India and the United States have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on counter-terrorism and five other pacts as they ventured to chart their ties as "one of the defining relations" in the 21st century in which India will have a leadership role in the region and the world.
US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday effusively praised each other after their first substantive meeting with the US President calling the Prime Minister a man of "honesty and integrity" who has helped unleash India's "extraordinary economic growth".
India's growth rate, which slowed down to 6.5 per cent this fiscal because of global financial meltdown, is expected to get back to around 9 per cent within two years.
Reaching out to the American business community, he said, virtually all spheres of Indian economy are open for participation by foreign investors and "no investors will be more welcome than investors from this great country".
Coinciding with the Copenhagen meet, India is considering a legislation incorporating all its action plans and national missions aimed at reducing dependence on coal based fuels.
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav announced a state-wide 'jail bharo' agitation on Wednesday against Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh and asked the Centre to "mend" its policies, but was silent on the issue of withdrawing support from the Congress-led UPA. "The 'jail bharo' agitation will not be symbolic. You all will have to go to jail...I will court arrest in Lucknow," Yadav said at the inaugural session of the party's Special National Conference in Agra.
With its ties with Congress under strain, the Samajwadi Party will elicit views of partymen on withdrawing support from the United Progressive Alliance and chalk out agitational programme against the Mayawati government at its special national conference beginning in Agra on Tuesday.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi termed as a 'positive development' the Joint Statement issued last week after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in Sharm-el Sheikh, Egypt, and said it needed to be taken forward.
Notwithstanding the resolution of G-8 countries on curbing transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technology, India on Thursday asserted that it was proceeding with bilateral civil nuclear deals with various countries on the basis of 'clean waiver' granted by the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
India on Thursday asked Pakistan to demonstrate the same 'force' to deal with terror groups like Laskar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed like it has done against the Taliban in Swat Valley.
Notwithstanding their differences on the boundary question, India and China on Wednesday vowed to deepen their multi-faceted ties for a "lasting friendship" as Union External Affairs Minister S M Krishna met his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Phuket.
Raising the pitch for concerted and joint fight against terrorism, India on Wednesday pressed for 'cooperative regional approaches' to defeat the scourge and early adoption by the United Nations of an international convention against terror.
Noting that terrorism is haunting the Asian and Central Asian regions, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday underlined the need for "genuine" cooperation among countries on a global scale to resolutely defeat the menace.
Addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Yekaterinburg (Russia), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said that India is seeking an external environment conducive to its sustained high economic growth which is necessary to meet its developmental objectives.
In the first top-level contact since the Mumbai terror attacks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday during which he is understood to have made it clear that Pakistan should take concrete action against terrorism directed against India.
Dr Singh and Zardari shook hands after they posed for a group photo with leaders of other Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member nations -- Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
Declaring India's readiness to contribute to global efforts to overcome the economic crisis, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Yekaterinburg on Monday night to attend the Summits of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and Brazil-Russia-India-China.
"Nests and sanctuaries are located in territories of some countries," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Kabul on Thursday, adding that there was no need to name them. Maintaining that all countries should fulfil their international and bilateral obligations and deny sanctuary to terrorists, Mukherjee said: "They will have to fight against the menace of terrorism at whatever cost."
A total of six Indians, including a Border Roads Organisation driver and four ITBP soldiers, and 129 Afghans were killed in these attacks. The 215-km long Delaram-Zaranj highway, a symbol of India's developmental work in the war-ravaged country, was handed over to Afghan authorities by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the presence of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta.
Despite facing the fury of floods every year, Bihar and Assam are among the states where legislative measures, suggested by the Centre to minimise the damage, have been pending for the past 33 years.The model bill, prepared by the Central Water Commission way back in 1975, will empower authorities to remove dwellings from flood-prone areas.The bill, if implemented, will seek to replace dwellings in low-lying areas by parks and playgrounds.
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