'There are unscrupulous traders who create fake invoices by showing bogus e-way bills, movement of goods.' 'Since the entities registered across different states, and kept on changing their numbers, tracing them was difficult.'
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his maiden trip to India next week would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to discuss wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues, his spokesperson said on Friday.
Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state -- but China views the self-ruled island as a breakaway province. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve unification.
Blinken and Indian leaders on Wednesday will discuss a plethora of pressing issues such as the fluid situation in Afghanistan, regional security concerns, COVID-19 response and ways to boost Indo-Pacific engagement, people familiar with the agenda of talks said.
'There is little appetite in the Democratic foreign policy establishment to pick a fight with India.'
"CCP's (Chinese Communist Party) territorial aggression is also apparent on its Indian border where China has attempted to seize control of the Line of Actual Control by force," US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien said in a remark on China early this week in Utah.
The United States has made it clear to India that it is "discouraging" it from proceeding with its acquisition of S-400 missile defence systems from Russia but Washington will have to weigh "important geostrategic considerations" while taking a decision on growing calls for a presidential CAATSA waiver to New Delhi, President Joe Biden's nominee for Coordinator for Sanctions Policy has told lawmakers.
The pressure on India to take a hostile attitude towards Russia and China was not subtle, but it was guarded, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan after Monday's 2+2 ministerial meeting in Washington, DC.
"The Council will inform and provide advice to the President and other senior US officials on US global development policies and practices, support new and existing public-private partnerships, and increase awareness and action in support of development by soliciting public input on current and emerging issues in the field of global development," the White House said.
While there were concerns about the security aspect of drones, top government officials were of the view that restricting the drone industry would stifle a sunrise sector which holds significant promise for future, reports Arindam Majumder.
Two powerful US Senators have urged President Joe Biden not to impose provisions of the punitive Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act against India for buying the S-400 surface-to-air missile system from Russia.
The three Indian companies are Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bharat Forge Ltd and Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd, the space organisation said in a statement on Friday.
Biden has reiterated America's support for India's permanent membership on a reformed UNSC and its entry into the NSG during his first in-person bilateral meeting with Modi at the White House.
Of the 4.10 crore to be shared through COVAX, 1.40 crore will go to Latin America and the Caribbean nations and 1.60 crore to Asia.
It is the first-ever visit by a head of the Indian Army to South Korea.
The elephant in the room will permeate the conversations, predicts Rup Narayan Das.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington, DC, on Wednesday on an official visit to the United States during which he will hold the first face-to-face meeting with President Joe Biden and his deputy Kamala Harris, attend the maiden in-person Quad summit and address the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
It is understood that India's border row with China figured in the talks between Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale though there was no mention of it in the press statements issued by the two sides.
A model being considered is to have a combined cold chain approach - where the agricultural cold chain would be combined with vaccine cold chains.
'India should not be taken by surprise if the Biden administration seeks China's cooperation at some point,' alerts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
"The president pledged America's steadfast ongoing support for the people of India, who have been impacted by the recent surge in the COVID-19 cases," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at her daily news conference.
The external affairs ministry on Friday did not rule out any further disciplinary action against senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who had hit the headlines last year after being arrested in the US in a visa fraud case.
Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Russian President Vladimir Putin have quietly exchanged letters to strengthen bilateral relations, a media report said on Sunday, amidst allegations by Imran Khan that his maiden visit to Moscow, much against Washington's wishes, led to his ouster.
The New York Times on Tuesday said Covaxin works by teaching the immune system to make antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The antibodies attach to viral proteins, such as the so-called spike proteins that stud its surface.
'Chinese experts estimate that the new US administration is 'at the crossroads of how to re-manage and control' Sino-American differences and strategic divergences and Biden's bottom line is that the US would have 'extreme competition with China, but won't allow competition to develop into conflict',' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'I hope that the incoming Biden-Harris Administration works with India to address some of the most profound geopolitical transboundary challenges.'
Trade between India and Indonesia stands at $20 billion.
"I do not think there is any self-imposed deadline for action, but I think we are looking at weeks, not months," White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters aboard Air Force One, flying with President Donald Trump form Atlanta.
The minister was making statement on three incidents of attacks on Indians in the US.
Pakistan is once again becoming a frontline State in big-power rivalry. But this time around, Pakistan stands to gain out of its geography, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
United States Agency for International Development's Administrator Dr Raj Shah has said the public-private partnerships the USAID has been pushing for in India has overcome much of the notorious entrenched bureaucratic hurdles and red tape that has hitherto been a bane to development, particularly in alleviating acute health care deficiencies in the system.
The sources said India may be building small libraries as part of the community development initiative, but most of its investments in Afghanistan were on mega infrastructure projects including the 218 km road from Zaranj to Delaram, the Salma Dam and the new Afghan Parliament building.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday raided the home of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and 30 other locations in connection with alleged corruption in the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday unveiled a Rs 39.45 lakh crore Budget with a view to fire up the key engines of the economy to sustain a world-beating recovery from the pandemic. This was Sitharaman's fourth Budget. While the taxpayers were left in the lurch, once again, was she able to cheer Corporate India?
Responding to another question, Choubey said that the phase-I of clinical trials have revealed excellent safety of the two candidate vaccines indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and Cadila Healthcare Ltd, and now their immunogenicity testing is in progress. Their phase II clinical trials are ongoing.
In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India is deeply honoured to be a 'long-trusted' partner in meeting the healthcare needs of the global community and that supplies of the vaccines to several countries will commence on Wednesday, and more will follow in the days ahead.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has met US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and discussed a range of issues, including the strategic Indo-US partnership and future areas of bilateral security cooperation.
Quad leaders are also planning to roll out vaccine deliverables and announce a series of measures in the field of healthcare and infrastructure sector, officials in Washington, DC said.
According to an official statement, the FDA has determined that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine has met the statutory criteria for issuance of an emergency use authorisation (EUA).
Whether it is Sri Lanka, Maldives, or Nepal, quietly but steadily, India has been reclaiming some of the ground it had lost to China, observes Aditi Phadnis.