The US hails the landmark 'India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor' which will usher in a new era of connectivity from Europe to Asia and will stimulate economic growth across the two continents.
India's time use survey for January-December 2019 had found that an average person in urban areas spends 485 (eight hours and five minutes) minutes on employment and related activities.
Counter-terrorism experts from India, Pakistan and other member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on Monday deliberated on boosting cooperation in combating various regional security challenges at a meeting hosted by New Delhi.
Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif will attend the SCO defence ministers' meeting in New Delhi on Friday through virtual mode, according to an official readout.
Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to join the grouping.
Prime Minister Modi will be arriving in Cairo on Saturday evening at the invitation of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. It will be the first bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister since 1997.
"In India's development cooperation, we will be guided by our partners' development priorities. Our assistance does not create indebtedness and is without conditionalities," he said at the 44th Annual Meeting of the G-77 Foreign Ministers on Thursday, in a veiled reference to China's loans which has led to debt-traps in some countries.
The World Bank's executive board unanimously selected 63-year-old Malpass, who is currently Under Secretary of Treasury for International Affairs, as the bank's 13th President for a five-year term beginning April 9.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi discussed ways to further strengthen the "iron-clad friendship" between the two countries as the two sides signed five agreements to deepen their bilateral cooperation in various fields, the foreign office said on Tuesday.
In a strong reaction, external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said such statements only expose the OIC as an organization devoted to a "communal agenda being pursued through terrorism".
During the meeting, Gantz emphasised the opportunity to invest further in defence cooperation between the two countries.
The prime minister will leave for the Indonesian city of Bali on Monday on a three-day visit to attend the summit that is expected to deliberate extensively on pressing global challenges including the Ukraine conflict and its implications.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday held wide-ranging talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov focusing on the Ukraine conflict, bilateral ties and issues relating to the G20 foreign ministers' meeting.
The PM said that countries sponsoring, aiding and funding terrorism must be held accountable.
In his opening remarks at the virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Modi also said that some countries use cross-border terrorism as an instrument of their policy and the grouping must not hesitate to criticise them.
This could become tricky territory for India, given its basically adversarial relationship with China, its moves to block imports and investment from that country, and to deny market access for Chinese technologies, observes T N Ninan.
Chinese Premier Premier Li Keqiang said world economic recovery should not be driven by mainly China, but in concert with many countries.
He warned that Pakistan-supported terrorist groups would continue to carry out attacks inside India.
In recent years India-Japan relations have acquired rich economic content and strategic intents. Although the bilateral trade at $18 billion between the two countries is not very impressive and leaves much to be desired, the economic engagement between the two countries is both qualitatively and quantitatively noteworthy. India-Japan defence cooperation, however, has generated a lot interest among the strategic community in the context of rise of China. There has been a lot of speculation about India-Japan strategic partnership to hedge China, says Rup Narayan Das.
As India's stock rises, the resolution of the border row may become even more difficult, warn Harsh V Pant and Kalpit Mankikar.
The readings, for the month of October, are based on Composite Leading Indicator that are designed to anticipate turning points in economic activity relative to trend.
The Singapore Minister applauded Prime Minister Modi's effort to make India the manufacturing hub of the world.
China has signalled that it will prevent India from assuming leadership of the Global South, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra on Wednesday refused to speculate on whether the G20 foreign ministers' meeting would be able to come out with a joint communique against the backdrop of widening differences between the West and Russia on the Ukraine conflict.
Asserting that terrorism is not linked to any religion, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Tuesday said it is no coincidence that despite there being around 200 million Muslims, the involvement of Indian citizens in global terrorism has been "incredibly low".
'No Cold War should be reignited and no Ukraine-style crisis should be repeated in Asia'
Religious leaders come last, with corporations featuring slightly better
India is keen to strengthen its partnership with Russia on Arctic subjects and there is immense scope for cooperation in the field of energy as well, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will hold its first in-person summit in Samarkand in Uzbekistan on Thursday after two years, shaking off Covid fears and providing a rare opportunity for all its eight heads of state to meet on the sidelines of the event to have face-to-face talks on pressing global and regional issues of common concern.
Singh emphasised that the Indo-Pacific is no more a maritime construct, but a full-fledged geo-strategic issue, and that the region is facing "a complex web" of security challenges, including boundary disputes and piracy.
Although the credit for acquiring the technological skill must be given to India's outstanding nuclear scientists, the decision to go nuclear was a political one that entailed clarity of vision, courage and resolve, points out Rup Narayan Das.
India's economic growth is gaining momentum, Paris-based think tank OECD said on Monday amid the new government initiating various measures to bolster the economy.
The PM said a woman's power today underlined inner fortitude and self-confidence, which made her self-reliant.
Today, with China centrally seated and located, the Global South has an intriguing road ahead. Odds of it becoming a Chinese bloc in the emerging new bipolar world are higher than we'd wish them to be, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The port is likely to ramp up trade between India, Afghanistan and Iran in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi for trade with the two countries.
Indian economy is witnessing stable growth momentum, says OECD.
In a boost to the embattled Adani Group, Mauritian Financial Services Minister Mahen Kumar Seeruttun has told the nation's Parliament that Hindenburg Research's allegations of the presence of 'shell' companies in the Island nation are 'false and baseless' and that Mauritius was in compliance with OECD-mandated tax rules. US short seller Hindenburg on January 24 alleged that billionaire Gautam Adani used shell companies based in Mauritius to manipulate stock prices of his Indian-listed companies.
The latest reading from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development comes amid rising concerns about India's growth prospects on account of the falling rupee and relatively sluggish investments.
Officials hint the visit could finally see a formal defence industrial road map being adopted by both nations.
