Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and, possibly, Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel will head out to the annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC from October 7-9. But what is likely to be a routine meeting will have an interesting facet: This will see the first interaction between India and Pakistan at a multilateral forum after the Uri incident. Jaitley will come face to face with Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Pakistan's finance minister, who is leading the country's delegation at the annual meeting. Whether the two will talk on the sidelines and discuss the position taken by their respective countries remains to be seen. It could be an opportunity or another way to exchange threats.
US presidential poll's double debates
The heat will be on this week at the US presidential and vice-presidential elections. One presidential debate is over; the second one will take place on Sunday at Washington University in St Louis. This debate will be a town meeting, where half of the questions will come from participants and the other half from the moderator, in this case, Martha Raddatz, chief global affairs correspondent and co-anchor of ABC's This Week, and Anderson Cooper, a CNN anchor. The moderators' questions will be based on public interest topics, determined via social media and other sources.
The vice-presidential debate will take place on Tuesday. It will be divided into nine 10-minute segments. The moderator - in this case Elaine Quijano, anchor, CBSN, and correspondent, CBS News - will ask an opening question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance time in the segment for a deeper discussion of the topics. This debate will take place at the Longwood University, Virginia.
Neighbour comes visiting
Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Sri Lankan prime minister will visit India from October 4 to 6. This is a crucial trip as it comes immediately after the visit of Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda. These play an important role in sensitising India's neighbours to the aggresive behaviour of Pakistan. Issues relating to fishermen from Tamil Nadu being routinely imprisoned in Sri Lanka, investment in the island nation and rehabilitation of Tamils in the north and east of that country are likely to come up. This is also one of the last important visits to be handled by Indian High Commissioner in Colombo, Yashvardhan Sinha, who has been named Indian High Commissioner to London.
Home minister's high-altitude trip
Home Minister Rajnath Singh will visit Leh and Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir) on Monday and Tuesday, presumably to reassure himself that there is no internal security threat in these areas. He visited Leh around this time last year and made the 400-km journey by road, spending a night at the camp of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), interacting with the troops.
