Global Indian News
Amid the intensifying war between Houthi militias and Saudi Arabia-led coalitions in Yemen, India has launched a multifaceted rescue operation to bring back Indian nationals who are still stranded …
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Signalling a turnaround in Islamabad’s attitude towards the India story, Pakistan’s High Commissioner Abdul Basit has underscored that India should continue to achieve higher growth rate and termed the country a major driving force in the success of entire South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.
“If India rises, confidence of the entire region rises. We in South Asia do believe that India does have a wherewithal and resolves to step to the plate and ensure that it achieves its economic goals, because if India rises we are confident the entire region will rise with India,” said Mr Basit at a meeting organized by industry body ASSOCHAM in New Delhi on March 30.
The envoy also stressed on the importance of creating a level playing field among the members of SAARC, and said that economic development shouldn’t be muted in the political noise.
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Before Jammu and Kashmir could fully recover from the disastrous flood of September last year, the valley woke up to another nightmare due to the incessant rain, which has created havoc in the state.
The unseasonal heavy rain in the most part of Kashmir destroyed homes, crops and raised fears of flash- flood in the state. Hundreds of people fled their homes to safer places as the main rivers started to swell. People in the state witnessed continuous power cuts, water logging and landslides, bringing back the dreadful memory of the flood last year. The weather department has forecasted torrential rain in coming week.
According to the J & K government officials, water level of Jhelum River has passed the danger level at 22.4 feet and 18.8 feet at Sangam in South Kashmir and Ram Munshi Bah Srinagar city respectively. If the water level crosses 23-feet mark, state will have to undertake massive rescue operations to evacuate people stranded in areas adjoining the river.
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India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined world leaders at the funeral for Singapore’s founding father and poured tributes to “a global thinker” who transformed the city-state within a generation. Describing …
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The campaign slogans showed a stark divide. Likud’s “It’s us or them” and Zionist Union’s “It’s us or him”, made the campaign personal and, as several media outlets called it, a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership. He has been in power since 2009, and the economy worsened and the peace process stalled. However, Bibi’s last-minute acrimonious campaign for right wing votes seems to have paid off.
By these elections, Israelis have shown that homeland security remains central. The peace process seems to be stalled yet again. Soon after the election results, PA official Erekat said that in light of Mr Netanyahu’s statements, it was clear that “there is no partner on the Israeli side”.
For India, the election results mean business as usual. The bilateral relations have been on an upsurge since the NDA government took over, which looks forward to buttressing ties on homeland security, defence (Israel is the third largest arms supplier) and agriculture. Israel has a robust high-technology agriculture research and implementation programme, especially suited to dry land agriculture (majority of Indian agriculture remains drought/ desertification prone). Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited Israel last year after the warm exchanges between Mr Netanyahu and Mr Modi on sidelines of the UNGA meet in Washington last year.
It’s rarely that the president of India drives down to confer honours, but Atal Bihari Vajpayee is in a league of his own.
In a departure from protocol, President Pranab Mukherjee travelled to Mr Vajpayee’s residence at Krishna Menon Marg in Lutyen’s Delhi and presented India’s highest civilian award to the three-time prime minister of India, a living legend and the charismatic politician-statesman who towers above ideologies and partisan agendas.
A towering political personality, Mr Vajpayee, known for his dazzling oratory, formidable diplomatic skills, and political acumen, successfully led the first non-Congress government for a full five-year term. He headed the first NDA government as the 11th Prime Minister of India, first for 13 days in 1996, second time for 13 months from 1998-mid 1999, and then from 1999 to 2004.
For once, ideological and partisan bickering was out; there was rejoicing across the spectrum for the conferral of the honour on the leader-statesman who is fondly esteemed by his admirers as ‘Swadeshi Nehru.’
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who sparred with Vajpayee and his party many a time, hailed Bharat Ratna for Vajpayee, saying it is a “fitting recognition” to his wisdom, statesmanship and deep commitment to national interest.
With the situation worsening in Yemen due to an ongoing war between Saudi Arabia-led coalition and Shia Muslims rebels, India is exploring all possible options to bring back about 3,500 …
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Amid reports of Beijing’s declining influence under the new dispensation in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s newly-elected President Maithripala Sirisena held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who hoped for stronger ties …
Read MoreThe visit of the Afghan President and Chief Executive to Washington this week is crucial because it is likely to lay down the framework for future US engagement and involvement …
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In the biggest diplomatic event New Delhi will hold in decades, India is set to host the third edition of its summit with the leaders of the renascent African continent in the last week of October, a defining step that is expected to push the envelope for multi-tiered engagement between the two emerging growth poles of the world.
Ending months of speculation, India’s external affairs ministry announced on March 25 that the third India-Africa Forum summit will be held on October 29, and will be preceded by meetings of senior officials and foreign ministers of India and 54 African countries.
The October 26-30 India-Africa summit will be a microcosm of India’s multi-faceted engagement with the continent that harks back to shared anti-colonial solidarity and has morphed into a multi-dimensional relationship that has been mutually empowering and rewarding. This is reflected in burgeoning trade and investment – bilateral trade has exceeded $70 billion and investments from Indian companies into Africa have already crossed $32 billion dollars. Development partnership, pivoted around capacity building and human resource development, is already on an upswing.
Clearly, there is much more India can do. There is a tendency to compare India’s engagement with Africa with that of China’s spectacular success in the continent in areas of trade and investment. China’s bilateral trade with Africa is three times more than that of India’s with the continent. But such comparisons are misleading as the two Asian giants have different histories of engagement with Africa and have a different set of core competencies and capacities.