Incessant rains unleashed more death and destruction on Monday in parts of north India, with 37 people killed in landslides and other rain-related incidents in the last two days even as the Army and NDRF teams stepped in to intensify the relief and rescue operations.
The first five months of 2023 have witnessed at least six major events/trends that augur badly for global economic and socio-political prospects, points out Shankar Acharya, former chief economic adviser to the Government of India.
The defence minister visited the forward areas at a time when China is upgrading its infrastructure along the border.
S&P Global Ratings on Monday kept its forecast for India's economic growth unchanged at 6 per cent in the fiscal year starting April 1, before rising to 6.9 per cent in the following year. In the quarterly economic update for Asia-Pacific, S&P saw inflation rate easing to 5 per cent in 2023-24 fiscal, from 6.8 per cent in the current financial year. It saw India's gross domestic product (GDP) likely growing by 7 per cent in the current financial year ending March 31 (2022-23), before slowing to 6 per cent in the next 2023-24 fiscal.
Shivam Dube continued his recent streak of form with a counter-attacking fifty that proved to be the cornerstone of Mumbai's excellent 330 for six against Bengal
The Yeti Airlines aircraft took off from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport at 10.33 am on Sunday and crashed on the bank of the Seti River between the old airport and the new airport in Pokhara, minutes before landing, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said efforts are on to rescue the 300 stranded people, and they could be airlifted as the weather clears. Power and water supply has been snapped in several areas.
Now it is confirmed that all 22 people, including four Indian nationals and three crew members, have been killed in the tragedy.
'Other countries go out on a limb to save even a single life.' 'What to talk of civilian accidents and disasters, even our military does not have a priority for Combat Search and Rescue,' says Group Captain P I Muralidharan (retd).
Elevated food price-led inflation could become a sore point for markets, which they seem to be ignoring at current levels, observe analysts. Retail inflation in India - as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) - came in at a three-month high of 6.52 per cent in January 2023, compared with 5.72 per cent in December and 5.88 per cent in November 2022. The inflation print for February, according to Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda, will be critical for the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy committee.
'Bodies of all seven individuals have been recovered from the avalanche site. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, all seven have been confirmed deceased,' the Army said in a statement.
The No. 51 Squadron is to be retired by the end of September, "as per the plan", the defence sources said.
"We value our partnership with India, and we've been increasing it and doing a lot more, over time. They have the same security challenge, primary security challenger that we do, and it's real on their northern border," Admiral John Christopher Aquilino, commander of United States Indo-Pacific Command, told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on Indo-Pacific National Security Challenges.
India's inflation trajectory in the coming months will be influenced more by the geo-political situation due to the war in Europe and its impact on supply chains and commodity prices. However, the country is better placed than most to "weather the storm" and achieve growth of close to 8 per cent in the current fiscal year, the finance ministry said in its latest monthly economic report on Thursday. "Through the channel of imports, elevated global crude and edible oil prices now have a significant impact on India's inflation outlook. "Government measures to keep the prices of these commodities in check, along with the recent hike in policy rates by the RBI, are expected to temper inflationary pressures in the economy," the monthly economic report for April, drafted by the finance ministry's economic division, said.
The death of the Queen is known in official circles in the United Kingdom as Operation London Bridge, the protocol for which has been triggered when Buckingham Palace announced the death of the 96-year-old monarch on Thursday evening.
India's first privately developed rocket -- Vikram-S -- is set for launch in a sub-orbital mission with three payloads between November 12 and 16, Hyderabad-based space startup Skyroot Aerospace announced on Tuesday.
The Punjab government has ordered the closure of schools till July 13 while in Chandigarh schools are closed till Thursday.
Back in the Press Briefing room on being commended for her questions to President Biden and the Indian prime minister, The Wall Street Journal's Sabrina Siddiqui responded, "You gotta do it."
The vintage artillery with 25-pounder guns that traditionally fires the thundering ceremonial 21-gun salute during the Republic Day celebrations will be replaced by 105 mm Indian field guns this year, as the government makes a further push for its Make in India initiative.
The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee brainstormed the impact of any future shocks on the inflation trajectory and stressed monitoring the cumulative effect of monetary policy actions over the past one year, which is still unfolding, revealed minutes of the rate-setting panel released on Thursday. The minutes of the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), headed by Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das, also indicated it would be premature to declare an end to the monetary tightening cycle, which started in May 2022 to check high inflation following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war. The central bank, which effected six back-to-back hikes in the key short-term lending rate (repo) since May 2022 to check high inflation, decided to take a pause early this month.
China and Pakistan have agreed to step up their defence and counter-terrorism cooperation amidst 'challenging times', as Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa held wide-ranging talks with the Chinese military leadership to further cement their all-weather strategic partnership.
Weather watchers said it can't be known till May whether El Nio will impact the monsoon or not.
The missing plane could possibly be located on Monday after Nepal Telecom tracked down the cellphone of the airplane's pilot Captain Prabhakar Ghimire through the Global Positioning System network.
Rescue work has intensified in Texas with officials launching search operations as desperate residents remain stranded without food and water.
Farmers' protest against the three farm laws passed by the Centre has entered its 23rd day on Friday. "We are preparing ourselves for a longer stay as our fight against black laws will continue. It's getting colder, so we're putting more tents," said a protester.
China on Friday announced plans to boost space cooperation with Pakistan, including the development of a space centre and launching of more satellites for its all-weather ally.
More than 1,85,000 homes were damaged and 9,000 destroyed as 42,000 people remain in shelters amid overflowing rivers and reservoirs, Texas officials said.
'Criticism is one thing, and cynicism is quite another.' 'However, we are undaunted by this negativity because we know the truth.'
The slain man was identified as Mohammed Shabbir Malik, a Pakistani national, equipped with weapons, ammunition and warlike stores.
Setting the stage for confrontation in Parliament, an all-party meeting called in New Delhi on the eve of the monsoon session on Monday ended in a deadlock over controversies related to the Lalit Modi and Vyapam scam even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered to discuss all issues. The government ruled out any resignations.
The official India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the private Skymet Weather Services have made widely divergent monsoon forecasts.
The Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on Thursday said that the bodies of four people -- two adults, a teen and an infant -- were found on the Canadian side of the US-Canada border near Emerson.
The chief minister will visit Joshimath on Saturday, meet the affected people and hold a meeting with officials.
States across America are beginning the process of digging their way out of record-breaking snowfall on Monday after Winter Storm Jonas battered the nation's East Coast, wreaking havoc on millions and turning major cities into ghost towns.
The Indian Space Research Organisation said it successfully carried out an "extremely challenging" controlled re-entry experiment of the decommissioned orbiting Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT-1) satellite.
The maximum damage has been reported from Mandi, Kangra and Chamba districts, he said, adding that so far 36 weather-related incidents have been reported from the state.
Heavy rains lashed Mumbai and its suburbs on Wednesday, causing flooding on roads and rail tracks and disrupting suburban train services as the south-west monsoon arrived in the city.
In recent years, the twin demands of both religion and defence have been added to the development argument to sweep aside environmental and terrain considerations while undertaking infrastructure development in the Himalayan zone, points out former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
Munir was among those in Pakistan who oversaw the 2019 Pulwama terror attack, according to Tilak Devasher, a member of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) and who retired as Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat.
'...and then get scaled down somewhat.' 'It will be difficult for any side to occupy meaningful territories, maybe just a bit here and there, and the destruction may vary on either side.'
