If Amit Shah is likely to take to the home ministry like a duck to water, Nirmala Sitharaman's handling of finance will show whether she will justify the confidence which Modi has placed in her.
India and the US may ink the landmark nuclear deal as early as Friday after President George W Bush signs into law the legislation on the initiative. The signing of the HR7081, the approval legislation for the US-India civilian nuclear agreement, into law by Bush on Wednesday will be followed by formal inking of the accord by the two countries, which will be done by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee.
'The Modi Model we see now is still the old Gujarat Model.' 'But with an acknowledgement that governing India is more challenging than governing Gujarat,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
Most of the large Indian IT services players, such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and HCL Tech, have signalled increased offshoring efforts and opting for local hires in the US, primarily to address the immigration-related challenges.
Swaraj was admitted to All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) following a deterioration in her health. She passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest.
A meeting chaired by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba reviewed India's preparedness to deal with the virus amid mounting global concern over increasing number of cases in China and several other countries.
Eases regulatory hurdles for Bharti-MTN deal.
'Clearly, Washington has all but given up hope following US Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells's stormy visit to Colombo last month where she read the riot act to Sri Lankan leaders to sign the pending status of forces agreement allowing American troops to use Sri Lanka as a hub for operations in the Indian Ocean,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Cabinet can take a decision on the matter only after the Election Commission's approval.
Meanwhile, Pakistan said the terrorist attack in Pulwama district is "a matter of grave concern" even as it strongly rejected Indian media and government's allegations of the country's link to the strike "without" probe.
Dismissing as unreasonable a United States report on its democracy and human rights situation, China has asked Washington to pay more attention to its own human rights problems and stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.Qin said the US side should stop interfering in the internal affairs of other nations with issues such as democracy and human rights and urged it to 'do more things that are conducive to the advancement of Sino-US mutual trust.'
The 457 visa programme, used by over 95,000 foreign workers, a majority of them Indians, was replaced on March 18 by a new Temporary Skills Shortage visa programme.
Even with a clear mandate, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government is unlikely to allow foreign direct investment in sensitive sectors such as retail and may like to revisit the recently issued norms that give companies elbow room in dealing with the FDI norms.
Approval comes 6 months after Swedish clothing giant applied for India entry; FIPB now to consider on Oct 18.
The meeting is taking place under the shadow of a fierce border row between India and China, both members of the influential bloc.
"The Indian government approached asking us to open the airspace. We conveyed our concerns that first India must withdraw its fighter planes placed forward," Nusrat told the committee.
Support from the committee gives Xi an indefinite extension on the reins of power, which will surely result in hawkish and insular policies. It does not bode well for relations with the USA, or with anyone else who does not bow the knee to Beijing, for that matter.
India's MRP and Packaged Commodities Acts are dated and not in line with the modern world's digital price mechanisms and comparisons.
Retail, telecom, media and a host of sectors in which foreign direct investment is restricted stand to gain from changes in FDI policy that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared on Wednesday linking approvals to the concept of control for the first time.
The ministry of corporate affairs has raised questions on Etihad's rights to nominate three directors on the board and, despite being a minority shareholder in the company, decide on the vice-chairman.
Both the Barack Obama administration and United States lawmakers on Capitol Hill have expressed concern over the Indian Supreme Court's decision to uphold a law that criminalises consensual homosexual conduct.
While the denial rate has dropped slightly to 21 per cent in 2019 from 24 per cent in 2018, the National Foundation for American Policy has said it is much higher for Indian IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro and very low for American companies like Amazon and Google. For instance, the denial rate for TCS and Infosys in 2019 was 31 per cent and 35 per cent respectively, whereas for Wipro it was 47 per cent and 37 per cent for Tech Mahindra. On the other hand, the denial rate for the new H-1B petitions in 2019 was just four per cent each for Amazon and Google. The denial rate for Microsoft during the same period was six per cent, and Facebook along with Walmart was just three per cent each.
The department of economic affairs in the Union finance ministry has suggested aggressive sterilisation of foreign capital inflows, tightening of government expenditure and intervention in key farm produce markets like wheat.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in its draft Cabinet has proposed to further tighten the rules for foreign direct investment in brownfield pharmaceutical sector.
Speaking at Assocham's international retail summit, Rakesh Kacker, additional secretary in the Department of Consumer Affairs, said the government would take a decision at an "appropriate time". He did not specify the time-frame. The move has been in abeyance due to protests from across the political spectrum.
'India appears to have stood its ground on strategic autonomy by resisting US pressure on Russia, China and Iran, but succumbed to the temptation to walk into a tighter embrace in defence cooperation, a high priority of the Trump administration,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
A 'trend analysis' has shown that the target base for the special exercise would not be very large.
From Sri Lanka's most popular political family to its most despised -- going by the voices on the streets calling for the Rajapaksas' ouster -- what went wrong for the clan? Veteran Sri Lanka watcher N Sathiya Moorthy offers an insight.
FDI in the defence sector during 2000-2014 has been a meagre $4.94 billion, despite the total FDI flow into the country across sectors standing at $321.81 billion.
Russia has described the killing of Andrey Karlov at an art exhibition in Ankara as a terror attack.
"The two delegations engaged in productive discussions on working together to address global challenges. They examined new and expanded areas for India-US cooperation," sources said.
India's new tax policy which makes it mandatory to disclose foreign is not so common in developed countries.
The way the present government has dealt with appointments of civil servants remains to be a cause for concern.
'The feeling is growing that if India slips in the realms of liberal tenets, it will be a tragedy not only for the country, but also for the world because it will lose a remarkable role model,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
An influential Hindu organisation in the United States has slammed a group of lawmakers for introducing a resolution in the House of Representatives on record of India's religious freedom arguing that it is grossly inaccurate and aims to provoke.
In what diplomatic observers have described as "a make or break" round of negotiations, senior US and Indian officials held several hours of intense discussions at the State Department on Tuesday in an attempt to seal the 123 Agreement.
International air travel of passengers has been permitted in a limited manner under the Vande Bharat mission. Further opening-up will take place in a calibrated manner.
Other measures being considered include relatively stringent KYC norms and a separate standard operating procedure for approval, renewal, and fresh investment from India's neighbouring countries.
Sujatha Singh is the third senior official to have been dismissed by NDA.
