Russia supports India's candidacy for permanent member of UNSC
Moscow (PTI): Russia on Wednesday said it supports India's aspirations to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and also praised New Delhi's deft handling of the contentious issues at the G20 Summit as a "true triumph" of its foreign policy.
The Security Council has 5 permanent and 10 non-permanent members. India has long been seeking a permanent membership at the UNSC, strongly calling for reform of the United Nations in line with the changing realities of the world.
The five permanent members are the UK, China, Russia, the US and France.
"We support India's candidacy for joining" the UN Security Council as a permanent member, Lavrov said after holding talks with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar here. Jaishankar is on a five-day visit to Russia.
Lavrov said the G20 Summit that took place in New Delhi earlier this year was a "true triumph of India’s foreign policy; it was a triumph of multilateral diplomacy, which has become possible, to a decisive degree, because the G20 Chair did not allow making the outcome document unilateral. The outcome document reflects the balance of interests".
"This is a model of how to work within the G20 and, by the way, in the UN and the Security Council,” he said.
In G20, India managed to bring together nations with starkly divergent views on Ukraine. The G20 joint declaration that avoided direct criticism of Russia for its war against Ukraine is being described as a significant diplomatic win for India, the host of the summit.
The declaration garnered unanimous support from all G20 member nations, without a single dissenting note, with the key players, including the US, the UK, Russia and China, praising the outcome.
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Karnataka government employees demand return of Old Pension Scheme
Bengaluru: Government employees in Karnataka have urged the state government to scrap the New Pension Scheme (NPS) and bring back the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), The New Indian Express reported.
The demand was made by the Karnataka State Government Employees’ Association, whose leaders met senior IAS officer Uma Mahadevan on Monday and submitted a memorandum. The association asked the NPS Review Committee, headed by senior IAS officer Anjum Parvez, to recommend the reintroduction of OPS in the state.
Association president C.S. Shadakshari reportedly said the review committee has already visited Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana where NPS was revoked and OPS re-implemented. The committee is yet to submit its report, but has told the government it will do so soon.
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Shadakshari allegedly said NPS has been in force in Karnataka since 2006. He pointed out that West Bengal never adopted the scheme, while Andhra Pradesh and Telangana replaced NPS with a contributory pension model.
States including Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jharkhand have already scrapped NPS through cabinet decisions or budget announcements.
“Under NPS, 10% of the employees’ basic salary and DA, and 14% contribution from the state is credited to the employees’ fund. It constitutes 24% of the total which is non-withdrawable. This is invested in the share market and the final amount depends on the ups and downs of the market,” TNIE quoted Shadakshar as saying.
As per the report, he said that by limiting its contribution to 14%, the government could save up to ₹1.87 lakh crore annually if all vacancies are filled, strengthening the case for bringing back the old pension system.
