India, Netherlands hold 12th Foreign Office Consultations

The 12th India-Netherlands Foreign Office Consultations were held in The Hague, Netherlands yesterday. The Indian delegation was led by Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, Pavan Kapoor. The Dutch delegation was led by Secretary General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Paul Huijts. The last Foreign Office Consultations took place in New Delhi in December 2022.

The Foreign Office Consultations provided an opportunity to review progress in bilateral relations and discuss future agenda of cooperation. Both sides welcomed the progress in all areas and deliberated on the way forward in priority sectors of Water, Agriculture and Health, Science and Technology, and High-tech and Innovation. They underscored their interest to raise the level of ambition and agreed to further strengthen bilateral relations, by focusing on new emerging technologies like semiconductors and green hydrogen. The two sides appreciated the robust and fast-growing economic ties and noted the importance of holding the inaugural meeting of the Fast Track Mechanism for Indian companies in the Netherlands as an important step towards further enhancing B2B relations. They also appreciated the presence of a large Indian community in the Netherlands, which forms an important link and is contributing positively to the local economy and expanding cultural ties. India, Netherlands hold 12th Foreign Office Consultations

Read More........ → May 06, 2024

Amazon unveils Fire TV

Amazon has revealed its much-anticipated TV streaming device – dubbed Amazon Fire TV – at an event in New York.The device has WiFi built in, and Amazon claims it has three times the performance and power of sector competitors AppleTV, Roku and Chromecast. It has 2 GB of RAM, which is designed to ensure applications and video will start more quickly. Amazon VP Peter Larson said the company wanted to “invent and simplify” as well as overcoming streaming performance issues with the device. “It’s tiny,incredibly powerful, and unbelievably simple,” he added. Users will be able to watch from Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, ESPN. Among launch partners, with more to come. “Tiny box, huge specs, tons of content, incredible price—people are going to love Fire TV,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “Voice search that actually works means no more typing on an alphabet grid. Our exclusive new ASAP feature predicts the shows you’ll want to watch and gets them ready to stream instantly. And our open approachjust  gives you not Amazon Instant Video and Prime Instant Video, but also Netflix, Hulu Plus, and more. On Fire TV you can watch Alpha House and House of Cards.” Fire TV is available immediately for $99. Eligible customers get a free 30-day trial of Netflix and Amazon Prime when they purchase Fire TV. Source: Article, 

Read More........ → April 03, 2014

Europe risks losses of $215 billion by stopping Russian gas imports

Europe will have to spend up to $215 billion through investments if it decides to stop buying Russian natural gas, US-based financial research company Sanford C. Bernstein & Co said Wednesday. "Europe needs natural gas demand to go down by 15 billion cubic meters to be able to stop purchasing Russian gas. It will also have to spend around $40 billion dollars on more expensive alternatives energy sources," the company said in a statement.

Stopping supplies of Russia gas will lead to a situation whereby "every European will have to take a cold shower once a month, CO2 emissions will increase by 300 million tons per year, tax incentives for Norwegian gas production will amount to $12 billion dollars, the power of nuclear energy in Europe will increase 5 percent, and most of the businesses that consume significant amounts of gas will be closed," the company said. "We considered various scenarios of Europe refusing Russian gas supplies but none of them seem attractive," the company said. "Our conclusion is that 'the cure is worse than the illness's and that Europeans discontent with its dependency on Russian gas will not last long," Bernstein experts think. It will take five years to implement measures to make up for such a gas shortfall, Bernstein estimated, and more than 10,000 jobs would be eliminated in the process. Source: Voice Of Russia

Read More........ → April 02, 2014