Two powerful US Senators have urged President Joe Biden not to impose provisions of the punitive Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act against India for buying the S-400 surface-to-air missile system from Russia.
The days of a thousand cuts are over. These mini wars will remain under the threshold of undeniable war, but will escalate closer to that threshold when their big brother pushes in. Chinese aggression has changed the matrix, the strategies, and surely the objectives too, warns David Devadas.
The president also said one of his daughters has been given a shot of the COVID-19 vaccination. "One of my daughters got vaccinated. In fact, she took part in an experiment. After the first vaccination, she had a [body] temperature of 38 degrees [Celcius, 100 degrees Fahrenheit], the next day slightly higher than 37 [degrees], that's all," he said.
'An elephant has to behave like an elephant and not shy away from confronting the jackals,' argues Colonel (Dr) Anil A Athale.
Among India's capital-starved local banks, Essar is viewed as too big to fail.
'One of his most famous scenes is set in a prison in Delhi where the British try to subvert Karla, the legendary Soviet spy who is being transferred back to Moscow and is being temporarily detained by the Indian agencies.' Ambassador B S Prakash salutes John le Carre.
Organizers of the World Chess Championship sued on Monday to block a trio of website operators from broadcasting chess moves at the November 11-30 match in New York, which is expected to draw millions of online viewers.
;The world paid a heavy price for the megalomania of the Third Reich's fuehrer.' 'Will it pay a similar price for the ambitions of China's leader-for-life?' asks Amulya Ganguli.
'There is a compulsion to look hard, decisive, and risk-taking; start something; and then conclude it in a way you can claim victory.' 'That is not such an easy option against China,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
Simone Biles showed off her sassy moves and explosive tumbles on the floor exercise to win a record-equalling fourth gold at the Rio Olympics on Tuesday.
'Terrorism is merely a symptom of a deeper disease in Pakistan's body politic,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'The regime -- and particularly the home ministry under Amit Shah -- have sought to suppress and destroy these struggles through intimidation, bullying, threats, through false cases, arrests, custodial torture, the use of draconian laws like the UAPA.'
Biden's lengthy remarks on Afghanistan contained no condemnatory references to the Taliban, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who played a stellar role in beginning India's systemic dealings in Afghanistan in 1994.
The US president alleged that the countries were not doing enough in the war-ravaged country and that they were taking advantage of the United States.
The Kremlin dubbed the Russian national team heroes and proud soccer fans saluted their underdog host team after the side lost on penalties to Croatia, bringing an end to its World Cup challenge at the quarter-finals.
Centenarian Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and freedom fighter, Samar Mukherjee, who was known for his oratory and leadership, died of old age ailments on Thursday.
India's most powerful prime minister in five decades gets publicly admonished -- if gently -- by the US vice-president. The question is, would this make him reflect on how and why, or which ones of his government and party's missteps exposed his flank like this? asks Shekhar Gupta.
Russia coach Stanislav Cherchesov was in bullish mood ahead of their final Group A showdown with Uruguay on Monday, dismissing suggestions his men under pressure because of their status as World Cup hosts.
Did you know the world's youngest director is an Indian?
'Transformation of Ukraine into some kind of permanent strategic challenger, which Russia would have to contain and deter, spend a significant part of political and strategic resources on it.'
PK Banerjee was captain of the Indian team that last played the Olympics in Rome 1960. He retired as a player in 1967 after being laid low by recurring injuries. But then went on accumulate a staggering 54 trophies as a coach.
'Till date there have been 482 accidents on account of failure of this aircraft and 171 IAF pilots have lost their lives.'
The files, digitised and given "preliminary conservation treatment" by the National Archives of India, were released on the birth anniversary of Netaji.
For soccer great Diego Maradona, Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro was more than a friend and fellow Latin American legend, he was "a second father." Maradona said Castro's death late on Friday hit him like a tennis ball to the chest served by Juan Martin del Potro, the Argentine player he cheered on in the Davis Cup final where he received the news. "I wept uncontrollably," Maradona told reporters on the sidelines of the tennis tournament. "After my father, it's the deepest sorrow I know."
'Every Indian knows why the BJP is targeting Hamid Ansari.'
'I cannot be confined to just one or two kinds of music.'
China on Sunday successfully placed 20 micro satellites into space using its latest carrier rocket powered by pollution-free fuels, boosting the Communist giant's competitiveness in the global satellite launch sector, state media reported.
'Manmohan Singh's fond hope of avoiding conflict over territory by 'making borders irrelevant' is increasingly difficult to realise in a world where institutional restraints on aggression are weakening and the new game in town is unalloyed power play,' notes T N Ninan.
Castro condemned as "equally criminal" the bombing of Nagasaki three days later on August 9, 1945.
'We spent Rs 59,000 crore on acquiring 36 Rafales and we do not know if we will ever use them. The chances are that we never will,' argues Aakar Patel.
In a huge setback to China's ambitious space programme, its first lunar rover Yutu or the Jade Rabbit was declared dead after attempts to revive it failed, media reports said on Wednesday.
'The China Pakistan Economic Corridor is Pakistan's number one preoccupation today -- and tensions with India and the $46 billion projects simply do not go together,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The Left is dying, but its economic ideology rules, unchallenged.' 'Modi is its newest standard-bearer.' 'Even in today's bitterly polarised politics, if there is one thing on which not just the BJP and Congress, but all other parties agree, it is that socialist economics is the only way to survive,' says Shekhar Gupta.
As the United States and China joust for supremacy, India might remain on the sidelines with its limited resources.
'A P Venkateswaran left an indelible impression on Indian diplomacy and made an incredible number of friends, who kept remembering him, more than other Indian diplomats, who served at those posts.' Ambassador T P Sreenivasan salutes a legend of the Indian Foreign Service who passed into the ages.
'The location was the central part of the southern pacific and most part of the Tiangong-1 was burnt up on the re-entry.'
China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas. Beijing has also made substantial progress in militarising its man-made islands in the past few years, which it says it has the right to defend.
Thirty-four years after he traveled to space, Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih that he looks forward to Gaganyan, India's first manned space mission in 2022.
'Kashmir is the main issue between the two countries.' 'We have not been able to resolve it bilaterally.' 'As the two major countries in South Asia, we have to go back to the drawing board and start engaging.'
'Once positions are hardened and troops start building defences, it is difficult for soldiers to step back.'
