News in Short

• India’s Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) cleared the much-delayed purchase of 56 C-295 medium transport aircraft to replace the Indian Air Force’s ageing fleet of Avro-748 planes. The deal is expected to be worth $2.5 billion.
• Airbus Defence and Space and Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) will jointly execute the project to equip the air force with the new transport aircraft under the Make-in-India initiative in the aerospace sector.
• Airbus will supply the first 16 aircraft in flyaway condition while the remaining 40 will be assembled in India by TASL.The Avro replacement project was in the works for almost a decade.

• Former India captain MS Dhoni will be Team India’s mentor for the ICC T20 World Cup in UAE.  MS Dhoni retired from international cricket in 2020.
• Dhoni has been captaining the IPL team Chennai Super Kings since 2008 and was the captain of the Indian cricket team which won the inaugral 2007 T20 World Cup.
• One of the most successful captains in the history of Indian cricket, the enigmatic wicketkeeper-batsman led India to two world titles — the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa and the 2011 ODI World Cup in India.

• The Centre has increased the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat for the upcoming rabi season to ?2,015 per quintal, a 2% hike from the ?1,975 per quintal rate of last year.
• Oilseeds and pulses such as mustard, safflower and masoor dal saw higher MSP increases of up to 8% in a bid to encourage crop diversification.
• The MSP is the rate at which the government purchases crops from farmers. Currently, rates are fixed for 23 crops, including six crops during the upcoming rabi or winter season for which sowing will begin in October.

• India and Australia will hold the inaugural ‘2+2’ Ministerial meeting here during the upcoming visit of Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Minister of Defence Peter Dutton.
• The meeting will be part of Australia’s engagements with regional partners as the Ministers will visit Indonesia, India, South Korea and the United States for Indo-Pacific consultations.
• The discussion in Delhi is likely to include a bilateral free trade agreement. India and Australia have been in negotiation over a possible free trade deal, which has so far not yielded a positive result.

• Ford will wind down the manufacturing of vehicle for exports in Sanand, Gujarat by the fourth quarter of 2021 and vehicle and engine manufacturing in Chennai by the second quarter of 2022.
• This is the second major exit of local manufacturing operations in India by a global automotive brand. US giant General Motors stopped selling cars in India in 2017.
• Following accumulated operating losses of more than $2 billion over the past 10 years and a $0.8 billion non-operating write-down of assets in 2019, Ford is forced to do a restructuring to create a sustainably profitable business in India.