National

Foreign Policy

Ties Elevated: India and Uzbekistan elevated their bilateral relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, setting an annual trade target of $5 billion by 2030.
Uranium Supply Agreement: Signed a long-term commercial framework for the supply of uranium from Uzbekistan for India’s civil nuclear power sector.
Digital & Cultural Initiatives:
- NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) partnered with Uzbekistan’s National Interbank Processing Centre to enable Indian UPI payments via national QR codes (UZQR).
- Agreed on a Letter of Intent to restore ancient Buddhist monasteries at Fayaz Tepa and Kara Tepa in southern Uzbekistan.
- PM Narendra Modi paid homage at the Shastri Memorial in Tashkent, honoring former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Statutory Notification: The Ministry of Consumer Affairs notified the Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026, mandating Indian Standard Time (IST) as the single official time reference across legal, commercial, transport, power, and digital networks.
Objective: Reduces reliance on foreign satellite-based time systems and ensures synchronized time-stamps for digital banking, telecommunications, and power grids.

Judicial Observation: Speaking at NLU Delhi, Supreme Court Judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan advocated using the presidential power under Article 124(3) of the Constitution to directly appoint “distinguished jurists” and legal academicians as Supreme Court judges.
Constitutional Context: Noted that this provision has remained dormant for 76 years despite its intent to diversify the Supreme Court Bench with academic legal scholarship.