 The first meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint Committee on Border Haats concluded in Agartala, Tripura. During the two day meeting, both sides noted the positive impact of Border Haats on the livelihoods of the people living in areas adjoining the Haats. Extensive discussions were held on issues related to review of operations of the four functional Border Haats and suggestions for improvement, timeline for setting up the six additional Border Haats that had earlier been agreed to by both sides and the roadmap for further expansion of Border Haats. |
| Source- DD News |
 The 4th BIMSTEC Summit will be held in Kathmandu, Nepal. The announcement in this regard was made by Nepal’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali. The main focus of the summit will be to increase connectivity between the BIMSTEC nations including roads, airways and transmission lines. The BIMSTEC is a regional economic bloc comprising seven member states lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity. |
| Source- AIR World Service |
 The 8th BRICS Health Ministers’ Meeting was held at Durban, South Africa. Indian deligation was led by Mr J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare. He stated that India is committed to eliminating TB by 2025. Highlighting the accomplishments of India in the health sector, he stated India's achievement in reducing the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by 77%, from 556 per 1,00,000 live births in 1990 to 130 per 1,00,000 live births in 2016, was commended by the Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO). |
| Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB) |
 The 28th meeting of the GST Council chaired by interim finance minister Piyush Goyal was held in New Delhi. The Council was deliberated upon a number of key issues on its agenda which includes rate revision on a number of items, amendments to the GST law, simplification of return, and the setting up of a National Appellate Tribunal in Delhi. The GST Council has exempted sanitary napkins from Goods and Services Tax. Earlier, there was a 12% levy of tax on sanitary napkins. It has also recommended reduction in the GST slab for lithium-ion batteries used in electronic items from the current 28% to 18% along with a slew of reductions in other items like bamboo flooring, ice making machines, vending machines, water coolers etc. |
| Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB) |
 US State Department has announced that the inaugural ‘two-plus-two dialogue’ between India and the United States will be held in New Delhi in September 2018. Recently, the US had postponed the dialogue due to ‘unavoidable reasons’. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis will travel to India for the dialogue with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. |
| Source- The Livemint |
 India and Japan held the fourth round of Maritime Affairs Dialogue in New Delhi. During the dialogue, key issues related to the Indo-Pacific region and maritime security were discussed. The Indian delegation at the dialogue was led by Pankaj Sharma, Joint Secretary (Disarmament and International Security Affairs) in the External Affairs Ministry, while the Japanese side was led by Ambassador Kansuke Nagaoka, Policy Planning and International Security Policy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. |
| Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB) |
 The 10th edition of the Delhi Dialogue begins in New Delhi. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj delivered the keynote address of the two-day event. The theme of this event is ‘Strengthening India-ASEAN Maritime Co-operation’. Political leadership, policymakers, officials, diplomats, business leaders, think-tanks and academicians from India and ASEAN Member States will participate in the discussions. This is the first major event to be organised after the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit that was held in New Delhi. |
| Source- AIR World Service |
 As part of Indo-US Bilateral Defence Cooperation, the 7th Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) meeting was held between India and the US delegation in New Delhi. The meeting was co-chaired by, Secretary (Defence Production), Dr Ajay Kumar and Under Secretary of Defence for Acquisition and Sustainment, DoD, US Government Ms Ellen M Lord. The meetings are held twice a year, alternately in India and the USA with the aim to bring sustained leadership focus to the bilateral defence trade relationship and create opportunities for co-production and co-development of defence equipment. |
| Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB) |
 The Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu co-chaired 8th session of India-Oman Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) along with Minister of Industry, Investment, Trade and Digital Economy of Oman, Dr Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidy. Suresh Prabhu invited Omani companies to build on their success in India and make investments to benefit from‘Make in India’ and ‘Invest India’ programmes which are aimed to encourage manufacturing. Areas of discussion in the JCM include cooperation in space, renewable energy, start-up, SMEs, food security, including durable foods and packaging, services sector, tourism sector, exchange of ideas and visit of young entrepreneurs. |
| Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB) |
 With an aim of upgrading quality of education, research, hospital care facilities in the national AYUSH institutions throughout the country and develop them as light house institutions, All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) under Ministry of AYUSH organized two days Conference of Heads of AYUSH National Institutes in New Delhi. The Inaugural session of the conference was graced by Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar and Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH Shri Shripad Yesso Naik. AYUSH joined hands together and signed MoUs with Sports Authority of India, Indian Institute of Technology for collaborative ventures. |
| Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB) |
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