Visa delays have perturbed Indian visitors this summer. But a solution could be in sight soon, as embassies gear up to address the challenges caused by a spike in applications and staff shortages. While the British High Commission has said it is working urgently to reduce the current visa processing time, the German Embassy has introduced extra shifts to process more visas. However, appointments with the latter are fully booked till August-end due to high volumes.
The Bill to amend the Wakf Act, 1995, will make it mandatory for Waqf boards to register their properties with district collectors to ensure their actual valuation.
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to apprise an 83-year-old mother quarterly about the steps taken to trace her son, Captain Sanjit Bhattacharjee, who has been missing in action and is said to be lodged in a jail in Pakistan for over 25 years.
Nearly Rs 3,400 crore (Rs 34 billion) in cash and other items were seized in the elections in 2022-2023, an increase of 835 per cent over 2017-2018.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday deprecated criticism of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and calls for reverting to ballot papers, saying the electoral process in India is a "humongous task" and attempts should not be made to "bring down the system".
Avoid relying on a bank RM for investment advice. Instead, approach a Sebi-registered investment advisor whose livelihood depends on the fee paid by his customers and not on product commissions.
The Indian high commission in London on Friday appealed for students to contact the mission for help and counselling amid fears that over 50 of them may have become victims of modern slavery while working at care homes in North Wales.
The UK government has asked for specific numbers over a period to drill-down on the use of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act by the Indian government around funding licences of non-governmental organisations, the House of Lords was informed during a debate.
Pakistan has denied visa to senior diplomat Jayant Khobragade who was set to be appointed as acting head of Indian high commission in Islamabad.
"Let's work it out. There has to be some parity," the high court said.
The California walnuts shipped from the US to India have seen a sharp uptick with imports more than doubling from September to November against the same period last year. This comes after New Delhi removed its retaliatory customs tariffs on the key dry fruit. Two days ahead of US President Joe Biden's visit to New Delhi to attend the G20 Summit on September 9-10, India dropped additional customs duties on about half a dozen US goods that were imposed in 2019 in response to America raising tariffs on certain steel and aluminum products coming from India.
According to a statement issued by the chief minister's office, the meeting will be held in Vidhana Souda conference Hall.
India on Friday said rights of people in China's Xinjiang region should be "respected and guaranteed".
India's tactical and operational response demonstrated its ability to prosecute tri-service operations, even without a formal tri-service doctrine or the higher command structure needed to coordinate it, points out Ajai Shukla.
The President congratulated the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the high voter turnout recorded in the union territory in the recent Lok Sabha elections and lauded the Election Commission for holding the world's biggest democratic exercise.
The heat wave is likely to impact parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal, the Met office said.
Meta is working closely with the Election Commission. This enables the Commission to flag unlawful content.
A high-level committee on Thursday recommended simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and state assemblies as the first step followed by synchronised local body polls within 100 days.
The 34-year-old Indian woman was staying at her 29-year-old Pakistani friend Nasrullah's home in the Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They became friends on Facebook in 2019.
Temperatures in 17 locations breached 48 degrees Celsius on Monday, with the relentless heat affecting health and livelihoods across large parts of northwestern and central India.
Secularism for India does not mean being non-religious but an equal respect to all faiths, but the "appeasement" government policies of the past made the biggest religion of the country feel like it had to be self-deprecatory in the name of equality, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said.
The fire broke out in M. Nirufehi area near the Maaveyo Mosque around 12:30 am, according to news portal SunOnline international.
'Can you imagine that Surat's voters won't have any say now in exercising their fundamental right to choose a candidate of their own choice? This is what the BJP has reduced India's democracy to.' 'With this ugly act, in one stroke, the BJP has disenfranchised the voters of Surat.'
The plea is likely to be heard on Wednesday by a vacation bench.
The government must develop a legally tenable mechanism in order to restore the cycle of simultaneous elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Thursday embark on a near two-day meditation exercise at the famed Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari, and the district has come under a thick security blanket following the high profile event.
'The government should come back as a job creator as it did in the 1960s and the 1970s.'
Commissions of inquiry are potentially powerful instruments to fix responsibility on public functionaries, but everything possible has been done to blunt this instrument, says Dr Madhav Godbole, retired Union home secretary.
India also went on an overdrive in expanding its military engagement with like-minded countries in its neighbourhood and beyond in the face of China's relentless attempts to become a regional hegemon and establish its primacy in South Asia.
In seeking visa approvals for engineers from China, the company has reasoned that India lacks the expertise to set up such a solar facility.
India on Wednesday expressed its deep anguish over the desecration of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the Richmond Hill city in Ontario in Canada and asked for a probe into the vandalism, which the police said is being investigated as a hate crime.
India today summoned Pakistan's deputy high commissioner in New Delhi and lodged a strong protest over the denial of access to its envoy in Islamabad and consular officials to visit Gurdwara Panja Sahib and meet visiting Indian pilgrims.
In the name of freedom of expression, space should not be given to those advocating violence or legitimising terrorism, India said on Thursday in a message to countries such as Canada, Australia, the US and the UK where pro-Khalistan groups issued posters with threats against senior Indian diplomats.
Feature for feature, bank FDs are indeed better than debt funds today, mainly thanks to Ms Sitharaman, notes Debashis Basu.
Tamba was attacked by motorcycle-borne assailants at his residence in Sanant Nagar, a thickly populated area of old Lahore in the afternoon.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who landed in Ahmedabad on Thursday morning on a two-day India visit, was accorded a grand welcome at the airport in Ahmedabad. Soon after, he visited Sabarmati Ashram in the company of Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupesh Patel.
An MP from Baharampur since 1999 and the reigning Pradesh Congress president of West Bengal, this was perhaps Chowdhury's toughest electoral challenge which came in the form Pathan, the non-resident TMC candidate.
The comments by a spokesperson in the British High Commission in New Delhi came amid concerns in India over the latest Covid-related travel restrictions announced by the UK.
President Murmu pays her respects at Westminster Hall where Queen Elizabeth II was lying-in-state on Sunday, September 18, 2022.
The Indian High Commission in London on Thursday welcomed the Westminster Magistrates' Court ruling in the extradition case of diamond merchant Nirav Modi, wanted in India to stand trial on charges of fraud and money laundering related to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) letters of undertaking (LoUs) scam case. A senior diplomat at India House said the judgment, which found a prima facie case against the accused, paves the way for the government of India and the high commission officials to liaise with the UK authorities on the next stages of the procedural matters for his early extradition to India. "The judgment paves the way for the government of India, including the High Commission of India in London, to liaise with the UK authorities on the procedural matters," said the diplomat at the High Commission. "As with previous extradition cases, we will press on with the next steps," he said.
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