Indians in countries like the United States, China, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Egypt, Israel and South Africa celebrated the day with hoisting of the national flag and singing of patriotic songs.
US President Barack Obama told Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when the two met on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Myanmar in November 2014, how he barely had two years left to his presidential term and so much to do. The wish list included getting his daughters to see a tiger in the wild and the Taj Mahal.
Several people, including an Indian techie, were taken hostage by an armed man at a popular caf in Sydney and forced to display an Islamic flag, triggering a security alert in Australia and leading to evacuation of key buildings, including the Indian Consulate.
'That the Indian nationals have been sighted, they are unharmed, they are in captivity, and we know their captors. This is the sort of information I think everybody has the right to know and we would share it. Information beyond that we feel would be detrimental to the safety of those who are in captivity and it is not at all in the interest of our countrymen to share that information,' says MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin.
Modi knew in his heart that India does not have the financial muscle to support the new bank with offers of co-financing international projects, something China can do from the bank's base in Shanghai. If established in Mumbai, it may have employed a few Indian bankers and satisfied the national ego but there was little financial value to be drawn from it.
India along with the G4 nations said it is "unfortunate" that momentum could not build up over the issue in the current session.
'We had doctors from Syria who could not go home as the situation in their country is even worse. We are fortunate we have a safe home to come back to while they don't have that luxury.'
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in New York on Friday on a five-day US visit, he was greeted with 'Har Har Modi' slogan.
Several hundred Indian nationals may be stranded in the Najaf province of Iraq, unable to return home because their employer refuses to return their passports, Amnesty International said on Saturday.
'Could this be a random attack? Well, yes it could. It could be a whole range of scenarios... and we are considering all of them.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi late Tuesday night spoke to his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif offering his "deepest condolences" on the dastardly terror attack at a school in Peshawar and said India stands firmly with his country in the fight against terrorism.
The decision was taken during the annual 19th round of boundary talks in Beijing between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.
Even as major political parties were still busy in behind the scene efforts to find suitable partners and stitch seat sharing arrangements, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen on Monday released first list of seven candidates for the assembly elections.
'Soon enough, we were out shouted. The journalist had a multiple agenda -- he berated the Government, the bureaucracy in general and the UPSC system that selected them.'
'If the charges are so serious against him, then why hasn't a single case been registered against Dr Zakir Naik?'
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