The highest ranking Indian-American in the Obama Administration, Raj Shah on Wednesday announced to step down as administrator of the US Agency for International Development in mid-February next year after receiving high-praise from the President.
Referring to the developments in Ladakh in the wake of Chinese aggression, he said disengagement with People's Liberation Army was completed from various areas in a peaceful manner and efforts are on through dialogue for disengagement from other areas.
Real estate development on Mumbai airport land and the work on Navi Mumbai airport have been inordinately delayed, which have prompted rating downgrades and raised questions on its financial capabilities. It is also trying to stave off Adani group's entry as a shareholder in the Mumbai airport project.
'Frankly, India has no role to play.' 'This is a showdown between the US and NATO on one hand and Russia on the other.' 'That said, the outcome of this titanic struggle in Central Europe will remould the world order and affect India profoundly,' argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The grant will be in addition to the $20 million provided by China, the world's second largest economy, earlier to the WHO.
The project will be in three stages and sources indicate that the funding will be for the first stage of 107 kilometre from Sarai Kale Khan to SNB Urban Complex.
The Gaganyaan project has the objective of demonstrating human space flight capability to Low Earth Orbit with three crew members in orbit and safely recovering them after the mission.
Xi Jinping is winning the war without firing a shot in Sri Lanka, observes Colonel R Hariharan (retd).
India may see a structural shift in supplies of crude oil with Russia emerging as a key source of fuels, a development that reduces New Delhi's dependence on West Asian oil, gives Indian refiners better bargaining power with price-setter Saudi Arabia, and improves overall energy security. The unexpected surge in supplies of Russian crude in the last few months, unthinkable until the war in Ukraine, may also deliver other unforeseen gains such as boosting exports of refined fuels to Europe, which historically has counted on Russian shipments. India has jumped on to the bandwagon of opportunistic buying of Russian crude but if calibrated carefully, Urals crude can be a long-term asset for India refiners.
At the end of October, Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena handed over the deeds for the transfer of 116 hectares in Colombo Port City to China Harbour Engineering Company on a 99-year lease to build a financial centre.
In a US-India Joint Leaders' Statement issued after the first in-person bilateral meeting between US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on Friday, the two leaders underscored the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan.
Sanjita Chanu will be conferred with the Arjuna award as per a 2018 Delhi High Court order, which directed the selection committee to consider her and keep the decision in a sealed cover to be disclosed only if she was absolved of the doping charges.
To stay on course with their academic calendars, several steps for graduating batches and fresh incoming batches are being taken.
BCCI finally agreed to come under the ambit of NADA, in the process becoming a National Sports Federation despite being financially autonomous.
AQ Khan, a controversial scientist known as the father of Pakistan's clandestine nuclear programme, passed away here on Sunday after a brief illness. He was 85.
Taking part in the first meeting of Foreign Ministers of the neighbouring countries on Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China will provide Afghanistan with 200 million yuan ($31 million) worth of grains, winter supplies, vaccines and medicines as per its requirements, official media in Beijing reported.
Medical experts have warned that the volume of vaccine available to fight the coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2 in coming years is expected to fall far short of global demand, despite an unprecedented effort to manufacture billions of doses.
Without disclosing reasons, ICRA informed the stock exchanges on Thursday, 'The board, after due consideration and taking into account the best interests of the company and its various stakeholders, has decided to terminate the employment of Takkar with immediate effect.'
IPO-bound mobility platform Ola, said it has successfully raised $500 million via a Term Loan B (TLB) from marquee international institutional investors. This term loan has no impact on the valuation of Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola. The Bengaluru-based firm recently raised $139 million. This is part of a $1 billion funding round for which the company is in talks with investors, increasing its valuation to about $7.5 billion, according to the sources.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan are bankers for the bonds
IOA also said that the member State Olympic Associations "will also receive a sum of Rs 15 lakh each, as a contribution from IOA towards developing sports infrastructure in the states and in encouraging more athletes to take up sports."
Takla fled from India after 1993 Mumbai blasts, following which a Red Corner Notice was issued against him in 1995.
Isinbayeva was under pressure to quit as head of RUSADA's supervisory council after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) called for her removal, one of four steps it said were necessary for RUSADA to retrieve its right to oversee the testing of Russian athletes.
The Biden administration has announced that it is delaying the H-1B policy of the previous Trump administration on allocation of the popular foreign work visas by continuing with the lottery system until December 31, 2021, to give the immigration agency more time to develop, test and implement the modifications to the registration system. On January 7, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced to do away with the traditional lottery system in deciding the successful applicants for the H-1B visas. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
India has called the remarks by foreign leaders and organisations on protests by farmers as "ill-informed" and "unwarranted", asserting that the matter pertains to the internal affairs of a democratic country.
"It is a matter of pride for us that India's vaccination programme has been science-born, science-driven and science-based," Modi said.
The US Senate has confirmed Indian-American woman administrator Nisha Desai Biswal as the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, making her the first person from the community to hold the top diplomatic position.
The country received $ 6bn in clean energy investment in 2013, out of a total of USD 62bn from 2006 to 2013.
For Afghans in India, including medical tourists from the war-torn country as well as migrants and refugees staying here much longer, the safety of friends and families is the biggest concern - particularly for those linked to the now collapsed government or who have had work ties with the US.
India's jugalbandhi with coal and clean energy is coming unstuck, neither achieving adequate renewable generation nor ensuring sufficient coal-fired power in the quest to become a $5-trillion economy. Six months have elapsed since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ambitious climate agenda for India at COP26 at Glasgow. The net zero emissions target by 2070 is a distant one, but there are nearer-term plans to meet 50 per cent of energy demand with renewables by 2030 by increasing capacity to 450 Gw. A cursory look at the balance sheet of India's climate progress since November reveals ponderous progress towards meeting the renewables target even as the country is scrambling to expand coal-fired generation in the face of a power crisis.
Khalistan Liberation Force chief Harminder Singh 'Mintoo' who along with five others escaped from the high security jail in Nabha on Sunday, was arrested by Punjab Police after he was deported from Thailand in November 2014.
Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3. He is currently in judicial custody and lodged at the Arthur Road prison in Mumbai.
The airport, which will now be built to handle 20 million passengers, will likely start operations by mid-2020. However, rating agency CRISIL in its report in May-end had said operations are expected to start in 2023.
Nearly a decade ago, the first fully electric vehicle (EV) caught fire on the road in the US. It was a model from Tesla, the world's most admired EV maker. A metal fragment punctured the underbelly of the vehicle, penetrating its battery pack, leading to a fire. Indian lawmakers and automakers have had nine years to study the incident (in fact, three Tesla Model Ss caught fire in two months in 2013) but seem to have learnt little.
The remarks by China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, Geng Shuang, came during an emergency meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan on Monday after the sudden and rapid takeover of the Afghanistan government by the Taliban insurgents.
Vaccine development is a long process to ensure safety and efficacy through different stages and involves regulatory supervision every step of the way. Ruchika Chitravanshi takes you through this carefully drawn journey of vaccine development.
Around 15 years ago, when Reliance Industries (RIL) struck natural gas in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin off the east coast, the government made plans to supply that fuel cheaply to scores of generators that sprang up in India triggered by the discovery. Most of the plants, which account for 6 per cent of India's total generation capacity, operate sparsely after the KG-D6 area first failed to meet production targets, and then finally shut shop. Affordable domestic gas was why those thermal plants came up and the rate of the fuel today is why those generators hardly operate. Record liquefied natural gas (LNG) rates may yet again unravel India's ambitions to expand use of gas in industries, households and vehicles. Rates, while volatile, may stay strong this decade as developed nations with higher purchasing power embrace gas as the transition fuel.
'...the President is pleased to accept the resignation tendered by Shri Ashok Lavasa, Election Commissioner with effect from the 31st August, 2020,' the notification said.
'It is the most prone month for the development of cyclones in the pre-monsoon period.'
Regional States will be worried that the US's nascent engagement with the Taliban behind the fig leaf of humanitarian aid enables the return of US intelligence personnel to Afghanistan, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
