WORLD

The Indian embassy in Kabul has put out an advisory directing all of its nationals in Afghanistan to make immediate travel arrangements to return before commercial air services are discontinued.

This alert follows India's move to evacuate officials and nationals from Mazar-e-Sharif.

New Delhi has advised Indian firms operating in Afghanistan to immediately withdraw Indian employees out of project sites before air travel is discontinued.

The embassy asked Indian nationals working for Afghan or foreign companies in Afghanistan to immediately request their employers to facilitate their travel from project sites to India in view of the ground situation. It said the security advisory issued on 29 June and 24 July remained valid.

Tony Abbott, Australia’s special trade envoy for India and a former Prime Minister who visited New Delhi last week, has described India as “emerging democratic superpower” and added that a swift trade deal with India would be an important sign of the democratic world’s tilt away from China.

In an opinion piece published in ‘The Australian’ newspaper on Monday, Abbott said that a trade deal with India could be seen as making “the world safer for democracy.”

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, Abbott said, India has revived the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, and the first in-person Quad summit is expected before the end of the year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a high-level open debate on the topic “Enhancing Maritime Security — A Case for International Cooperation” on Monday via video conferencing.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Sunday said the meeting is expected to be attended by several heads of state and governments of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) member states, along with high-level briefers from the UN system and key regional organisations.

“Modi would be the first Indian Prime Minister to preside over a UN Security Council Open Debate,” the MEA said in a statement.

Indian Scientists, in partnership with experts from China, Russia and Brazil, will carry out genomic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 and work on the epidemiology and mathematical modelling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"This will help trace genetic mutations, re-combinations as well as distribution of the virus and also make predictions about the future of its spread," the ministry of science and technology said in a statement on Friday, while announcing the collaborative approach among the countries under the BRICS-Multilateral Research and Development Project.

"The study will provide a common platform to share and analyse the data of four different countries and understand the spread routes and transmission dynamics of viruses," it said.

India should constantly monitor “Chinese actions” so as to ensure that they do not pursue any major interventions on the Brahmaputra that would adversely affect the country’s “national interests”, according to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources. The committee, headed by BJP member Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, in a report also expressed apprehensions about Chinese projects in upstream areas.

The committee’s report, titled “Flood Management in the Country including International Water Treaties in the field of Water Resource Management with particular reference to Treaty/Agreement entered into with China, Pakistan and Bhutan”, was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.