Dhaka, Mar 9 (UNB) - Veteran Bollywood actor-filmmaker Satish Kaushik has died at the age of 66 following a heart attack early Thursday, PTI reports, citing his close friend Anupam Kher. According to Kher, Kaushik complained of uneasiness when he was at a friend's home in Delhi. "He felt uneasy and he told the driver to take him to the hospital and on the way he suffered a heart attack around 1 am," Kher told PTI. In a tweet earlier, Kher expressed deep shock over Kaushik's sudden death. "I know that death is the ultimate truth but never in my dreams I thought that I would have to write that about my best friend Satish Kaushik. A sudden full stop to 45 years of friendship. Life will never be the same without you Satish! Om Shanti," Kher tweeted. Satish Kaushik, an alumnus for the National School of Drama and the Film and Television Institute of India, was most known for his roles in films such as "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron," "Mr. India," "Deewana Mastana," and "Udta Punjab." Kaushik was also known for filmmaking in Bollywood. As a filmmaker, He directed some of the most popular hits of Bollywood, namely "Tere Naam" starring Salman Khan and "Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai" starring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Tusshar Kapoor. Many Bollywood actors and actresses have expressed their shock over the news of his sudden demise.  

BNP standing committee, the highest policymaking body of the party, has voiced deep concern over the reported move by the West Bengal government of India to dig two more canals under the Teesta Barrage Project to unilaterally withdraw more water from the common river. “The (standing committee) meeting felt that the plan to dig two more canals without signing an agreement on the distribution of Teesta River water with Bangladesh is an attempt to deprive Bangladesh (of its fair share of water from the common river),” said a BNP press release on Tuesday. BNP issued the press release, signed by its secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, on the outcome of a meeting of the party’s standing committee’s virtual meeting held on Monday. The BNP policymakers bemoaned that the people of Bangladesh are being deprived of their fair share of water from the Teesta River because of the current Awami League government’s ‘knee-jerk’ foreign policy and its failure to take any effective initiative for signing water sharing agreement. They urged the government to take immediate steps to resolve the Teesta River water-sharing problem with India. According to a report by Indian news outlet The Telegraph, the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal on Friday took possession of about 1,000 acres of land to dig two more canals under the Teesta Barrage Project to channelise water for irrigation. As per the plan of the West Bengal government, a 32km-long canal to draw water from the Teesta and the Jaldhaka will be dug till Changrabandha of Cooch Behar district while another 15-km long canal will be built on the left bank of the Teesta to benefit around one lakh farmers. The Teesta Barrage project was launched by India in 1975 with a plan to irrigate 9.22 lakh hectares of agricultural land in north Bengal by channelising water from the Teesta River through canals on either bank of the river. Environment and water experts in Bangladesh say this project has been badly affecting agriculture, ecosystem, and the life of the people of the country’s northern region as the part of the Teesta River that flows through Bangladesh dries up during the dry season due to India’s withdrawal of water from the river. Bangladesh has long been waiting for signing the Teesta water-sharing deal with India to resolve the water crisis during the dry season scarcity in the northern parts of the country, but West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been opposing it.

Amitabh Bachchan said he was injured while shooting a film in southern India and is recovering at home. The 80-year-old Bollywood superstar posted on his blog Sunday (March 05, 2023) night that he sustained a rib injury while working in Hyderabad on the science-fiction film “Project K.” It’s being made in Hindi and Telugu languages and is slated for release in 2024. Bachchan wrote that he had broken rib cartilage and a muscle tear. He said the injury was “painful” and he consulted a doctor before he flew home to Mumbai, where he has been advised to rest. Read More: Registration now open for Joy Bangla Concert 2023 “I shall be unable to meet the well wishers at Jalsa Gate this evening.. so do not come,” the actor said to fans who often gather outside his home in Mumbai. “All else is well,” he wrote. He said his work on the film was suspended until he’s healed. Bachchan has acted in more than 200 Indian films. His breakthrough came in the 1973 film “Zanjeer,” or “The Chain,” and he rose to superstardom playing bold characters, inspiring fans to copy his hairstyle, clothes and deep voice. Read More: Top 10 Netflix Originals Shows, Movies Coming in March 2023 The hugely popular actor is also a former politician and a television host.

It has become essential to form a separate entity to deal with matters related to importing coal for both public and private power plants in Bangladesh. Some recent scams in coal price fixing made it even more necessary in order to protect the interests of the state, as there are various allegations against the coal-fired power plant operators. Energy experts are of the view that only a separate and strong state agency can work effectively in this regard. Officials of the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) would also prefer a separate entity to be responsible for both import of coal and also work as a monitoring body to check any untoward practices in coal purchase for the power plants. Also Read: Top policymakers briefed about outcome of meeting with Adani on coal pricing: Sources “Since coal is a pass-through item in power generation and the BPDB has to ultimately pay the bills, there should be a state-owned entity which will import the coal directly and monitor the price of coal to be imported by any private power plant operator,” a top official of the organisation told UNB, preferring not to be named.         Supporting the idea of forming a state-owned separate entity for importing coal and supervising any coal import by the private sector, eminent energy expert Dr M Tamim said such a body for coal is essential for Bangladesh, just like the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) exists for hydrocarbons. “We can form a body like Coal Bangladesh like Coal India in our neighbouring nation,” he told UNB. He noted the reality that Bangladesh does not have any experience in coal import. Also Read: Adani Group starts discussion with Bangladesh to resolve issues on coal pricing So if any company manipulates coal prices through underhanded dealing with suppliers, it will be difficult to identify such unfair means for non-experienced officials, he added.   The coal price issue came into the forefront in recent days following the unearthing of the Indian Adani Group’s power purchase agreement (PPA) with the BPDB, and controversies surrounding the steep purchasing price for coal quoted to BPDB by Adani Power. Adani Power recently sent a request for BPDB to issue the demand note, where the coal price was quoted at $400 per metric ton (MT) - far above what BPDB officials believe it should be given the present state of the international market. “In our view, the coal price they have quoted ($400/MT) was excessive - it should be less than $250/MT, which is what we are paying for the imported coal at our other thermal power plants," the official said. They mentioned that the price of coal is coming down in the international market. Also Read: Committee to review existing deals on coal purchase for power generation To adjust the coal price,  the BPDB sought a revision to the PPA it signed with Adani Power Ltd for importing electricity from its 1600 MW thermal power plant in Jharkhand, India. Against the backdrop of a heated debate over the issue, the government formed a review committee, headed by Power Secretary Habibur Rahman, to analyse the existing deals signed by the public, private and joint venture power companies, including the one with Adani, to import coal for use in power generation. The 9-member high level committee was formed on January 23 and its first meeting was held on February 20. Besides the Power Secretary, the committee also includes the Chairman of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), additional secretary of Power Division (coordination), representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office, Finance Ministry, and Commerce Ministry; the chief engineer (power generation) of BPDB, managing directors of the power generation companies, and the deputy secretary (development) of the Power Division, who will also act as member secretary of the committee. Read more: Rampal’s unit-1 to resume power generation Wednesday under 'test run' About the outcomes of the review committee meeting, Power Secretary Habibur Rahman said the committee needs to sit in more meetings. “It’s too early to give any substantial outcomes right at this moment…We need to hold more meetings”, he told UNB. Official sources said the review committee was formed following the report that Bangladesh will incur a financial loss of Tk 700 crore per month and Tk 8,400 crore annually due to the “faulty deal” signed with Adani Power to import electricity from its coal-fired 1600 MW Godda plant in Jharkhand state of India, first reported by UNB in January. The BPDB sent a letter to the Adani Group seeking a revision to the existing PPA following the request it received in relation to opening LCs (in India) to import the coal that will be used as fuel for the 1,600 MW plant in Jharkhand. Read More: Bashundhara Group wins bid to supply 8 million MT of coal to Rampal power plant The BPDB sent the letter date January 23 referring to State Minister-led delegation’s recent visit to the Adani plant mentioned, “During the discussion your side also opined that suitable mechanism will be devised to reduce this inconsistency of coal price by adjusting/changing the coal pricing mechanism of the power purchase agreement (PPA)”. BPDB officials alleged that the price of coal for the Patuakhali's Payra power plant was set at 15-16 percent higher than the market price in connivance with corrupt officials.    

Foxconn is going to build another Apple iPhone manufacturing plant in a 300-acre new factory in India’s Karnataka, the country’s Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and the state Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai have said. According to them, the manufacturing facility will employ 100,000 people, reports NDTV. The investment, one of Foxconn’s largest single expenditures in India to date, comes as global businesses increasingly move away from China as Washington-Beijing tensions grow. In the outskirts of Bengaluru, land has been made available to Foxconn, the leading manufacturer of iPhones. The 300-acre site is said to be one of the largest manufacturing units for Apple’s iPhones. The Taiwanese company is planning to invest US$ 700 million in the new plant to ramp up local production, according to a Bloomberg report. The factory may also assemble Apple handsets, Bloomberg said, quoting sources. Foxconn might manufacture some components for its budding electric vehicle industry at the new site, added the report. “Bengaluru was the preferred destination for global companies and had been a forerunner in attracting investment,” Foxconn Chairman Young Liu said after visiting the factory site. Foxconn, meanwhile, continues to produce iPhones at its massive manufacturing facility in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, where it currently employs some 200,000 people. Foxconn has made a significant investment in India twice now. In a facility in Tamil Nadu, the firm is already producing iPhones of the latest generation. Foxconn reported earnings of USD 206 billion in 2021, placing it second globally in the production of Apple phones. According to reports, Foxconn is the biggest producer of electronics worldwide. It ranked 20th in the Fortune Global 500 as of the previous year. There are 173 campuses and offices for Foxconn spread over 24 countries or regions, including those in China, Japan, Vietnam, the Czech Republic, and the US.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has said that India can play a mediator's role and help end the Russia-Ukraine war. Momen, now in New Delhi to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting, also said India can play a significant role in resolving the Rohingya issue. On Bangladesh-India ties, the foreign minister said they have resolved their issues without “firing a single bullet” as he spoke about border issues. Read more: Geographies have destined us to take benefit of nature, including rivers: Momen "We maintain a balanced foreign policy," he said when talking about maintaining ties with both India and China. He, however, said India is a friendly country to Myanmar. The foreign minister made the remarks in an interview with Indian media outlet WION.

With the foreign ministers of the Group of 20 leading economies meeting Thursday in New Delhi, host India is promoting itself as a rising superpower while leveraging its position on the global stage to bridge the gap between the West and Russia. Experts expect India to be at the center of bitter global divisions, particularly over Russia’s war in Ukraine. But it’s also an opportunity for the South Asian nation to position itself as the voice of the Global South and as a potential mediator between the West and Moscow. Read more: Modi urges G20 foreign ministers to overcome differences India is expected to adopt a neutral stance on Ukraine, as it has in the past. The event is likely to be overshadowed by the war in Europe and its impact on global energy and food security. However, senior foreign ministry officials said Wednesday that India was determined to focus on “equally important” issues of rising inflation, debt stress, health, climate change and food and energy security in developing nations. “I really do believe that India stands the best chance of all countries to try to hold peace negotiations between Russia and not just the U.S., but the West, actually,” said Derek Grossman, an analyst focused on the Indo-Pacific at the RAND Corporation. He credited India’s non-alignment and its rise as a global power for why it could be a potential peacemaker. Read more: Modi urges G20 finance leaders to focus on ‘most vulnerable’ But the South Asian country has its own challenges, particularly with regional rival China. Tensions between New Delhi and Beijing remain high after a deadly border clash in 2020. On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the country’s foreign minister would be attending the G-20 meeting, and that “China attaches great importance with India.” She added maintaining good ties between the two countries is fundamental to their interests. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar “have done a good job of steering this middle path in very turbulent times,” Grossman said. “You now have American, Russian and even Chinese diplomats supporting India. The country really is at the geopolitical crossroads of everything now that involves the Global South,” he added. So far, India has refrained from directly criticizing Russia. The two have been allies since the cold war era and New Delhi depends on Moscow for nearly 60% of its defense equipment. India has increasingly scooped up Russian oil since the invasion a year ago, initially facing scrutiny from the U.S. and other allies over its growing purchases. That pressure has since waned and India has continued to abstain from voting in U.N. resolutions that condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “It may appear unfathomable to many in the West that the reaction of the world’s largest democracy to such a cold-blooded, egregious aggression would be so subdued. But for anyone who understands India’s foreign policy, it’s not surprising at all,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute. Read more: India’s Supreme Court orders investigation of Adani business group “New Delhi has a special relationship with Moscow, and it’s not about to jeopardize it by turning on a longstanding partner,” he said. Thursday’s meeting will nonetheless be challenging for India, especially after it was forced to issue a compromised chair’s summary at the conclusion of the G-20 finance ministers meeting last week. Russia and China objected to a joint communique that retained language on the war in Ukraine drawn directly from last year’s G-20 leaders summit declaration in Indonesia. India has said that it stands by the Bali declaration in which major world powers strongly condemned the war in Ukraine, warning that the conflict was intensifying fragilities in the world’s economy. Grossman said it was concerning that the final statement issued in Bengaluru last week was watered down from the Bali declaration at the insistence of China and Russia. He said New Delhi allowing that to happen was worrisome, but India’s “awkward predicament” to ensure a successful G-20 with everyone there, including Russia and China, meant the country has to make “compromises.” “I think that’s what India is trying to do now,” he said. The summits are particularly important for Modi and his ruling party ahead of the 2024 general elections. A strong show during India’s year as G-20 president will allow Modi’s party to signal its diplomatic reach and project power both at home and abroad. Kugelman said the summit, due later this year, will advance important domestic political goals for New Delhi, and Modi’s ultimate goal would be to “successfully manage the myriad geopolitical rivalries within the G-20, signal that India can rise above intense great power competition and seemingly intractable issues like the Ukraine war, and guide the prestigious club toward tangible achievements.” “In effect, Modi wants its G-20 presidency to yield meaningful achievements. That’s a tall order, for sure, but it’s important for New Delhi’s foreign policy and domestic political goals alike,” he said.  

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged G20 foreign ministers to overcome their differences and to reach consensus on issues of deep concern to poorer countries. In a video address to the assembled foreign ministers in New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged them not to allow current tensions to destroy agreements that might be reached on food and energy security, climate change and the debt crisis. “We are meeting at a time of deep global divisions,” Modi told the group, which included U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and their Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, whose discussions would naturally be “affected by the geopolitical tensions of the day.” “We all have our positions and our perspectives on how these tensions should be resolved,” he said, adding that: “We should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can.” Top diplomats from the world’s major industrialized and developing nations on Thursday opened what are expected to be contentious talks dominated by Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s moves to boost its global influence. In a nod to fears that the increasingly bitter rift between the United States and its allies on one side and Russia and China on the other appears likely to widen further, Modi said that “multilateralism is in crisis today.” He lamented that the two main goals of the post-World War II international order — preventing conflict and fostering cooperation — were elusive. “The experience of the last two years, financial crisis, pandemic, terrorism and wars clearly shows that global governance has failed in both its mandates,” he said. Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar then addressed the group in person, telling them that they “must find common ground and provide direction.” While they were all in the same room, there was no sign that Blinken would sit down with either his Russian or Chinese counterparts. Ahead of the meeting, Blinken said he had no plans to meet with them individually but expected to see them in group settings. In addition to attending the G-20 and seeing Modi and Jaishankar individually on Thursday, Blinken’s official schedule had him meeting only the foreign ministers of Brazil, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Mexico, Nigeria and South Africa.  

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Wednesday said the bonhomie of Bangladesh-India is ever-growing and continues to expand. “Bangladesh-India relationship is multifaceted and multidimensional,” he said, noting that 2022 was a landmark year in the bilateral relations of Bangladesh and India. The Foreign Minister made the remarks while delivering a public lecture on “Promoting Culture of Peace for shared prosperity: A vision for South Asia '' at Vivekanand International Foundation in New Delhi. Read more: We’ll double trade in next 2-4 years with Bangladesh, hopes Argentine FM Vivekanand International Foundation Director Dr Arvind Gupta, current and former diplomats including Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Md Mustafizur Rahman were present. Foreign Minister Momen is currently visiting New Delhi to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting at the invitation of the government of India. He is expected to speak at the G20 meeting on Thursday. Among other global issues, he will highlight Bangladesh’s expectations from the G20 platform under India’s Presidency. Momen will have a number of bilateral meetings including with his Indian counterpart on the sidelines of the meeting. He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited India in September 2022 after the visit of the Indian President and the Prime Minister to Bangladesh in the same year in 2021.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam on Wednesday said they will seek opinions from the home and law ministries and will act based on their decisions regarding BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed. "Any person needs to have valid documents to travel from one country to another. I don't know whether he (Salahuddin) has valid documents. If he doesn't have valid documents, he'll have to apply through the Bangladesh mission," he said while talking to a small group of reporters. Read more: Indian Shillong Judge Court upholds acquittal of BNP leader Salahuddin The judge's court in India's Shillong has reportedly upheld a magistrate court's verdict that acquitted BNP leader Salahuddin in a case filed over trespassing into the country in 2015. In the short order, the judge's court also asked the Indian government to take necessary steps to send Salahuddin back to Bangladesh. "I don't know details of the matter yet," said the state minister, adding that they follow the home and law ministries' decisions if any Bangladeshi convict gets imprisoned abroad.