In a massive fillip to the still nascent professional boxing scene in India, the country will host its maiden WBA-sanctioned fight card, in new Delhi, on Saturday, under the aegis of the Indian Boxing Council.
Media reports have said England and Australia are set to join India in opposing the new ICC tournaments, which would cut into the windows of opportunity for cricket's 'Big Three' to hold lucrative bilateral series.
The US spent $1.5 million a day since 2001 fighting the opium war in Afghanistan. After hundreds of airstrikes failed to curtail the Taliban's $200-million-a-year opium trade, the US military quietly ended the campaign when the Trump administration officials engaged in direct peace talks with the Taliban, notes Atanu Biswas.
Pak's Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry said that Modi's statement shows India's nervousness over the situation in Kashmir.
Indians at large harbour a notion that their country is cherrypicking out of the American basket of goodies, but the policymakers in Delhi and the political leadership are well aware that it can only be a pipe dream since a military alliance with a superpower is a profound irrevocable commitment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Cities are setting the rules that now carry life and death implications for their residents, and most of these rules are sought to be set by the municipal authorities who have never wielded such power, reports Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
Consumers have to watch out for four marks on hallmarked gold jewellery: BIS mark, purity in carat, assay centre's name and jewellers' identification mark.
'Both India and Japan can find themselves in a win-win situation if they draw some lessons from each other's strengths,' says Dr Rajaram Panda.
'I give Modi full credit, for brilliantly using his personal diplomacy, his personal stature, to accomplish his goals...'
Pakistan has criticised India over alleged human rights violation in Kashmir and threatened to expose the country in the world over the "abysmal rights situation" in other parts if it continued to talk about Balochistan.
PCB chairman Ehsan Mani told a National Assembly standing committee meeting that the board paid each West Indian player around $ 25,000 to come for the tour.
'Modi has visited all these three countries (the UAE more than once, inexplicably) but has left out Kuwait and Oman, the two Gulf countries that are closest to India in their political, cultural and civilisational ethos,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Ne Win kept good relations with the Nehru family even though he did nothing to do business with India. When Indira Gandhi was assassinated, Ne Win took off to an undisclosed destination, leading to rumours that he had gone to India. But we had no knowledge of his visit and days later, we were told that he was so struck with grief that he went into meditation on an island.' Ambassador T P Sreenivasan delves into Rajiv Bhatia's new book on mysterious Myanmar.
Imran Khan knows Pakistan is holding a strong hand and doesn't have to flaunt it while claiming victory. But Pakistan has learned from the experience of the 1990s -- high risk of going out on a limb, asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India has said that the terrorist attack in Uri in Kashmir has highlighted Pakistan's desire to use "poison" instead of dialogue as it lodged a strong protest against Islamabad at the Non-Aligned Movement summit at Margarita Island in Venezuela for its "mischievous" and "malignant" support to terror.
Russia and China have a broad consensus today on almost all core issues related to global strategic stability, which is unprecedented in modern history, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
As the pandemic unfolded, the India-China relationship has come under severe stress. To restore normalcy, agreements between the two countries must be respected scrupulously in their entirety. Where the Line of Actual Control is concerned, any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo is unacceptable, declares External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
The Pakistani PM explained how the war-like scenario could erupt in the middle of the current tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. He said Kashmiris would protest and India would launch a crackdown on them.
'The Vladivostok visit marks a subtle reversal of trend discernible in the revival of India-Russia relations pioneered by Modi during the past couple of years,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Rajiv Gandhi assassination, investigation and trial were all jinxed in parts, recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
It is entirely conceivable that Modi began realising at some point that it will be a liability for India if he is seen as Trump's fellow traveller, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Infrastructure, manufacturing and telecom are understood to be among the focus sectors
'In countries like Japan, one out of 11.7 tests turns out to be positive, which is among the highest in the world. Italy tests 6.7 persons for one positive test while the USA tests 5.3 persons and the United Kingdom 3.4'
'I hope that the incoming Biden-Harris Administration works with India to address some of the most profound geopolitical transboundary challenges.'
Pakistan on Tuesday said it has expressed "serious concern" to the United Nations over a draft bill in the Indian Parliament over the map of Kashmir and called upon the world body to uphold its resolutions and urge India to stop such acts which are in "violation of international law".
Budget forces last minute change in finance minister's plans.
Mandatory hallmarking of gold would be a positive in making the gold market more organised. Mandatory hallmarking would come into effect from January 15, 2020, with a one-year transition period for trade to sell existing inventories. Experts also expect more policy measures next year to bring in more transparency in terms of gold as an asset class.
When a media person asked why despite the affinity the United States had such a hard time endorsing India's bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, Burns went into a spin.
Hitting out at the report, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in New Delhi that the update of the earlier OHCHR report is "merely a continuation of the earlier false and motivated narrative" on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
India was fooled into believing that Communist China wanted a 'negotiated' settlement with the Tibetans; it was never the case, says Claude Arpi.
The decision to introduce four-day Test was taken during a recent ICC board meeting in Auckland with South Africa and Zimbabwe set to play the inaugural four day 'Test' on Boxing Day.
The two governments have already set a target of increasing bilateral trade in goods and services to $500 billion.
The combativeness reflects her insistence not to meekly acquiesce to what has been going on in Raisina Hill for years or decades, observes Kartikeya Tanna.
Welcoming Jaishankar, Foreign Minister Wang referred to the Indo-Pak tensions without directly mentioning about India scrapping the Article 370 of the Constitution that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
Gold hallmarking is a purity certification of the precious metal and is voluntary in nature at present.
Nationalisation has served its purpose. It's time to move ahead, keeping majority ownership of the government in a few banks to serve the people, argues Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Unless the Taliban goofs up in a big way, which seems highly unlikely, we are looking at a regime that will be around for quite a long while and present a level of governance that the puppets of the richest and most advanced countries failed to provide, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Xi will attend the second informal meeting with Modi at Mahabalipuram near Chennai from October 11 to 12 and pay a state visit to Nepal on October 13, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Wednesday.
China's desire to have India as part of its ambitious Maritime Silk Route makes strategic sense for both nations. However, it would involve substantive assurances from Beijing, says Dr Rahul Mishra
The fact that known terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin have been able to hold huge rallies in Pakistan's main cities is a reflection of the state of affairs in Pak, said India.
