India on Monday said that gas imports from Iran by pipeline passing through Pakistan was indispensable to its economic growth and will enter into trilateral dialogue on the pipeline early next year.
Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar on Tuesday denied any differences within the government on the $4.16-billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline and said New Delhi was going ahead with the project as scheduled.
Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar will take up Oil and Natural Gas Corp's proposal to acquire 15-20 per cent stake in embattled Russian firm Yukos' core asset, Yuganskneftegaz, when he meets his Russian counterpart in Moscow on February 21.
In remarks that are likely to stoke a controversy, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Friday mocked Narendra Modi's prime ministerial ambitions and said a place will be identified for the Gujarat chief minister to distribute tea in New Delhi.
Union sports minister Mani Shankar Aiyar lashed out at the Indian Hockey Federation, saying "it is a matter of shame that a team which has been part of the Olympics for the past 80 years and won several gold and silver medals failed to qualify for the Beijing Games". Eight-time champions India lost 0-2 to Great Britain on Sunday night in the final of the second Olympic qualifier in Santiago, Chile, and failed to make it to the quadrennial event for the first time in 80 years.
Close on the heels of initiating a dialogue with Iran and Myanmar on importing gas through onland pipelines, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar will soon visit Turkmenistan and Afghanistan to explore the possibility of bringing natural gas from Ce
Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar will visit Pakistan on March 15 and 16 to attend the SAARC Energy Ministers' meeting and hold talks with Pakistan on the India-Iran trans-national gas pipeline.
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta on Mani Shankar Aiyar's belief that India should secure its energy supplies by engaging with neighbours in Asia.
Urging India, China, and Pakistan for a universal nuclear disarmament agreement, Mani Shankar Aiyar said that many countries were realising how useless the weapons are; they are extremely expensive, they are dangerous and probably will never be used. Priyanka reports.
E-mails started originating from the leader's personal Hotmail account on Wednesday and were circulated to all in his address book stating that he had misplaced his wallet in England and was in urgent need of $3,500 to clear his hotel bills and get himself back home.
As the battle between the Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party over Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy continues, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Monday hit out at the National Democratic Alliance government saying it has no understanding of Nehru's values.
President Pratibha Patil has nominated five prominent citizens to the Rajya Sabha, based on recommendations made by the Union cabinet.
'While the meeting on December 6th was perfectly legal, was it ethical?' asks Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu might still lack basic amenities, but lack of development has not deterred its MP Mani Shankar Aiyar from embarking on a flamboyant campaign.
Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar was appointed chairman of the reconstituted Apex Committee for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
He promised a complete loan waiver to farmers as soon as the Congress formed government in the state.
Congress member of Parliament Mani Shankar Aiyar says the Bofors case must be treated as closed and the Bharatiya Janata Party should learn that truth cannot be unveiled by resorting to "character assassination and downright lies".
Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar will visit Pakistan in May to boost bilateral energy ties and discuss the $4.16 billion Iran-India gas pipeline project.
Aggressive bidding between the two Asian giants in acquiring foreign assets have cost Beijing billions of extra dollars.\n
The Congress party is a circus and every party member has to be a part of it in his attempts to seek a greener pasture.
Ruing that his party is giving a "muted response" to the challenge of communalism in Narendra Modi-ruled Gujarat, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Friday said the communal contagion has also "infected" his own partymen in the state.
Teja Sajja is agile and a decent actor but not charismatic enough to watch in almost every frame, observes Deepa Gahlot.
It is not as if the political class is unaware of the magnitude of the issues India faces. The disconnect is in the politician's belief that it is enough to manage the outrage to get re-elected, that electoral sops rather than long-term solutions is the road to sustain power, says Shankkar Aiyar, author of Accidental India: A History of the Nation's Passage through Crisis and Change.
Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Tuesday said he will be "unhappy" if the Commonwealth Games are a success, and only "evil" will patronise them, remarks which were quickly dismissed by both his party and the BJP.
'Surprised and pained that my name has been dragged into Indian domestic politics,' says Pakistan's former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri.
Sonia stated that it was not surprising that people would back one of their own, said Tharoor.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav had thrown barbs at the prime minister over his having no family.
Amid the raging Israel-Hamas war, a group of opposition leaders, including MP Danish Ali and former parliamentarians Mani Shankar Aiyar and K C Tyagi, visited the Palestine Embassy in New Delhi on Monday to express solidarity with Palestinians.
India and China should follow the path of cooperation and not confrontation in their quest for overseas energy sources, Union Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Thursday.
"While there may be scope for improving the grammar and the language, let us get to the substance of the issue," he told Karan Thapar in an interview for CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate show.
Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar on Thursday denied having presented to the Cabinet a proposal for raising LPG and kerosene prices.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar may soon meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to decide on fuel pricing in the wake of spiraling international oil prices.
BJP's women's wing on Wednesday sent a saffron saree to Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar for his reported remarks that women should cut down the purchase of sarees and going to the cinema.
India on Tuesday said its vote against Iran's nuclear plans will not affect the prospects of the proposed $7.4 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline and its $22 billion deal to import LNG from Tehran.\n\n
"They (BJP) should announce their leader. They are fighting like cats and dogs. We are having our 'Chintan Shivir' here, they can't even hold a 'Shivir' like this because they are the puppets of RSS what will they think. They are anxious, but they very well twisted the words and said that it's not Congress's 'Chintan Shivir' but the Congress is nervous. This is their thinking. The people have rejected them," Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar said.
Former Union panchayat raj minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, lately in the news for denouncing the Commonwealth Games, is aiming his guns much closer to the United Progressive Alliance government's heart, at the way it is implementing the flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
His five-year rule saw the Babri Masjid demolition, the rise of the saffron forces and also the country being placed firmly on a new economic path, away from the Nehru years of public sector socialism.