'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.
Passage of the long-pending Goods and Services Tax bill and a unanimous resolution on Kashmir were the highlights of the "highly productive" Monsoon session of Parliament which was adjourned sine die on Friday after 20 sittings.
he has to demonstrate the ability of his government to take a quantum leap, almost tantamount to setting the Ganga on fire, in the next six months, if not in 100 days, if the people were to take seriously the cascade of commitments spewing out of the President's address to both Houses of Parliament on June 9, says B S Raghavan. B S Raghavan suggests five practical propositions through which the Modi government can bring in paradigm changes.
In its 'Right of Reply', India also rejected the 'fanciful and misleading' remarks by the Pakistani envoy to the United Nations.
Veteran cricket administrator Inderjit Singh Bindra on Tuesday said that renowned banker Vikram Limaye should take the lead in representing BCCI in the upcoming International Cricket Council's meeting on February 4.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
Flexing its muscles over Taiwan, China on Monday sailed its aircraft carrier close to the estranged island amid tensions with the US following President-elect Donald Trump's telephone call with the Taiwanese president.
India suggested that Pakistan should refrain from using the Right of Reply and instead "use the right of introspection" to think about the direction in which the country is moving.
India on Thursday pitched for unleashing the "collective strength" of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj underlined the need for a South Asian Economic Union with greater connectivity and forward movement on pending agreements on rail and motor vehicles.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia, defence ministry's top acquisition council on Thursday cleared the purchase of an estimated Rs 40,000 crore Russian S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems, besides giving the go-ahead to other projects worth over Rs 25,000 crore.
'Somewhere along the way, elected office-bearers appeared to have lost sight of the interest of cricket and begun to pursue their own interpretation of what the game should be.' 'Families made it a tradition to have their representatives occupy, if not usurp, positions in state associations,' points out Vinod Rai, who will step down as head of the BCCI's Committee of Administrators on Wednesday, October 23.
Ministers may come and ministers may go but the attitude of the RB remains the same forever, and it is this group that really calls the shots in Indian Railways, says S Pushpavanam.
Aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya will not have any air defence systems on board to protect itself from aerial attacks while coming home from Russia and the Navy has sent warships to escort it safely.
Bihar became the first non-NDA state and overall second after the BJP-ruled Assam to pass GST bill.
Raising the issue of Balochistan for the first time before the United Nation, India on Wednesday accused Pakistan of widespread human rights violations there as well as in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
'Their air force is no match to ours!'
Jharkhand, Odisha and Rajasthan do not meet the criteria for being accorded the special category status, while such proposal from Bihar is under consideration, Parliament was informed on Thursday.
'As of this moment, we have 1,173 ventilators, 2,695 ICUs and about 10,408 plus isolation beds.' 'But this number keeps changing with every passing hour as we incorporate more private as well as government hospitals in our fight against the pandemic.'
'He consulted widely, both formally and informally and acted quickly on pragmatic suggestions.' 'To his credit, Parrikar took the initiative to reduce excessive litigation against armed forces veterans and widow over small sums of pensionary and disability benefits,' points out says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
The UP government is also planning to free up its own land from illegal encroachment to set up these new cow- shelters in "safe locations" and with full facility for fodder and water.
'Overlying his idealism was a hatred of war and of all things military. He gave no deep thought to politico-military matters and this prevented him from making sound security decisions.'
'A President who is a living embodiment of high principles can tone up the entire national fabric,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
All that's transpired on and off the cricket pitch on Wednesday.
The former Test batsman clearly played a part in trying to cover up the cheating by getting word to Bancroft that his use of some tape to try and scuff up one side of the ball had been spotted by the television cameras.
'Tehran senses that the Modi government is inexorably gravitating toward the US-Israeli-Saudi axis, jettisoning India's traditional independent Gulf policies,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India has strongly hit back at Pakistan, saying the "sell-by date" of the country's "anachronistic approach" is long over and there is absolutely no support in the world body for claims on Kashmir by a nation that established itself as a "global epicenter" of terrorism.
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.
GST is a landmark reform considering the sweeping changes it brings about in the indirect tax regime in India.
This is Modi's first bilateral visit to Myanmar.
China chose a sports contest to announce the change of the name of Taiwan, a self-governed cash-rich island.
'Many said his visit was very risky. But mercifully, Air Force One has taken off from Delhi without Mr Trump stepping on anybody's toes,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
'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.
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.
Gambhir also took a dig at Qureshi's emphasis on a "new Pakistan" under Khan, saying while the Indian delegation had come to listen to Pakistan's "new" foreign minister outline the vision of a new Pakistan, "what we heard is a 'New Pakistan' cast in the mold of old."
On Thursday, the Business Advisory Committee of the Lok Sabha, which allocates time for the Bills and discussions to be taken up for the forthcoming week, met, but the government strategists didn't ask the members to allocate time for the GST Bills for the next week.
Britain is due to leave the European Union by October 31, with Johnson racing against time to strike a deal to meet that deadline.
Mandatory prescription of generic names is not a complete solution. Rather, in the absence of a range of approaches, it could mean passing the choice of selecting a drug from a doctor to a pharmacist, says Chandrakant Lahariya.
Voicing concern over the fate of the 13th Amendment to Sri Lankan Constitution that agreed to devolve some authority to provinces, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Sunday called for a "bold stand" by India, saying it cannot remain a "passive bystander."
