It said cross-border terrorism is the main stumbling block in normalisation of Indo-Pak ties.\n\n
Biden has reiterated America's support for India's permanent membership on a reformed UNSC and its entry into the NSG during his first in-person bilateral meeting with Modi at the White House.
Ahead of his two-nation visit beginning on Saturday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday met President Pratibha Patil and discussed various issues, including internal security and Indo-Pak matters. A Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said the meeting lasted for nearly an hour. "The two leaders discussed the upcoming session of Parliament, and the forthcoming visit of the prime minister to Washington for the Nuclear Security Summit," said a press release.
Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza fought through a gruelling schedule to enter the last 16 of women's doubles and quarterfinals of mixed doubles by winning both her respective second-round matches on an all-win day for Indians in the US Open in New York.
Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza advanced to the second round of doubles events at Wimbledon on Wednesday.
Being attended by nearly 40 countries and leading groupings like the European Union, the annual conference of the Heart of Asia -- Istanbul Process is deliberating on various challenges facing Afghanistan, including revival of a peace process in the conflict-ridden country.
"We have very little time left for deciding on the chief guest and the process will be completed soon," a source familiar with the development said.
Fourth seeds Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina's doubles campaign at the Mercury Insurance Open came to an end following a right-hand injury to the Russian. Up against Elena Bovina of Russia and Jie Zheng of China, the Indo-Russian pair was trailing 2-5 in the opening set when they decided to opt out of the contest.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday.
The cancellation of the project has far-reaching implications for the IAF, for which this was once its high-tech future fighter.
Three medical students studying at the Wuhan University, all natives of Kerala, who returned to India on their own recently and self-reported at a hospital in the state have tested positive for the respiratory virus.
'When you say the per capita argument is catastrophic, it appears to us that we have not the same rights than others,' says Indian ambassador to France Ranjan Mathai.
The foreign secretary said almost all major initiatives of India in SAARC did not fructify due to hurdles posed by Islamabad.
'The credit for managing Trump should go to Modi.' 'Biden is a predictable and rational person with plenty of administrative experience,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Days after India voted against it at the United Nations, Israel on Sunday hoped the Indian decision would not impact on the robust Indo-Israel ties in strategic areas of defence and security, to which they have added some more "ingredients" in the past few months.
Implementing the commitment of United States President Barack Obama to deepen Indo-US strategic ties, the White House has carved out a separate India Desk at its National Security Council.
General Mattis has been the most steadfast champion in Trump's cabinet of the US-India defence relationship. If Trump chooses a more pliable successor, the Pentagon's attention could go off India.
'Pakistan has worsted India in the Afghan proxy war and the defeat becomes a template of regional politics,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
How will the Modi Sarkar's likely return affect other nations?
"Engagement means deepening cooperation with key centres of power. In Russia, the reset, has elevated relations to the best point in years. In China, we now have a broad- based strategic and economic dialogue. In India, which President Obama calls one of the defining relationships of the 21st century; and obviously in Brazil," US National Security Advisor, General (rtd) James Jones said.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will visit India in March next year at the invitation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh."I am very grateful to you for accepting my invitation in March next year. I am confident that your visit will give a new fillip to our ties," Dr Singh said a meeting with Putin in Moscow on Monday.
'Even as discord over US-India trade and commerce colours diplomatic relations, defence relations between the two countries remain on a firm footing,' points out Ajai Shukla.
Jaishankar is the first foreign secretary to head the Ministry of External Affairs as minister.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday briefed his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the Indo-US nuclear deal and raised the issues of delay in the delivery of Gorshkov aircraft carrier.
Thirty-four years after he traveled to space, Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih that he looks forward to Gaganyan, India's first manned space mission in 2022.
Indo-Russian joint venture firm BrahMos Aerospace on Monday said it is developing a smaller version of the 290-km supersonic cruise missile for enabling its deployment on submarines and smaller fighter aircraft such as MiG 29K.
Since 2016, when India was officially recognised in US law as a 'major defence partner', Washington has purposefully upgraded the defence relationship.
Investors recognise India's market growth
Sania Mirza and her partner Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei have upset second seeded Spanish pair of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual to enter the women's doubles quarterfinal of the Madrid Open event.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met Communist Party of India - Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat on Tuesday to discuss the India-United States civilian nuclear agreement. Mukherjee asked the Left Front to allow the United Progressive Alliance government to go ahead with the safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
India's Rohan Bopanna and Belarussian partner Max Mirnyi lost the doubles final of the St Petersburg Open in St Petersburg, Russia on Sunday.
The long-delayed aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya will be inducted into Indian Navy by Defence Minister A K Antony during his Russia visit slated between November 15-17.
Hydrography (underwater geography) prevents the Indian Navy for opting for an all-conventional, or all-nuclear submarine fleet.
After successfully working on the contracts for the Indian navy and army, the New Delhi-based JV is now poised to expand in the international market and some of the contracts are already in the pipeline, Brahmos CEO Sivathanu Pillai said.Many nations across the globe are taking keen interest in the deadly supersonic Brahmos cruise missile, which will remain unmatched at least for the coming decade.South Africa, Chile, Kuwait are in the waiting list.
'Anyone who should be worried about or critical about this new capability of the Indian Air Force, it should be those who want to threaten our territorial integrity'
But why should India be talking to the Taliban in the first place? There is no love lost there. India will never forget or forgive the humiliation to which the Taliban subjected it in the IC-814 hijack, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday left Delhi on a three-day visit to Japan for attending the G-8 summit on whose sidelines he will meet US President George W Bush and discuss progress on the Indo-US nuclear deal. During his stay in Hokkaido island, he will meet leaders of various countries including Russia, Britain, Germany, France and host Japan for bilateral discussions.
As remarkable as DRDO's contribution in containing and treating COVID-19 has been, its success over the last 15 months has been in its primary role of developing conventional defence equipment and technologies.
One hopes the big daddies of South Block and DRDO realise why radical reforms are so crucial.