Addressing media persons along with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said India was determined to act decisively to protect its territorial integrity.
The National Investigation Agency, set up in the wake of audacious strikes in Mumbai, has been allocated Rs 10 crore for 2009-10.
He was responding to a question whether there was any confusion in the government in the backdrop of National Security Advisor M K Narayanan's statement that Pakistan had reverted to India with a number of questions on the Indian dossier on the Mumbai terror attack. Narayanan's statement had contradicted the stand taken by Mukherjee.
The empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on gas headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday decided that gas allocation from RIL's D-6 block will be made to power projects subject to availability and without prejudice to court decisions, according to a government release.
India and the US on Friday operationalised the "path-breaking" bilateral nuclear deal as they signed the 123 Agreement here, with New Delhi insisting that the accord is "legally-binding" on both sides.
After taking the western world's help, India is now turning to the Arab world to build pressure on Pakistan to act against terror utfits and the first to be approached will be Saudi Arabia, grabbing the opportunity of Prince Saud Al-Faisal's one-day visit to Delhi on Friday.
Amid the fresh chill in the India-Pakistan ties, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal will visit New Delhi on a brief visit on Friday, during which New Delhi is expected to urge the influential Arab nation to use its influence on Islamabad to end cross-border terrorism.Al-Faisal will hold detailed talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee during which the Indian side is expected to share evidence about the involvement of Pakistan-based elements.
The CPI (M) members seemed determined to thwart the bill, aimed at increasing the FDI limit in the insurance sector. As Minister of State for Finance P K Bansal rose to introduce the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008, CPI (M) member T K Rangarajan tried to grab the copy of the bill from him. An agitated-looking external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee pushed Rangarajan to protect Bansal. Another minister Meira Kumar rushed to shield Bansal, who introduced the bill.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Delhi on Saturday on a day-long visit, but the 123 agreement will not be signed during her stay here. Rice will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and hold talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on a wide range of issues, including the civil nuclear initiative.
The meeting of UPA-Left Committee on nuclear issue, scheduled for Wednesday, has been postponed, putting back further a decision on whether India should sign the safeguards agreement with IAEA. The meeting is now expected in the first half of next month.
Pakistan on Friday freed 96 Indian fishermen and three other civilian prisoners from a jail in Karachi as a goodwill gesture, close on the heels of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's visit to the country. The Indian fishermen and other prisoners will be taken from Karachi to Lahore before being handed over to Indian authorities at the Wagah land border on Saturday, officials said. The three civilian prisoners had been held in prison for at least 20 years.
After a six-month pause, India and Pakistan on Tuesday resumed their composite dialogue with the Foreign Secretaries meeting here to discuss various bilateral issues including terrorism, Kashmir and confidence building measures. Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and his counterpart Salman Bashir held delegation level discussions to review the fourth round of composite dialogue. Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek and various confidence building measures were discussed.
The kin of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in a Lahore jail, on Sunday expressed gratitude to the Pakistan government for proposing to President Pervez Musharraf that all death sentences be commuted to life imprisonment.The family will be making an application in the Pakistan High Commission on Monday for the permission to meet Sarabjit in jail.Kaur said former Pakistan Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney has promised that he will appeal to Musharraf.
As many as 641 Indians, including 436 fishermen, are languishing in different Pakistani jails, said External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. He said that lists of prisoners exchanged by the two governments on March 31 were under study, adding that absence of consular access was making it difficult to determine the exact number of prisoners and the details of sentences awarded.
The dialogue will resume with Foreign Secretary-level talks in Islamabad on May 20, to be followed a day later by talks between External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi.During the talks, the Indian side will be eagerly looking for a clear official position of new government of Pakistan on Kashmir, as different leaders have been speaking in different voices on the subject.
CP!-M general secretary Prakash Karat has written to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, government's key interlocutor with the allies on the deal, asking for immediate convening of a meeting of the UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal by mid-March.
"Asia, in particular, is the home to by far the largest number of terrorist groups in the world. India has been facing this curse since the 1980s, first in Punjab, then in Jammu and Kashmir, and now in other parts of the country as well," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.
"I have expressed my desire to visit Pakistan as soon as the new government is in place and I am waiting for that," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told media persons in Washington on Tuesday. "I hope the new government will pick up the thread from where it was left by President Pervez Musharraf and we will continue this exercise," he added.
The crucial meeting of the United Progressive Alliance-Left Committee on the Indo-US nuclear deal scheduled for November 16 stands postponed.
eGOM is likely to reconsider the 5000 hectre SEZ land ceiling limit in the coming month.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone has described India as one of the world's greatest cultures and said he is looking forward to his forthcoming visit to India next month.
Arriving in New Delhi on a week-long visit to further strengthen ties, Nepal Deputy Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Sunday said he will seek India's support to the ongoing peace process in his country.
After two hours of deliberations between the United Progressive Alliance and the Left parties, it was decided that they would meet again on October 5 to narrow down their differences over the Indo-US nuclear deal
The government on Monday expressed willingness to set up a mechanism to resolve the stand-off with Left parties over the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, Communist Party of India leader A B Bardhan said.
The discussion has come at a time when the government has approached the International Atomic Energy Agency for discussing India-specific safeguards after securing the nod from the Left allies.
CPM general-secretary Prakash Karat had said that the government would have to face serious consequences if it went ahead with the nuclear deal.
But stresses it will not compromise basic principles
A brainchild of President A P J Abdul Kalam, the pilot project for tele-education and tele-medicine under the Rs 542.9 crore (Rs 5.42 billion) pan-African programme was inaugurated by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The decision to extend visa on arrival facility to Indians was taken during discussions between visiting External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Ethiopian counterpart Seyoum Mesfin in the picturesque capital city of Addis Ababa.
The government has decided to scrap a plan to purchase wheat through a series of small domestic tenders in different parts of the country, fearing that private traders may corner most orders.
The meeting also decided to intensify the vigil by naval warships deployed in the Indian Ocean, particularly using Airborne Early Warning aircraft.
The Group of Ministers constituted to review the new civil aviation policy will take up among other things, allowing of private Indian carriers, with three-years experience in the domestic sector, to fly abroad.
She said it was her will-power and determination to return to her motherland, which prevailed upon the caretaker government to withdraw the arrest warrant and ban on her return.
A day after External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the days are not far off for the young leader to follow the footsteps of his father to become the prime minister, Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed told media persons in New Delhi, "It is true that Rahul Gandhi has all the qualifications, which are necessary to lead the country. All feel that way. But he (Rahul) has to decide on when and how (to take on the leadership mantle)."
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in view of the change of the country's profile, foreign policy was facing new challenges, requiring change in it.
India on Friday ruled out fixing a timeframe for resolving all pending problems with Pakistan, including the Jammu and Kashmir issue, under the composite dialogue framework.
Mukherjee said that holding of Joint Commission meeting reaffirmed the commitment of the two countries to carry forward the dialogue process.
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