India has improved its ranking in the World Happiness Report 2025, climbing to 118th from 126th last year. However, it still lags behind neighbouring countries like Nepal, Pakistan, and Ukraine. Finland has topped the list for the eighth consecutive year. The report emphasizes the impact of caring and sharing on happiness, highlighting how sharing meals increases happiness. It also notes a decline in wellbeing in the United States, which has dropped to its lowest ever position at 24th.
In a historic commemoration, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead a yoga session for the first time at United Nations Headquarters in New York on the 9th International Day of Yoga to be celebrated on June 21.
This might help explain why our global outreach has received such a tepid response. We have chosen to be transactional with the world, as our UN votes reveal, points out Aakar Patel.
The sources said Modi's pre-recorded video statement is expected to be broadcast at the UN General Assembly hall in New York around 9 am local time (6.30 pm IST) and added that he is scheduled as the first speaker in the forenoon.
Campaigning has concluded for the second and final phase of the Bihar assembly elections, marking the end of a month-long intense political battle. Key candidates and prominent leaders from various parties held rallies and roadshows to woo voters.
We have nothing to gain by raising our concerns internationally as our narrative has got entangled with several controversial concepts in the United Nations, asserts Ambassador T N Sreenivasan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden will have a substantive engagement on the sidelines of the Quad summit on Saturday, and the two sides will sign at least two agreements following the talks.
On Jawaharlal Nehru's 61st death anniversary, Utkarsh Mishra recalls how India's first prime minister cultivated a unique role for the newly independent country on the world stage.
The debate over working hours flared up after Infosys Co-founder N R Narayana Murthy called for 14-hour workdays.
India on Thursday abstained in the UN General Assembly on a vote moved by the US to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over allegations that Russian soldiers killed civilians while retreating from towns near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
The Jordanian-drafted resolution did not make any mention of the militant group Hamas, with the US expressing outrage at the "omission".
India has reached out to Denmark and other non-permanent members of the UN Security Council to apprise them of the Pahalgam terror attack and its cross-border linkages. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has spoken to his counterparts from several nations, conveying India's resolve to bring the perpetrators to justice. The outreach comes as India mulls options for responding to the attack, with Prime Minister Modi assuring the harshest response for the "perpetrators and conspirators." India has also received condolences and condemnations from world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The Janata Dal-United state unit in Manipur has withdrawn support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Biren Singh government and the party has informed its decision to governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi will be visiting Jammu and Srinagar on August 21 and 22 for key meetings in preparation for the upcoming assembly elections.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday called off his planned visit to the United States to attend the United Nation General Assembly because of heavy rains and floods in southern Pakistan, an official spokesman said.
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi arrives to address the United Nations General Assembly.
Nikhil Lakshman reports from the United Nations General Assembly, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed on Saturday.
With the adoption of the UNSC resolution on Sunday, it was for the first time in 40 years that the council decided to call for an emergency special session in the General Assembly.
The BJP's MoSha leadership are past masters in encouraging defections from their allies if it helped their party capture the chief minister's chair. In Bihar, they are not sure if JD-U MPs and MLAs would be willing to cross over to the BJP if the Nitish leadership came on top -- and the NDA crossed the halfway mark together, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
India said Ankara should learn to respect the sovereignty of other nations and reflect on its own policies more deeply.
With nominations for the first phase of Bihar elections closing soon, the INDIA bloc is struggling to finalize seat sharing, while the NDA has announced its candidates. Key political figures are actively campaigning.
The United States has vetoed a resolution in the UN Security Council on the latest Palestinian bid to be granted full membership of the United Nations, an outcome lauded by Israel but criticised by Palestine as 'unfair, immoral, and unjustified'.
As India executed 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called on nations who still use the death penalty to abolish the practice.
Her research legacy laid the foundation for modern primatology: in Gombe Stream National Park, she discovered that chimpanzees can form lasting social bonds and use basic tools. Goodall also found that, like humans, primates experience emotions such as joy, fear, empathy, and grief.
The 33-year-old has vast experience of playing in the United Kingdom, United States and the Gulf.
Canada's envoy to the United Nations, Robert Rae, during his address to world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday raised the issue of 'foreign interference' adding that the rules of state-to-state relations, cannot be bent for 'political expediency'.
India abstained from a procedural vote taken in the United Nations Security Council to call for a rare special emergency session of the UN General Assembly on Russia's aggression against Ukraine, even as New Delhi welcomed Moscow and Kyiv's decision to hold talks at the Belarus border.
'While on the one hand, terrorism continues to be a serious threat to global peace and security, on the other hand, areas such as cyber, maritime and space, are emerging as new theatres of conflict'
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
Ahead of the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly, India on Monday said its focus at the high-level meeting will be terrorism, UN Security Council reforms, managing the global financial system, Palestine and piracy.
'This election was won because of Nitish Kumar's face and his policies.'
The 15-nation UN Security Council had last week voted for Guterres by acclamation and forwarded his name to the General Assembly.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) distanced itself from the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) on Friday, saying it is not part of the opposition alliance anymore and questioning the Congress party's role in leading it.
India stressed that it is even more extraordinary for a country with a history of rigged elections to talk about political choices, that too in a democracy.
Mizoram government reiterates its opposition to the Centre's plan to fence the India-Myanmar border and scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR), citing ethnic ties and concerns for refugees.
The White House readout of the call had no reference to Bangladesh, which was mentioned in an 'X' post by PM Modi.
'This plan was never official. It was there secretly. It was by the high command.'
India conducted precision strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, targeting terrorist infrastructure to deter further attacks. The operation, codenamed 'Operation Sindoor', was detailed by two women military officers, Col Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, at a press briefing in New Delhi. The officers highlighted the precise nature of the strikes, emphasizing the use of "niche technology weapons" to ensure no collateral damage. The briefing showcased India's military prowess and the growing role of women in the armed forces.
'The EPS camp feels assertiveness will help the AIADMK keep the BJP's seat-share ambitions to the minimum,' observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
