A bit of melancholy and unbridled joy converged at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Olympics on Sunday as Brazil breathed a collective sigh of relief for having pulled off South America's first Games.
The BRICS Summit tonight decided to establish the new development bank with an initial authorised capital of $100 billion.
Did we miss the DeepState's Brazil Model in action in India in 2004 and 2009, asks Rajeev Srinivasan.
State Bank of India chief Arundhati Bhattacharya, ICICI bank head Chanda Kochhar, Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and HT Media chair Shobhana Bhartia are among the world's 100 most powerful women.
'I was a bit startled when our host spoke with such force and at such great length about Terrorism.' 'Where did that come from?' 'He kept insisting that it comes from across the border.' 'I could not remember who all are across India's borders and was looking puzzled, but Zuma who understood my predicament, whispered "Pakistan".'
Fireworks light up the night sky above the Maracana as some 50,000 spectators present, and some 3 billion people tuned in around the world as Brazil lifted the curtain on its second major sporting event in two years, after the 2014 soccer World Cup.
Accommodative monetary policy has driven a bull market in stocks in recent years, but the Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates early next year and the U.S. Federal Reserve not long after, tempering future gains.
Brazil has long been known as a country that can throw a great party as long as the guests do not mind a location that still has the builders in it.
The annual talk-fest of rich and powerful from across the world in snow-laden Alpine resort town of Davos will be attended by nearly 40 heads of government among more than 2,500 global leaders from over 100 countries.
The G20 summit has failed to heal the rift over US plans for military action against the embattled Syrian regime, as American President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin could not reach consensus on Friday during "candid and constructive" talks.
Group still far from coordinating monetary/forex policy
It is only gradually dawning on us that some of the information we have trustingly shared with commercial service providers can be used against us when we apply for a job or when we apply to admission to a college, says Ajit Balakrishnan.
Those scheduled to attend the five-day WEF Annual meeting, beginning January 21, include more than 40 heads of state or government, including those from the UK, Australia, Japan, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Brazil, Italy, Mauritius, Republic of Korea and Switzerland, WEF announced on Wednesday at a press conference in Geneva.
'Happily,' says Ambassador B S Prakash, 'BRICS displayed new-found energy and built something real, a bank. Between needless nihilism and as yet unjustified euphoria, there are many stations for the BRICS train and we can watch its progress with renewed interest.'
The enduring images of the Games will be not just the great sporting achievements - from US swimmer Michael Phelps' 28th Olympic medal to Usain Bolt's historic sprint 'triple triple' - but also the organizational problems, empty seats and crime.
'As each week brings fresh tales of the woes of Rio on the eve of the Olympics, I wonder whether my friends had a foreboding that the Gods of the Olympics will bring only misfortunes to their country.' 'For, surely, Brazil is now getting ready to host the Games with a joyless spirit, says B S Prakash, formerly India's ambassador to Brazil.
Here are some of the most stunning moments of the week that was.
Narendra Modi's engagement at the upcoming BRICS Summit in Brazil will be keenly watched as the prime minister will interact with some of the world's most powerful leaders. The summit to be held in Fortaleza will also see the launch of the significant BRICS bank whose idea was mooted by India. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt gives a lowdown on Modi's first major international rendezvous.
'As he has no executive track record, so far, he is all talk and hence essentially a braggart and a bigot.' 'That he is described as the 'Trump of the tropics' should give a shorthand summary to what he stands for on issues in general,' points out Ambassador B S Prakash, India's former envoy to Brazil.
Nike Inc and some other big international companies face a grilling over their powerful role in Brazilian soccer.
Top 21 images of all the events of the week that was.
'The book has immense value because it reveals the inner workings of the think-tank which appears to provide facts and insights to Modi, though he himself takes the final decisions and articulates them in his characteristic rhetorical style,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Here are some of the best photographs clicked across the globe in the month of October.
'My enduring memory of Lula is personal,' says Ambassador B S Prakash, our former envoy in Brazil. 'He was visiting India after retirement to accept an award.' 'At a private dinner in the Brazilian ambassador's residence, where I too was present, he was missing at the end of the evening.' 'We all went looking for him in the sprawling house to find him eventually in the kitchen talking happily to the cooks and servers.' 'He was thanking them for the excellent meal and service!'
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