With an epic battle of billionaires for supremacy in one of the world's most prolific markets and a pandemic-propelled surge in online shopping in the background, India's nearly trillion-dollar retail market is hoping to touch 85 per cent of the pre-COVID business in the first half of the New Year. In a year when the COVID-19 carnage ripped apart the retail business, circa 2020 will best go down for the unravelling of the war between Jeff Bezos, the world's wealthiest man, and richest Indian Mukesh Ambani for pre-eminence in the booming market that is estimated to reach $1.3 trillion by 2025. It all started with Ambani's Reliance Industries agreeing in August to buy assets of the nation's second-largest retailer for Rs 24,713 crore, just a year after Bezos' Amazon purchased an indirect stake in the indebted Future Retail.
The defence ministry will review all cases of blacklisted firms as it prepares a new list of such entities following the new policy unveiled by it which is a mixture of heavy fines and graded banning.
The blaze at the Oil India Ltd's oil well is so massive that it can be seen from a distance of more than two kilometres, eyewitnesses said.
Facing difficulty in guarding riverine sections of Indo-Pak border, the Border Security Force has started installing laser walls to fill the gaps which saw several breach by militants from across the border.
During the day, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan held a meeting to review preparedness for COVID-19 management, through video conference with health ministers, chief secretaries of all states and UTs, central ministers and representatives from the related organisations and stressed on the need for keeping testing and quarantine facilities, isolation wards, and labs in active readiness.
Serena Williams destroyed Romania's Simona Halep 6-3, 6-0 on Sunday to win the WTA Finals championship in Singapore, proving once again why she remains the most formidable force in women's tennis.
'In the run-up to the summit, Trump had indicated that he might strike a nuclear deal in the course of a single meeting or over several days, but as it transpired, Trump departed Singapore soon after the meeting.' 'This raises questions if his aspirations for an ambitious outcome had been scaled back,' says Rajaram Panda.
Romania's Simona Halep kicked off her campaign for a maiden WTA Finals title in emphatic fashion with a thumping 6-0, 6-3 victory over US Open champion Flavia Pennetta in the opening match of the eight-woman season-ending tournament on Sunday.
The trial of the last Indian national, out of the 25 accused from the country in the December 2013 riot case in Singapore, witnessed heated exchange of words, with the defence counsel accusing a police officer of lying on the stand.
Modi has been relentless in building his brand regardless of banks having a problem of fraudulent and unauthorised transactions with his companies.
With cash shortage and plans going awry, the AirAsia owner is looking to cash out of the venture he built with Ratan Tata in 2013.
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Modi government must push reforms at a fast pace to restore growth.
'If Myanmar falls to China, let it.' 'Sooner or later the rulers of the country will have to call New Delhi.'
China is now the most significant strategic concern in Washington, as in most of the world's capitals, especially the democracies. Today, strategic autonomy has acquired a sharper definition: To ward off the Chinese challenge to India's territorial integrity, sovereignty and regional stature, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Anti-Corruption Commission rules out graft.
As Serena Williams sits out a fourth straight Grand Slam, Simona Halep and Karolina Pliskova will join Caroline Wozniacki in a quest for a major breakthrough in Australia.
Modi government expects cargo traffic at its ports to jump by two-thirds by 2021 as India ramps up exports of goods including cars and other machinery.
'The fatal mistake for the USSR was the invasion of Afghanistan.' 'Quite possibly the fatal mistake for the Chinese empire is the assault on Ladakh,' observes Rajeev Srinivasan.
Ola wants to be India's answer to Grab, which is into everything, starting from cab service and logistics to bike taxis and food and grocery delivery.
Divers on Tuesday retrieved the cockpit voice recorder and may have located the fuselage of the crashed AirAsia jet in the Java Sea as experts will now use data from the two crucial black box devices to determine the sequence of events that brought the flight down. The cockpit voice recorder, that possesses the last two hours of conversation between the pilots and with air traffic controllers, was found close to where the flight data recorder was recovered from the bottom of the choppy waters on Monday.
'It was almost as though there was widespread relief that the defence bureaucracy, and the minister, could find someone willing to shoulder the blame for everything that had gone wrong with the services under Antony's charge -- the poor preparedness of the forces, slow acquisitions caused by indecision, cancellation of contracts and whimsical blacklisting of defence contractors over the tiniest suspicion that they may have paid speed money or kickbacks.'
North Korea considers Assad's Syria an ally, so it views Donald Trump's decision to strike Syria as a message to Pyongyang as well.
'Shah Rukh Khan is a born entertainer.' 'From five year olds to a 105 year old, Shah Rukh will charm and entertain everyone.' 'With Salman, a lot of people have come back intimidated.' 'But I enjoy my adventures with Salman because you just have to be yourself.'
'Modi took to the dais and said he would like to step down as chief minister over the riots.' 'Immediately, people from several sides got up and said there was no need to do so.' 'Whether it was orchestrated or not, Shourie wasn't sure.' 'But, according to him, Vajpayee felt that it was a coup.'
Indian states are preparing for a Rs 1.9 lakh crore (Rs 1.9 trillion) tax windfall this fiscal year.
'New Delhi feels that given the internal dynamics in Pakistan and the overwhelming powers wielded by the army, one will have to wait for better times to see any meaningful progress in the India-Pakistan relationship,' says Ambassador G Parthasarthy.
'I think for the next generation to come up, we need to put a system in place which actually identifies and nurtures talent. We have grown exponentially but there is lot more which needs to be done' 'It's not only my academy, all academies across the country are running full. There are many, many parents who want their kids to give up everything and concentrate on badminton'
'The military aim in a future conflict, if it can't be avoided, should be to cause maximum damage to the adversary's war waging capability and capture limited amount of territory as a bargaining counter,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'Tying somebody to the jeep is not the military way, but the officer was able to come out of the situation without any bloodshed.' 'I am not supporting him, but I am also not criticising him.' 'He had to use some mechanism to save the uniformed personnel, many of whom were Kashmiri boys of the J&K police,' points out Lieutenant General D B Shekatkar (retd), who was instrumental in the surrender of a record 1,267 terrorists in Kashmir.
As 2018 draws to a close and the white noise of 24-hour news cycles and Twitter storms fade into the background, it is already clear that history will remember only a handful of those people, each of whom has taught us something about ourselves and the rapidly changing world in which we live.
While we have to hiss loudly and do the lunging bit to keep our foes on their toes, that's only a tactical matter. What is the strategic goal? What is the end game? In my opinion, there is only one possible end game: the unwinding of Pakistan into several pieces: Balochistan, Sind, Balawaristan (Gilgit, Baltistan, the rest of PoK), the Pashtun area Khyber Pakhtunwa which will merge with Afghanistan, and the rump Punjab, says Rajeev Srinivasan.
The rise of the mall in India, at a time when many in the United States are becoming debt-ridden white elephants.
Sukanya Verma recaps all the action at this year's MAMI.
The recent episode in which a supposedly Pakistani boat destroyed itself at sea, apparently by setting itself on fire, has aroused a great deal of comment in the media. There have been some positive words for the Coast Guard which responded to the developing situation, such as it was, but also doubts about what had actually transpired.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed as "historic" the jump.
Following is the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 73rd Independence Day.
If viewed as a part of the Al Qaeda's radicalisation effort to produce jihadists out of discontented Muslim youth in India, the call could well have a much larger dimension, both in the near as well as long term, directly impacting on national security, says Bibhu Prasad Routray.
'With the recent challenging of the notion of the Indian Ocean Region being India's strategic backyard, China is gradually upping the ante in the maritime realm around India.'
'The airline business is very dynamic. If you are unable to keep up and lead, you end up last.' 'This is what has happened to Jet.'
'I wish I could tell you that what you had to experience is limited to a few people and a few places in my beautiful country; it is not.' A Mango Indian on the stark ugliness that coexists with immense beauty in India
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