In a country where poverty and corruption rule, it is be unthinkable to spend Rs 50,000 crore on a two-week sports spectacle, says T N Ninan.
Amid souring ties, the president visited Beijing for three days. On his return to India, a hope of better ties has arisen, says senior correspondent R Rajagopalan, who travelled with Pranab Mukherjee to the Asian superpower.
Modi hailed the close defence cooperation between the two countries and welcomed the completion of the logistics agreement between the two navies.
This is Modi's first visit to the Maldives as prime minister. The last visit by an Indian Prime Minister to the Indian Ocean island nation was by Manmohan Singh in 2011.
Caster Semenya is not excited about the prospect of having her 2012 Olympic and 2011 world championships silver medals upgraded to gold in the wake of Mariya Savinova-Farnosova doping ban, the coach of the South African 800 metres athlete said on Sunday.
The ruling Congress in Arunachal Pradesh has said that it was opposed to construction of a dam by China in the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra River.
'The Chinese government lied to the world about the danger and contagious nature of COVID-19, silenced whistleblowers, and did little to stop the spread of the disease'
'The Chinese made their point repeatedly after August 5. They backed Pakistan more overtly than in the past.' 'Kashmir is not completely off their radar. But in order to keep the atmosphere surrounding the Chennai meeting, they did not discuss Kashmir.'
'While wishing the Tibetan leader a long and healthy life, one can hope for a 'selection' of the Tibetan leader in the Indian Himalayas.' 'It is vital for Tibetan Buddhism, but it is also in India's political interests,' says Claude Arpi.
China on Wednesday rejected a $2.4bn Coca-Cola deal that would have been the country's biggest foreign takeover, stoking fears of protectionism and warnings the decision could scupper Beijing's push to invest in overseas mining companies.
A criminal probe into four specific areas including hijacking and sabotage has cleared all 227 passengers aboard the ill-fated Flight MH370, Malaysian police chief said on Wednesday.
Pakistan should also be accorded the same 'privilege', the Global Times said.
Over 2.52 lakh who were in close contacts with patients had been traced with over 1.85 lakh others still under medical observation.
Sources also asserted that there was a "status quo" at the Dokalam for past six weeks.
'While China expressed reservations on the Indian role in the South China Sea, Beijing threw to the winds Indian concerns on Kashmir by announcing $46 billion in investments Pakistan occupied Kashmir,' says Srikanth Kondapalli.
The Chinese leader will display his grip on the Communist party and chart his plans for his country's future.
Iran's decision to keep India out and welcome China to the scene is a huge strategic setback for India, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
He said countries should work for promoting open and inclusive cooperation for win-win outcomes.
A Taiwanese warship on Friday "mistakenly" fired a supersonic "anti-ship missile" towards China as it celebrated 95th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party amid assertions by President Xi Jinping ruling out independence for Taiwan.
When China protested strongly over the August decision on J&K -- not once but twice -- we ignored it. And to compound matters, we simply turned our back and walked over to the 'Quad' alliance with the US, upgrading it to ministerial level, and thereafter began following the American footfalls on Taiwan and COVID-19 to taunt and humiliate Beijing, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A delegation of the Communist Party of China left Beijing for a visit to India, the official Xinhua news agency said in a brief report. The delegation is headed by Liu Qibao, member of the CPC's powerful Central Committee.
Deployment of THAAD in South Korea could unfold a new cataclysm in the Korean Peninsula with unwelcome prospects.
Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of US forces in the Pacific, told the Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-level defence forum in Singapore, that PLA navy had started "reciprocating" US navy's tactics of sending ships and aircraft into the 200-nautical-mile zone off China's coast.
The overall confirmed cases on the mainland have reached 80,881 by the end of Monday.
This is the time when the US would need the conceptual strategic thinking of a Henry Kissinger, able to ally diplomatic skills with a well-conceived worldview of what the emergence of a new balance of forces will mean for a US whose ability to shape global events has definitely declined but still exists, says Claude Smadja.
In the first major anti-Beijing protests by Tibetans after the Lhasa riots, hundreds of people from the community attacked a police station and government officials in northwest China, leading to arrests of nearly 100 pro-Dalai Lama monks, authorities said on Sunday.
The war of words between China and the US heated up on Tuesday with an American Admiral defending last week's US naval ship's foray near Chinese-made artificial islands in the area while Beijing blasted the move as a "blatant provocation".
China released a white paper against the UN-backed tribunal's verdict, insisting that Beijing has claims over the strategic region for 2,000 years.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a December ruling that temporarily banned the sale of large diesel cars in New Delhi to combat toxic smog in India's capital.
'It is an unpleasant fact of history that stronger nations dominate the power play and the only way it can be mitigated is through recourse to diplomacy,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The Chinese -- up to the highest leadership -- will avoid a conflict because they know they will be badly licked.' 'The reputation they have painstakingly built over the last two-three decades of being a global power will be destroyed.'
'The optimistic advice might be "fasten your seat belts" and the pessimistic one might just turn out to be "brace for impact",' says Claude Smadja.
President Trump, forcefully pursuing his 'America first" policy, has previously described India as a "tariff king" for imposing "tremendously high" tariffs on American products, also expressed dissatisfaction over the US-India trade ties. "Well, we can have a trade deal with India, but I'm really saving the big deal for later on," Trump, who is scheduled to visit India on February 24 and 25, told reporters at the Joint Base Andrews outside Washington on Tuesday when asked whether he expects a trade deal with India before the visit.
The Foreign Ministry also posted a 15-page fact sheet with maps and other details about the standoff since it began on June 16.
The president said China would never allow "any people, organisation or political party to split any part of Chinese territory out of the country at any time, in any form."
A Chinese court on Sunday sentenced leading anti-corruption activist to four years in jail for his role during the transparency campaign, escalating a crackdown on his movement, drawing international criticism.
'Of course, Maldives is chicken feed for the Indian armed forces. And an intervention in the Maldives may serve the purpose of creating jingoism in an election year.' 'But from the foreign policy perspective, any such move will be a flagrant violation of international law and the UN Charter,' warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
As the virus continued to spread at an alarming rate, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday warned officials of punishment if they shirked responsibility in tackling the virus outbreak.
China's state-owned news agency put the death toll from Friday's violent protests in Lhasa at 10, adding most of those dead were 'business people'. Violence erupted when protesters, led by Buddhist monks, clashed with Chinese troops in the biggest and angriest demonstrations in two decades against the Chinese rule. Meanwhile, China has vowed to 'deal sternly' with those engaged in 'activities of splitting the nation'.
A former secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China was on Monday sentenced to 5 years in prison for dereliction of duty in one of the largest election frauds in the country, involving a bribery of more than USD 18 million.
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