Morning Digest | China says New Delhi Declaration reaffirms G-20 is body for economic issues, ‘not geopolitics’, Congress slams Modi Government for exceeding G-20 budget, and more

The Hindu’s Morning Digest brings readers a select list of stories to start the day

New Delhi Declaration reaffirms G-20 is body for economic issues, ‘not geopolitics’: China

China on September 11 in its first official reaction to the G-20 Summit said it welcomed the New Delhi Declaration which had “reaffirmed” that the G-20 was a form for “economic cooperation” and “not a platform to resolve geopolitical and security issues.” Beijing said it also “welcomed” the ambitious new India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) plan unveiled on Saturday — announced by India, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union, seen as a counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — but said it should not become a “geopolitical tool”. The IMEC comprises an Eastern Corridor connecting India to the Gulf region and a Northern Corridor connecting the Gulf to Europe, and will include a railway and ship-rail transit network and road transport routes.

Congress slams Modi Government for exceeding G-20 budget

A day after the G-20 summit, the Congress attacked the Narendra Modi Government for over-shooting the budget allotted for the summit and urged him to at least now turn his attention back to the more pressing issues facing the country like inflation, unemployment and Manipur violence. In a detailed post in Hindi on X (formerly Twitter), party president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the people have started paving the way for the BJP-led government’s departure in 2024 general elections. “Modi ji is trying hard to conceal the truth. But the public is only interested in hearing the truth and not the distractionary issues,” he said.

Several hill villages in Manipur wrongly included in valley districts: ST panel

A report by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has observed that several hill villages in Manipur were wrongly included in the valley districts during the Census 2011 exercise. It said that in the Booklet of Census of India 2011 and Administrative Atlas, “Manipur has wrongly included several hill villages under valley districts” and that the issue had been flagged to the State government by the office of the Registrar General of India in 2017. Following this, the Revenue department of Manipur had in October 2022 asked the deputy commissioners of the districts concerned to rectify the list of hill villages (around 400) overlapping between the districts of Kakching, Tengnoupal, Kangpokpi, Imphal West, Bishnupur Districts, the NCST report noted.

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