'After we were alerted about the war, none of us could sleep for the next two nights while sailing through those waters.'
24 Indian-flagged vessels with 677 Indian seafarers were currently located west of the Strait of Hormuz, and four vessels with 101 Indian seafarers were stationed east of the strategic waterway.
Delhi Police have arrested four men from Maharashtra, Odisha, and Bihar for allegedly planning terror activities and attempting to recruit others online. An IED and related materials were seized during the operation.
The core issues to be settled -- access to Hormuz, Israel's aggression in Lebanon, the question of Iran's nuclear programme, sanctions relief and compensation -- are thorny enough to require weeks of patient negotiation. The most likely outcome of the opening sessions is that both sides take the measure of each other, establish what is and is not negotiable, and return home without having broken anything. That would count as progress.
We cannot simply have a 60-65 per cent import dependency in LPG, the bulk of which comes from just one volatile region -- West Asia, points out R Jagannathan.
'Much will depend on the position of the United States.' 'It will have to be seen to what extent the US will be more interested in achieving some form of a deal and to what extent Israel will be allowed to continue to carry out both airstrikes and the killing of Iranian officials.'
The 'rescue' operation occurred within kilometres of Iran's underground tunnel complex at Isfahan, assessed by the IAEA and US intelligence as holding a substantial portion of the country's 60 per cent enriched uranium stockpile. Retired senior US military officers have highlighted that the mission's footprint -- hundreds of special operators, multiple heavy-lift aircraft deep inside Iran -- appears outsized for recovering a single airman. Prem Panicker continues his must read blog on the Iran War.
According to the Pentagon, the vessels were targeted as part of efforts to prevent the deployment of naval mines in the strategically vital passage through which a significant portion of global crude oil shipments transits.
The logic of war plus the gathering storms in US politics as the midterms loom large leave him with no real alternative but to negotiate, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
There is record underperformance and under-ownership. Some of this is cyclical and will turn on its own. However, we also need to regain our growth credentials. For this, both the government and companies have a role to play, as do investors, points out Akash Prakash.
The delegations from the US and Iran head to Islamabad on Friday, carrying a ceasefire that is already fraying, a Strait that is technically open and practically closed, and a negotiating agenda that would challenge even parties actually negotiating in good faith, which these groups are not. Prem Panicker continues his must read blog on the Iran War.
'If movement remains stalled for three to four months, more than 300,000 recruitments from India could be affected.'
Trump may strike. He may announce productive talks and extend again. He may do both at the same time. Iran will not open the Strait on someone else's terms, so no matter what happens, that problem will remain unsolved. And the IRGC will still be collecting its $2 million toll from every ship bold enough to ask permission to pass.
The LPG squeeze on India's restaurant sector is the quotidian face of a deeper crisis.
'The next two to three weeks will not be decided in Washington.' 'They will be decided in Tehran, in whatever calculation Iran makes about the costs of continued resistance against the costs of appearing to have yielded.'
What we are watching is something different: A fog manufactured and maintained by the people who started the war, so that the question of why it was started never has to be answered, observes Prem Panicker in his must read blog on the war in the Middle East.
Alliances fight wars effectively only when they share an endgame. If Israel acted without US knowledge, then the military alliance is operating without real coordination at the level of strategic targeting. Neither picture is reassuring in a war that is no longer regional in its consequences. Prem Panicker continues his must read daily blog on the Gulf War.
Iran is fighting a different war: Older, slower, and in some ways more dangerous. Iran doesn't need to shoot down an F/A-18. It only needs to make the Strait of Hormuz feel dangerous long enough for insurance markets, shipping companies, and oil futures traders to do the rest. Prem Panicker continues his must-read daily blog on the war in the Middle East.
Dhurandhar's most dangerous idea is that Director Aditya Dhar envisions an Indian state run by a deep state -- an intelligence machinery not accountable to Parliament, courts, or voters. A future political system where unelected officials decide when Indian democracy is 'fit' to function, observes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
A resurgence in Saudi Arabian supplies of crude oil to India coupled with an attack on an Iraqi tanker in August carrying crude to Europe may result in improved bargaining power for India with West Asian and Russian suppliers for winter supplies. Shipments of Saudi oil rebounded in September from August, surging to the highest since March while Russian oil shipments rose marginally as Saudi Arabia tried to claw back market share in Asia, according to industry sources and ship tracking data.
India's decision to import LPG from the US helps it to diversify sources as it reduces almost full reliance on West Asian countries for supply of the country's primary cooking fuel.
'What we need to watch is how Saudi Arabia's financial assistance will be used by Pakistan. If the funds go to build their military hardware and operations, it should worry us.'
Under the defence partnership, India and the UAE are eyeing defence industrial collaboration and cooperation in advanced technologies, cyberspace training, special operations, interoperability of their militaries and counter terrorism.
MEA data show that the number of Indian students in the UAE in 2025 was 253,832, just behind the United States with 255,447 students, and Canada being on top at 427,085.
'What the government is doing would be a drop in the ocean. It has to be matched by investments by industry.'
'Why would a highly qualified doctor with a promising future choose to wage war against his own country?'
In a first, Indian oil public sector undertakings (PSUs) finalised a one-year contract to import around 2.2 million tonnes (mt) of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from the US. The LPG import deal comes at a time when negotiations for an India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA) are gathering steam. Earlier in the month, US President Donald Trump had said Washington and New Delhi were "pretty close" to reaching a fair trade deal.
Chief of Pakistani intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha on Monday rushed to Saudi Arabia after holding talks with Saudi intelligence officials in Islamabad who had come on King Abdullah's direction to cool down growing tensions between Pakistan and the United States, media reports said.
'The elimination of terrorists does not imply the neutralisation of terrorism. That terrorist ecosystem continues to thrive in Kashmir.'
India is set to reduce its direct imports of Russian crude from late November, following new US sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, effective November 21.
Pakistan launched fresh air strikes targeting terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan, killing several people, including three cricketers, casting a shadow over the expected talks in Doha amid a fragile ceasefire that had temporarily halted hostilities between the two sides.
After a three-month slowdown, India's oil imports (already landed) from Russia bounced back in the first 15 days of October to 1.8 million barrels per day.
'Trump had done a deal with the current regime minus Maduro. The current regime is giving Trump entry into Venezuelan oil. They are obeying him and doing whatever he says.' 'They are happy because they have saved their heads by sacrificing only two, Maduro and his wife. Thousands of Venezuelan military leaders would have been jailed or killed in American action had Maduro stayed in power.'
'Shock, confusion, and paralysis reigned.' 'Pakistan was caught in a most embarrassing situation. It could neither claim credit for the operation nor admit to a dismal intelligence failure and lack of army preparedness.'
'If 138 soldiers have been given a gallantry award as 'shaheed' (by Pakistan) for Operation Sindoor, how many would have been the actual casualties. This decides who won.
ICICI Securities expects Jio Platforms' ensuing IPO to fetch "premium valuations", as was the case in the high-profile equity raise of FY21, and has pegged the company's equity value at $148 billion by September 2027.
'If Pakistan's army wants to escalate violence in Kashmir, they have an unlimited supply of jihadis they can train and send. That's not an issue for them.'
'India needs at least 70,000 to 80,000 eyewear stores; our 2,000 stores are just a drop in the ocean.'
The details were provided by National Security Adviser M K Narayanan to Saudi intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud in New Delhi.
'America holds about 16% of IMF voting rights, giving it crucial influence over Pakistan's desperately needed bailout loans.'
