NewsBytes

Timor Leste officially becomes ASEAN 11th member

Timor-Leste on Sunday became the 11th member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur. This is ASEAN's first expansion in 26 years since Cambodia was admitted in 1999. The island nation had applied for membership in 2011.

Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao joined the 10 ASEAN leaders for the signing of documents confirming the nation's long-awaited entry. The last country to join ASEAN was Cambodia in 1999. East Timor, wedged between Indonesia and Australia, was a Portuguese colony for over four centuries before declaring independence in 1975. Indonesia invaded nine days later, beginning a brutal 24-year occupation that claimed tens of thousands of lives through conflict, famine and disease. A UN-supervised referendum in 1999 paved the way for independence, which was formally restored in 2002.  Today it is led by two independence heroes, Prime Minister Gusmao and President Jose Ramos-Horta, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996. Some 42 per cent of the country's population lives below the national poverty line. Nearly two-thirds of its citizens are under 30 years old, making youth job creation a high priority. Its major source of government revenues is from the oil and gas industry, but with resources quickly becoming depleted it is looking to diversify.

India forex reserves climb to USD 702.28 billion, nearing record high

India's foreign exchange reserves rose by $4.5 billion in the week that ended October 17 to $702.280 billion, primarily driven by a rise in gold reserves, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its latest 'Weekly Statistical Supplement'.

The country's forex kitty is hovering close to its all-time high of $704.89 billion touched in September 2024. For the reported week, India's foreign currency assets (FCA), the largest component of foreign exchange reserves, stood at $ 570.411 billion, down $1.692 billion.

After the latest monetary policy review meeting, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra had said the foreign exchange kitty was sufficient to cover more than 11 months of merchandise imports. Overall, India's external sector continues to be resilient, and the RBI remains confident of meeting its external obligations comfortably.

Foreign exchange reserves, or FX reserves, are assets held by a nation's central bank or monetary authority, primarily in reserve currencies such as the US dollar, with smaller portions in the Euro, Japanese Yen, and Pound Sterling.

INS Sutlej completes joint hydrographic survey in Mauritius