PM Modi and 13th ASEAN-India Summit

in Malaysia
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressed the ASEAN Business Summit in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on November 21, 2015 where he said the "21st century
belongs to Asia." He also held bilateral talks with Chinese and Japanese
counterparts during the ASEAN summit in Malaysia.
At the ASEAN summit, Prime Minister Modi said: "We meet at a time of multiple
global challenges: economic uncertainties, political turmoil and security threats.
In this difficult moment, India and ASEAN are two bright spots of optimism."
Talking about India, the Prime Minister said; "The scale of transformation in India
is vast and the size of its economic opportunities is huge." He added; there is a
welcoming business environment which is reflected in the sharp jump in Indias
ranking in the World Banks Ease of Doing Business." And, we will continue with
our reforms with speed and boldness." PM Modi asserted.
India, which shares both land and maritime boundaries with ASEAN will continue
to deepen bilateral security partnerships with ASEAN and with other EAS
partners as outlined by PM Modi.
"We will remain active participants in the ASEAN-led security dialogue and
cooperation forums," Modi said asking for early conclusion of a balanced and
broad-based Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
Talking about ASEAN's economy, PM Modi said, it continues to forge ahead with
dynamism and energy and added that he has no doubt that it will reinforce
prosperity for India's 1.9 billion people.
ASEAN is India's fourth largest trading partner and India is the sixth largest
trading partner for the ten members grouping.

Prime Minister said, connectivity is the pathway to shared prosperity between

India and ASEAN and in this regard the Trilateral Highway project is making good
progress and should be completed by 2018.
PM Modi announced that he will enlarge the ASEAN-India Science and
Technology Development Fund from the current one million U.S. dollars to 5
million U.S. dollars.
The Prime Minister also sounded about India's intention to set up an ASEANIndia Innovation Platform to facilitate commercialization of low cost technologies,
technology transfer and collaborative R&D projects.
On the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit, Indian Prime Minister met the Premier of
the Peoples Republic of China, Mr. Li Keqiang and reviewed the global scenario
with regard to the economic slowdown, climate change and international
terrorism.
The Chinese Premier observed that India had maintained its growth momentum
despite the slowdown. Both sides also reviewed the preparations for the CoP-21
conference in Paris. PM Modi briefed the Chinese Premier on the solar alliance
initiative, and invited China to join it.
India and China agreed that terrorism is the biggest challenge, and the
international community must come together to counter it.
Bilaterally, both sides discussed trade and investment, with the Indian Prime
Minister once again reiterating the concern over Indias large trade deficit with
China. Cooperation in the area of skill development was also discussed with
China.
Indian Prime Minister Modi also held bilateral talks with Japanese counterpart Mr.
Shinzo Abe, during the ASEAN summit in Malaysia. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
reiterated that the India-Japan bilateral relationship has the greatest potential of
any bilateral relationship across the world.
Prime Minister Modi acknowledged the Japanese Prime Ministers vision for the
bilateral relationship, and said he looks forward to the visit of PM Shinzo Abe to

India. Indian Prime Minister said that Japan was partnering India in a number of
initiatives such as the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), which had
transformative potential.
Regional connectivity, maritime security, the upcoming CoP-21 conference,
reform of the UN Security Council, and the issue of terrorism were some of the
other subjects that came up for discussion with the Japanese Prime Minister.
Over all the two day stay of Prime Minister Modi in Malaysia was very fruitful. He
very well resurrected Indias growing image and laid a fresh initiative of
partnership with the ASEAN. He also had a wide ranging discussion with his
Chinese and Japanese counterparts. There were many positives to take back
home from Prime Ministers visit to 13th ASEAN business summit in Malaysia.

Worlds first anti-dengue vaccine

brings hope for India
Posted by admin

At a time when India is struggling with rising

number of dengue cases with each passing year, the Mexican government has approved the
worlds first anti-dengue vaccine which is designed to protect people in the 9-45 age group from
nine to 45 years from all four subtypes of the virus.
Called Dengvaxia, the vaccine has been developed by France-based Sanofi Pasteur and is the
result of an extensive clinical development programme running for almost two decades.

Today, with this first marketing authorisation of Dengvaxia, we have achieved our goal of
making dengue the next vaccine-preventable disease, said Olivier Brandicourt, Sanofis
managing director and chief executive officer, in a statement on Wednesday.
This is a historic milestone for our company, for the global public health community and, most
importantly, for half the worlds population who lives at risk of dengue, he added.

While dengue affects nearly 400 million people in endemic areas, mostly in tropical and
subtropical countries in Latin America and Asia, India saw one of the worst outbreak of the
deadly disease this year with 32 deaths recorded in New Delhi alone till October.
With the total number of dengue cases in the capital reaching over 12,000 in October, Delhi
recorded the highest number of patients of the viral disease in 19 years, according to health
authorities.
Even as Dengvaxia has become the first vaccine to be licensed in the world for the prevention of
dengue, the dengue toll in West Bengal has touched 12 with the last death reported on November
5, according to state health officials.
The WHO has called on endemic countries to reduce dengue mortality by 50 percent and
morbidity by 25 percent by 2020.
Dengvaxia is, therefore, seen as major innovation and a public health breakthrough.
According to a statement issued by the Mexicos health ministry, the new vaccine is 60.5 percent
effective against dengue and 93.2 percent effective against severe dengue treatment.
The approval of Dengvaxia by Mexicos s Federal Commission for the Protection against
Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS) is based on results from an extensive clinical development
programme involving over 40,000 people of different ages, geographic and epidemiological
settings and ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds living in 15 countries.
Dengue-endemic regions of Mexico participated in all three phases of the clinical development
programmes for the vaccine.
This vaccine can prevent more than 8,000 hospitalisations, 104 deaths annually, and save 1.1
billion pesos ($64 million) each year in reduced costs tied to medical attention, the ministry
statement added.

In Mexico, a total of 32,100 cases were registered last year, including 8,668 cases of severe
dengue, which cost the country over 3.2 billion pesos ($187 million).