members as well.

It provide an economic shield to protect its members against Chinese expansion.

It is the first time in 20 years that a new economic, not just political, entity has emerged in the former Soviet space.

The member states have decided not to create a common currency, as this would mean the loss of some national independence. But they are introducing common standards for the provision of goods and services.

While Kazakhstan and Belarus will benefit from favorable gas tariffs, the Russian market will get cheaper goods from Belarus and Kazakhstan.

EURASIAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY

The Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC or EurAsEC) originated from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) customs union between Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan on 29 March 1996. Common Economic Space was launched on 1 January 2010.

EAEC was established for effective promotion of the creation by the Customs Union member states of a Single Economic Space – named ‘Common Economic Space’ like that of EU and for coordinating their approaches while integrating into the world economy and the international trade system.

EURASIAN UNION

The Eurasian Union is a proposal for Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to deepen economic and political integration for these countries into a supranational union of erstwhile USSR. The idea, based on the European Union's integration, was brought to attention in October 2011 by the Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin, but was first proposed as a concept by Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, during a 1994 speech at a Moscow university.

The Union will also act as a check against NATO in the region and its growing influence.
In 2014, Russia, Kazakastan and Belarus formed Eurasian Economic Commission as an economic bloc for greater cooperation.

Copernicus programme :

It is new name for Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme, previously known as GMES.
It is headed by the European Commission (EC) in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).
most ambitious Earth observation programme to date to provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security.
ESA coordinates the delivery of data from upwards of 30 satellites. The EC, acting on behalf of European Union, is responsible for the overall initiative, setting requirements and managing the services.
Services provided by Copernicus: land management, the marine environment, atmosphere, emergency response, security and climate change.
Sentinel: ESA is developing a new family of satellites, called Sentinels, specifically for the operational needs of the Copernicus programme. The Sentinels will provide a unique set of observations, starting with the all-weather, day and night radar images.

RECENTLY India has joined Europe’s mega global arrangement of sharing data from Earth observation satellites : Copernicus. In turn ISRO’s civilian satellites (Oceansat-2, Megha-Tropiques, Scatsat-1, SARAL, INSAT-3D, INSAT-3DR) data will be provided to Copernicus.

Sentinel-5 : of ESA aims to provide continuous monitoring of the composition of the Earth's atmosphere to monitor Air Quality in world.

It carries an instrument called Tropomi – a spectrometer that observes the reflected sunlight coming up off the Earth, analysing its many different colours & hence trace gases such as nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulphur dioxide, methane, and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere.

REACH Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals

It is a European Union regulation dating from 18 Dec 2006 addresses the production and use of chemical substances, and their potential impacts on both human health and the environment.
Its 849 pages took 7 years to pass, and it has been described as the most complex legislation in EU’s history and the most important in 20 years.
It is the strictest law to date regulating chemical substances and will affect industries throughout the world.
REACH entered into force on 1 June 2007, with a phased implementation over the next decade.
The regulation also established the European Chemicals Agency, which manages the technical, scientific and administrative aspects of REACH.

10.ASIA

APTA Asia Pacific Trade Agreement : was signed in 1975 asian countries i.e. Ind, china, Mongolia etc

SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

Regional intergovernmental have member states include BBIN MPSA.
SAARC comprises 3% of world's area, 21% of world's population and 3.8% (US$2.9 trillion) of global economy, as of 2015.
SAARC was founded in Dhaka on 8 December 1985 and secretariat is based in Kathmandu, Nepal.
The org. promotes development of economic and regional integration.
It launched South Asian Free Trade Area(SAFTA) in 2006 at 12th SAARC summit in islamabad.
SAARC maintains permanent diplomatic relations at UN as an observer and has developed links with multilateral entities, including EU.

Its member states include Afghanistan, Bangladesh,Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

SAFTA requires the developing countries in South Asia (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) to bring their duties down to 20 percent in the first phase of the two-year period ending in 2007.
In the final five-year phase ending 2012, the 20 percent duty will be reduced to zero in a series of annual cuts. The least developed nations in South Asia (Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Maldives) have an additional three years to reduce tariffs to zero.
Following are the instrument involved in SAFTA:-

Trade Liberalisation Programme
Rules of Origin
Institutional Arrangements
Consultations and Dispute Settlement Procedures
Safeguard Measures
Any other instrument that may be agreed upon

Mekong–Ganga Cooperation (MGC) was established on November 10, 2000, at Vientiane(LAOS) at the First MGC Ministerial Meeting. It comprises six member countries, namely India (Look-East projects), Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

The four areas of cooperation are tourism, culture, education, and transportation.

BFA Boao Forum for Asia : since 2001 , NGO

A non-profit organisation that hosts high-level forums for leaders from government, business and academia in Asia and other continents to share their vision on the most pressing issues in this dynamic region and the world at large.
modelled on the World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland , hence it is known as “ASIAN DAVOS”
Its fixed address is in Bo'ao, Hainan province, China since 2002, although the Secretariat is based in Beijing.

SCO

A Eurasian political, economic, and security organisation, the creation of which was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai, China by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan;
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Charter was signed in June 2002 and entered into force on 19 September 2003.
These countries, except for Uzbekistan(but member of SCO), were members of Shanghai Five group, founded on 26 April 1996 in Shanghai.
India & Pakistan joined SCO as full members on 9 June 2017 at a summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.
It’s members are 8 countries : C, I, R, K, T, U, K, P
Turkmenistan is NOT a member of SCO.
SCO’s observer countries are Afganistan (Pak’s enemy) ,Belarus (Rus’s Enemy), Iran , Mangolia(China’s Enemy)
It’s 4 guest appearances are : UN , CIS , Turkmenistan, ASEAN
The official working languages of SCO : Chinese and Russian (English is NOT)

File-SCO_(orthographic_projection).svg.png

RATS Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure , HQ in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is a permanent organ of SCO which serves to promote cooperation of member states against the 3 evils of terrorism, separatism & extremism. The Head of RATS is elected to a three-year term. Each member state also sends a permanent representative to RATS.

Peace Mission 2018

It is a multi-nation counter-terror exercise that will take place under the framework of SCO.
The main aim of the exercise will be to enhance counter - terror cooperation among 8 SCO member countries.
Peace Mission exercises are held once in two years.
This year’s exercises will be the 10th edition. The last time, it was held in 2016 in Kyrgyztan.
The 2018 edition will be held in the Ural mountains of Russia.
In a first, India and Pakistan will be part of this exercise. It will be for the first time since Independence that India and Pakistan will both be part of a military exercise, though the armies of the two nations have worked together in UN peace keeping missions.
India and Pakistan were admitted as observers of the grouping in 2005.

FISSILE MATERIAL CUT OFF TREATY

It is a proposed treaty to prohibit further production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other explosive devices.

G-4 They include – Germany, Japan, Brazil and India – the aspiring four for permanent seat in UNSC.

Coffee Club or Unite for Consensus : Group of countries who oppose the entry of any member of G4 into UNSC.

G-20

The Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (G-20, G20, Group of Twenty) is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 major economies – 19 countries plus the European Union, which is represented by the President of the European Council and by the European Central Bank. Their heads of government or heads of state have also periodically conferred at summits since their initial meeting in 2008.
The group will replace G-8 in a bid for a more equitable global representation.The heads of the G-20 nations have met semi-annually at G-20 summits since 2008.
Although the initial focus of G20 was on issues related to international financial stability, it has also examined a broad range of longer-term economic issues of interest to its members.
G20 is also trying to foster and adopt internationally recognized standards in areas such as financial transparency, international tax cooperation and combating money laundering etc.
The G-20 operates without a permanent secretariat or staff. The chair rotates annually among the members and is selected from a different regional grouping of countries. The chair is part of a revolving three-member management group of past, present and future chairs referred to as the Troika. The incumbent chair establishes a temporary secretariat for the duration of its term, which coordinates the group's work and organizes its meetings.
In addition to 20 members, the following forums and institutions, as represented by their respective chief executive officers, participate in meetings of the G-20 – the Managing Director of the IMF, the Chairman of the IMF, the President of the World Bank, the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the Chairman of the Development Committee.
2018 G20 Summit is being held in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina as 13th meeting of Group of Twenty (G20) and the first G20 summit to be hosted in South America.
Theme, 'Building consensus for fair and sustainable development,' for the 2018 G20.

Commonwealth of Nations is an intergovernmental organisation of 52 member states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire.

Organised through the Commonwealth Secretariat and non-governmental organisations, organised through the Commonwealth Foundation.

It was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which established the member states as "free and equal". The symbol of this free association is Queen Elizabeth II who is the Head of the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth Games is an international multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and has taken place every four years since then (with the exception of 1942 and 1946, which were cancelled due to WW II.

CHOGM Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting :

A biennial summit meeting of the heads of government from all Commonwealth nations is held in a different member state and is chaired by that nation's respective Prime Minister or President who becomes the Commonwealth Chair-in-Office until the next meeting.
The first meeting was held in 1971 at Singapore and till now 24 meetings have been held. Last meeting was held in MALTA.
India has hosted only one CHOGM meeting in 1983 chaired by the then PM Indira Gandhi
2018 CHOGM held in LONDON chaired by Theresa May PM with theme : "Towards a Common Future".

CII Commonwealth Innovation Index :

As a NEW launched as part of a new Commonwealth Innovation Hub on the sidelines of CHOGM 2018 held in London.
created in partnership with United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and its annual Global Innovation Index (GII)
aimed at providing a tool that allows member states, organisations and citizens to benchmark themselves against 53 countries of the Commonwealth, with the new innovation hub offering a dedicated online space for Commonwealth countries to showcase what they have to offer and share with other members.
In the index out of 53 nations, India is ranked 10^th, Bangladesh has been ranked 24^th while it is topped by UK, Singapore and Canada.

CIF Commonwealth Innovation Fund :

launched on the sidelines of CHOGM 2018 held in London
Global Innovation Fund (GIF) will work as the delivery partner to host a new Commonwealth Innovation Fund (CIF),
GIF will manage the fund and its investments, which will be targeted at innovative projects across Commonwealth countries that “save and improve lives”.
CIF aims to provide financing for incubating and accelerating impact-oriented ideas and innovations within the Commonwealth countries.
As a $200 million venture capital firm that invests in social innovations that aim to improve lives and opportunities in the developing world through the use of grants and risk capital.

GIF Global Innovation fund:

A non-profit innovation fund headquartered in London with an office in Washington D.C. that invests in the development, rigorous testing, and scaling of innovations targeted at improving the lives of the world’s poorest people.
GIF is a unique hybrid investment fund that supports the piloting, rigorous testing, and scaling of innovations targeted at improving the lives of the poorest people in developing countries.

Nordic countries are generally considered to refer to Denmark(Copenhagen), Finland(Helsinki), Iceland ( Reykjavík),
Norway(Oslo) and Sweden(Stockholm) including their associated territories (Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands). (Code : DFINS)

Commonwealth of Independent States also called the Russian Commonwealth

a loose confederation of 9 member states and 2 associate members that are located in Eurasia (primarily in Central to North Asia), formed during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and which were all former Soviet Republics. Georgia withdrew its membership in 2008, while the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), which regard their membership in the Soviet Union as an illegal occupation, chose not to participate.

COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES

This is a loose group of former Soviet nations. Recently Russia signed an FTA with the former Soviet states to promote closer cooperation.

UN EMG (UN Environment Management Group)

UN system-wide coordination body on environment and human settlements, established in 2001 pursuant to a UNGA resolution, supporting a proposal of the UN Secretary-General.
members include the secretariats of the multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and other specialized agencies, programmes and organs of the UN. Representatives of intergovernmental bodies, civil society and international non-governmental organizations can be invited to contribute.
The group is chaired by the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme and supported by a secretariat provided by UNEP, located in Geneva, Switzerland. The EMG works through technical meetings, Issue Management Groups and task forces.

Golden Crescent is the name given to one of Asia's two principal areas of illicit opium production (with the other being the Golden Triangle), located at the crossroads of Central, South, and Western Asia. This space overlaps three nations, Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, whose mountainous peripheries define the crescent.

Golden Triangle is one of Asia's two main opium-producing areas. It is an area of approximately 950,000 square kilometres (367,000 sq mi) that overlaps the mountains of three countries of Southeast Asia: Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.

PIN MTLV MC

GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION (GI) STATUS

A geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on certain products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g. a town, region, or country).

The use of a GI may act as a certification that the product possesses certain qualities, is made according to traditional

methods, or enjoys a certain reputation, due to its geographical origin.
In many countries the protection afforded to geographical indications by law is similar to the

protection afforded to trademarks, and in particular, certification marks.

Geographical indications law restricts the use of the GIs for the purpose of identifying a particular type of product, unless the product and/or its constituent materials and/or its fabrication method originate from a particular area and/or meet certain standards. Sometimes these laws also stipulate that the product must meet certain quality tests that are administered by an association that owns the exclusive right to license or allow the use of the indication.

Like trademarks, geographical indications are regulated locally by each country because conditions of registration such as differences in the generic use of terms vary from country to country.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

It is the biggest fund to fight AIDS, Malaria and TB. Ten years back the fund was established to fight the problems of AIDS, TB and Malaria in developing countries. The fund has been hugely successful with almost universal access to the ARV in the African nations. It costs around $1 per day to provide the medications against AIDS, the recent recession has also affected the funding to this fund. At a time when considerable headway has been made in fighting with the AIDS, the fund needs to be strengthened.

IAEA – International Atomic Energy Association

the UN agency was established in 1957 and came into being to implement US President Dwight Eisenhower’s ‘Atoms for Peace’ proposal.

It seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to prevent its use for military purposes.

IAEA teams regularly inspect nuclear facilities all over the world to ensure that civilian reactors are not being used for military purposes.

an autonomous organisation is not under direct control of the UN, but the IAEA does report to both the UNGA and UNSC.

Unlike most other specialised international agencies, the IAEA does much of its work with the Security Council, and not with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

It inspects the nuclear establishments, safeguards technology and standardizes the norms for nuclear materials.

ICANN – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

A nonprofit organisation formed in 1998 responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces of the INTERNET , ensuring the network's stable and secure operation.
it can be said that this is the organisation that governs the internet today.
major task being assigning of High Level Domains.
Its work includes coordination of the Internet Protocol address spaces (IPv4 and IPv6) and assignment of address blocks to regional Internet registries. It also looks after Domain Names and their use. Much of its work has concerned the introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) like - bharat, .com etc.

As partnership of people from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable, It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers.

ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet but governs the internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet.

But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.

Headend In the Sky HITS Broadcasting Services refer to the multichannel downlinking and distribution of television programme in C-Band or Ku Band, wherein all the pay channels are downlinked at a central facility (Hub/Teleport) and again uplinked to a satellite after encryption of channels.

ICRC – International Committee of the Red Cross

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties (signatories) to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect victims of international and internal armed conflicts. Such victims include war wounded, prisoners, refugees, civilians, and other non-combatants. The ICRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Henery Dunant was its founder.

UN Refugee programme:

New York Declaration lays out a vision for a more predictable and more comprehensive response Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework, or CRRF.
CRRF calls for greater support to refugees and the countries that host them.
The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants is a milestone for global solidarity and refugee protection at a time of unprecedented displacement across the world.
Adopted by all 193 Member States of UN in September 2016, it contains historic and wide-ranging commitments that reaffirm the commitment by Member States to respect the human rights of refugees and migrants and to support the countries that welcome them.
UN’s “comprehensive refugee response framework” provides lasting solutions for refugees, including integration into host communities. The framework approach is based on the idea that refugees should be included in their host communities. When refugees have access to education and the right to work legally, they can develop their skills and be more self-reliant, contributing to the local economy.

Tanzania has announced its withdrawal of United Nation’s “Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework” citing security reasons and lack of funds.

UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or 1951 Refugee Convention

defines who is a refugee & sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum.
The Convention is “legally binding” there is no body that monitors compliance.
INDIA is NOT signatory of the convention though USA has ratified it.

Health issues for astronauts to overcome:

can cause a loss of bone density , lead to osteoporosis-related fractures and long-term health problems.
body fluids can shift upwards
Without a natural body clock, depression and sleep disorders can develop.
Space radiation can also cause sickness and fatigue.

INTERPOLE & RED CORNER NOTICE

Interpol can be considered as International Police. It is not part of UN and has 188 members with headquarters in Lyon France. It is second biggest organisation after UN.

It issues 7 types of notices, Red Corner Notice is one of them. Red Corner Notice requests arrest of wanted persons and is like an international arrest warrant.

ITER – International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor

ITER (originally an acronym of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering project, which is currently building the world's largest and most advanced experimental nuclear fusion reactor at the Cadarache facility in the south of France.

The project is funded and run by seven member entities – the European Union (EU), India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The ITER fusion reactor itself has been designed to produce 500 megawatts of output power for 50 megawatts of input power, or ten times the amount of energy put in. Construction of the facility began in 2007, and the first plasma is expected to be produced in 2019. If successful it will be a major step in solving energy problem.

MAASTRICHT CRITERIA or EURO CONVERGENCE CRITERIA

The euro convergence criteria (also known as the Maastricht criteria) are the criteria for European Union member states to enter the third stage of European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and adopt the euro as their currency.

Its main criteria are –

Inflation level – It should be higher than the three best performing countries.
Annual government deficit – The ratio of the annual government deficit to gross domestic product (GDP) must not exceed 3% at the end of the preceding fiscal year.
Government debt – The ratio of gross government debt to GDP must not exceed 60% at the end of the preceding fiscal year.
It also lays down guidelines about the exchange rate and long term debt.

MAARAKESH TREATY
This is a new treaty that aims to make access of books to disabled easier. It will allow copyright waiver to facilitate publication of books in disability friendly manner like – audio, Braille etc.

MINAMATA CONVENTION
It is a convention which is sponsored by UN to contain mercury poisoning and mercury trade and use. Its draft was signed in Minamata, Japan where inhabitants have suffered for decades due to mercury contaminated fish and the consequent mercury poisoning after more than 140 countries agreed on it in Geneva. It aims to phase out use of mercury by 2020. Hazards of mercury are increased through process of Bio Accumulation and Bio Magnification. It also provides certain concessions where there is no alternative, but to use mercury. For example in certain vaccines, mercury is used as a preservative. India is one of the largest mercury emitting countries as it uses coal fired plants which also emit mercury.

OUTER SPACE TREATY

The Outer Space Treaty is a treaty that forms the basis of international space law. Among its principles –

It bars States Parties to the Treaty from placing nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body
It exclusively limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes and expressly prohibits their use for testing weapons of any kind
The treaty also states that the exploration of outer space shall be done to benefit all countries and shall be free for exploration and use by all the States.
The treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, claiming that they are the Common heritage of mankind. However, the State that launches a space object retains jurisdiction and control over that object.

APEC – Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

a forum of 21 Pacific Rim countries, US, Russia, most of ASEAN
India is NOT part of it.
Formed in response of growing dominance of an industrialised Japan in 1989.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a regional economic forum established in 1989 to leverage the growing interdependence of the Asia-Pacific.
APEC’s 21 members aim to create greater prosperity for the people of the region by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration.

P5+1 Group

This is an informal group consisting of 5 permanent members of Security council and Germany formed to primarily address the issue of Iranian Nuclear Impasse. The group was formed in 2005 after a series of proposals by West and Iran failed to find a common ground and make any headway about Iranian Nuclear Program.

EU 3 + 3 (also referred to as the E3+3, or P5+1 referring to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) refers to France, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, and People's Republic of China. It was coined when these states joined the diplomatic efforts with Iran in regards to its nuclear program. Task of P5+1 is to focus on 2 key issues –

Stop Iran from becoming a nuclear weapon state
Restrict Iranian nuclear program for civilian purpose only

PARIS PRINCIPLES

The Paris Principles were defined at the first International Workshop on National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights held in Paris in 1991. They were later adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Commission. The Paris Principles relate to the status and functioning of national institutions for the protection and promotion of human rights.

The Paris Principles list a number of responsibilities for national institutions, which fall under five headings. It includes – details the role of National Institutions over keeping a watch on human rights violation, advising the governments and coordinating with the international agencies.

Evaluation of the national institutions is done by a peer review system.

PULITZER PRIZES

The prizes were established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and are administered by Columbia University in New York City.

These are given for the following –

Journalism
Literature
Musical composition

SANITARY and PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES

Sanitary and phytosanitary measures and agreements are measures to protect humans, animals, and plants from diseases, pests, or contaminants. ‘The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures’ is one of the final documents approved at the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of the Multilateral Trade Negotiations of WTO. It applies to all sanitary (relating to animals) and phytosanitary (relating to plants) (SPS) measures that may have a direct or

indirect impact on international trade. The SPS agreement includes a series of understandings (trade disciplines) on how SPS measures will be established and used by countries when they establish, revise, or apply their domestic laws and regulations.

These measures ensures that –

An importer gets food that is safe
Countries don’t use strict health and safety regulations as excuse for protecting
domestic producers.

It has been argued that the SPS agreement has been used by the developed countries to selectively ward off imports from developing nations. For instance, EU's regulation on fish products and ban on the use of pesticides in production of mangoes, bananas etc has affected Indian agricultural exports. Recent ban on Mango import by EU countries is another such example.

SCHENGEN AGREEMENT

The Schengen Agreement is a treaty signed on 14 June 1985 near the town of Schengen in Luxembourg, between five of the ten member states of the European Economic Community. The Schengen Agreements were in a sense a precursor to the EU in terms of free movement. The borderless zone created by the Schengen Agreements, the Schengen Area, currently consists of 25 European countries. A Schengen Visa allows one to get Visa from one of the member EU country and travel to other nations without any separate visa.

11.Banks of World

IMF and WORLD BANK

The Bretton Woods conference established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deal with external surpluses and deficits of its member nations. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (popularly known as the World Bank) was set up to finance postwar reconstruction.

By so called Gentleman’s Agreement, World Bank has always been headed by a person of US’ choice and IMF of Europe’s choice and many countries including most developing countries have protested against this hegemony.

IMF grants loans to only member countries and not to other organizations and private entities. The main source of IMF resources is supposed to be IMF quota contributions, the money countries pay into the Fund for their membership of the institution. The quota is used in three ways: to determine voting rights, to determine contributions, and to set a guideline for the level of resources a country can borrow i.e. access to financing. Quota reforms in wake of changing nature of economies is one of the prime demands of developing countries like India which have grown significantly over the years. An important step was taken in 2010 on quota reforms, but it has not been implemented till date. 2010 reforms provides for 100% increase in total quotas. It also calls for shift 6% quota from over-represented to under-represented member countries. China will become the 3rd largest member country in the IMF, and there will be four EMDCs (Brazil, China, India, and Russia) among the 10 largest shareholders.

FUNCTIONS of IMF

I. Helps Countries in Balance of Payment Difficulties – When financial problems cause the price of a member's currency and the price of its goods to fall out of line, balance of payments difficulties are sure to follow. IMF helps in case of Balance of Payment crisis situation.

Exchange Rate Stabilization – It oversees members' monetary and exchange rate policies and a
acts as a guardian of the code of conduct.
Macroeconomic Policy Aid, Supervision and Advice – It receives frequent reports on members'
economic policies and prospects, which it debates, comments on, and communicates to the entire membership so that other members may respond in full knowledge of the facts and a clear understanding of how their own domestic policies may affect other countries.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IMF and WORLD BANK

Development vs Monetary Function – The fundamental difference is this: the Bank is primarily a development institution the poorer the country, the more favorable the conditions under which it can borrow from the Bank; the IMF is a cooperative institution that seeks to maintain an orderly system of payments and receipts between nations. i.e. World bank looks at development aspect, IMF looks at monetary aspects - promotes exchange stability and orderly exchange relations among its member countries.
Lending vs Stabilizing Function – To help nations abide by the code of conduct, the IMF administers a pool of money from which members can borrow when they are in trouble. The IMF is not, however, primarily a lending institution as is the Bank.
Size and Complexity – The IMF is small (about 2,300 staff members) and, unlike the World Bank, has no affiliates or subsidiaries. Most of its staff members work at headquarters in Washington, D.C. The structure of the Bank is somewhat more complex. The World Bank itself comprises two major organizations: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association (IDA).
Source of Funding – While World Bank acts as an investment banker and raise funds via bonds and partly by donations, IMF has its resources as pooled funds by members in different proportions which determine their SDR share also.
Recipient of Funding – In case of World Bank, only developing countries can seek assistance In contrast to World Bank, all member nations, both wealthy and poor, have the right to financial assistance from the IMF.

SOURCE OF FUNDING: WORLD BANK – ISSUING of BONDS, DONATIONS

The World Bank is an investment bank and acts as intermediary between investors and recipients, borrowing from the one and lending to the other. Its owners are the governments of its 180 member nations with equity shares in the Bank.

The IBRD obtains most of the funds it lends to finance development by market borrowing through the issue of bonds (which carry an AAA rating because repayment is guaranteed by member governments) to individuals and private institutions in more than 100 countries.

Its concessional loan associate, IDA, is largely financed by grants from donor nations. The Bank is a major borrower in the world's capital markets and the largest nonresident borrower in virtually all countries where its issues are sold. It also borrows money by selling bonds and notes directly to governments, their agencies, and central banks.

SOURCE OF FUNDING: IMF – POOLED FUNDS

Unlike World Bank, IMF is not a bank and does not intermediate between investors and recipients.

It has kind of a pool of funds and each member contributes to this pool of resources a certain amount of money proportionate to its economic size and strength (richer countries pay more, poorer less).

While the Bank borrows and lends, the IMF is more like a credit union whose members have access to a common pool of resources (the sum total of their individual contributions) to assist them in times of need – like balance of Payment Crisis etc.

RECIPIENT of FUNDING: WORLD BANK

Neither wealthy countries nor private individuals borrow from the World Bank but instead it lends only to credit worthy governments of developing nations.

The poorer the country, the more favorable the conditions under which it can borrow from the Bank.

There are various categories of recipients depending upon their economy and per capita income etc –

IBRD LOANS – Developing countries whose per capita gross national product (GNP) exceeds $1,305 may borrow from the IBRD. These loans carry an interest rate slightly above the market rate at which the Bank itself borrows and must generally be repaid within 12-15 years.
IDA LOANS – The IDA, on the other hand, lends only to governments of very poor developing nations whose per capita GNP is below $1,305, and in practice IDA loans go to countries with annual per capita incomes below $865. IDA loans are interest free and have a longer maturity of 35 or 40 years.

RECIPIENT of FUNDING : IMF

In contrast to World Bank, all member nations, both wealthy and poor, have the right to financial assistance from the IMF (in case of World Bank, only developing countries can seek assistance). As monetary and fiscal problems can be faced by any country, IMF assistance is available to all members. Money received from the IMF must normally be repaid in comparatively shorter periods within three to five years, and in no case later than ten years. Interest rates are slightly below market rates, but are not so concessional as those assigned to the World Bank's IDA loans. Through the use of IMF resources, countries have been able to buy time to rectify economic policies and to restore growth without having to resort to actions damaging to other members' economies.

CRITICISM

International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that oversees those financial institutions and regulations that act at the international level. The IMF has 184 member countries, but they do not enjoy an equal say. The top ten countries have 55 per cent of the votes. They are the G-8 members (the US, Japan, Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Canada and Russia), Saudi Arabia and China. The US alone has 17.4 per cent voting rights. Unequal shareholding has led to perpetual western influence over key decisions of the Brettenwoods institutions.

EFF Extended Fund Facility: When a country faces serious medium-term balance of payments problems because of structural weaknesses that require time to address, the IMF can assist with the adjustment process under an Extended Fund Facility (EFF). Compared to assistance provided under the Stand-by Arrangement, assistance under an extended arrangement features longer program engagement—to help countries implement medium-term structural reforms—and a longer repayment period.

World Bank is a banker and hence it acts as a banker/intermediary between investors and creditors. Apart from donations it also raises funds via bonds which are considered safe as they are under guarantee of member states.

It aims to

Improve health care, nutrition, childhood development and education
Strengthen social security, pension and legal systems
Protect and empower the most vulnerable groups of society, including women and the poor in rural areas
at reducing poverty, improve living standards and raise incomes and productivity.

The World Bank is the single largest financier of environmental projects worldwide with a portfolio of USD 12 Billion in projects with clear environmental objectives

World Bank Group consists of five organizations : -

IDA – The International Development Association is the part of the World Bank that helps the world's poorest countries.
It supports anti-poverty programs in the poorest developing countries with long-term (30-40 years maturity), no interest loans. IDA loans address primary education, basic health services, clean water supply and sanitation, environmental safeguards, business- climate improvements, infrastructure and institutional reforms. Approximately half of the IDA's resources come from the 45 donating countries (developed ones), rest are raised by issuance of Bonds. It provides interest-free loans — called credits — and grants to governments of the poorest countries.
Together, IBRD and IDA make up the World Bank.
IBRD – It is the World Bank's other lending arm – the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development – which serves middle-income countries with capital investment and advisory services for development activities. In Asia, its parallel can be drawn with ADB. It lends to governments of middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries.
IFC – The International Finance Corporation promotes sustainable private sector investment in developing countries. Within the World Bank Group, the World Bank finances projects with sovereign guarantees, while the IFC finances projects without sovereign guarantees. Private sector financing is IFC's main activity, and in this respect is a profit-oriented financial institution. IFC's activities, however, must meet a second test of contributing to a reduction in poverty in line with its
MIGA Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency was created in 1988 to promote foreign direct investment into developing countries to support economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve people’s lives. MIGA fulfils this mandate by offering political risk insurance (guarantees) to investors and lenders.
ICSID International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes provides international facilities for conciliation and arbitration of investment disputes.

World Bank’s Green Bonds are an opportunity to invest in climate solutions through a high quality credit fixed income product.

This includes both mitigation of and adaptation to climate change—all while observing the World Bank's safeguard policies for environmental and social issues.
The World Bank Green Bond raises funds from fixed income investors to support World Bank lending for eligible projects that seek to mitigate climate change or help affected people adapt to it.
The product was designed in partnership with Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) to respond to specific investor demand for a triple-A rated fixed income product that supports projects that address the climate challenge.
Since 2008, the World Bank has now issued over USD 10.2 billion equivalent in Green Bonds through more than 135 transactions in 18 currencies.
Eligible projects supported by the Green Bond program are selected by World Bank environment specialists and meet defined World Bank eligibility criteria for low-carbon and climate resilient development.
These criteria underwent an independent review by the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research at the University of Oslo (CICERO).

CICERO concurred that, combined with the governance structure of the World Bank and safeguards for its projects, the World Bank eligibility criteria provide a sound basis for selecting climate - friendly projects.
Examples of eligible mitigation projects are:

Solar and wind installations;
Funding for new technologies that permit significant reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions;
Rehabilitation of power plants and transmission facilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
Greater efficiency in transportation, including fu

The National People's Congress is the national legislature of the People's Republic of China.

AIIB Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Founded in October, 2014, and has its headquarters in Beijing as a new multilateral financial institution aimed at providing “financial support for infrastructure development and regional connectivity in Asia.”
Its goals are to boost economic development in the region, create wealth, prove infrastructure, and promote regional cooperation and partnership.
The value of AIIB’s authorized capital amounts to $100 billion, with almost $30 billion invested by China.
India is not only one of the founding members of AIIB but is also the 2nd largest shareholder in AIIB.
It’s Board of Governors: have All powers of the Bank & is the highest decision-making body under the Articles of Agreement. It consists of one Governor and one Alternate Governor appointed by each member country. Governors and Alternate Governors serve at the pleasure of the appointing member.
AIIB established an International Advisory Panel (IAP) to support the President and Senior Management on the Bank’s strategies and policies as well as on general operational issues. The Panel meets in tandem with the Bank’s Annual Meeting, or as requested by the President. The President selects and appoints members of the IAP to two-year terms. Panelists receive a small honorarium and do not receive a salary.

ADB Asian Development Bank : HQ at Manila, Philippines

EBRD European Bank for Reconstruction and Development :

is an international financial institution founded in 1991(during dissolution of USSR) as a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies.
Initially focused on the countries of the former Eastern Bloc (in order to establish private sectors) it expanded to support development in more than 30 countries from central Europe to central Asia.
Similar to other multilateral development banks, the EBRD has members from all over the world (North America, Africa, Asia and Australia ), with the biggest shareholder being USA, but only lends regionally in its countries of operations.
Headquartered in London, the EBRD is owned by 65 countries and two EU institutions. \\
Despite its public sector shareholders, it invests in private enterprises, together with commercial partners.
India likely to join the EBRD in 2018 and becoming its 69th member, enabling Indian companies to undertake joint investments in regions in which the EBRD operates

In 2017, the EBRD signed a pact with International Solar Alliance (ISA) , which was unveiled in 2015 in Paris.

The EBRD is not to be confused with the European Investment Bank (EIB), which is owned by EU member states and is used to support EU policy. EBRD is also distinct from the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB).

European-Bank-for-Reconstruction-and-Development-ias-1200x248.png

Helsinki Rules on the Uses of the Waters of International Rivers : international guideline regulating how rivers and their connected groundwaters that cross national boundaries may be used, adopted by International Law Association (ILA) in Helsinki, Finland in August 1966.

It led to the creation of United Nations' Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. \

In 2004, it was superseded by the Berlin Rules on Water Resources.

the “principle of equitable apportionment” recognised by international rules on water sharing like “the Helsinki rules, Campione rules and Berlin rules”.

International Centre For Alternative Dispute Resolution (ICADR), India :

GOI thought it necessary to provide a new forum and procedure for resolving international and domestic commercial disputes quickly through ADR.
The ICADR is an autonomous organization with its headquarters at New Delhi and Regional Centres at Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
The Regional Centres of ICADR are fully funded and supported by the respective State Governments.
Dr. H.R. Bhardwaj (Founder Chairperson), Former Governor of Karnataka is the Patron of ICADR.
At the regional level, the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court is the Patron of the Regional Centre of ICADR. Hon’ble Chief Justice of India is the Chairperson of ICADR. The Governing Council of ICADR comprises of several eminent personalities drawn from various fields.
To facilitate the conduct of arbitral proceedings that the parties have agreed to conduct under the Arbitration rules, the ICADR will-

(a) perform the functions of the appointing authority whenever - the ICADR has been so designated by the parties in the arbitration clause of their contract or in a separate agreement, or the parties have agreed to submit a dispute to the ICADR under the

Arbitration rules without specifically designating it as the appointing authority; and

(b) provide the administrative services herein specified when required by the agreement, or when requested by all parties, or by the arbitral tribunal with the consent of the parties.

ICJ INTERNATIONAL COURT of JUSTICE

The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands.

It is one of the six principle organs of UN.

Apart from adjudicating between disputes of states, it also serves as advisory body of UN and its organs in judicial matters.

JURISDICTION and ROLE

Court has generally refrained from hearing contentious cases that are political in nature, due in part to its lack of enforcement mechanism and its lack of compulsory jurisdiction (countries which agree in prior only are subjected to its judgments and no case can be taken to the court when all parties are not in agreement over such a move). Involvement of countries in taking its recourse varies. For example - After the court ruled that the US's covert war against Nicaragua was in violation of international law (Nicaragua v. United States), the United States withdrew from compulsory jurisdiction in 1986. Now, The United States accepts the court's jurisdiction only on a case-by-case basis. Similarly developing countries also have apprehension over its working and they often avoid taking this route. India Pakistan River Water Sharing has been resolved by ICJ and Indus Water treaty is an aftermath of that. Non-UN members may also become parties to the Court's statute

Its decisions are binding on nation states.

COMPOSITION

The ICJ is composed of 15 judges elected to nine year terms by the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council from a list of persons nominated by the national groups in the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Generally, the Court sits as full bench, but in the last fifteen years it has on occasion sat as a chamber consisting of usually 3 or 5 judges, to hear cases.

Dalbeer Bhandari from India was recently chosen its judge. (2012)

LIMITATIONS

Limited jurisdiction–‘Compulsory’ jurisdiction is limited to cases where both parties have agreed to submit to its decision
Access limited only to nation states– Organizations, private enterprises, and individuals cannot have their cases taken to the International Court, such as to appeal a national supreme court's ruling. U.N. agencies likewise cannot bring up a case except in advisory opinions (a process initiated by the court and non-binding).
Other existing international thematic courts, such as the ICC, are not under the umbrella of the International Court.
Its decisions can be vetoed– The International Court does not enjoy a full separation of powers, with permanent members of the Security Council being able to veto enforcement of even cases to which they consented in advance to be bound.

ICC INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

After 2nd World War to facilitate justice, Nuremberg Tribunal (Germany) and Tokyo Tribunal were established, but they were ad-hoc in nature. Idea of International Criminal Justice System reemerged after the end of cold war in wake of killings in Rwanda and in Yugoslavia and separate tribunals were setup by UNSC for the same and a plea to setup a permanent tribunal was also made. As a result, an agreement was reached in Rome in 1998.

ICC is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals (not states) for 4 serious crimes – Genocide, Crimes against humanity, War crimes and Crime of aggression.
It is the first permanent, treaty based, international criminal court established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of most serious crimes of concern to the international community.
It came into being on 1 July 2002 – the date it’s founding treaty, the ‘Rome Statute’ of ICC , entered into force – and it can only prosecute crimes committed on or after that date. The Court's official seat is in The Hague, Netherlands, but its proceedings may take place anywhere. Guatemala is its newest and 121st member as of July 2012.
In June 2010, It criminalizes the use of certain kinds of weapons in non-international conflicts whose use was already forbidden in international conflicts.
Kampala declaration further expands the scope of jurisdiction of ICC and has expanded definition of War Crimes and Crimes of Aggression.
Its members are chosen by the state members and not by UNGA and UNSC members as in the case of ICJ.
Although the Court’s expenses are funded primarily by States Parties, it also receives voluntary contributions from governments, international organisations, individuals, corporations and other entities.

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ICC can generally exercise jurisdiction only in three cases, viz.

If the accused is a national of a state party,
If the alleged crime took place on the territory of a state party
If a situation is referred to the Court by UNSC. When a case is referred to the ICC by UNSC all UN member states are obliged to co-operate, since its decisions are binding for all of them.
It is designed to complement existing national judicial systems: it can exercise its jurisdiction only when national courts are unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute such crimes. Primary responsibility to investigate and punish crimes is therefore left to individual states.
Till date, all the major cases handled by the court pertain to violence in African continent.

RECENTLY ICC launched a “preliminary examination” of Duterte’s bloody anti-drug crackdown that has drawn international concern. Police say they have killed nearly 4,000 drug suspects as part of the campaign, while rights groups claim the toll is around three times the numbers given by authorities.

Philippines is pulling out its support from ICC in protest against the “baseless” and “outrageous” attacks against the administration as well as violations of due process.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ICJ AND ICC

While all the UN members are default members of International Court of Justice, membership to ICC is a functions of Individual Nation’s will to join by signing and ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court treaty. India and China are both not member of ICC.
While ICC prosecutes individuals, ICJ deals more with inter-state disputes
ICC deal with criminal cases, ICJ deals more or less with territorial and other sovereign disputes like water sharing etc.

Its members are chosen by the state members who has ratified the treaty and not by UN
general Assembly and Security Council members as in the case of ICJ.

Unlike the International Court of Justice whose decisions can be vetoed by Security Council,
the ICC is legally and functionally independent from the United Nations.
ICJ is funded by UN, while ICC is funded by contribution of member states.
Recently, a major verdict came in Sierra Leonean Blood Diamonds Case in which former Liberian president Charles Taylor was convicted. It was the first time when the head of state was convicted by an international tribunal.
LIMITATIONS of ICC, ICJ and AD-HOC TRIBUNALS.
They don’t’ have coercive penal power and for police support and conviction, they depend upon support from the respective states.
Long time taken – Often trials are delayed so much that the perpetrators are either dead or on verge of natural death. The crimes committed in Cambodia (Khmer Rogue) are at least 30 years old; those committed in Bosnia (former Yugoslavia) are already 15 years old.
Impartial Judgments – No Western politician that has ever been indicted. No indictments for NATO officials - even though the ICTY indicted and convicted individuals from every nation involved in the Yugoslav Wars
Expensive Judgments – Yugoslavia tribunal till date has cost more than $2 billion and similar amount has been spent for Rwandan tribunal.

SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE

The area's importance largely results from one-third of the world's shipping transiting through its waters, and that it is believed to hold huge oil and gas reserves beneath its seabed.

China has extended claims much beyond the UN 200 miles Exclusive Economic Zone area citing reasons like ‘Historical Claims’. A large volume of the world's merchandise pass through the sea-lanes. Relations between China and other countries like Vietnam, Philippines etc have been strained recently over a long-standing dispute relating to the sovereignty of the resource-rich archipelago and the Spratly islands in the South China Sea.

China claim almost the entire body as their own, demarcating their claims within what is known as the Nine-Dotted Line, which claims overlap with virtually every other country in the region. The Philippines, China, and Taiwan over Scarborough Shoal. Recently in April 2012, naval ships of both China and Philippines got locked in near the island. It falls under Philippines EEZ as per international laws, but was not a part of its territory originally. The Philippines claims to have exercised effective jurisdiction and effective occupation of the shoal since its independence. In international law this is a well recognized practice. And therefore it is no surprise that China is loath to test its case before the ICJ. Vietnam, China, and Taiwan over waters west of the Spratly Islands. The Paracel Islands are disputed between the China and Vietnam.

Conflicts are tried to resolve with negotiations, Joint Development Authorities have been setup. While china has focused on ‘bilateral talks’, many countries and ASEAN in general has pushed

for ‘multilateral talks’

Resolution of dispute is very difficult as there has been no precise definition of disputed areas. The areas are not demarcated and many of the countries have legislated recently to stake their claims on various grounds such as UNCLOS, historical claims etc.

However, the most logical resolution can be in form of accepting UNCLOS and Maritime Laws, but China has claimed almost the entire region which will mean that it has to lose much ground which it won’t be willing.

For the first time in 40 years, the annual ASEAN talks ended without issuing a joint statement as controversy over the South China Sea dominated the meet. (China’s key Southeast Asian ally Cambodia, the 2012 ASEAN chair, decided against issuing a joint statement after the Philippines and Vietnam, which have territorial disputes with Beijing, insisted that the communiqué include a specific reference to Beijing’s alleged encroachment in their respective exclusive economic zones and continental shelves.

Significance of UNCLOS and South China Dispute –

First, it establishes a detailed legal framework setting out the rights and obligations of States with respect to uses of the oceans. All the nations involved in the dispute are part of UNCLOS
Second, UNCLOS sets out the maritime zones which coastal States can claim from land territory over which they have sovereignty. For example, coastal States have a right to establish a 12 nautical mile (nm) territorial sea adjacent to their coast in which they have sovereignty, subject to the right of all States to innocent passage. UNCLOS also provides that coastal States have the right to an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) extending out to 200 nm from their coasts in which they have sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting the living and non-living resources of the waters and of the seabed and subsoil. Under the EEZ regime, coastal States have sovereign rights to exploit the fisheries resources in their EEZ
Third, UNCLOS sets out the maritime zones that can be claimed by coastal States from Offshore geographic features.

SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION

A term historically used by policymakers and academics to describe the exchange of resources, technology, and knowledge between developing countries, also known as countries of the global South.
This was also a bid to oppose the existing international economic order and establish a New International Economic Order.
Formation of G77 and groups like NAM was a step in this direction.

India And South-South Cooperation – IBSA is one of the important pillars of India’s South South Cooperation bid and BRICS is another pillar.

BRICS :

At the 5th BRICS Education ministers meeting, Beijing declaration on education was adopted which advocated support for both these organisations i.e. BRICS Network University (NU) & BRICS Think Tanks Council (BTTC)
BRICS NU is a consortium of the universities, elaborating Master and PhD programmes in different disciplines & was established in 2015 in BRICS meeting at Moscow.
NU follows principles of : Openness, which enables various universities to join the network respecting national criteria. Focus on educational programmes that can be supplemented with network research and innovation projects.
BRICS Universities League which is a consortium of leading research universities from BRICS countries & established in 2013 comprises the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) (Brazil), the National Committee for BRICS Research (NRC/BRICS) (Russia), the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) etc.
The main purposes of its establishment was to form a platform for the exchange of ideas and present policy recommendations for BRICS leaders.
New Development Bank (NDB), formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank,is a multilateral development bank operated by the BRICS states. The bank's primary focus of lending will be infrastructure projectS with authorized lending of up to $34 billion annually.
BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) is a framework for providing protection against global liquidity pressures

The New Development Bank (NDB) and Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) were signed into treaty at the 2014 BRICS summit in Brazil.

TRIPS – TRADE RELATED ASPECTS of INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS and other IP issues

The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international agreement administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO) that sets down minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property (IP) regulation as applied to nationals of other WTO Members. It was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1994.

In 2001, developing countries, concerned that developed countries were insisting on an overly narrow reading of TRIPS, initiated a round of talks that resulted in the Doha Declaration. The Doha declaration is a WTO statement that clarifies the scope of TRIPS.

TRIPS contains requirements that nations’ laws must meet for copyright rights, including the rights of performers, producers of sound recordings and broadcasting organizations; geographical indications, including appellations of origin; industrial designs; integrated circuit layout-designs; patents; monopolies for the developers of new plant varieties; trademarks; trade dress; and undisclosed or confidential information. TRIPS also specifies enforcement procedures, remedies, and dispute resolution procedures.

TRIPS requires member states to provide strong protection for intellectual property rights. For example, under TRIPS –

Copyright terms must extend to 50 years after the death of the author.
Copyright must be granted automatically, and not based upon any "formality," such as
registrations or systems of renewal.
The obligations under TRIPS apply equally to all member states, however developing countries were allowed extra time to implement the applicable changes to their national laws, in two tiers of transition according to their level of development. It has therefore been argued that the TRIPS standard of requiring all countries to create strict intellectual property systems will be detrimental to poorer countries' development.
Flexibilities under TRIPS –
Compulsory licensing
Flexibility to define ‘invention’ by the member countries (however, a constant pressure
from developed nations is maintained against the implementation of these provisions. For example – US wants other countries like India to make strict provisions related to IPR with less scope of flexibilities)
 Parallel importation: Process of importing affordable medicines from cheaper markets. TRIPS does not cover a number of areas of IP subject matter like traditional knowledge, handicrafts which are of particular interest to LDCs

'ICC-WTO Small Business Champions' initiative

Launched by WTO and International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
It will provide a platform for companies and private sector organizations around the world to propose innovative, practical ideas designed to encourage MSMEs(micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) to do business across borders.
Those businesses putting forward successful proposals will be recognized as 'ICC-WTO Small Business Champions'.
The aim is to raise awareness of the barriers that MSMEs face in doing business across borders, highlight the experiences and success stories of those MSMEs that are already trading, facilitate access to critical information, and raise skills among MSMEs to enable them to diversify export markets.
Proposals could take the shape of, for example, awareness-raising campaigns, competitions or capacity building, training and mentoring programmes.

12.WTO World Trade Organisation from GATT

“ China has not market economy status in the WTO “

GATT General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs :

Because of Great Depression of 1929, USA and other western countries adopted “protectionist” policies with high import tariffs.
The tariff war led to World War II due to anti-globalisation policies.
After WW II , Bretton woods conference was held in 1944 and produced IBRD (later known as WB) and IMF. The conference also suggested to create ITO (International Trade Organisation) to regulate International trade.
It was first discussed during the “United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment” in Havana Charter and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization (ITO)
The Havana Charter, proposed by John Maynard Keynes, was to establish the ITO and a financial institution called the International Clearing Union (ICU), and an international currency; the Bancor but ITO was not passed by USA congress.
Hence the countries decided to form a temporary multilateral agreement named as GATT and was signed by 23 countries in Geneva Conference in 1947.
It was until the signature of 123 nations in Marakesh conference in 1994 of Uruguay Round agreements which established WTO on 1 Jan 1995.

Facts about GATT :

It was to remove tariffs on merchandised goods however Agriculture and Textiles were excluded from its preview.
Unlikely WTO , It was an agreement and not an organisation.
Participating countries were called Contracting Members.
It’s feature “Protocol for provisional application” (known as Grandfather’s Rights) provided a lot of flexibility and let the counties to adopt domestic laws over GATT rules.
There were 8 GATT rounds with 1st at Geneva in 1947 and final 8th in Uruguay round in 1986-1994.
The 1st trade round under WTO was held at Doha in 2001.

GATT	WTO
an Ad-Hoc body, just a multilaterally agreed treaty and had some set of rules	An permanent full fledged International organisation with its independent secretariet
Its dispute redressal mechanism was NOT binding	Its dispute redressal mechanism is binding
It included tariffs only	It included tariffs along with agriculture and textiles
Protocol for provisional application, Grandfather’s rights	No Grandfather’s rights

The Grand Bargain was adopted between Developed and Developing Countries by accepting entries of

Agriculture and Textiles by Developed countries
Intellectual Property Rights and Services by Developing countries

Uruguay Rounds lead to WTO’s formation. Uruguay rounds started in 1986 ( till 1994 and embracing 123 countries as "contracting parties”) as 8th round of GATT negotiation and they focused on not only on goods and tariffs, but also on intellectual property rights and services also. In these rounds for the first time apart from tariff and non-tariff barriers, TRIPS and Trade in Services were discussed for the first time.

The main objectives of the Uruguay Round were –

To reduce agricultural subsidies
To put restrictions on foreign investment, and
To begin the process of opening trade in services like banking and insurance.

The round was criticized for ignoring the needs of developing countries especially on the front of agriculture. To breach the deadlock between the developed and developing countries, the Director General of GATT came up with a comprehensive documentation known as ‘Dunkel Proposals’ and presented it before the member countries which was ultimately signed by 123 countries including India.

WTO World Trade Organisation

A successor of GATT was established in 1995 under Marrakesh Agreement with signed by 123 nations .
WTO members meet at least once in 2 years which is called ‘Ministerial Conference’.
Official Languages are : English , French, Spanish and HQ at Geneva.
Between this time ‘General Council’ performs the functions of WTO and it also acts as Dispute Settlement Body.
It is assisted by 3 councils –

Council for Trade in goods;
Council for Trade in services;
Council for TRIPS

Council for Trade in Goods – There are 11 committees under the jurisdiction of the Goods Council each with a specific task. All members of the WTO participate in the committees.
Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights – Information on intellectual property in the WTO, news and official records of the activities of the TRIPS Council, and details of the WTO's work with other international organizations in the field.
Council for Trade in Services – The Council for Trade in Services operates under the guidance of the General Council and is responsible for overseeing the functioning of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). It is open to all WTO members, and can create subsidiary bodies as required.
Trade Negotiations Committee – TNC committee deals with the current trade talks round and chaired by WTO's Director - General.

Every other member provides MFN status which simply means that there will not be discrimination among trading partners.
Nearly 150 countries are members of the WTO.
It always strives to make the movement of goods and services freely across the nations Which is however unacceptable for many countries like India.

Functions of WTO

It oversees the implementation, administration and operation of the covered agreements.
It provides a forum for negotiations and for settling disputes.
With a view to achieving greater coherence in global economic policy making, the WTO shall cooperate, as appropriate, with the international Monetary Fund (IMF) and with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and its affiliated agencies.

Principles of WTO : 5 principles are of particular importance in understanding both the pre-1994 GATT and the WTO.

Non-discrimination : has two major components. Both are embedded in the main WTO rules on goods, services, and intellectual property, but their precise scope and nature differ across these areas.

Most favoured nation (MFN) rule : The MFN rule requires that a WTO member must apply the same conditions on all trade with other WTO members, i.e. a WTO member has to grant the most favourable conditions under which it allows trade in a certain product type to all other WTO members. "Grant someone a special favour and you have to do the same for all other WTO members."
National treatment policy : National treatment means that imported goods should be treated no less favourably than domestically produced goods (at least after the foreign goods have entered the market) and was introduced to tackle non-tariff barriers to trade (e.g. technical standards, security standards et al. discriminating against imported goods).

Reciprocity : reflects both a desire to limit the scope of free-riding that may arise because of the MFN rule, and a desire to obtain better access to foreign markets. A related point is that for a nation to negotiate, it is necessary that the gain from doing so be greater than the gain available from unilateral liberalization; reciprocal concessions intend to ensure that such gains will materialise.
Binding and enforceable commitments : The tariff commitments made by WTO members in a multilateral trade negotiation and on accession are enumerated in a schedule (list) of concessions. These schedules establish "ceiling bindings": a country can change its bindings, but only after negotiating with its trading partners, which could mean compensating them for loss of trade. If satisfaction is not obtained, the complaining country may invoke the WTO dispute settlement procedures.
Transparency : The WTO members are required to publish their trade regulations, to maintain institutions allowing for the review of administrative decisions affecting trade, to respond to requests for information by other members, and to notify changes in trade policies to the WTO. These internal transparency requirements are supplemented and facilitated by periodic country-specific reports (trade policy reviews) through the TPRM Trade Policy Review Mechanism. The WTO system tries also to improve predictability and stability, discouraging the use of quotas and other measures used to set limits on quantities of imports.
Safety values : In specific circumstances, governments are able to restrict trade. The WTO's agreements permit members to take measures to protect not only the environment but also public health, animal health and plant health.

Major AGREEMENTS of the WTO – WTO oversees about 60 different agreements which have the status of international legal texts. Member countries must sign and ratify all WTO agreements on accession. The current body of trade agreements comprising the WTO consists of 16 different multilateral agreements (to which all WTO members are parties) and two different plurilateral agreements (to which only some WTO members are parties).

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is now the WTO’s principal rule-book for trade in goods.

General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) – Applicable to banks, insurance firms, telecommunications companies, tour operators, hotel chains and transport companies and so on. It divides all tradable services into 4 modes of supply –

Mode 1: The services which can be provided across the border without the provider or consumer crossing borders. e.g. financial trading, BPO, IT. These are not covered in GATS.
Mode 2: The services for which consumers have to travel abroad. e.g. education, tourism.
Mode 3: The services where commercial presence of service provider in the foreign country is essential. e.g. banking, insurance, telecom etc. Developed countries have expertise in this and their opening up has harmed India.
Mode 4: The services that require physical presence of a natural person in the foreign country. e.g. skilled professionals like engineers doctors etc. These are not covered in GATS. India prefers this mode as it has expertise in this.

SPS Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Agreement – The SPS Agreement was signed as a part of the Final Act of the Uruguay Round and came into effect in 1995. The Agreement took effect with the establishment of the WTO. Under the SPS agreement, the WTO sets constraints on members' policies relating to food safety (bacterial contaminants, pesticides, inspection and labelling) as well as animal and plant health (imported pests and diseases). The objective of the SPS Agreement is twofold.

First, it aims to reduce the arbitrary nature of sovereign governments using SPS measures as trade restricting devices.
Second, it seeks to promote the harmonization of national SPS measures to the international standards while protecting member governments' rights to regulate their own food safety, animal and plant health issues.

——> There are 3 standards organizations who set SPS standards are the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC).

—> Codex Alimentarious Commission is one of the premier body which sets SPS standards.

CAC Codex Alimentarius Commission

An intergovernmental body with over 180 members, within framework of Joint Food Standards Programme established by FAO and WHO, with the purpose of protecting the health of consumers and ensuring fair practices in the food trade.
The Commission also promotes coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and NGOs.
It adopts codex standards (they ensure that food is safe and could be traded) for pepper, cumin and thyme at its just concluded meeting in Geneva was a recognition of India’s efforts to benchmark and harmonise global spices trade.
The development could herald the entry of more spices and herbs in the list for universal trading of safe and quality commodities in various countries.
The Codex Alimentarius, or "Food Code" is a collection of standards, guidelines and codes of practice adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

TRIPS Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights –

A international legal agreement between all the member nations of WTO which sets down minimum standards for the regulation by national governments of many forms of intellectual property (IP) as applied to nationals of other WTO member nations.
The rules state how copyrights, patents, trademarks, geographical names used to identify products, industrial designs, integrated circuit layout-designs and undisclosed information such as trade secrets.
It was negotiated in Uruguay round in 1994 and was a result of intense lobbying by USA supported by other developed nations.
Important aspects of the TRIPs were as follows –

(a) product patents,
(b) the scope of IPRs was widened to cover patents, copyrights and related rights, geographic information (GI), industrial designs, layout design of ICs, and trade secrets.

Specifically, TRIPS requires WTO members to provide copyright rights, covering content producers including performers, producers of sound recordings and broadcasting organizations; geographical indications, including appellations of origin; industrial designs; integrated circuit layout-designs; patents; new plant varieties; trademarks; trade dress; and undisclosed or confidential information.
TRIPS also specifies enforcement procedures, remedies, and dispute resolution procedures.

TRIPS agreement are : copyrights, trade secrets, patents, GIs, industrial designs etc.

The Doha declaration is a WTO statement that clarifies the scope of TRIPS, stating for example that TRIPS can and should be interpreted in light of the goal "to promote access to medicines for all."

Dispute Settlement Agreement
AoA Agreement on Agriculture

An international treaty of WTO was negotiated during the Uruguay Round and came into effect with the establishment of the WTO at the beginning of 1995.
It includes relevant guidelines on subsidies, special and differential treatment and so on.
The AoA has three central concepts, or ‘pillars’: Domestic Support, Market Access and Export Subsidies.

Domestic Support clause AoA divides domestic support into two categories - trade distorting and non- trade distorting(or minimal trade distorting). It includes the classification of subsidies by "boxes" depending on consequences of production and trade: There are 3 types of subsidies –

Blue (production-limiting programmes that still distort trade),
Green (minimal distortion , permissible and non-actionable e.g. – subsidies on pest control, agriculture research),
Amber (most directly linked to production levels , permissible, but actionable & mainly domestic support subsidies). Limit to domestic support subsidies is fixed at 10 % of agriculture output fixed at 1987-89 prices

AoA Agreement on Agriculture is based on three pillars and supported by a fourth through the SPS Standards.

Market access is about allowing foreign agri products.
Domestic support is about green box, blue box and amber box subsidies.
Export subsidies

AMS Aggregate measurement of support is the indicator on which the domestic support discipline for the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture is based. It is determined by calculating a market price support estimate for each commodity receiving such support, plus non-exempt direct payments or any other subsidy not exempted from reduction commitments, less specific agricultural levies or fees paid by producers.

Amber box — All domestic support measures considered to distort production and trade fall into the amber box. These include measures to support prices, or subsidies directly related to production quantities.

Blue box — This is the “amber box with conditions” — conditions designed to reduce distortion. Any support that would normally be in the amber box, is placed in the blue box if the support also requires farmers to limit production. At present there are no limits on spending on blue box subsidies.

Green box — Subsidies that not distort trade OR at most cause minimal distortion. They have to be government-funded (not by charging consumers higher prices) and must not involve price support. They also include environmental protection and regional development programmes.

The main conceptual consideration is that there are basically two categories of domestic support — support with no, or minimal, distortive effect on trade on the one hand (often referred to as “Green Box” measures) and trade-distorting support on the other hand (often referred to as “Amber Box” measures).

For example, government provided agricultural research or training is considered to be of the former type, while government buying-in at a guaranteed price (“market price support”) falls into the latter category. Under the Agreement on Agriculture, all domestic support in favour of agricultural producers is subject to rules.

In addition, the aggregate monetary value of Amber Box measures is, with certain exceptions, subject to reduction commitments as specified in the schedule of each WTO Member providing such support.

Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade – It prohibits technical requirements created solely for the purpose of limiting trade. It ensures that technical negotiations and standards, as well as testing and certification procedures, do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade. It allows such requirements for legitimate purposes like consumer and environment protection.
TRIMS or Agreement on Trade Related Investment Measures – Trade Related Investment Measures – In general any measure taken by government that may affect trade is TRIMS. According to WTO, some TRIMS might cause trade distortion and violate WTO principles. Therefore a multilateral agreement was signed during Uruguay rounds in 1994. It requires phasing out of those TRIMS that are distorting. Policies such as local content requirements and trade balancing rules that have traditionally been used to both promote the interests of domestic industries and combat restrictive business practices are now banned. US sought to drag India to WTO under provision of this agreement in case of solar panel issues as a part of Jawahar Lal Nehru National Solar Mission phase 1 biddings.
Information Technology Agreement – The aim of the treaty is to lower all taxes and tariffs on information technology products by signatories to zero.

Ministerial Conferences :

is highest decision-making body of the WTO usually meets every two years.
It brings together all members of the WTO, all of which are countries or customs unions.
It can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements.
Some of these such as the inaugural ministerial conference in Singapore and the Cancun conference in 2003 involved arguments between developed and developing economies referred to as the "Singapore issues" such as agricultural subsidies while others such as the Seattle conference in 1999 created large demonstrations.
The 4th ministerial conference in Doha in 2001 approved China's entry to the WTO and launched the Doha Development Round which was supplemented by the 6th WTO ministerial conference (in Hong Kong) when agricultural export subsidies were agreed to be phased out and adoption of the EU’s Everything but Arms initiative to phase out tariffs for goods from the Least Developed Countries.

EU’s Everything but Arms EBA : Under which all imports to the EU from LDCs Least Developed Countries are duty-free and quota-free, with the exception of armaments (Weapons). The EBA is part of the EU Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). The aim of the scheme is to encourage the development of the world's poorest countries.

1st Ministerial Conference 1996 :

held at Singapore in 1996 and 4 new issues known as Singapore issues were included in negotiations :

Transparency in Govt. procurement
Trade Facilitation
Trade and Investment
Trade and Competition

Doha Ministerial Conference 2001 :

Doha Rounds are an attempt to set the framework for global trade and it commenced in 2001.
Its major objective is to lower the trade barriers to facilitate free flow of goods and services.
Key areas of negotiation include agriculture, non-agricultural market access (NAMA), services, intellectual property rights, trade and environment, trade facilitation, WTO rules and dispute settlement and so on.
Discussions so far has concentrated mainly on agriculture, NAMA and sometimes on services.
WTO round talks have stalled after deadlock between developing and developed countries over the conditions like tariffs, agricultural subsidies and so on.
Major issues of confrontation between the developed and the developing countries are – Biggest issue is regarding agriculture – many developing countries like US are pouring enormous subsidies for their farmers which make their agriculture produce cheaper.
Another issue was that of Compulsory Licensing – this has been resolved after amendments were made in TRIPS.
Another issue is Differential Treatment. Under this there are clauses relating to ‘Special and Differentiated’ treatment for the developing countries which are under non-agreement and contention.
Regarding NAMA, developing countries seek protection of their vulnerable industries. Further there are implementation issues, developing countries say that they have technical problems in implementing even the Uruguay Round declaration.
As a result, talks have stalled since 2008 and no significant progress has been made since.

\\\ Doha Development Round was the next trade round to commence in 2001

Scope of Doha Round or Doha Development Agenda –

Agriculture – Many of the Uruguay commitments were to be implemented by 2000 but were not (implementation issues) So it aimed at reviewing these, improving market access, phasing out export subsidies and reductions in trade distorting domestic support.
NAMA: Issue of trade facilitation and improving market access.
Services: Expanding the scope of GATS.
TRIPS: Expanding the scope of TRIPS.

Principles of Doha round are –

Single undertaking: Every item of the negotiation is part of a whole and indivisible package and cannot be agreed separately. Some developed countries on the other hand demand that separate agreements should be put into effect to make some progress on Doha round
Participation: The negotiations are open to all WTO members and to observer governments negotiating or intending to negotiate membership. But decisions on the outcomes are only taken by members
Transparency: The negotiations have to be transparent
Special and differential treatment: The negotiations have to take fully into account the principle of special and differential treatment for developing and least-developed countries
Sustainable development
Subjects not negotiated: Non trade issues like labor, environment etc

Criticism of WTO/Doha Development Round :

WTO, it seems, is slowly moving away from being a multilateral institution to a plurilateral (covering only a select few members) institution and only a few countries call the shots.
It is also argued that it will open up the world trade to the disadvantage of the developing countries and will cripple the fledgling industries of the developing countries by flooding the markets with subsidized cheap goods.
Criteria for De-Minimus as 10% of agri production is also spurious as the value can vary greatly for developed and developing countries and is also not set realistically and is currently set at 1980s price levels.
WTO norms are likely to lead to a new economic colonialism where only a few big multi - nationals will call the shot putting developing country economies at poor second place in global supply chain.
Developing countries claim that they have had problems with the implementation of the agreements reached in the earlier Uruguay Round because of limited capacity or lack of technical assistance. They also claim that they have not realized certain benefits that they expected from the Round, such as increased access for their textiles and apparel in developed-country markets. They seek a clarification of language relating to their interests in existing agreements.
WTO rounds focus excessively on some issues and ignore others. For example, there are strikingly few rules governing trade in oil which is a major component of trade basket of countries like India and is one of the most valued commodity trade in global trade.
Developed countries like US have been adamant on the domestic subsidies. Subsidies on items like Cotton are of concern for countries of cotton producing African countries. So, countries like India demand substantial cuts (75 - 80%) by US and EU on their overall trade distorting domestic support (subsidies).
It has been argued that the SPS agreement has been used by the developed countries to selectively ward off imports from developing nations.
It is often criticized for being a biased one in favour of developed countries. A developing country like India still does not have the access to developed countries’ markets because of high non-tariff barriers. For example, although all quota restrictions on exports of textiles and clothing have been removed in India, USA has not removed their quota restriction on import of textiles from India and China.

Impact of Doha round (and WTO agreements) on India –

Agriculture – India have to curtail subsidies in many areas to comply with WTO rules and as a result its products may become less competitive on the one hand and on the other hand, its farmers and fledgling industry may face adverse effect in form of loss of income of poor farmers and loss to domestic industries.
Services – India is also unhappy over non-opening of mode-IV services in which it has expertise. On the other hand opening of mode-III services has impacted its domestic service industry as developed nations have expertise in it.
TRIPS – In TRIPS, Indian pharma industry has faced huge challenges in European and American markets due to stringent provisions. It has also resulted in poor access to medicines in developing countries like India as they are not able to develop cheaper generic drugs due to tight TRIPS norms.
Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary Measures – Developed countries have also used SPS to erect non-tarrif barriers which have harmed Indian farm export. Ban on mango import is the most recent example.
However, WTO rules have benefitted India as well in terms of lower tariffs in other markets which are more easily accessible for India and domestic consumers have also benefitted from cheaper imports and have more choice now. Trade has also increased many a times and there has also been technology transfer which has benefitted Indian industry.
India’s stand on Doha development round –
India strongly supports ‘Special and Differential treatment’ for the developing countries. As a result of efforts of countries like India, several clauses and flexibilities have been introduced in the agreements, like, compulsory licensing clause in TRIPS, higher subsidy clauses, peace clause extension and so on.
As a part of special and differential clause, India also supports ‘Duty-Free and Quota-Free (DFQF) market access’ for the least developed countries. India became the first developing country to extend this facility to LDCs when it announced a Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme for LDCs in 2008 on about 85 % of India's total tariff lines and preferential access (Positive List) on about 9 per cent of tariff lines. Only 6 per cent tariff lines were under the Exclusion List.
In agriculture, India wants substantial and effective reductions in overall trade-distorting domestic support (OTDS) of the US and EU; An operational and effective Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM); Simplification and capping of developed country tariffs and along term permanent solution to the problem of food security in developing countries.
In Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA), India wants adequate and appropriate flexibilities for protecting economically vulnerable industries.
In case of rules/agreements, India wants tightening of disciplines on anti-dumping (deletion of zeroing clause and reiteration of the lesser duty rule).
In case of TRIPS, India wants certain flexibilities to alleviate hunger, poverty and disease. It also wants enhanced protection for geographical indications (GIs) other than wines and spirits and enhanced safeguards to check bio-piracy and access and benefit sharing.
Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) : a result of Doha Ministerial Conference

A protectionist tool under WTO that will allow developing countries to increase tariffs temporarily to suppress import surges or price falls. It is especially used for agricultural imports that cause damages to the country’s farmers.
The major proponents of the SSM are the G33 bloc of developing nations.
SSM is an area of conflict in the WTO with some parties claiming that SSM could be used repeatedly which will distort trade.
The SSM is allowed only for developing countries.
At the Doha Ministerial Conference, the developing countries were given a concession to adopt a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) besides the existing safeguards (like the Special Agricultural Safeguard or the SSG).
This SSM constituted an important part of the promises offered to the developing world at Doha (known as Doha Development Agenda) and the Doha MC became known as a development round.
The SSG Special Agricultural Safeguard was available to all countries - both developing and developed whereas the SSM is allowable only to the developing countries

Special safeguard mechanism includes dumping, infant industry and countervailing duties. They are a mechanism under WTO and were used largely in the steel sector in India. It was also primarily targeted at cheap imports from China.

July Package 2004 :

Singapore issues Except Trade Facilitation were abandoned
Issue of cotton was included in the agenda
Date of completion of DDA postponed

BARRIERS to TRADE
Non-Tariff Barriers – All the restrictions on imports by a government in the form other than taxes. They mainly include restrictions on quantity and quality of goods imported.

Technical Barriers to Trade – Include – Product standards, product characteristics, processes, packaging and labeling. They should not cause unnecessary obstacles,

PEACE CALUSE

Article 13 holds that domestic support measures and export subsidies of a WTO Member that are legal under the provisions of the Agreement on Agriculture cannot be challenged by other WTO Members on grounds of being illegal under the provisions of another WTO agreement.

Peace clause in WTO parlance gives legal security to member countries and protects them from being challenged under other WTO agreements. Domestic support measures and export subsidies of a WTO Member that are legal under the provisions of the AoA cannot be challenged by other WTO Members on grounds of being illegal under the provisions of another WTO agreement. The Peace Clause has expired on January 1, 2004. It is now possible, therefore, for developing countries to use the WTO dispute settlement mechanism in order to challenge, in particular, U.S. and EU export subsidies on agricultural products.

BALI PACKAGE, DECEMBER 2013

The Ninth Ministerial Conference of the WTO held in Bali, Indonesia, from 3 to 7 December 2013 lead to ‘Bali Package’. A trade facilitation agreement known as the Bali Package was reached by all members on 7 December 2013, the first comprehensive agreement in the organization's history. Its three basic pillars were – Trade facilitation, Agriculture and Development. The accord includes provisions for lowering import tariffs and agricultural subsidies, with the intention of making it easier for developing countries to trade with the developed world in global markets. Developed countries would abolish hard import quotas on agricultural products from the developing world and instead would only be allowed to charge tariffs on amount of agricultural imports exceeding specific limits. Another important target is reforming customs bureaucracies and formalities to facilitate trade. It has following highlights –

Among the two most important outcomes of the Bali package were the decisions on the Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TF) which relates to the reduction of administrative barriers to trade — like dealing with custom barriers, documentation and transparency

NAMA Non Agriculture Market Access - It refers to all those products that are not covered by the AoA or GATS constituting bulk of world's merchandise exports. Doha called for reduction in tariff and non-tariff barriers on these products by May 2003 but this deadline was missed.

Second important agreement was on Public Stockholding for Food Security Purposes. It concerns the procurement and storage of food grains by state agencies for the public distribution of food. The G-33 (a group of 46 developing countries in the WTO including India) decided to bring the issue of procurement of food grains from subsistence farmers for public stockholding for food security into the agenda for the Bali Ministerial Conference. India's consistent position in the WTO has been that matters pertaining to livelihood, food security, and rural development are of vital importance.
‘Preferential Rules of Origin’ for least developed countries – simplifying rules for identifying and qualifying for preferential treatment with importing countries and operationalisation of preferential treatment for Least Developed Countries in services
Duty Free and Quota Free market access to least developed countries
Monitoring Mechanism on Special and Differential Treatment
Peace Clause to be applicable till 2017 Before the agreement, the negotiations repeatedly came close to collapsing. India's demand that it should be allowed to extend its domestic agricultural subsidies indefinitely was met by opposition from the USA while Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela objected to the removal of a text relating to the USA embargo against Cuba.
Issues and Analysis of Bali Package –
It was made amply clear that while being fully prepared to engage, India will never compromise on fundamental issues pertaining to food security, livelihood security, and the welfare of its poor.
Special and differential treatment is a must for developing countries as provided under the provisions of the WTO. It is also in complete conformity with the commitment of member states in other multilateral fora like the United Nations (UN) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) where the fight against poverty and hunger is accorded highest priority.
India emphasized that an interim solution cannot be a temporary solution nor can it be terminated until a negotiated permanent solution is in place.
It was made clear that without a satisfactory decision on food security, India considered the Bali Package as lacking in horizontal balance and would, therefore, not be able to support it. The outcome on the food security proposal provides an opportunity to begin correcting some of the imbalances in the trade rules which are part of the historical legacy of imbalance in the WTO.
Industry in India supports a trade facilitation agreement at Bali. The industry is of the view that such an agreement could go a long way in bringing down transaction costs that is critical to tap markets in the current global economic environment.
But there is a word of caution emerging from the industry. It is clear that the burden of financing these obligations should not fall on the private sector. Any such additional cost burden on the private sector would then take away the benefit of an agreement, which is aimed at cutting costs of exports and imports.

Developing countries also think the proposal on table at present on trade facilitation only increases the burden on developing countries by forcing them to upgrade their export infrastructure without any reciprocal commitment on the part of developed countries for financial assistance or technology transfer.

TFA TRADE FACILITATION AGREEMENT NEGOTIATIONS, 2014

Background – India raised the red flag over domestic support (by developed countries) to farmers in Bali meet. Since then, developed countries have been on a watch to pick holes in India farm and export policies. In December 2013 last year in Bali, Indonesia, the WTO members agreed on a package including decisions on public stockholding for food security purposes; export competition; government support for agriculture-related services and cotton.

TFA aims at lowering the trade barriers (custom duties, custom mechanisms etc) and make the trade smoother across the borders. It is argued that if TFA is signed, there would be a big gain of $1 trillion for the world economy and 21 million jobs would be created

Current impasse is due to the fact that developed countries allege India of providing disproportionate subsidies to its farmers on the name of MSP and other subsidies and this distorts the international markets as India dumps the excess food grains at cheaper prices. India on the other hand argues that MSP and other measures are necessary to make agriculture meaningful for its millions of marginal farmers and to also provide subsidized food grain to millions of its population.

Developed countries are projected the trade facilitation as a sure thing at the Bali ministerial meeting, developing countries want a deal to allow them to increase their ceiling on food subsidies above what is permissible at present.

Key highlights of the recent talks are –

I. New Delhi had decided not to ratify WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). India raised its voice in the current round of the talks saying that it will not back TFA till concerns over ‘domestic support for public stockholding’ are sorted out. A permanent solution to the domestic stockholdings of food grains is important regarding the issue of food security. India argued that the adoption of the protocol on trade facilitation should be postponed till a permanent solution to public stockholding for food security had been worked out. Despite intense pressure from the developed countries, including the United States, India stuck to its stand even as the deadline for adopting the protocol on TF passed on July 31.

If TFA is implemented, India is also likely to see huge import of goods in a scenario when its export are not growing proportionally and this will further widen its trade deficit.
It is also argued that if TFA is not signed, the world will be filled with exclusionary regional FTAs which are discriminatory in nature and promote parochialism in a globalized economy.
Even though the developing countries have generally backed measures to enhance food security, support for India’s stand was not easy to come by this time round. Only Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela stood with India at the WTO. Later the U.N. International Fund for Agricultural Development came out in support of India’s position.
Several countries have blocked India's attempts to push through the plan to allow limitless minimum support price (MSP), arguing that it will help it export subsidized grains into the world market, and distort the price. The government has been exporting excess stock of wheat to reduce the burden on overflowing silos, raising fears that subsidized grains are being sold in the international markets. India countered it by saying that the policies were in line with the WTO agreement on agriculture, the US and Pakistan have sought detailed data, arguing that India is the largest rice exporter in the world and it has huge stocks of food grains (procured through MSP driven procurements) which if released into markets, can lead to crash of food grain prices in global markets.
India has asked WTO to amend the norms for calculating agriculture subsidies so that the country could continue to procure food grains from farmers at minimum support price and sell them to poor at cheaper rates without violating the norms. The current WTO norms limit – De-Minimus – the value of food subsidies at 10 per cent of the total value of food grain production. However, the quantum of subsidy is computed after taking into consideration prices that prevailed more than two decades ago in 1980s. India has argued that the reference price used in the calculation should be moved forward on a rolling basis, but this suggestion of India at Bali was not taken very seriously by developed countries. There are apprehensions that India may breach the 10 per cent after the full implementation of its food security programme. According to India, going ahead with signing of TFA without addressing the issue of public stock holding amounts to ignoring hunger and malnutrition prevalent in favor of greed of the developed nations.
One possible solution to the impasse from Indian point of view is that replacing the existing in-kind PDS with a cash transfer system. This would do away with procurement and public stockholding, and automatically solve the WTO issue of subsidy to farmers. Moreover, dismantling the existing in-kind PDS and replacing it with a cash transfer system is also a more efficient way of distributing subsidies and India can manage to stick to 10% cap as well. However, such arguments ignore the fact that over the years functioning of PDS and states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Himachal are doing fairly well and such a move of opening up the food economy to big, private capital can have deleterious effects on the livelihood of peasants and agricultural labourers.

Further, plugging in the leakages of Indian PDS system can also help India in not shooting up its food subsidy bill.
Knowing that procurement of wheat and rice under the National Food Security bill will rise manifold, India wants that the enhanced subsidy outgo for food procurement from small farmers as not being seen as a trade-distorting subsidy support. These subsidies, required to meet the food security needs of the hungry population, should be outside the maximum limit of ‘Aggregate Measurement of Support’ (AMS) that each country has to adhere to. The food the developing countries buy at a minimum support price from ‘low-income, resource poor farmers’ should not be computed in the AMS limit.

In a recent development in November 2014, US – representing the developed countries – has agreed to concerns of India over food security and decided to sideline public holding of food grains till a permanent solution is found out. According to USA, India will be allowed to use the peace clause (earlier, provision was made for extension of peace clause till 2017 only) – which disallows other members from going for challenging the provisions made by India – till a final solution to its food security problems. It means that, India can continue to provide MSP to its farmers i.e. agricultural subsidies and they will not be included in the mandatory 10% cap. US has agreed that agricultural subsidies are not trade distorting and are necessary for food security. This crucial development has paved the way for execution of TFA – which is the single most important development under the Doha Talks.

Potential benefits of TFA for India –

OECD estimates that, for countries like India, the TFA could help reduce international trade costs by 14.5 percent, which would inevitably lead to growth in trade, and the generation of jobs.
Larger share in the markets of other developing countries
More jobs
Push to manufacturing sector in India and entrepreneurship as India has cheap
labor advantage and hence is likely to get benefitted due to lower costs of production

13.GLOBAL Orgs.

GFI Global Financial Integrity

a non-profit, Washington, DC-based research and advisory organization founded in 2006 with an aim to quantify and study the flow of illegal money.
In 2008, it published its first groundbreaking economic analysis of illicit financial flows flowing out of developing world.
It has estimated that $1 trillion flows out of developing and emerging economies every year due to crime, corruption and tax evasion.
Apart from producing an analysis of illicit financial flows, it also advises the developing countries on effective policy solutions and promotes pragmatic transparency in the international financial system.

COMPAS (Comparing and Supporting Endogenous Development)

an international programme designed to understand the diversity of rural people's knowledge, encourage local experimentation within farmers' world views and have inter-cultural dialogues on farmers' knowledge and indigenous learning.
Endogenous development is based on local peoples' own criteria of development, and takes into account the material, social and spiritual well-being of peoples.
Activities of the COMPAS network are related to Natural Resource Management, Education, Health and Systems of Governance.
Partners in the COMPAS network are NGOs and Universities in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

. PATH of UPSC

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