The US, China and the UK remain the top three defence spenders while India has the fourth largest military budget, followed by Saudi Arabia and Russia, according to the '2016 Jane's Defence Budgets Report', released by research firm IHS Markit.
On gold buying occasions such as Akshaya Tritiya, Chiraj Mehta points out, investors are often confronted with the question: Should I make just a token purchase, or should I buy more towards building my allocation in the yellow metal?
Investors should consider debt mutual funds, banks fixed deposits or high-rated corporate debt instruments.
The state visit of the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, beginning today is different from Obama's November trip to India, it added. "It (Hu's US visit)'s a little different than our trip to India, in the sense that the economic relationship that we have with the Chinese is different on a scale with what we do with India," said Robert Gibbs.
The nation has the fifth largest defence budget in the world, at $52.5 billion in 2017 ($51.1 billion in 2016), overtaking the UK whose defence budget fell from $52.5 billion in 2016 to $50.7 billion in 2017.
'Clearly, the warming of ties can be a 'win-win' for India and China,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'If Islamic extremists regain power in Afghanistan, Pakistan will lead them to Kashmir as a fighting arena again. India needs to fortify Kashmir and prepare against these Islamic extremists before they come again.'
In controversial remarks more than likely to raise New Delhi's ire less than two months before President Barack Obama India tour, a top United States' State Department official strongly defended a greater Chinese role in South Asia even as he acknowledged India's sensitivities over such a Beijing role.
"US President Barack Obama should have visited the world's largest democracy last year itself. India is the future and meetings between the countries should be a continuous process," said Pete Dagher, Obama's campaign manager, who is also a political analyst.
India will become the world's fourth largest passenger vehicle market in the next three years, but will require an investment of about $20 billion to build up to nine new plants to meet the demand by then, according to global consultant Booz&Co.
A landmark treaty banning cluster munitions will come into force from August 1, the United Nations announced, but all major powers, the US, China, Russia Israel and India are shunning it.
There is a sense of relief in Beijing that Modi will be at the helm of affairs in Delhi at a critical juncture in the geopolitics of the region, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A stronger dollar makes oil more expensive because it raises the cost for imports for most of the world's countries
Ahead of the G-20 summit in Osaka this week, Xi has reasserted China's role as a global player, points out Dr Rajaram Panda.
Pakistan on Friday said it has briefed the envoys of the P5 -- the US, China, Russia, the UK and France -- over "unprovoked firing" by India on the LoC and asked the countries to play their role in ensuring the maintenance of peace and security in the region.
Claiming that China is the origin of malicious cyber activities targeting the US, a noted American security expert on Thursay said the government should vigorously monitor and defend its computer and critical infrastructure networks.
While India is pushed to keep a tight lid on its own carbon emissions, slow and low emission reduction by major polluters will cause an acceleration of climate change, says Rajni Bakshi.
Days ahead of the second US- China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, the United States has reiterated that China needs to move towards a market-oriented exchange rate.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has sought level playing field for American companies in China.
'China's deep involvement in the stability and economic and political success of Pakistan actually produces some elements of congruence with India's core interest in a stable and productive relationship with Pakistan.' 'It is not far-fetched for us to pursue that congruence and with ingenuity work out with China a formula that also satisfies our formal position on PoK,' argues Ambassador Kishan S Rana.
Industrialists Anand Mahindra and Ratan Tata will co-host a power lunch for CEOs with the visiting US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on April 7.
Muted global trend after a report that US President Donald Trump was preparing to impose more tariffs on China hurt trading sentiments.
Amid increasing tension between the United States and China over the arms sale to Taiwan and US president Barack Obama's upcoming meeting with the Dalai Lama, the US appeared to be adopting a conciliatory approach saying that it has many areas of common interest with the communist country.
Some of the world's biggest polluters, the US, China, European Union and India, have reiterated their previous pledges of cutting emissions by 2020 that were widely regarded as weak, especially the 17 per cent reduction of carbon emissions from 2020 levels proposed by the US.
Amid concerns in India over the reference to the Indo-Pak ties in a US-China joint statement, the Obama Administration on Wednesday said its relationship with China is not at the "expense of" India and that nothing much should be read into the document.
A release from White House said Obama held in-depth, productive and candid discussions on the US-China relations and other issues of mutual interest.
India and the United States have "not signed" the End User Monitoring Agreement, said Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on Tuesday
For Indian CEOs, the US, China and the UK are important markets.
India needs to consider whether the Donald Trump administration can actually deliver, observes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
The country must get its act on global alliances right in order to feed its fuel-hungry economy, points out Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
Citing assaults from hackers on its computer systems and China's attempts to 'limit free speech on the Web', Google in a statement said on Tuesday it would stop cooperating with Chinese Internet censorship and consider shutting down its operations in China.
'This novel format of diplomacy -- the informal summit -- will not only facilitate bilateral communication and reduce miscalculations at the very top level of the two governments, but possibly open the space for China and India to speak in one voice on various issues of mutual concern,' note Feng Renjie and Ding Kun Lei
'The biggest challenge Swaraj and Sitharaman will face is how far they can take their counterparts Pompeo and Mattis seriously.' 'One just doesn't know how long they will even keep their jobs.' 'They are basically salesmen peddling American wares.' 'Actually, there is nothing like 'American policies' in the Trump era,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Modi said India will continue its support to ASEAN for a rules-based security architecture for the region.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will make his first state visit to the United States in September, China said on Wednesday, hours after President Barack Obama spoke to him and called for "swift work" to narrow down differences on cyber theft, pace of reform and currency issues.
Chinese observers believe the Sino-US relationship will be impacted by issues in North Korea, Japan, India, Ukraine and Iran and that conflicts with these 'third parties' will without exception ultimately become conflicts between China and the US, points out former RA&W officer Jayadeva Ranade.
'What matters is that India's perspective on global issues -- climate change, intellectual property, free trade, trade routes being kept free, digital technology -- are listened to with respect,' says Ambassador B S Prakash.
'The meeting marks the first tentative step in the effort to understand whether the two largest Asian nations can co-exist peacefully while realising their aspirations.' 'Caution and watchful wariness will dominate the effort of both sides,' says Jayadeva Ranade, former RA&W officer and China expert.
India has moved beyond the traditional trappings of non-alignment
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