Inclusive, resilient growth focus of India’s G20 priorities: S Jaishankar

NEW DELHI, FEB 2 (PTI): India’s priorities for its G20 Presidency are to ensure inclusive and resilient growth with a focus on challenges being faced by the countries of the Global South, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday.

Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, Jaishankar also listed technological transformation and public digital infrastructure, reform in the multilateral institutions, women-led development and international peace and harmony as key focus areas for India’s presidency of the grouping.

India assumed the presidency of the influential bloc G20 at its annual summit in Bali in November with a promise of striving to ensure that the grouping acts as a global prime mover to envision new ideas and accelerate collective action to deal with pressing challenges.

India is hosting a se-

S Jaishankar

ries of events and meetings ahead of the G20 summit later this year.

“India’s G20 Presidency priorities are inclusive and pragmatic, with broad areas of substantive deliberations comprising inclusive and resilient growth, progress on SDGs, green development and lifestyle for environment, technological transformation and public digital infrastructure, reforming multilateral institutions, women-led development, and international peace and harmony,” Jaishankar said. “It is our endeavour that inputs generated from the ‘Voice of Global South Summit’ receive cognisance globally, including in G20 deliberations,” he said.

The SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity in the world. India officially assumed the G20 Presidency on December 1. India’s G20 Presidency has the largestever representation from Africa with six participants, Jaishankar said.

He said in addition to South Africa, Egypt, Mauritius, Nigeria, Chair of African Union and Chair of AUDA-NEPAD have been invited to participate in G20 meetings and the summit.

South Africa is a member of the G20. The African Union (AU) is an influential grouping consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African continent. The AUDANEPAD was established in

LCA Tejas to be at the centre stage of ‘India Pavilion’ at Aero India 2023

associated advanced flight control laws. The aircraft with delta wing is designed for ‘air combat’ and ‘offensive air support’ with ‘reconnaissance’ and ‘anti-ship’ as its secondary roles. “Extensive use of advanced composites in the airframe gives a high strength to weight ratio, long fatigue life and low radar signatures,” the release said.

2010 to integrate the then New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) into African Union (AU) structures and processes. Jaishankar said India has always been a voice of the Global South, including for the “African friends and partners”.

On January 12 and 13, India hosted the Voice of the Global South Summit in the virtual format with a focus on charting a new path of greater collaboration towards realisation of the priorities of developing countries. “India has always been a voice of the Global South, including for our African friends and partners,” Jaishankar said.

“While all decisions of the G20, including on its membership, are taken by G20 members by consensus, India will continue to seek fair and balanced representation of developing countries in various multilateral fora,” he added.

BENGALURU, FEB 2 (PTI): A full scale LCATejas aircraft in Final Operational Clearance (FOC) configuration will be at the centre stage of “India Pavilion” at Aero India 2023, to be held from February 13 to 17 at Yelahanka Air Force Station here.

The 14th Edition of the biennial aero show and aviation exhibition, organised by the Ministry of Defence, will have a separate “India Pavilion” based on ‘Fixed Wing Platform’ theme to showcase India’s strides in the fixed wing area and future prospects in the field, a Defence release said on Thursday.

The India Pavilion will further showcase the growth of India in developing an eco-system for fixed wing platform which includes the demonstration of various structural modules, simulators and systems, among others, of LCA-Tejas aircraft being produced by private partners.

There will also be a section for “Defence space, New Technologies” and a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) section which will give an insight about the growth of India in each sector.

LCA Tejas is a single engine, light weight, highly agile, multi-role supersonic fighter. It has quadruplex digital fly-by-wire Flight Control System (FCS) with

7.81 cr rural households provided tap water in last 3 yrs under JJM

Tejas is equipped with state-of-the-art features like glass cockpit, zero-zero ejection seat, inflight refueling probe and jam-proof AESA Radar, among others, which make the aircraft “more lethal,” it said.

LCA has come a long way in terms of development and presently available in Air Force fighter & twin seater and LCA Navy fighter and twin seater. Other variants like LCA LIFT (Lead in fighter trainer) and MK-2 are being developed for LCA Tejas. Aero India provides a platform to various national and international aerospace and defence companies to showcase their advanced products and capabilities to explore business opportunities, it was noted.

NEW DELHI, FEB 2

(PTI): More than 7.81 crore rural households have been provided tap water connections under the Jal Jeevan Mission over last three years, Minister of State for Jal Shakti Prahlad Singh Patel informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

In a written reply to a question, the minister said as on January 31, 2023, out of 19.36 crore rural households in the country, around 11.06 crore (57.12 per cent) are reported to have tap water supply.

At the time of the announcement of JJM, 3.23 crore (17 per cent) rural households were reported to have tap water connections. Goa, Telangana, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Gujarat and Haryana are among the states and Union Territories which have provided tap water to every rural household.

The central government, in partnership with the states, is implementing the JJM since August 2019 to make tap water supply available to every rural household in the country.

The estimated outlay of the mission is Rs 3.60 lakh crore out of which the central share is Rs 2.08 lakh crore.