India was fooled into believing that Communist China wanted a 'negotiated' settlement with the Tibetans; it was never the case, says Claude Arpi.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved 'Mission Karmayogi', dubbed as the biggest bureaucratic reform initiative, aimed at capacity building of government employees to make them more "creative, proactive, professional and technology-enabled". The core guiding principles of the competency-driven programme will be to support a transition from "rules based to roles based" HR management to prepare the Indian civil servant for the future, according to a government statement.
These plantations are not only eating into the land occupied by the region's native forests, they could also disturb the ground water reserve and soil quality
'The US-India relationship is in a different league altogether,' Obama administration officials tell Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com in Washington, DC.
'India and China have to make concrete progress with regard to the border issue, addressing the trade deficit, and facilitating people-to-people interactions. This has to happen in the next two, three years.' China expert Tansen Sen tells Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com how India and China can take their relations to the next level.
These ambitious projects are littered with every possible acronyms and include proposed road links, air connectivity plans, electricity grids and special economic zones on coasts, says Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's customary address to the joining sitting of Parliament on the first day of the budget session.
The dinner was followed by a meeting in which nearly two dozen allies facilitated Prime Minister Modi.
Only he, with his tremendous political capital and personal stature, can pull it off, observes B S Raghavan, the veteran civil servant.
'Antonio Guterres takes over as the UN secretary-general with tremendous goodwill as the process of his election was without the usual horse trading and compromises.' 'We have every reason to believe that he will be sensitive to Indian positions,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the state governments have been asked to identify Rohingya refugees in their regions and collect their biometric details.
Rahul Gandhi on Thursday held consultations with Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Members of Parliament from northeast to discuss steps to end the harassment of people.
Both leaders also exchanged views on the situations in South Asia, an official Chinese statement said about the meeting between Xi and Khan.
With the United Progressive Alliance government likely to announce a separate Telangana state on Tuesday, the call for carving out Vidarbha state out of Maharashtra has started gaining heat.
Statesmanship requires that the prime minister himself reaches out to those amassed at the Singhu and Ghazipur borders. Modi should be able to win over this domestic front with sheer compassion, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Although India has sought inputs from the Myanmar army since most of those involved in Thursday's ambush would have sneaked across into Myanmar, the fresh operations would smoke out insurgents based in hideouts on the Indian side along the border.
Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
Experts have flagged issues regarding the levying of new cess/tax, especially those related to complications in administering the cess.
For Africa's Test-playing nations, administrative turmoil has defined the dying days of the 2010s.
'It is a pattern of behaviour of the Chinese that whenever a Chinese leader visits India or an Indian leader visits China, some incidents take place.' 'When Modi visits China, we should look out for some similar demonstration by the Chinese.'
India's curve, yet to flatten vis-a-vis countries with similar or more conservative plans to ease restrictions, still points to 'exponential growth', despite India having tested much fewer people.
The government must figure out what the Chinese game plan is and thwart the endgame before it is upon us, possibly in early winter, advises David Devadas.
Gold jewellery exports may decline by about 50 per cent in this financial year from last year after government restrictions reduced the availability of raw material, Gitanjali Gems Chairman and Managing Director Mehul Choksi said.
Researchers have found two new mutations in coronavirus samples from Amravati and Yavatmal districts of eastern Maharashtra which can escape neutralising antibodies, a senior official said on Thrusday. Meanwhile, authorities in the two districts have announced strict implementation of restrictions, including a weekend lockdown in Amravati, to stem the rising cases of COVID-19.
'According to top government sources, the territorial boundaries of the existing North-Eastern states will not be disturbed although cultural integration of Nagas living in states other than Nagaland will be facilitated through special measures,' reveals Nitin A Gokhale.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves for Brazil on Sunday for attending the five-nation summit of BRICS nations on July 14 and 15 which is expected to finalise the setting up of a development bank and seek reforms of the United Nations and international financial organisations.
'The government must provide more funds to enable the armed forces to fight and win tomorrow's wars,' states Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invited ASEAN leaders to be the chief guests.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah and chief ministers of National Democratic Alliance-ruled States are at the ceremony.
Indian intelligence agencies have often claimed that left-wing extremists are trying to make inroads in the militancy-hit regions of north-east to foment further unrest. But Jaideep Saikia, noted terrorism and conflict analyst, claims, "People who speak of Maoism taking roots in the north-east have not read history".
Prime Minister Modi made a strategic blunder of Nehruvian proportions -- presuming no war can happen now, and the Chinese won't be a military threat and risk their economic interests, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Thailand voted on Sunday under heavy security in violence-plagued snap elections amid boycott calls from the opposition, which forced cancellation of polls in 45 constituencies across the politically polarised country.
The Centre has assured all help to Odisha and Andhra Pradesh where a "very severe" cyclone is expected to hit on Saturday and sent nearly 500 personnel of National Disaster Response Force for relief and rescue operations.
The counter-insurgency operation on the Indo-Myanmar was under planning for the last three months. The June 4 ambush that killed 18 Indian soldiers only hastened the attack. Sheela Bhatt provides exclusive details of the planning for the operation.
On the border dispute, officials on both sides say the protracted boundary talks made progress, while both sides made attempts to avert tensions along the 3,488-kilometre-long Line of Actual Control, which remains undefined.
While trying to persuade North Korea to give up its provocative actions, engaging China is the first hurdle that world leaders will have to deal with, says Rajaram Panda.
'If, as appears to be the case, India is on way to 'mending fences' with China, and China is equally desirous to 'reset' the relationship, this could be a self-reflexive moment in India's positioning vis-a-vis not just the Dalai Lama, but also the Tibetan issue and China as a whole,' points out China expert Alka Acharya.
'Indian diplomacy is once again being saddled with the heavy burden of a Pakistan-centric foreign policy. It is something grossly unfair at a crucial juncture in India's trajectory as an emerging power on the global stage,' argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The intrusion in Chumar, during and beyond the Chinese president's visit, is unprecedented and has qualitatively changed the tone of the India-China relationship,' says Jayadeva Ranade, a member of the National Security Advisory Board.
Postponed several times due to a variety of reasons, the much-delayed but the biggest South Asian Games ever begin, in Guwahati, on Friday, with hosts India expected to stamp their superiority in the regional spectacle.
