Current Affairs - International - Discussion

The government has given a nod to the IDBI Bank to handle import and export transactions with Iran. This has been done to boost the trade between India and Iran amidst US sanctions on Iran. Earlier, UCO Bank used to handle the payments during the previous sanctions. The channel of payment to Iran through Euros using European banking channels was blocked from November 2018. Iran is the third largest supplier of oil to India, after Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Bilateral trade between India and Iran increased to USD 13.8 billion in 2017-18 from USD 12.9 billion in the previous fiscal. However, India's exports to Iran were only worth USD 2.5 billion.