Sep 2011 international

India on 22 September 2011 took over the presidency of the G-24 group of 24 developing countries after a gap of 28 years. Indian finance minister Pranab Mukherjee took over the Presidency of the group from South African finance minister Pravin J Gordhan. Egypt was elected the Vice Chair of the group.

Members of G-24 group are spread equally over Asia, Africa and Latin America. From Asia, the members include Lebanon, Pakistan, India, Iran, the Philippines, Syria and Sri Lanka. There are eight members each from Africa and Latin America. G-24 was established in 1971. It coordinates the position of developing countries on monetary and development issues, particularly issues on the agendas of the IMF and the World Bank. The group was formed to balance the influence of the G-10 economic grouping.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on 25 September 2011 granted women the right to vote and run in future municipal elections. In his announcement, the king said that women would also be appointed to the Majlis Al-Shura, a consultative council that advises the monarchy on matters of public policy. Women in Saudi Arabia endure strict gender separation, including a ban against driving. The recent uprisings in the Arab world for the past nine months coupled with sustained demand for women’s rights and a more representative form of government in Saudi Arabia prompted the decision.

Danish opposition leader Helle Thorning - Schmidt emerged victorious in the elections held on 15 September 2011 and will take over as the Denmark's first female Prime Minister. She belongs to the Social Democrats party. The result ended the center-right government's 10 years in office. Thorning - Schmidt succeeded Lars Lokke Rasmussen.

India on 17 September 2011 announced support for Libya’s Transitional National Council in the UN. The Union government of India supported the acceptance of credentials of the delegation of the TNC, to attend the 66th session of UN General Assembly in New York. The TNC delegation was headed by its President Mustafa Abdel Jalil. India participated as an observer in the Libyan Contact Group meeting in Istanbul in July 2011. India’s charge d’ affaires to Libya, at present based in Tunis, formally established contact with the TNC mission in Tunis. India recently gave humanitarian assistance of 1 million dollars to Libya.

India donated 1 million US dollars to the core voluntary budget of UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women or UN Women, for the year 2011. Hardeep Singh Puri, India's Permanent UN Representative handed the amount to Michele Bachelet, Under Secretary general and executive director of UN Women on 9 April 2011. India demonstrated its firm support to the promotion of UN efforts in the field of gender equality and the empowerment of women through its contribution. India is presently one of the members of the Executive Board of the UN Women.

A team of archaeologists has ‘sensationally’ discovered the ruins of a Roman gladiator school on the outskirts of the Austrian capital Vienna. The find is one of the many schools that the Romans built to train the fighters before they got involved in a brutal combat with each other. The group from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Vienna discovered the school, which contains sleeping cells, a bathing area and a training hall with heated floors and a cemetery.

A new Chair in Contemporary Indian Studies is to be created at the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with the Indian Council for Cultural relations. Chairs focused on Indian studies have been established at some universities in England, but this is the first such Chair in Scotland.