Modi meets PMs of Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland
Stockholm, April 17: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held separate bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Finland ahead of the first ever India-Nordic Summit here.
Modi held the first meeting with Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
In a tweet, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the to leaders "had a good meeting on renewing and enhancing cooperation and expressed their mutual desire to take the relationship forward".
After the meeting, the two sides exchanged MoUs in the areas of animal urban development, animal husbandry and dairying, food safety and agricultural research and educaion
Modi then met his Icelandic counterpart Katrin Jakobsdottir.
"PM urged Icelandic companies to look at India as an investment destination in blue economy and geothermal energy and strengthen cooperation in education, tourism and culture," Kumar said.
After the meeting, the two sides signed an MoU on the establishment of the ICCR Chair for Hindi language between the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and the University of Iceland.
Following this, Modi held a meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
According to the Indian spokesperson, the two leaders had an "engaging interaction" on trade and investment, shipping and port-development, blue economy, renewable energy, health, information technology and green transport solutions.
Finally, the Indian leader met Finnish Prime Minister Juhu Sipila.
"We had excellent discussions on deepening avenues of cooperation between India and Finland," Modi said in a separate tweet.
India and Sweden are co-hosting the India-Nordic Summit on the second and final day of Modi's visit to Sweden.
For India, Nordic countries are a potential source for clean technology, environmental solutions, port modernisation, cold chain, skill development, innovation among other areas.
According to figures provided by the Indian External Affairs Ministry, India's trade with the Nordic countries totaled around $5.3 billion in 2016-17, with cumulative foreign direct investment in India at $2.5 billion.
Earlier on Tuesday, Modi held a bilateral summit with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven following which India and Sweden signed a Joint Action Plan and an Innovation Partnership for a Sustainable Future.
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Lok Sabha seats in southern states to increase from 129 to 195: Amit Shah
New Delhi (PTI): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said a "completely false" narrative is being spread that the representation of southern states will go down in the Lok Sabha after its strength is increased to 816 seats following the implementation of women's reservation and delimitation of constituencies.
Intervening in the debate in Lok Sabha on the three bills introduced for amendment of the women's quota law and to set up a delimitation commission, Shah said the fact is that the number of seats will go up and power will grow.
He said the number of Lok Sabha seats in the five southern states will go up from the present 129 to 195 seats while the percentage of power will increase from 23.76 per cent to 23.87 or almost 24 per cent.
"Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka will increase to 42 from the present 28; in Andhra Pradesh, the number of Lok Sabha sets will increase to 38 from 25; in Telangana, it will be 26 from present 17; in Tamil Nadu, the number of Lok Sabha seats will go up to 59 from the present 39; and in Kerala, it will be 30 seats from the present 20," he said.
Shah strongly rejected the opposition suggestion that the government will indulge in some kind of "mischief" during the delimitation exercise, saying the NDA government has not made any changes in the existing law.
"The delimitation bill is exactly like the previous law brought by your government. There is no change, not even a comma or a full stop," he said.
Explaining how the total number of seats in the new Lok Sabha is fixed at 816, the home minister said it is exactly 50 per cent more than the current total seats.
