Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first-ever in-person meeting with President Joe Biden raised a number of issues involving the Indian community in America, including access for Indian professionals in the US and speaking about the H-1B visas, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said.
While the New Delhi Municipal Council area was given the 'Cleanest Small City' award, Uttarakhand's Gauchar was adjudged the 'Best Ganga Town' in the central government survey.
The United States welcomes India as a rising power and backs its inclusion as a permanent member of a reformed and expanded United Nations Security Council, Secretary of State John Kerry has said ahead of his maiden visit to New Delhi.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said career of students 'cannot be put under jeopardy for long'. 'Life has to go on. Life has to move ahead. Precious year of students cannot be wasted,' the bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Krishna Murari, said during the hearing conducted through video conferencing while paving the way for commencement of the exams as scheduled.
The dent on India-US relations caused by L'affaire Devyani will not remain for long as those will be determined by strategic and economic considerations, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Rahul Gandhi has taken the fight to the Modi government, feels Milan Vaishnav. Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com reports from Washington, DC.
The main elements of the programme are bilateral meetings with the US leadership, participation in the Quad Leaders' Summit, address at the UN General Assembly and business interactions.
'President Kalam pitched his dreams high. He will be best remembered for that feat.'
Leading historian Irfan Habib said the country's academic community is shocked at the manner in which the Modi government is "trampling upon" academic institutions.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar reports on the ongoing battle for the top spot between publishers S Chand and Navneet.
S Jaishankar turned out to be a chip of the old block and that too, in modern parlance, a fully loaded chip. The father laid down the precepts of Indian strategy and diplomacy and the son put them into practice. T P Sreenivasan on India's new foreign secretary.
The BJP's manifesto speaks about the Prime Minister's vision of making 'Atmanirbhar Bihar'.
The appointment of new expenditure secretary comes a month-and-a-half ahead of the Budget for 2020-21 to be presented on February 1.
'Oommen Chandy may well prove to be the Teflon chief minister whose reputation cannot be tarnished,' predicts Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'It was China's rise that caused the New Cold War in Asia as it prompted the United States to rebalance its forces in Asia to experiment with engagement and containment at the same time,' says T P Sreenivasan.
Uttar Pradesh, last year, recorded the most 2,60,028 deaths attributable to air pollution, followed by Maharashtra at 1,08,038 and Bihar 96,967, it said.
The new equation between 'Namo' and 'Barack' may well 'convert a good start into lasting progress.'
'Foreign policy-making cannot be shifted out of Delhi and the regional satraps, who do not have a national perspective, should not be allowed to dominate foreign policy. But regional inputs should be integral to foreign policy-making at every step of the way,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'I would like to reassure the general populace that your government, both Centre and state and the city councils are working at an accelerated pace.'
Launching the Ayushman Bharat scheme via a video-conference to extend health insurance benefits to all residents of Jammu and Kashmir, he said the three-tier panchayat system has fully taken shape in the UT, describing it as a realisation of Mahatma Gandhi's dream of 'gram swaraj' (village self-rule).
Narendra Modi's promise to allow states a bigger say in strategising and building foreign policy is unexceptionable, says TP Sreenivasan.
Among the three Deputy Chief Ministers are Govind Karjol, who has also been given the charge of PWD and Social welfare; Ashwath Narayan the portfolio of Higher Education, IT & BT, Science and Technology; and Laxman Savadi with Transport department.
'Sometimes we use political pressure and sometimes political acumen to get what we want.'
'There is no rationale behind the modelling methodology used by WHO to arrive at the estimate'
'One cannot escape the conclusion that Pakistan has won the Paris-Bangkok-Islamabad round. To be able to resume the composite dialogue without making any progress on the Mumbai attack trials is a dream come true for Pakistan.'
'At the very end of his speech, he dealt with the 'small problems' of Indian workers. But these measures did not seem to satisfy those who had expected the prime minister to find solutions for their problems. That the prime minister generally focused on broad policy issues and not on matters of detail left them bewildered,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Of the 18,000 medical students who returned to India last year, 5,000-7,000 have either shifted to universities in Georgia, Russia, Serbia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Moldova or are in the process of seeking a transfer to those.
'Today, when Kailash Satyarthi is being honoured with the most prestigious global award, reports appear to the effect that many millions of Indian children are in 'slavery'. This is hardly the reputation that India should have when we are basking in the glory of 'Mangalyan',' says T P Sreenivasan.
Various Maratha organisations had held massive 'silent marches' across the state last year for various demands, including reservation.
The real battle for NEET abolition can take much more time and energy, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said, a hike in GST rates would have hampered consumption amid the economic slowdown. The revenue augmentation panel in the Council meeting recently recommended revisiting and restructuring the GST rate slabs, besides correcting the inverted duty structure. The panel listed 24 items, including mobile phones, footwear, fabrics, LED light, medical equipment, utensils, agri machinery, pharma, and renewable components, which have an inverted duty structure, resulting in refunds of close to Rs 20,000 crore annually.
United States Secretary of State John Kerry, heading a high-powered delegation of his cabinet colleagues and top military commanders, today left for India as part of his 10-day seven nation Asia trip.
'From envy, heartburn and broken hearts to broken marriages, much damage has been done by unintended revelations in the social media. Suspicious partners bring out hidden relationships, which may never have come to light and hell breaks lose in many lives,' warns T P Sreenivasan.
The BJP continuing to look at the Dravidian polity through the religious prism has not worked in Tamil Nadu whereas it has yielded political and electoral results across much of the rest of the country, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Every twist and turn in KMC's civil service career is attributed to serendipity, an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. He plays down his capabilities, which took him to the top of the civil service as the Cabinet Secretary or his misfortune in losing a daughter in her prime and suggests that his career was indeed serendipitous, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
In a note to his students titled 'In a Background of Elections - The Development Debate', Dr Frazer Mascarenhas, principal of Mumbai's St Xavier's College, slams Narendra Modi's Gujarat and is in all praise of United Progressive Alliance's Rojgar Yojana and the Food Security Act
Tamil Nadu's unending legislative fight for exemption from NEET has now flagged the question if it's time to review the Supreme Court's famous verdict in the 'Mandal case', fixing 50-per cent upper-limit for all reservations, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
President Obama had no intention of risking a global conflagration on account of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, especially at a time when he was struggling to wind up the wars his predecessor had started, says T P Sreenivasan
'In a relationship that does not permit cricket, how can the prime ministers embrace and send a false message,' asks Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Two decisions handed down by the Supreme Court have spread gloom in Kerala as they have shaken two basic faiths of a majority of the people in the state, says T P Sreenivasan.
