Suresh Kalmadi brought several top-class events to India including the 2003 Afro Asian Games, the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games, the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Global rights group Human Rights Watch has asked the Commonwealth to shift its meeting, scheduled for November, out of Sri Lanka, unless Colombo makes "prompt, measurable, and meaningful progress on human rights".
"Commonwealth Games in India would leave lasting impact by boosting tourism, and creating jobs, the Government said in a statement.
'I have no doubt the players share the compassion and feeling of the vast majority of the Indian public.'
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned 75, wishes poured in from across the country, with sporting icons Gautam Gambhir, R Praggnanandhaa, and Olympic medallist shooter Manu Bhaker sending their heartfelt messages.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh arrived on Thursday afternoon from Washington, DC to attend the three-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Port of Spain.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh could meet his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting scheduled to be held in November in Trinidad, sources said.However, when asked about the meeting, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, who met his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi in New York on Sunday, said,: "We have just come out of one (meeting). So, give us some time."
With Pakistan's possible suspension from the grouping expected to dominate the Commonwealth Heads of Government meet, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left Delhi on Thursday for Kampala where hot issues like climate change, human rights and terrorism will also be on the agenda.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will not attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting later this month, effectively ruling out the possibility of talks with his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the summit. Pakistan will be represented by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the meeting to be held at Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago during November 27-29, official sources told PTI.
The severe backlash that the Indian cricket team faced before its Asia Cup clash against Pakistan was a major contributing factor to the 'No Handshake Policy.
Having immense experience in dealing with global issues, Sharma has served with distinction at various key positions, including as India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and spokesperson for developing countries in the UNCTAD during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has confirmed that President Vladimir Putin has accepted an invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit India. The visit is currently being prepared, though the dates have not yet been revealed. This visit follows Prime Minister Modi's trip to Russia in July 2024, his first since 2019. The two leaders have maintained regular contact and have emphasized the strength of the Russian-Indian strategic partnership.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay a two-day working visit to the US from February 12 during which he will meet President Donald Trump, the external affairs ministry announced. The visit will give further impetus and direction to India-US bilateral relationship. Prior to his US visit, Modi will be in France from February 10-12 to co-chair the AI Action Summit with French President Emmanuel Macron. He will also visit Cadarache, the site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor of which India is a partner. During his visit to France from February 10-12, Modi and Macron will also address the India-France CEOs forum. The prime minister and Macron will travel to Marseille where they will inaugurate the Consulate General of India. The leaders will also visit the war cemetery and pay tribute to the sacrifices made by Indian soldiers in World War 1. Modi and Macron will visit Cadarache, the site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). There has been a very close rapport between Trump and Modi, dating back to the US leader's first term. There is a clear convergence of interests between the two countries in several areas, including trade, investment, technology, defense cooperation, counterterrorism, Indo-Pacific security, and people-to-people relations.
Fiji will lodge an appeal against their exclusion from the 2010 Commonwealth Games with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Athletes from the Pacific Island nation have been banned from competing at next year's Games in India after Commonwealth leaders, meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, upheld an earlier decision to exlude Fiji. The Commonwealth suspended Fiji in September after the nation failed to meet a deadline for opening talks on a return to democracy.
According to sources the proposal has been scuppered by the British commerce ministry, which was not consulted, and which is the sectoral ministry for trade and investment.
Sharma has to be a catalyst working like an honest broker pleading for the interest of the developing countries of the Afro-Asian region with the developed West. He has to tread cautiously carrying with him the goodwill of both the developed countries and that of the developing countries.
Britain's King Charles is on a personal visit to Bengaluru where he is staying at a sprawling integrative medical facility near Whitefield, sources said on Wednesday.
K Natwar Singh wore many hats as he straddled the worlds of diplomacy, politics and writing but what remained consistent across decades was his sharp-wit and plainspeaking.
After a busy day in Stockholm, Sweden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the United Kingdom on Wednesday. PM Modi is in London to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The PM will also have a top-level meeting with Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May as well as a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at the Buckingham Palace. Here's a glimpse of NaMo's busy English day.
For many years now, India has given the Commonwealth short shrift so its support for the Commonwealth trade initiative signals a renewed interest in the body.
With some countries like Britain and Canada seeking to bring alleged human rights violations in the Sri Lankan civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam under the scanner during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting summit, President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday asked member nations not to turn the Commonwealth into a "punitive and judgmental" body and desist from introducing bilateral agendas.
Because of his proximity to Indira Gandhi, he was able to intervene directly at the level of the PMO, which he did in the days leading up to the partition of Pakistan in 1971 when he transferred crucial information about Pakistan's moves via information handed to him by an East Pakistani diplomat in Poland where he was posted.
The papayas from Mumbai were too squishy, the chef raced through the streets of Goa in a police jeep to look for fruit ripened just right only to have security personnel puncture many a hole through them... a new book recalls in detail the struggle to procure and plate perfect papayas for Indira Gandhi during a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 1983.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a triple blow following crushing defeats for his Conservative Party in two important by-elections that also prompted the resignation of the party's chairman and one of his close allies, raising another major challenge to the embattled premier's leadership.
After quitting the United Progressive Alliance coalition on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam on Monday demanded that India should boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting scheduled to be held in Colombo in November.
It was the third and last leg of Modi's three-nation tour to the UK, Sweden and Germany.
IOA president P T Usha on Sunday slammed the revolting executive council members, saying they 'seem more focused on self-serving power play and monetary gain'
The queen ascended to the throne when the future prime minister was four months old.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left New Delhi for Kampala, Uganda, on Thursday to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Before his departure, Dr Singh said India was strongly committed to the Commonwealth's role of nurturing a sense of belonging to a shared past and a shared destiny based on common values.
Prime Minister Modi addressed the second plenary of the executive session, during which he reiterated India's focus on small island developing nations of the organisation and delivering 'demand-driven, rather than donor-driven' assistance to the organisation's smaller member states.
The bilateral talks took place as the formal heads of government meeting got underway in London on Thursday, following a formal launch by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.
'The Tamils in military occupied areas are being denied the Right to Livelihood and Right to Life. How can India allow the Sri Lankan government to forget that there are over 80,000 war widows? Many of them are maimed, living in inhuman conditions and unable to earn a living. What concerns Tamils in Sri Lanka concerns the Tamils in India,' says Dr Gabriele Dietrich, a grassroot activist and a naturalised Indian citizen.
Triple Olympic gold medalist sprinter Usain Bolt will take part in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi said in Port of Spain.
Pak Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said despite acknowledging at a bilateral meeting in at Sharm-el-Sheikh that dialogue was the only way forward for the two countries, India did not yet appear to be ready.
A new agency is likely to be created for technical partnership among the Commonwealth countries, an initiative in which India can contribute in a big way, particularly by extending its IT expertise to smaller nations of the 53-member grouping, sources said on Tuesday.
Taking a potshot at arch rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday said while he had demanded that India should not take part in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, he kept mum on Lankan cricketers playing in an IPL team owned by his family.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision not to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Colombo has once again put the focus on alleged cases of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to articulate his concerns on the terrorism emanating from Pakistan during his meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington on November 24. Dr Singh is also expected to tell Obama that India wants Pakistan to dismantle the terrorism infrastructure operating on its soil and ensure that its land is not used to launch acts of terror against India.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) will apply for the inclusion of women's cricket at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Durban, South Africa, the governing body has said.
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