# Union Government directs car makers to declare emission details of every vehicle
# Indian Railways has declared the Okha-Kanalus (141 Kms) and Porbandar-Wansjaliya (34 Kms) sections of Gujarat in Western Railway as the Green Train Corridors (installation of bio-toilets in all coaches)
- 114-km stretch in Tamil Nadu between Rameswaram and Manamadurai had been identified as a Human Waste Discharge Free Train Corridor and was formally inaugurated as the first green corridor in July this year.
# Central Government has announced opening of at least one Krishi Vigyan Kendra in all districts of the country
# First ever Global Conference to Strengthen Arbitration and Enforcement in India begins today in New Delhi
- Chief Justices of six countries are participating at the first ever Global Conference on Arbiration in India to share their thoughts
# Ministry of Tourism launched the Implementation of the Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI) in association with Ecotourism Society of India (ESOI)
# Union Home Minister, Mr. Rajnath Singh will chair the 22nd Meeting of the Western Zonal Council in Mumbai today (Oct 21, 2016)
- 21st Meeting of the Western Zonal Council was held at Panaji (Sep 2015)
- Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi chaired the Inter-State Council Meeting in New Delhi (Jul 2016)
# Ministry of State for Culture and Tourism, Dr. Mahesh Sharma released a publication on International Conference on Indus Saraswati Civilization in New Delhi
# US asks India to liberalise retail, financial services
# Telangana: State Cabinet to discuss Krishna Water Tribunal Verdict
# West Bengal: All Singur farmers to get back their land by Nov 10
# Fire at Sivakasi shop kills 8
# Ex - IAS Officer, Mr. R. Christodas Gandhi said sorry for his remark on Thanthi TV debate; he said that, he will slap Lord Rama with Slippers
# Tamil Nadu leads in selling of power (electricity) mainly to Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka
# TANGEDCO floats tender for 500 MW solar power
# After DMK, now it is the run of PWF leaders to meet President, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee on the Cauvery River Row
# Iraq: ISIS leaves the City of Mosul
# Pakistan: Supreme Court issued notice to Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif in Panama Papers case
# UK: Will continue to play a full role in EU till we leave - Prime Minister, Ms. Theresa May
# USA: Third and Final round of debate of Presidential candidates; Democratic nominee, Ms. Hillary Clinton leads the race
# As per the forecast by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), India will become the third largest aviation market in the world displacing the UK by 2026
- China will displace the US as the world’s largest aviation market around 2029
# No member country hs sought long - standing issues, including food security - relatedd, to be taken off the negotiating table of the Doha round: WTO Chief, Mr. Roberto Azevedo
# Kochi (Kerala) becomes the first Indian city to be officially declared as one of the venues for hosting the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup
# Indian woman wrestler Geeta Phogat was appointed as a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in Haryana Police by Haryana Government
# The Indian Boxing Council, a licensing body for the country’s professional boxers, has been inducted into the World Boxing Organisation with voting rights in the WBO’s annual convention at Puerto Rico.
# Indian football team acchieved its best FIFA ranking in over six years; it is now placed at 137th place; jumpedd 11 places after it defeated Puerto Rico in an international friendly in Mumbai
# Noted British statistician Sir David Cox was named the inaugural recipient of the International Prize in Statistics. He is honoured for Survival Analysis Model Applied in Medicine, Science, and Engineering.
# Qualcomm announces the world’s first 5G Modem, called the Snapdragon X50
# Book "From Darkness towrds the Light" by Union Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley (his selective speeches and articles)
# Oct 21: Police Commemoration Day
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal met on the sidelines of the BRICS-BIMSTEC Outreach Summit in Goa, marking the first such trilateral meeting between leaders of the three countries.
The three leaders discussed issues of common interests during the 20-minute meeting, according to Prakash Dahal, son of the Nepalese PM.
During the talks, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also known as Prachanda, recalled how he had emphasized on the need of a strategic under standing between Nepal, India and China during his earlier term as the prime minister of Nepal, people aware of development said.
“Nepal lies in between two giant neighbours--India and China. We wish to reap benefits of this geographical speciality by working as a dynamic bridge between the two countries,“ Prachanda is understood to have said at Sunday's meeting. Modi and Xi are learnt to have welcomed the proposal.
Prachanda also said Nepal wants to establish balanced, friendly and strategic relationships with both the neighbours for itself to reach its development goal.
The theme was terrorism all the way at the Brics summit meeting as PM Narendra Modi used the forum to keep up his attack on Pakistan, describing it as the “mothership“ of terrorism that posed a direct threat to the “eco prosperity“ of the region.
With India labelling Pakistan a terrorist state in the wake of the attack on the Army camp at Uri, Modi has used multilateral forums like the G-20 meeting at Hangzhou and the ASEAN conclave in Laos to target Pakistan's support for terrorism. “Tragically , its (terrorism) mother ship is a country in India's neighbourhood,“ Modi said in the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Pakistan's long-standing ally, at a restricted BRICS meeting. Like at Hangzhou and Laos, where he accused “one country“ of spreading terrorism, PM Modi stopped just short of directly naming Pakistan.
“We agreed that those who nurture, shelter, support and sponsor forces of violence and terror are as much a threat to us as the terrorists themselves,“ Modi said, as he insisted there was unanimity within BRICS on the issue of terrorism. But the Chinese articulation was more muted.
Speaking during the plenary session, Xi said it was imperative to step up coordination on major international issues, “regional hot spots“ and find a political solution to these. Interestingly , Chinese reports on Modi-Xi meeting did not contain any reference to counter-terrorism.
Modi's words of admonition spilled over to the BRICS outreach with BIMSTEC countries in the evening when he said that in south Asia and BIMSTEC, all nations barring one were motivated to pursue a path of peace, development and economic prosperity for their people. BIMSTEC, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for MultiSectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, brings together Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.
While the Goa Declaration issued after the BRICS summit did not mention cross-border terrorism mainly due to China's resistance, it contained some significant differences from previous outcome documents. It noted the responsibility of all states to prevent terrorist activities in their territories. And importantly , in the context of India's surgical strikes across the Line of Control, it listed dismantling of terrorist bases among measures needed for a comprehensive approach to fighting terrorism. The document also noted that “political“ causes were not acceptable reasons to condone terror.
MEA secretary (economic relations) Amar Sinha, who coordinates diplomacy relating to BRICS, said India was satisfied with the outcome document even though the group couldn't arrive at a consensus on naming Pakistan-based terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. In the context of international issues like climate change, terrorism and natural disasters, Xi called for a multi-pronged approach which sought to address “both symptoms and root causes“. Sinha, however, said he did not believe Xi was referring to root causes of terrorism.
As the host, Modi had the last word when he said in his closing remarks that combating terrorism, including cross-border terrorism and its supporters, would be a key BRICS priority .
