Veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, in his latest book, argues that Pranab Mukherjee should have been made Prime Minister in 2012 instead of Manmohan Singh, who was then recovering from health issues. Aiyar believes this would have prevented the "paralysis of governance" and "doomed" any prospects the Congress might have had to form UPA-III. He also criticizes the government's handling of the Anna Hazare-led agitation and the Commonwealth Games scandal, which he believes contributed to the party's downfall in the 2014 general elections.
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.
The queen ascended to the throne when the future prime minister was four months old.
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.
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.
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.
Athletes should not be apprehensive about security at the Commonwealth Games in October despite concerns raised by Australia, the head of the Games organising federation said on Friday.
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.
India and Canada have mutually beneficial political and economic linkages. The two countries should get together and find a solution. The expulsion war should, in the meantime, be a guarantee against any deterioration of the situation, asserts Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, the first Indian head of mission to be ever expelled by any country.
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'
Charles will be crowned the King of the United Kingdom amid spectacular pomp and pageantry at Westminster Abbey in London on Saturday in a solemn religious ceremony that dates back almost a thousand years.
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.
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.
'The group commands 85 per cent of the global GDP, and if you are able to convey your point of view effectively to this group then you have reached more or less all the important players that matter.'
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday made a historic visit to the former war zone of Jaffna to "shine a light on the chilling events" during the last phase of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, hours after Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa cautioned against turning the Commonwealth into a "punitive and judgemental body".
Queen Elizabeth II, who died aged 96 on Thursday, was the first British monarch to accede to the throne after India's Independence from colonial rule in 1952 and admired the 'richness and diversity' of India where she made three State Visits over the course of her reign -- in 1961, 1983 and 1997.
Queen Elizabeth II made 3 State visits to India -- in 1961, 1983 and 1997.
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.
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.
The Phogats became a household name in the country after the success of Hindi film 'Dangal', which is based on the lives of Phogat sisters, all of them wrestlers, and their father who coached them against all odds.
Ahead of Monday's funeral service, the President is invited to a reception hosted by King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla at Buckingham Palace.
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.
He was permanently absorbed into the ED cadre in 2014 and has headed some high-profile investigations into the 2G spectrum allocation case, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the money laundering cases against former Union finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, the Aircel Maxis and VVIP choppers case.
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.
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.
President Droupadi Murmu on Monday joined around 500 world leaders, including US President Joe Biden and royals from across the world, at Westminster Abbey for a sombre ceremony to bid farewell to Queen Elizabeth II, the UK's longest-serving monarch.
Ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, a Sri Lankan man, who migrated to Australia, has filed war crimes charges against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in a Melbourne court. Rajapaksa is scheduled to arrive in Melbourne to participate in the CHOGM to be held at Perth. Jegan Waran, a retired engineer who migrated to Australia from Sri Lanka, said before the magistrate that he was still haunted by what he saw in the hospitals.
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.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi on Saturday welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision not to take part in the Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka in view of opposition by political parties in Tamil Nadu.
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.
People of the Trinidad and Tobago surprised all when they elected 58-year-old Kamla Persad Bissesar as the country's prime minister. The political coalition led by her won 29 of the 41 seats in parliament, the results of which were announced on May 26. She heads the United National Congress party.
The king and his wife, Camilla, the queen consort, travelled from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey -- a distance of 2.2-km -- at a stately pace in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach bearing a gilded crown, which was commissioned for Queen Elizabeth II in 2012.
The meeting between Dr Singh and Sarkozy on climate change assumes significance as it came just ten days before the Copenhagen Summit on the issue.
Moving swiftly after the conclusion of the Commonwealth Games, the government constituted a high-level committee headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General VK Shungloo to look into the organising and conduct of the Games.
No meeting or interaction has been requested or scheduled with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi so far.
The main Opposition BNP of former premier Khaleda Zia, 78, who is under house arrest, is boycotting the elections amidst violence.
