India lifted 271 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2016, recording the fastest reductions in the multi-dimensional poverty index values during the period with strong improvements in areas such as "assets, cooking fuel, sanitation and nutrition," a report by the United Nations said.
'No private citizen can be prevented from holding or propagating in India or abroad, a view contrary to that of the government of the day. The government, it seems is misreading the mandate in the Lok Sabha as being a mandate to crush dissent. In times when ruling parties have brute majorities in Parliament, the true test of safeguarding democracy is its ability to allow dissenting voices to be heard,' says Indira Jaising, the former additional solicitor general.
Throughout the developing world, he emphasised, billions of dollars needed for healthcare, education, clean water and infrastructure are being drained by bribes and other forms of corruption. The head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime called for greater adherence to the UN Convention Against Corruption that has been signed by 130 nations.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon On Tuesday asked India to take a leadership role in reaching a "meaningful" climate change pact in Paris later this year.
Aseem Chhabra presents his list of 10 international films that mattered to him, stories that he connected with and characters that gave him a better understanding of the human condition.
The minister said the terrorist groups created by Pakistan is not only harming India, but also hurting its neighbours.
The 125-strong Indian Formed Police Unit along with 12 Indian personnel of the UN Police serving in the UN Mission in Liberia were awarded medals during a parade ceremony held recently in Congo Town in Montserrado County.
India has hit back at Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's remarks that the Uri terror attack could be the result of a "reaction" of the people to the situation in Kashmir, saying the "use of alibis" by him is not going to work anymore.
President Biden underscored that the United States will 'continue to stand up for its interests and values and, together with our allies and partners, ensure the rules of the road for the 21st century advance an international system that is free, open, and fair', the White House said in a readout of the meeting.
Sadly, for hundreds of millions in India, that inequality from their birth and the utterly inadequate schooling and health care they receive thereafter mean that the lottery is stacked against them.
Sri Lankan President Mahindra Rajapaksa on Tuesday told the United Nations General Assembly that Colombo is concerned over the growing trend of international interference in the internal affairs of developing countries in the guise of concern for security and human rights.
'The use of nuclear/biological/chemical weapons by Islamic terrorists is just a matter of time.' 'It must be clearly understood what the world faces is a global level insurgency against the world order.' 'Terrorism is merely a tactic and Islamic State its most brutal face, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
India has been maintaining that China has no locus standi in commenting on Jammu and Kashmir.
The deported Rohingyas would face persecution in Myanmar but also, possibly, elimination.
The report also referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel in July 2017.
In the past, India strongly rejected references made to Jammu and Kashmir in a previous joint statement by Pakistan and China.
It is important to approach the belief of people in ancient India's achievements with a sense of proportion, balance and empathy, argues B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
India and five Central Asian countries on Thursday decided to establish a joint working group on Afghanistan at the senior officials' level, ministry of external affairs secretary (West) Reenat Sandhu said.
India maintains that the Kashmir issue is a bilateral one and no third party has any role in it.
India has strongly hit back at Pakistan, saying the "sell-by date" of the country's "anachronistic approach" is long over and there is absolutely no support in the world body for claims on Kashmir by a nation that established itself as a "global epicenter" of terrorism.
Swaraj is expected to give a stinging response to Sharif's UN General Assembly speech, in which he had focused elaborately on Kashmir.
Without naming Pakistan, he said there are some who are trying to project an 'alarmist approach' to the situation in Kashmir, which is far from the ground realities.
'New Delhi and Washington are now on the same page, on dealing with growing Chinese assertiveness, across the entire Indo-Pacific region,' notes Ambassador G Parthasarathy, Chancellor, Central University of Jammu.
Embarking on a high-profile visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday described the United States as India's "vital partner" and said that he was confident that his trip will bridge "many divisions" and mark a "new chapter" in the strategic ties.
Australian foreign minister Marise Payne and defence minister Peter Dutton will visit India from September 10 to 12 to take part in the dialogue with their Indian counterparts.
'It is high time that we act instead of just talking about how and why the climate is changing.'
Taking a dig at China, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said 'some irresponsible nations' with their narrow partisan interests and hegemonic tendencies are coming up with wrong definitions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
"If we have to recognise a government, the first thing is that we will need to wait until the government is formed," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
The omission of historical responsibilities, implying the build-up in the atmosphere of 165 years of greenhouse gas emissions from industrialised countries, is a body blow to the notion of climate justice, sums up Darryl D'Monte, reporting exclusively for Rediff.com from COP21.
With climate change impacts worsening and affecting the poor and most vulnerable, governments urgently need to scale up adaptation
The pressure on India to take a hostile attitude towards Russia and China was not subtle, but it was guarded, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan after Monday's 2+2 ministerial meeting in Washington, DC.
Saudi Arabia on Sunday came under attack globally a day after it carried out mass execution of 47 people, including Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr who was a vocal critic of the government and the Saudi monarchy.
COVID-19 has accomplished what the UN failed to do in the last 75 years by making mankind rally around a mask of unity, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
A confrontation with the Taliban in Kabul in this fading light of a twilight zone would have been sheer madness, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Clearly, Washington has all but given up hope following US Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells's stormy visit to Colombo last month where she read the riot act to Sri Lankan leaders to sign the pending status of forces agreement allowing American troops to use Sri Lanka as a hub for operations in the Indian Ocean,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A release issued by the MEA said the meeting was attended by the heads of delegations of Fiji, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Nauru, Republic of Palau, Independent State of Papua New Guinea, The Independent State of Samoa, Solomon Islands, Kingdom of Tonga, Tuvalu and Republic of Vanuatu.
'The response to savagery and mass injustice is never a persistent howl.' 'There will be, among the victims, those who choose to forget the scars, those who go on living, those who challenge the overall environment of sentimentality.' 'And the more effort you put into including these other voices, into assimilating these spoilsports, the more balanced your depiction of the tragedy in question will be,' observes Sreehari Nair.
Poland, which currently holds the council's rotating presidency, has listed the matter for discussion at 10 am on Friday, the diplomats were quoted as saying.
Amid deepening concerns in China over the regrouping of the ETIM, blamed by Beijing for all the violent attacks in its volatile Xinjiang province and elsewhere in the country, Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Mullah Baradar at Tianjin and sought to prevail on him to build a 'positive image and establish a broad and inclusive political structure that suits Afghanistan's national realities'.
Zakaria, while talking about the unrest in Kashmir, claimed that 'genocide and crimes against humanity committed by India in Kashmir' were going on unabated.
