Dr Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development and the highest-ranking Indian American in the Barack Obama administration, has set the record straight over conflicting reports that he had visited a relief camp run by a front organisation of Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Pakistan's Sindh province and handed over US aid.The JuD is headed by Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Tayiba and alleged mastermind of the horrific 26/11 terror attacks.
Conflicting claims were made on Wednesday about the visit of United States Agency for International Development's Indian-origin chief Rajiv Shah to a relief camp, run by a front organisation of Jamaat-ud-Dawah, in Pakistan's flood-hit Sindh province and his handing over of aid to it.
Putin also told his French counterpart that Kyiv does not comply with the agreements reached with Moscow on the evacuation of civilians from combat areas, the Kremlin said.
The army in its warning has asked personnel about the need to be sensitised about the Pakistani spy agencies' designs while downloading the application.
India will grow at around 7.4 per cent in 2022-23 and continue at the same pace in the next year as well, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday. Sitharaman said there are risks on the external front and this is not the right time to throw caution to the wind, and also assured exporters of all the necessary support from the government as they face the headwinds. Speaking at the FE Best Bank Awards event here, Sitharaman said global agencies like IMF and the World Bank have taken cognisance of the strengths of the Indian economy by saying that it will be among the fastest growing ones in the next two years.
The Indo-US relations on Monday came up for review as an American Congressional delegation led by Senator Judd Gregg met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
'If the authorities go about completing this project the way they have proposed, this is going to cause a HUGE environmental impact not only on Malabar Hill but also on the rest of the city.'
During his four-day tour of the region which started on July 12, Xi met with officials.
The further expansion and upgrade of the Chinese military does not augur well for India, which continues to confront an increasingly belligerent China on its borders, notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
State-owned CIL on Thursday said that it has floated its maiden tender to import 2.416 million tonnes of coal to ensure adequate supply of the fuel to power plants in the country. The development assumes significance in the wake of the government making all efforts to build up stock of coal to avoid the reoccurrence of power outages which happened in April on account of shortage of the fossil fuel. "In a first ever, Coal India Limited (CIL) on Wednesday floated an international competitive bidding e-tender, seeking bids for import of 2.416 million tonnes (MTs) of coal," the company said in a statement.
The death of six Indians working on a United States Agency for International Development-funded road project between Khost and Paktia provinces in southern Afghanistan last week and confirmation from Pakistan that it is concerned over India's "over-ingress" in Afghanistan is setting the stage for a new round of regional diplomacy, when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton comes visiting later this month.
The USAID workers were on a visit to a girls' school in the Koto area, located some 15 km from Lower Dir's headquarters in Timargarah, when the remote-detonated bomb went off. More than 70 persons have been injured in the blast. The slain girls were in their classroom when the bomb was detonated. So it is believed that the toll could go higher.
In an important decision, the new government in Maharashtra on Thursday announced lifting of the stay on the construction of Mumbai Metro-3 car shed at the controversial site in the Aarey Colony, a green belt in the city's western suburbs.
The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) on Tuesday launched the trial run of the Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro line-3 at Sariput Nagar in Aarey Colony in Mumbai.
Northern Army commander Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi on Monday said the targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits and non-local labourers by militants was to keep terrorism alive in Kashmir.
Ahead of the Union Budget for 2023-24, Budget makers have welcomed the global consensus view that India will remain one of the bright spots in calendar year 2023. But there is some alarm over the grim global situation and how that might impact the Centre's projections and assessments for next financial year. The big global headwinds include a deep and sustained recession in the West, including India's biggest trading partners in North America and Europe, continuing volatility in commodity markets, and renewed Covid-19 fears, as lifting of strict curbs by China could potentially lead to a massive spread again.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its latest World Economic Outlook report, has slashed its forecast for India's FY23 gross domestic product growth to 8.2 per cent from 9 per cent, saying that higher commodity prices will weigh on private consumption and investment. This was one of the steepest cuts for emerging economies compared to the IMF's January WEO forecasts. Saying that global economic prospects have worsened significantly due to commodity price volatility and disruption of supply chains caused by the war in Europe, IMF cut its global growth outlook for calendar year 2022 to 3.6 per cent from 4.4 per cent, and said both Russia and Ukraine could experience large GDP contractions.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday called for seamless coordination among various agencies involved in protecting India's maritime interests in the face of emerging security challenges and increasing rivalries and competitions in the Indian Ocean.
There is, between Rao's tenure as PM and the current Modi regime, a powerful resonance of how transition can be managed. Rao's tenure saw many scams -- one where he was supposedly approached by Harshad Mehta with a bribe for making the securities scam go away. The Opposition insisted on a JPC. Despite knowing a JPC report would undermine him politically, Rao agreed to one, saying he had 'nothing to hide'.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday offered a floral tribute to former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe at his state funeral in Tokyo.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday cut its economic growth forecast for India to 9.5 per cent for the fiscal year to March 31, 2022 as the onset of a severe second COVID-19 wave cut into recovery momentum. This forecast for 2021-22 is lower than the 12.5 per cent growth in GDP that IMF had projected in April before the second wave took a grip. For 2022-23, IMF expects economic growth of 8.5 per cent, larger than the 6.9 per cent it had projected in April.
'The State uses identity politics as part of divide and rule; the militant groups too use identity politics and civil society groups are also divided along ethnic groups.'
The United States intelligence community has failed to reach any firm conclusion on the exact origin of COVID-19 and is split on whether it leaked from a lab in China or emerged in nature, even though it does not believe the virus was developed as a biological weapon, according to results of a detailed review ordered by President Joe Biden.
What would you rather be -- a clerk at work or a contributing member of a project?
'If ever India loses its patience after repeated terror attacks and decides to retaliate against the terrorist camps, Pakistan may term that a conventional military attack and invoke the nuclear option. This is a way to continue with terrorism without retaliation.'
The UN Security Council Resolution 2309 calls governments to meet their responsibility to keep citizens secure while travelling by air.
An imminent concern for India is the fact that disenchanted al-Qaeda cadres may shift their allegiance to the Islamic State and its regional affiliate Islamic State -Khorasan Province.
"Every religion of the country has contributed to the growth of the nation. It is our responsibility to correct this atmosphere. We have to think as to what kind of India we will give to our future generations. You (religious leaders) are the most capable and you have bigger responsibilities to shoulder," Doval said.
The 193-member general assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to condemn Russia's "illegal so-called referendums in regions within the internationally recognised borders of Ukraine and the attempted illegal annexation of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, following the organisation of the above-mentioned referendums".
Narendra Modi's engagement at the upcoming BRICS Summit in Brazil will be keenly watched as the prime minister will interact with some of the world's most powerful leaders. The summit to be held in Fortaleza will also see the launch of the significant BRICS bank whose idea was mooted by India. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt gives a lowdown on Modi's first major international rendezvous.
Experts are finding feasible solutions for making the Delhi buildings more resistant to earthquakes.
Tata Motors Ltd is to develop a new platform for utility vehicle for which it will firm up the project outlay by January 2004, a senior company official said on Saturday.
The prime minister in his intervention at the session on "global economy and global health" also flagged the issue of facilitating international travel and talked about the mechanism of mutual recognition of vaccine certification as a means of achieving this, according to the text of his intervention shared by his office.
In December, Aisha Shah was named as Partnerships Manager at the White House Office of Digital Strategy.
Lack of access to the cosmonaut training programmes would also be a hindrance for ISRO's planned manned missions, explains Devangshu Datta.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning went on the offensive saying "we do not believe the entry restriction measures some countries have taken against China are science-based".
The bank will have initial authorised capital of $100 billion
Sources stated that a discussion is likely on the changed geopolitical situation in wake of the Taliban taking over Afghanistan and the drawdown of the US forces from the region.