# United nations general assembly

• Prime minister Narendra Modi will visit the white house on September 24 to participate in a quad leaders summit hosted by US president Joe Biden.

• PM Modi will then travel to New york to address the 76th session of the United nations general assembly (UNGA) on saturday morning.

• The Quad meeting of PM Modi, President Biden and the prime ministers of Japan and Australia Yoshihide Suga and Scott Morrison is the first in person meeting of its kind at the White house.

# World health organisation

• The possible emergency use listing (EUL) by the WHO of Bharat biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin by September end.

• The WHO EUL is a risk based procedure for assessing and listing unlicensed vaccines.

• Besides ease of travel, the WHO EUL is a pre requisite for COVAX facility vaccine supply.

# GST

• The GST council might on friday consider taxing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products under the single national GST regime.

• This move may require huge compromises by both central and state governments on the revenues they collect by taxing these products.

• The GST council meet is scheduled in Lucknow on friday.

# India-UK trade talks

• Formal negotiations for a proposed India-United Kingdom Free trade agreement will begin on November 1.

• An interim “early harvest” agreement is to be completed by March 2022.

• The interim trade pact would involve early tariff or market access  concessions on certain key “high priority products and services”.

# India-Singapore payment systems

• The reserve bank of India (RBI) and the monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Tuesday announced a project to link their respective fast payment systems – unified payment interface (UPI) and Paynow.

• It will facilitate instant, low cost, cross border fund transfers.

• The Linkage is targeted to be operationalised by July 2022.