10 takeaways from the prime minister's UN speech.
Barack Obama is expected to ask for India's support to create a global coalition against ISIS when he meets Narendra Modi on Monday. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com reports from New York.
Weakened by two fierce political opponents and the army in Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's United Nations speech was to address his domestic audience.
'It will be like a never-before-visit by an Indian prime minister to America,' a senior diplomat told Rediff.com
'Only he can bring change in India that all of us have been dreaming of since we saw America for the first time when our plane touched down at JFK airport.' Narendra Modi's friends in New York and New Jersey travel down memory lane and remember a simple man with great ambition. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com tracks down the Modi bhakts, who knew since his first visit in 1993 that he was destined for bigger things.
The US State Department and other lobbies who denied Modi a visa when he was chief minister of Gujarat, says one organiser of the Madison Square Garden event, will get a clear idea of what kind of "force" is behind Modi in America. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com meets the people behind the event in New York and finds out what's in store for Sunday's show.
For the last 40 years, Modi fasts during Navratras devoted to Ma Amba. He drinks lukewarm water and sometime he eats a fruit a day.
'A historic reception of this size is an extraordinary statement for the broad appeal of such a dynamic, action-oriented, people-first leader,' says Dr Bharat Barai.
Once again an Indian prime minister has realised that with Pakistan and China, things will not move as he wishes.
'He also presented a facsimile of the scroll that was given to Gandhiji in Johannesburg in 1908 by the Chinese community there. I think that was quite a thoughtful gift,' Sabarmati Ashram Director Tridip Suhrud tells Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
So what is Prime Minister Narendra Modi serving Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Sabarmati riverside dinner on Wednesday? Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com procured the menu.
Four Gujarat ministers were handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to organise the reception for Chinese President Xi Jinping, right from the welcome at the airport to the menu for the dinner at the Sabarmati riverfront, reports Sheela Bhatt.
Despite the administration's best efforts, all the maladies of small towns can't be wished away overnight, not even for the president of China, reports Sheela Bhatt from Ahmedabad.
'India and China have to make concrete progress with regard to the border issue, addressing the trade deficit, and facilitating people-to-people interactions. This has to happen in the next two, three years.' China expert Tansen Sen tells Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com how India and China can take their relations to the next level.
Narendra Modi will turn 64, playing host to the visiting Chinese leader in Ahmedabad on Wednesday
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"The visit of the President of China is extremely important," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi talking about President Xi Jinping's visit starting on Wednesday.
'The Modi-Xi and Modi-Obama meetings, with an interval of just 12 days, are juxtaposed superbly at a crucial point in the prime minister's life. Can Modi carve out a win-win situation with the superpower and the emerging superpower at the same time?'
GST implementation could happen in September itself, with the next meeting of the Union Cabinet likely to take up the matter.
The frenzy to be present at the Madison Square Garden on September 28 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the Indian-American community likely rivals a rock concert held at the famous New York venue.
'I have never seen the Kashmiris in a more conciliatory mood or a more defensive and reasonable mood than I did when I went there in May. All of them said, "raasta nikaliye".' 'Farooq Abdullah has said hundreds of times that the LoC has to be recognised as the international boundary. So that is where the solution lies, it lies on the LoC.' A S Dulat, former RAW chief, explains why he is perplexed by the Modi government's decision to call off foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan.
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