Diplomacy

Honouring UN peacekeeping heroes: India launches a virtual memorial wall

- by India Writes Network

In a pioneering initiative towards building a permanent monument at the U.N. headquarters in New York, India has launched a virtual memorial wall as a tribute to the U.N. peacekeeping heroes who died during their services since 1952.
India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Asoke Kumar Mukerji, unveiled the digital memorial wall at a formal reception hosted in New York on May 29. At the ceremony, 126 recipients of the Dag Hammarskjold Medal were awarded posthumously to the UN peacekeepers.
The reception was attended by defence officers from around the world. Mr Mukerji invited them to put forward the name of their heroes to the virtual wall, which is hosted on the website – www.pminewyork.org – the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations. The wall includes names of 161 Indians who died in several peacekeeping operations.
So far, India has contributed more than 180,000 troops to 44 UN operations so far. Currently, 8,112 Indian personnel are serving from the Indian military, police and civilians in seven U.N. operations

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India’s economic growth outpaces China’s in 2nd quarter

- by India Writes Network

he Indian economy grew at 7.3 percent in 2014-15 compared to 6.9 per cent in 2013-14, making it the second straight quarter during which it grew at a faster rate than that of China.
According to reports released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on May 29, the economy surged primarily due to the improvements in the performance of service as well as the manufacturing sector. Although the GDP growth saw a marginal surge during 2014-15, it was lower than the earlier estimated figure of 7.4 percent. The fourth quarter (January-March 2015) recorded the highest percentage growth at 7.5 percent, better than 6.6 percent recorded in the previous quarter.
The manufacturing sector showed better improvement in 2014-15, as it grew at 7.1 percent against 5.3 percent recorded in the year 2013-14. The output of electricity, gas, water supply and other utilities increased by 7.9 percent against 4.8 percent in the previous year.

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Marrying India’s IT prowess with German technology

- by India Writes Network

Barely six weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Germany, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen’s ongoing visit to New Delhi has set in motion a series of steps aimed at boosting defence and cyber security cooperation between the two countries.

The German minister met India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 28 and pitched for a win-win alliance of India’s IT prowess and German technology.

The minister noted that India has excellent human resource which is highly skilled in information technology, while Germany has the technology and knowhow. Working together would create a win-win situation for both of them, she stressed.

Focus on cyber security

According to recent reports, about one billion computers in Germany are infected with Botnet viruses, which makes the country vulnerable to cyber-attacks, making cybercrime a prime concern for the German defense industry. India too, suffered a loss of nearly four billion dollars due to cyber-attacks in 2014.

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