Why did the company zero in on RBL Bank to understand the business of banking? While the M&M investors heaved a sigh of relief, one gentleman must have been all smiles after this, RBL Bank MD and CEO R Subramaniakumar, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The China-brokered deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia to revive diplomatic ties should not be a matter of concern for India as the pact would provide regional stability and would be beneficial for New Delhi's interests as well, Iranian ambassador Iraj Elahi said on Friday.
United States feels that Kashmir issue won't be part of the agenda during talks between foreign ministers of India and Pakistan next month as the meeting will focus mainly on action against terrorism and the progress Islamabad has made into the Mumbai attacks probe.
The US has said that this is not the appropriate moment for India and Pakistan to hold discussions on the Kashmir issue, as they need to go for confidence building measures first.
The Taliban and the Al Qaeda seem to have quietly expanded their recruiting base from South and Central Asia to European nations like Germany, United Kingdom and France and even to the United States, with many of the new recruits traveling to Pakistan and Afghanistan for terror training. The Washington Post, in a major article on Monday, said the new target countries are now struggling to stop their nationals from being recruited by the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Three persons, identified as Ankhi Das from New Delhi, Ram Sahu from Mungeli (Chhattisgarh) and Vivek Sinha from Indore (Madhya Pradesh), were booked.
"It is important that they feel that they're going to be able to live a future of hope and of opportunity, that the internally displaced people that are now in camps -- there are still approximately 100,000 of them -- that they be allowed to go back to their homes," US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake said.
'The threat of ceding space to China in Afghanistan appears to be one factor propelling our government to get a bit more active now.'
United States has begun preparations to accord a "robust" welcome to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in November, the first state visit of the Obama administration, to make it a special visit for the Indian leader and a "milestone" event in the Indo-US relationship.
The 25-year-old's story is an inspiration for young Indians.
Terming reconciliation with Taliban as "necessary", a senior state department official has said that there is nothing "evil" about engaging militants in the political process if they abandon violence. "I think it's necessary, but I wouldn't necessarily call it that evil," US assistant secretary of state for south and central Asia, Richard Boucher said.
Robert O Blake, the new Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, making his debut before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Thursday, said Secretary of State Hillary's Clinton's trip to India next month will be a tangible manifestation of the Obama Administration's commitment to take the Indo-US relationship to the next level.
The historic Indo-United States civilian nuclear agreement is on the right track, even as New Delhi has to complete a few formalities in this regard, said a top US diplomat. "It (nuke deal) is going very well, Senator. There are still a couple of steps that the Indians have to take to fully implement that agreement," Ambassador Robert Blake, the Obama nominee for the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said.
The Assistant Secretary of State said trade and agriculture is a major pillar of Indo-US relationship.
Foreign Service Officer Robert Orris Blake, Jr, who is currently the United States' Ambassador to Sri Lanka, before which he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in New Delhi from 2003 to 2006, is the top contender for the post of the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, currently held by diplomat Richard Boucher.
With an aim to increase its exports business, biscuit maker Britannia Industries is betting big on new international markets.
A federal counter intelligence probe against former top American diplomat Robin Raphel, who also lobbied for Pakistan post retirement, would not impact America's ties with South Asian countries, a US official has said.
Dr Shreekant Sambrani pays tribute to M S Swaminathan, renowned agricultural scientist and a lifelong crusader against hunger who passed away in Chennai recently.
Ajmal's story is as much the story of hopeless poverty as of state failure as of recalcitrant regional hegemony as of misplaced concreteness.
The report has been lauded by a cross section of US lawmakers, academics and non-governmental organisations for its sustained effort to alleviate the lot of Hindu minorities in several countries in South and Central Asia, the Middle East.
The 41-year-old former Soviet Air Force pilot dubbed the 'merchant of death', is accused of supplying weapons to rebels in Colombia and warring sides in several countries reeling under civil conflict in Africa and Central Asia, using the cover of his air cargo business.
Searchers using sonar equipment on Wednesday located the wreckage of the ill-fated AirAsia plane carrying 162 people at the bottom of the Java Sea off Indonesia, even as bad weather hampered the recovery of many bloated bodies seen floating around the crash site.
'We would like to develop Andhra Pradesh into a logistics hub not only for India, but also for South Asia.'
Although the pact would focus mainly on the Pacific and the South China Sea region, any action designed to deter China with or without New Delhi's active participation is a welcome move, notes Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
The 31-year-old left-hander, who was arrested on Sunday ahead of the team's departure from Australia, was denied bail by a local court in Sydney on Monday, even as the SLC suspended him from all forms of the game with immediate effect.
If you consider yourself a passionate India traveller, have a go at this quiz on fallen-off-the-map places to visit in our country.
"These funds have been used to help Pakistan prosecute the war on terror along the Pakistan-Afghan border," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher said.
"No other relationship of India has as many layers as our relations with China. We are the world's two most populous countries and among the fastest growing major economies. Our cooperation is expanding," he said.
Reliance Industries, India's most valuable company, and state-run gas firm GAIL India on Tuesday joined hands to set up a multi-billion-dollar petrochemical plant in gas-rich Middle-East, Central Asia or Russia.
The literacy rate reflected in census data in 2001 was 71 per cent among India's 15-to-35-year-olds. It placed the number of non-literates in 7+ age group at 304 million and in 15-35 age group at 100 million.
'The US-India relationship is in a different league altogether,' Obama administration officials tell Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com in Washington, DC.
'This committee underscores the Indian State's longstanding conventional approach to leverage top-down conflict management in North East India in general and Manipur in particular.' 'Trying to 'manage' violent conflicts top-down has not worked in the past, and apparently does not seem to work this time either.'
