"India is one of our most important allies and creating an exchange program between members of the US Congress and Representatives of India's Parliament will only deepen our ties and lead to greater understanding between our countries," McDermott said.
Indian Intelligence agencies have drawn much flak for their glaring lack in communication that failed to preempt the 26/11 terror attacks last year. American intelligence agencies operating in South Asia also don't share information with each other, Massachusetts Democrat and Senator John F Kerry, who recently visited Indian, Pakistan and Afghanistan, revealed during a Congressional hearing on Tuesday.
Virtually supporting India's precondition for any peace talks with Pakistan, a top United States diplomat on Thursday said Islamabad needs to do more to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack, which claimed over 170 lives including six Americans. Robert Blake, now tipped to become the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Bureau of the State Department, told a powerful Congressional Committee that Pakistan needs to do more on 26/11.
United States vice president-elect Joe Biden will lead a bipartisan Congressional delegation on a visit to Southwest Asia before he takes office alongside Barack Obama on January 20. For security reasons, details of the trip and the countries to be visited have not been released. Biden would be accompanied by Senator John Kerry, the former Democratic Presidential candidate and the incoming Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Given the rate at which the USCIS has now been receiving the H-1B applications on a daily basis, officials said it would not be a surprise that they announce that the cap has been reached before the end of this year.
'Washington senses that the anchor sheet of India's strategic autonomy lies in its longstanding partnership with Russia, which remains firm and immutable despite the changes in world politics in the post-Cold War era,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.<
In an escalating diplomatic row, India has asked the United States to return IDs issued to all its consular officers posted in the country, a move which may be a precursor to reviewing immunity and benefits enjoyed by them as a protest to the treatment meted out to India's deputy consul general in New York.
Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, went ballistic at a forum in Washington DC, slamming Congressional critics, the media and leading analysts who have predicted that Pakistan is on the verge of becoming a failed state and bound to implode, and those who have accused the ISI of colluding with al Qaeda and the Taliban while Islamabad rakes in the massive largesse of American economic and security assistance.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services said it has received approximately 49,000 H-1B petitions till August seven counting toward the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 cap, more than four months after it started accepting applications for visas for the 2010 fiscal beginning this October.
Robert Hathaway, currently director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, said, "The US calls for patience are not likely to satisfy New Delhi, and when Secretary Rice arrives in India she is likely to face sharp questioning about Washington's continued support for Pakistan."
She's highly articulate, extremely charming, yet unabashedly hawkish when it comes to defending Pakistan, warts and all on the Kashmir issue, and this is sure to be a thorn in India's side in the think-tank circuit in Washington in the months to come and during Congressional hearings on South Asia, to which she's certain to be invited to testify.
This is against the Congressionally-mandated cap of 65,000 H-1B visas for this year.
The Mexican government said on Monday it would slap tariffs on 90 US industrial and agricultural products in retaliation of a Congressional action which ended the programme giving Mexican trucks access to US highways. The 2009 Omnibus appropriations Bill, passed by the Congress, terminated the project between the two countries.
Amidst growing Congressional concern over the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, US Senator Thomas R Carperas said that "preventing Pakistan's nuclear weapons and technology from falling into the wrong hands should remain top priority." Carperas chairs the Senate Subcommittee on International Security -- an appendage of the larger Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath, who arrived in Washington had critical bilateral discussions with senior administration and Congressional leaders on issues related to WTO and bilateral issues.
The suspension of US aid to Pakistan, which was announced by President Donald Trump in January 2018, remained in effect throughout 2019, the State Department said.
American lawmakers and experts called for cutting off aid to the country and listing it as a state sponsoring terrorism.
The US Congressional committee, which is inquiring into the country's Food and Drug Administration's handling of drug-marketing approvals of India's leading drug-maker Ranbaxy, has extended its probe into similar permissions given to Iceland's Actavis.
Pakistan is trying to dissipate the anger and concern in Congressional circles and among the public at large on this score that Pakistan is not being wholly cooperative, acknowledged that "given the history of India-Pakistan relations, you will have some sort of backward and forward movement.
As with the last 37 years, this year too the India Day Parade in New York saw thousands of Indian Americans throng Manhattan's Madison Avenue to celebrate India's Independence Day. For the thousands of Indians who turned up, it was a once in a year chance to showcase their country's rich cultural diversity.
'The deal on offer creates a Tarapur-style trap of gigantic dimensions. In fact, the latest Act specifically empowers the US to do what it did in 1978 -- retroactively rewrite the rules of cooperation with India by enacting a new domestic law.'
According to the latest figure update by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, approximately 46,700 of the H-1B visas in the general category were filled up by September 25; against a Congressional mandated figure of 65,000.
'The resolution is the first time that any state, nation or investigative body has declared that the Indian government was responsible for the 1984 genocide of Sikhs.'
The Senate version of the bill of approval of the Indo-United States nuclear agreement was introduced on Wednesday in the House of Representatives, giving boost to efforts to push the agreement hours before a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W Bush in Washington.The bill was introduced by the Ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
In a missive to Bush, USCIRF chair Felice D Gaer urged him to 'ask Prime Minister Singh to ensure the immediate security of Indian citizens -- security that is undermined by recurrent attacks on religious minorities and communities.'
Gregory Meeks, speaking to nearly 150 Indian Americans who had come to Capitol Hill as part of a Task Force to express outrage over the Mumbai terror attacks, couldn't contain his euphoria over the swearing in of Barack Obama as the nation's first African American President and the indirect connection to Mahatma Gandhi
'Clawback' provisions tied to federal bailout funds will be hotly contested. Right now only bankers who committed clear fraud are liable
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers comprising erstwhile and current co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans have circulated a letter among their colleagues expressing their strong support for the US-India civilian nuclear agreement and included in their 'Dear Colleague' letter a copy of the September 12 Washington Post editorial titled 'Yes for an Answer: Why Congress should expedite approval of the US-India nuclear accord."
Reflecting the immense respect he has for his idol Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama will replicate on his special luncheon menu the food served to the civil war-era US president after his inauguration in 1861. Soon after being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, Obama would have his first lunch hosted by the joint congressional committee on inaugural ceremonies at the historic Statuary Hall at the US capitol.
With the Bush administration pushing hard for a quick Congressional nod for the landmark India-United States civil nuclear agreement, a small group of senior Democratic lawmakers have demanded the detailed examination of the pact.The three-person group led by Massachussetts Congressman Edward Markey has said that there are many lingering questions about the deal that require further examination and hence the Congress should rule out any rush for an expedited vote.
Once the most sought after H-1B American work visa is still having nearly 20,000 slots open seven weeks after the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) started receiving applications for the financial year 2010 beginning October this year.
An anonymous handwritten letter, which so far has been received by three mosques in California and one in Georgia, warned Muslims to "pack your bags and get out of dodge as Trump is going to cleanse America and make it shine again".
American Vice President-elect Joseph Biden will travel to Pakistan this week to defuse regional tensions in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, according to a media report.
Once installed, the LAIRCAM system increases crew-warning time, decreases false alarm rates and automatically counters advanced intermediate range missile systems.
The report states that while the national government sometimes spoke out against incidents of violence, local political leaders often did not, and at times made public remarks that individuals could interpret as condoning violence.
The Indian IT companies, which account for a large number of H-1B applications, are likely to face the additional financial burden because of this proposed increase in H-1B filing fees.
American auto industry's Big Three appear close to securing a bailout, with Wall Street Journal reporting that the White House and top Democrats have agreed in-principle for a $15 billion rescue plan -- less than half the amount sought by GM, Ford and Chrysler.
He also accused US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi of being very rigid and doing bad politics.
Noted yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who recently laid the foundation stone for a $20 million yoga and ayurveda research centre in Houston, has been invited by US Congressmen to display his yogic excercises before them. Congressman Nick Lampson, who attended Ramdev's five-day yoga camp held in Houston, invited him to Washington DC.
The proclamation by Congressman Nick Lampson from Texas praised the musical genius of Dr Balamuralikrishna and his multi-faceted contribution to Indian classical music, describing him as a 'legend.'
