1.   

PM's visit to Southeast Asia a success: Khurshid

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's three-day visit to Southeast Asia was a “success”, and signified that India is part of the larger economic integration of Southeast Asia, two senior ministers of his cabinet said Saturday. External affairs minister Salman Khurshid said the prime minister's visit to Brunei and Indonesia was “extremely successful” and there was a complete “convergence” of interests and perceptions on a host of bilateral and multilateral issues such counter-terrorism, World Trade Organisation (WTO) and food security.

2.   

Khurshid to co-chair joint commission meeting during Brazil visit

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will co-chair the sixth India-Brazil Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) during his four-day visit to Brazil beginning today. He will co- chair the JCM with his counterpart Luiz Alberto Figueiredo in Brasilia. During the JCM, both sides will discuss the entire gamut of India-Brazil strategic partnership including political, economic and commercial, agriculture, science and technology, defence, cultural, hydrocarbon, etc.

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Lew and India’s Chidambaram Discuss Improving Investment Climate

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew and Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram discussed ways to improve the investment environment in both countries during a bilateral meeting today. “We discussed the importance of investment for driving economic growth and job creation in our economies and ways to improve our enabling environments to mobilize investment, especially for the financing of infrastructure,” Lew and Chidambaram said in a joint statement released by the U.S. Treasury Department.

4.   

Food Security Act will not distort trade, India tells FAO

India made it clear at the just-concluded Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) meeting of the Committee on World Food Security in Rome that the procurement of foodgrains and distribution under the new Food Security Act will not be substantially higher than the ongoing public distribution system, indicating that it will not contribute to international price distortions.