POLITICAL

ISRAEL

Ministry of Defence scraps $500 million Israeli missile deal, wants DRDO to make in India

New Delhi, Wednesday, 20 November 2017

Asking the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) to indigenously develop and produce a Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM) for the Army, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has decided to cancel the $500 million deal for Spike ATGM with Israel.

Source: The Indian Express

MOROCCO

Morocco keen to replicate Aadhaar success for citizen-centric services 
New Delhi, Wednesday, 13 November 2017

Morocco is keen to replicate India’s successes in linking Aadhaar to various services for citizens and has recently sent a high-level delegation led by its Interior Minister Noureddine Boutayeb here to study implementation of the Aadhaar-linked services.

Source: The Economic Times

TUNISIA

India, Tunisia vow to combat terror, extremism 

New Delhi, Friday, 1 November 2017

India and Tunisia agreed to jointly combat terrorism and extremism while ramping up cooperation in the field of security. A review of bilateral ties was undertaken as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj co-chaired the 12th India- Tunisia Joint Commission Meeting with her Tunisian counterpart Khemaies Jhinaoui.

Source: The Economic Times

ECONOMIC

BAHRAIN

Life insurer PNB MetLife has signed a corporate agency agreement with Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait

New Delhi, Tuesday, 12 November 2017

The tie-up between PNB and MetLife would help distribute its retail and group products to Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait customers in India.

Source: The Hindu

EGYPT

India, Egypt hold talks to enhance trade cooperation

New Delhi, Tuesday, 19 November 2017

Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Kabil said there are possibilities to enhance bilateral cooperation with India in developing small and medium enterprises. His remarks came during a meeting with Tamil Nadu's Minister of Rural Industries P Benjamin in the MACTECH Fair in the Cairo International Convention Centre during November 16-19.

Source: Money Control

IRAN

India's hopes fade for Farzad-B gas field deal

New Delhi, Monday, 4 November 2017 

Iran accuses India of inflexibility, while India charges Iran with “changing goal posts” and adopting “delay tactics” in an attempt at negotiating a more favourable deal for the Farzad-B gas field.

Source: The Hindu

KUWAIT

Jazeera Air launches Kuwait-Hyderabad flight

Hyderabad, Sunday, 17 November 2017

Jazeera Airways has launched direct daily flight from Kuwait to Hyderabad and announced plans to connect Kochi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad by January next. The Kuwait-based airliner outlined its long-term plans to further connect more cities and hope that Indian Civil Aviation Ministry would allow more seats between Kuwait and India.

Source: The Hindu Business Line

QATAR

Qatari investor sells $1.5 billion stake in India's Bharti Airtel

New York, Thursday 7 November 2017

A Qatari investor sold its entire 5 per cent stake in top Indian telecoms carrier Bharti Airtel (BRTI.NS) on Wednesday for ₹. 96 billion ($1.48 billion), adding to the sanctions-hit Gulf nation’s recent stake sales in foreign companies.

Source: Reuters

Qatar's Labour Reforms to Affect 6,000,000 Indian Migrant Workers

New Delhi, Saturday, 9 November 2017

Qatar recently announced that it is committed to bring in labour reforms and protect the rights of the migrant workers. This announcement received praises from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and for over 6,000,000 Indian migrant workers in the Gulf, it comes as a ray of hope.

Source: India.com

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As part of its editorial policy, the MEI@ND standardizes spelling and date formats to make the text uniformly accessible and stylistically consistent. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views/positions of the MEI@ND. Editor, MEI@ND: P R Kumaraswamy