Today in Politics: PM Modi in America for Quad summit, to hold talks with Biden

As per an official press release, the leaders at the Summit will review the progress achieved by the Quad over the last one year and set the agenda for the year ahead. This will be done “to assist the countries of the Indo-Pacific region in meeting their development goals and aspirations”.

Why it is important: Shubhajit Roy reports that PM Modi and President Biden will hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Quad leaders’ summit in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday.

Briefing the media Thursday, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said the two sides will sign at least two agreements following the talks.

One pact will be related to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and the other Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be on the India-US drug framework, he said.

Modi is also expected to apprise Biden of his recent talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on finding a peaceful solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Besides Biden, Modi is also set to hold separate bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Junior doctors to resume work

Junior doctors agitating over the RG Kar incident will partially resume their duties in state-run West Bengal hospitals from Saturday.

Ending the logjam persisting for 42 days in the wake of the rape and murder of a young doctor at RG Kar hospital, as part of which they protested the Mamata Banerjee government’s alleged inaction in the case, the agitating medics withdrew the ‘cease work’ after holding a march to the CBI office in Salt Lake from the state health department’s headquarters.

The procession, seeking a speedy wrap-up of the probe by the CBI into the case, covered a distance of around 4 km from the ‘Swasthya Bhawan’ to the CGO Complex.

The medics have said they would not work in the Outpatient Department (OPD), but partially function in emergency and essential services.

“Today, we are calling off our ‘cease work’. From tomorrow, we will partially join duties concerning the emergency and essential services,” one of the junior doctors said.

Also happening:

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will be in Jammu and Kashmir Saturday to campaign for the Assembly polls in the Union Territory. He is slated to hold a press conference at 11:45 am in Jammu, which will be followed by a public meeting at Khour Ground in Chhamb at 1:30 am. The Congress has allied with the National Conference in J&K and is hoping to come to power following the elections which are being held in J&K after 10 years.

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A three-day national conference of the volunteers and office bearers of the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram began in Haryana’s Samalakha town on Friday to discuss a range of issues, including its activities and programmes in different parts of the country. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will join the conference.

— With PTI inputs