International

On May 8, India’s defence minister virtually inaugurated a new 80 km-long road in the Himalayas, connecting to the border with China, at the Lipulekh pass. The Nepali government protested immediately, contending that the road crosses territory that it claims and accusing India of changing the status quo without diplomatic consultations. Lipulekh and Kalapani are … Read more

The World Gold Council (WGC) is a nonprofit association of the world’s leading gold producers.Headquartered in London, the WGC covers the markets which comprise about three-quarters of the world’s annual gold consumption.It is a market development organization for the gold industry which includes 25 members and many gold mining companies as well.The WGC was established … Read more

Since his re-election in 2019, Prime minister Modi has pushed through a series of policies seen by many in the country as unduly targeting India’s Muslim minority, including the revocation of Muslim-majority Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status and a new citizenship act that makes it easier for adherents of most large faiths practiced in South Asia, except … Read more

The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) is an initiative by six countries – India and five ASEAN countries, namely, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam for cooperation in tourism, culture, education, as well as transport and communications. It was launched in 2000 at Vientiane, Lao PDR. Both the Ganga and the Mekong are civilizational rivers, and … Read more

ICANN is the short form for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers which manages the maintenance of namespaces and numerical spaces which enable secure and stable operation of the internet. ICANN performs the technical maintenance of IP Address pools and Domain Name Servers(DNS). ICANN was incorporated in California on September 30, 1998. Its formation … Read more

  Finger 4 and finger 8: The spurs of the mountain range on the northern bank of the Pangong Tso jut towards the lake like a palm, with the protrusions looking like fingers. They are demarcated on the maps as ‘Fingers’. Fingers’ in the region refers to the spurs which extend to the banks of … Read more

Global important agricultural Heritage systems are outstanding landscapes of aesthetic beauty that combine agricultural biodiversity and ecosystem and valuable cultural heritage. It is designated by the Food and agricultural organization (FAO). Its goal and objective include: to leverage global and national recognition of the importance of agricultural Heritage systems-capacity building of local farming communities and … Read more

Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project (BEPS Project) is an OECD/G20 project to set up an international framework to combat tax avoidance by multinational enterprises (“MNEs”) using base erosion and profit shifting tools. It refers to tax planning strategies that exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules to artificially shift profits to low or no … Read more

The Anti dumping agreement defines two categories of subsidies: prohibited and actionable. It originally contained a third category: non-actionable subsidies. This category existed for five years, ending on 31 December 1999, and was not extended. The agreement applies to agricultural goods as well as industrial products, except when the subsidies are exempt under the Agriculture … Read more

Three main areas where the challenges to multilateralism can be identified include concepts, methods and institutions. First, concepts are becoming volatile eroded by problems of global dimension that have to be handled over national borders. Some examples include national sovereignty versus human rights concerns or international criminal justice decisions, environmental and health problems. We have … Read more