The report put India's 'stored' nuclear warheads at 172 in January this year while the number for Pakistan was 170.
'With continued focus on votes, upcoming by-polls and purchasing politicians, the political hierarchy has little time for national defence.' 'They would do well to heed a veteran scholar, who says, "There will be war with China in the next few years. The next full scale war will have the involvement of Pakistan and terror elements, insurgents and intelligence assets operating inside India",' warns Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
In a data-packed week, the domestic macroeconomic figures -- industrial production and inflation numbers -- along with global trends would dictate trends in the equity market this week, analysts said. According to experts, markets may face volatile trends due to high valuations. Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty hit their fresh record peaks on Thursday. Besides, trading activity of foreign investors, movement of global oil benchmark Brent crude and rupee-dollar trend would also influence trading in equities.
India will become the third largest economy by 2027-28, with a GDP of over $5 trillion, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday. Even going by conservative estimates, the size of the Indian economy will be $30 trillion by 2047, she noted. "It is possible that we will be the third largest economy by 2027-28, and our GDP will cross $5 trillion by that time. By 2047, it is a conservative estimate that we will reach at least $30 trillion in terms of economy," Sitharaman said at the Vibrant Gujarat summit.
'Five months after the elections in February 2024, the Pakistan army has not been able to break Imran Khan's resolve and break his political party.'
The study, 'Trade and trade diversion effects of United States tariffs on China', shows that the ongoing US-China trade war has resulted in a sharp decline in bilateral trade, higher prices for consumers and trade diversion effects -- increased imports from countries not directly involved in the trade war.
The US is the largest consumer of gems and jewellery in the world contributing nearly 40 per cent of global production. If India can tap the opportunity, its overall exports to the US could jump by 10 per cent to $ 11 billion this year.
China and India evoked the highest levels of confidence among major economies at 45 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively. The US was at 36 per cent, Canada at 27 per cent, the UK at 26 per cent, Germany at 20 per cent, France 18 per cent, and Japan having the least optimistic CEOs with only 11 per cent very confident of growing revenues in 2020.
China claims Taiwan as part of the mainland and vows to integrate what it calls the rebel province even by force.
India's defence sector presents an ordering opportunity worth $138 billion between fiscal years 2023-24 (FY24) and FY32, said a latest note by Nomura, which has initiated coverage on two defence-related players - Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) and Bharat Electronics (BEL) - with a 'buy' rating. The research and broking house sees an upside potential of 28 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively in these two stocks from the current levels.
'If we play our cards right, we may even benefit from the competition between the US and China as seen from increased investment from each of these countries into India.' 'The size of our market gives us an important lever of power which we shall have to play adroitly and intelligently,' points out Ambassador Gautam Bambawale -- who served as India's envoy to China -- in the Professor V M Dandekar Memorial Lecture 2019, delivered on March 8, 2019 in Pune.
India's military spending of USD 76.6 billion ranked third highest in the world.
Crisil Ratings on Wednesday projected India's GDP growth at 6.8 per cent in the next fiscal and said the country will become an upper middle-income nation by 2031 with the economy doubling to $7 trillion. In its India Outlook report, Crisil said the Indian economy will take support from domestic structural reforms and cyclical levers and can retain -- perhaps even improve -- its growth prospects to become the third largest economy by 2031. "After a better-than-expected 7.6 per cent this fiscal, India's real GDP growth will likely moderate to 6.8 per cent in fiscal 2025," said the Crisil India Outlook report.
The increase in India's military spending was "mainly a result of growing personnel and operations costs" which made up almost 80 percent of the total military budget in 2023, the SIPRI report claimed.
The combined market valuation of all listed companies on the leading stock exchange BSE reached the $4-trillion milestone for the first time ever on Wednesday. The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 305.44 points to 66,479.64 in early trade after beginning the day on a positive note. Thanks to the optimism in equities, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies reached Rs 3,33,26,881.49 crore in morning trade, translating into $4 trillion at the exchange rate of 83.31.
Pakistan on Wednesday welcomed 'the joint reiteration' by the United States and China to promote peace and stability in South Asia. President Barack Obama indicated on Tuesday that the US wants China to help improve relations between India and Pakistan. He reportedly raised the issue during his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing.
This is a high-stakes strategic conflict between a power which wants to preserve the status quo in its favour and one which wants to usurp that throne. The rest is all theatre, says Harsh V Pant.
Benchmark indices--Sensex and Nifty--were 0.7-0.8 per cent higher from the Saturday closing. Among the widely-tracked Nifty 50 stocks, 39 advanced and the rest 11 declined at the opening bell. Among the individual stocks, Cipla, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, Power Grid Corp, and Bharti Airtel were the top five gainers, while Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, Britania, HDFC Bank, and BPCL the losers, NSE data showed. On Monday, Indian stock exchanges were closed for trading on the occasion of Pran Pratistha of Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
In a surprise development, a top Chinese military general has cast aspersions on the People's Liberation Army (PLA)'s much-publicised 'real combat-oriented exercises' as 'fake combat capabilities' at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered it to prepare for 'maritime military struggles' to win wars.
"I don't think there needs to be any concern in India about what the president said in China. We have very important relations with China. But we have equally important relations with India," the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake, told media persons at a news briefing.
Blinken will host his Chinese counterpart in Washington from October 26-28, the state department said in a press release on Monday.
I look forward to many years of success and friendship, working together to solve not only our problems, but world problems and problems of great danger and security, says President Trump in Beijing.
It is time the political leaderships in this country arrived at a common ground over issues of foreign and security policy concerns. There has to be a greater communication between the government and the Opposition leaderships for the nation to present a unified face against the rest of the world, advises N Sathiya Moorthy.
The US and China have sparred over the origin of the virus for days, with a Chinese official promoting conspiracy theories.
The combined market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies hit an all-time high of Rs 337.67 lakh crore ($4 trillion) on Friday amid a rally in equities, mainly on account of favourable macroeconomic data and continuous foreign fund inflows. Rising for the fourth straight day, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 492.75 points or 0.74 per cent to settle at 67,481.19 points. During the day, it rallied 575.89 points or 0.85 per cent to 67,564.33 points.
In outbound travel, India will be ahead of Italy, South Korea, Australia, Canada and France.
In a step towards diversifying its resource base and securing green energy minerals, India is poised to launch its first-ever offshore mineral auction in the first quarter of 2024, announced Union Minister of Mines Pralhad Joshi during the launch event of the National Geoscience Data Repository portal. The government plans to hold auctions in March, offering 10-15 blocks for bidding. Meanwhile, the ministry of mines is currently developing rules and regulations for offshore mining.
The BSE gauge Sensex fell 73.88 points to 35,548.26 and the NSE Nifty slid 17.85 points to 10,799.85, taking cues from tumbling global shares.
EAM Jaishankar's mission is aimed at strengthening India's strategic autonomy in a complex international environment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said that inducing artificial rain can only be attempted when there are clouds or moisture available.
For the country's maiden offshore mineral mining auction, the Centre is planning to relax the rules on the number of chances for bidding. Under the newly announced draft Offshore Areas Mineral (Auction) Rules and Offshore Areas (Existence of Mineral Resources) Rules, the ministry of mines is planning to offer three chances to potential bidders in its forthcoming inaugural offshore mining auction. If a single bid is not received during the second attempt, the plan is to initiate a new round of bidding for the third time.
'India has an advantage because we produce more cotton and we have more workforce.'
This image features the left image within the red channel, and the right image within the blue and green channels, resulting in a striking cyan hue.
Any miscalculation and miscommunication are fraught with the risk of a major catastrophe, warns Rup Narayan Das.
Film folk like Akshay Kumar, Chiranjeevi, Jr NTR and Sunny Deol congratulated the country and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the historic achievement of Chandrayaan-3's landing on the Moon.
All the global transitions are working in India's favour, giving it the potential to become a force in today's uncertain world, but one of the country's biggest challenges is inclusive growth, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Monday. In his address at the JRD Tata Oration, the head of the Tata group also asserted that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay and it will be beneficial if India prepares for it. Post the cold war era of relative stability and prosperity, the world appears to have given way to unpredictable conflicts and economic uncertainty, he said, adding that the pandemic resulted in supply chain shocks of gigantic proportion.
From the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra emerged as the biggest gainer, climbing nearly 5 per cent. Power Grid, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, NTPC, Axis Bank, Nestle, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints and Wipro were among the other major gainers. Maruti, HCL Technologies, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Infosys and Tata Steel were among the laggards.
Exporters say their capacity utilisation has reached almost 70 per cent and that big firms have brought it up to as high as 85 per cent.
Kissinger's approach of balance of power, secret diplomacy and moderating ideology are the need of the hour. That is the greatest tribute to an intellectual who had a major impact on the world in his lifetime, notes Colonel Anil A Athale.
