General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - February 2016

Feb 2016

Dec 12, 2022

President Xi Rocks the Arab World, Alarms QUAD and the West

The Middle-East leadership showed the mirror to the Joe Biden administration last week as Chinese President Xi Jinping was feted in Saudi Arabia with even arch-rival Qatari Emir Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani leaving the ongoing World Cup soccer festival in Doha to meet the Middle Kingdom emperor in Riyadh.
The four-day visit of President Xi Jinping to oil-rich Saudi Arabia with virtually every Middle-East ruler in attendance as part of the GCC and Arab summit at that time was a message to the US and its allies that China increasingly is the alternate pole in an unstable world. Clearly Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman show-cased President Xi's four-day visit to the oil-rich kingdom as a comeback to his testy relationship with US President Joe Biden over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The Islamic countries on their part ask no questions to China over the treatment of Sunni Muslims in the restive Xinjiang province.
The line-up to meet President Xi included Bahrain's King Hamad, Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamin, Fujairah, UAE ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed, Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal Al Sabah and Deputy Prime Minister of Oman Sayyid Fahd Al Said for the China-GCC summit. Other middle-east leaders who joined for the China-Arab summit were: Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El Sisi, Sudan Sovereign Council head Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al Sudani. The message from Saudi Arabia was that the world's biggest oil exporter was the leader of the Sunni Muslim world and had the support of the world's largest oil importer China and the two were more than willing to do business as a first step towards future military cooperation.

Hurun Global 500 Rankings: India Ranks 5th in the List of Valuable Companies

India, with 20 of the most valuable companies in the world, moved into the fifth position among countries that are home to the world's top 500 firms. Last year, it ranked ninth with eight companies. The US continued to top the chart, according to the 2022 Hurun Global 500 list. The list, released by the Hurun Research Institute, is a compilation of the 500 most valuable non-state-controlled companies in the world. Companies were ranked according to their market capitalisation (for listed companies) and valuations for non-listed companies.

Indian-origin Nihar Malaviya is Interim CEO of Penguin Random House

Nihar Malaviya, an Indian-origin publishing executive, was named interim CEO of New York-based international publishing group Penguin Random House after its current Chief Executive Officer Markus Dohle announced he was stepping down from the role.
Malaviya, who has been President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the publisher's American division Penguin Random House US since 2019, will assume the role of Interim CEO of Penguin Random House starting January 1, 2023.

Pakistan Ranks Atop List of 82 Nations most Influenced by China

According to reports from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a new study that measures Beijing's expanding global sway revealed that Pakistan is the country in the world which is most influenced by China.
The China Index, a database re-launched by DoubleThink Labs, a Taiwan-based research organisation ranked Pakistan atop a list of 82 other nations around the world and said that its links and dependency on China with regard to foreign and domestic policy, technology, and the economy make it particularly susceptible to Chinese influence.
Following Pakistan, Cambodia and Singapore are listed at the second spot while Thailand at third position, as per the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) report. The Philippines is listed at the seventh spot while Malaysia lies in the 10th position. South Africa and Peru are tied at the fifth spot on the index.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are at the eighth and ninth spots on the index. These two countries share a border with China's Xinjiang Province and are the Central Asian countries most influenced by Beijing.

Dec 11, 2022

Pakistani Passport Ranks 4th Lowest in World

Pakistan was ranked 94th, sharing the slot with Somalia, in terms of passport strength while the UAE topped the list of the world's most powerful ones.
According to the list issued by Arton Capital, a Pakistani passport mandates travel to only 44 countries without a visa.
Below Pakistan were Iraq (ranked 95th), Syria (96th) and Afghanistan (97th).
In comparison, the passports of Yemen (93rd), Bangladesh (92nd), North Korea, Libya and Palestine (91st) and Iran (90th) were declared more powerful than that of Pakistan.
However, the passport of the UAE has been declared the most powerful across the world.
UAE nationals can travel to 180 countries without a visa.
Citizens of countries, including the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and others do not require a visa to visit 173 countries.
Pakistan was the lowest ranked country among South Asian countries.

Dec 10, 2022

Nirmala Sitharaman, 5 other Indians among World's 100 Most Powerful Women

Forbes' 100 Most Powerful Women is a list collated by assessing the contributions and reach of women from around the world. The list featured six Indian women this year (2022), including the Finance Minister of the country.
The Indian women noted by Forbes include Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, HCLTech Chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Securities and Exchange Board Of India (SEBI) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Nykaa founder Falguni Nayar, and Steel Authority Of India Chairperson Soma Mondal.
Ranked at the 36th position, Sitharaman made it to the list for the fourth time after marking her spot consistently since 2019. She was appointed as India's Finance Minister in May 2019, and in the same year, she was ranked as one of the world's most powerful women. Before stepping into the ministerial shoes, she was known to have handled important roles at the UK-based Agricultural Engineers Association, BBC World Service, and the National Commission for Women.

Sushmita Shukla, Indian-origin First Vice President of New York Fed

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York appointed Indian-origin Sushmita Shukla as its First Vice President, and Chief Operating Officer (COO), making the insurance industry veteran its highest-ranked official after President and CEO, John C Williams.
She has served in leadership roles in the insurance industry. In a career spanning more than twenty years, she has primarily led operations, technology, and enterprise-wide transformation efforts.
Since January 2018, she has been working with Chubb, which is based in New York, and is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. She is its Senior Vice President, and Chief Operations Officer (International Accident and Health).

Dec 09, 2022

Peru Gets its First Female President after Pedro Castillo is Impeached

The South American country, Peru, saw a significant political upheaval. Pedro Castillo was impeached and arrested and Dina Boluarte, became the country's first female President. For the markets, the crisis in Peru may be important because it makes for nearly 15% of the world's copper exports as per 2020 data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The latest political crisis in Peru is a continuation of a series of events that have led to four Presidents since 2020. Castillo, a left-wing former school teacher, was elected in June 2021 and since then, he's mired in charges of corruption. He has survived two impeachment proceedings in the last 18 months and a third one was due when he decided to make a dramatic move.
Earlier this month Castillo declared a state of emergency in Peru, and that the Congress, which is controlled by his rivals, will be dissolved. Many of his own ministers resigned in protest. The sequence of events that followed ended in Castillo's ouster and Boluarte taking over as the country's President.

Dec 08, 2022

Volodymyr Zelenskyy TIME's Person of the Year

Time magazine named Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy "Person of the Year 2022", saying that he inspired Ukrainians and won global accolades for his courage in resisting Russia's devastating invasion.
Refusing to leave Ukraine's capital of Kyiv at the outbreak of the war as Russian bombs rained down, the former comedian rallied his compatriots in broadcasts from the capital and travelled across his war-torn nation, the publication noted in bestowing its annual title.

Three Indian Billionaires on Forbes Asia Heroes of Philanthropy List

Gautam Adani emerged as one of the three Indian billionaires who featured in Forbes' philanthropy list 2022.
Shiv Nadar, and Ashok Soota, as well as Malaysian-Indian businessman Brahmal Vasudevan and his lawyer wife Shanthi Kandiah, joined Adani in the 16th edition of Forbes Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy list released in December.
According to Forbes, the unranked list "highlights leading altruists in the Asia-Pacific region who demonstrated a strong personal commitment to philanthropic causes."

Israel's Netanyahu Needs One more Party for Coalition, May Seek more Time

Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu was still one partner short of a coalition to secure a parliamentary majority after an ultra-Orthodox Jewish party signed up, with the deadline for forming a government looming.
The deal with United Torah Judaism (UTJ) promised Netanyahu control of 53 of the Knesset's 120 seats with his conservative Likud party. That left Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party with 11 seats, as Likud's last likely ally.

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