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.
Less than a week after he was sworn in as head of the United States Agency for International Development, Dr Rajiv Shah sprang into the national limelight when President Barack Obama designated him as the government's chief disaster coordinator for Haiti.
The United States Agency for International Development will provide a $10 million technical aid for development of Indian insurance sector over the next four years.\n\n\n\n
In a significant development, India is believed to have placed a funding request of around $55 million in its first call with the Pandemic Fund of the World Bank, sources said. The fund has been set up to finance critical investments in a bid to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response capacities at national, regional, and global levels, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. It was created in the aftermath of the Covid-19 global pandemic.
The three Americans killed in a suicide attack in Pakistan's Lower Dir district on Wednesday were neither journalists nor employees of the United States Agency for International Development, as reported by the media. The three victims, who were killed when a suspected suicide bomber targeted a security convoy in the restive area, were US soldiers.
If as critics point out, the environmental impact assessment study was commissioned only after the auction process got underway with not all the stakeholders getting to know of it, then the government has already compromised the trust it could have enjoyed with Kerala's public including its coastal communities, points out Shyam G Menon.
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.
Experts are finding feasible solutions for making the Delhi buildings more resistant to earthquakes.
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.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to brief United States President George W Bush on the developments about the India-United States nuclear agreement in the wake of stiff opposition by the Left parties. In his telephonic conversation, Singh is likely to apprise Bush about the hurdles faced by his government in taking the next steps to operationalise the deal. The Left parties have repeatedly threatened the govt of grave consequences.
Hours after another failed attempt on his life, former United States president Donald Trump on Monday said he will never surrender and never stop fighting for Americans.
'Our politicians solely depend on bureaucrats who are unaccountable and follow their own agenda.' 'Our politicians would dare not dream of establishing a DOGE,' argues Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
The DG-level border talks between India and Bangladesh, scheduled to be held in Delhi next month, have been postponed following a change in plan by the neighbouring country, official sources said on Friday.
The Miss World walked around Delhi to raise awareness about the cause.
"The two sides note that the relationship between Russia and China has progressed to a more advanced interstate cooperation compared to the military-political unions of the Cold War era as it is not bloc or confrontational in nature, nor does it target any third countries," Russia's new agency Tass quoted the document as saying.
Early this month, US President Donald Trump had supported such a move by Paul.
Delhi's appeasement strategy may now translate as more mega arms deals with the US, generating substantial business and job creation in the American economy. Make no mistake, Americans will use it to pressure India, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
For Yogi Adityanath the successful management of the fair is a crucial part of building 'Brand UP' and making the state a $1 trillion economy.
In its annual report on religious freedom, the USCIRF asked the US State Department to designate India as a "country of particular concern" on the status of religious freedom along with several other nations.
The Quad also vowed to work towards a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific, a region that has seen increasing Chinese military muscle-flexing in the last few years.
The customs officials, based on an intelligence input, halted a Malta-flagged merchant ship -- CMA CGM Attila -- at the port en route to Karachi on January 23 and inspected the consignment, which included a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine, originally manufactured by an Italian company.
India and the US on Friday said they have started talks to put in place a strategic framework for human space flight by year-end as they plan to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station in 2024.
The lawmakers alleged that Pakistan "knowingly" provides resources to terrorists.
A Rs 7,056 crore outer harbour project by VO Chidambaranar (VOC) Port in Tuticorin is garnering interest from domestic and global majors in the sector, such as Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Singapore's PSA International, Dutch major Van Oord, JM Baxi, and JSW, among others, according to sources close to the development. The project aims to capitalise on the newfound investor interest in the region, spurred by mega investments such as the Rs 16,000 crore electric vehicle manufacturing unit by Vietnamese major VinFast, the Indian Space Research Organisation's second spaceport in Tamil Nadu's Kulasekarapattinam, and Singapore's Sembcorp's Rs 36,238 crore investment in renewable energy.
In June last year, India unveiled its first list of 29 critical minerals open for private sector exploration and mining. Since then, 38 critical mineral blocks have been auctioned, but only 14 - less than 37 per cent - have found bidders. This modest achievement was secured only after the Centre conducted a second round of auctions when the first round fell flat, failing to attract the minimum required bidders.
'We are in close touch with Indian officials at all levels. We are also closely coordinating with our allies, friends, and Quad partners about how we can collectively support India in its hour of need,' a senior Biden administration official told reporters
This includes over $15 billion of proposed investment in the infrastructure sector in the Indo-Pacific and $9 billion for shoring up American defence in the region.
At a media briefing after talks with Blinken, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar thanked the US for its 'truly exceptional' support to India during the second wave of the pandemic and for keeping the supply chain for raw material open for vaccine production in India.
To date, USAID has provided $5.9 million to assist India in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak.
US President Joe Biden is set to meet his Chinese counterpart on Wednesday in the San Francisco Bay Area, CNN reported, citing senior US administration officials.
Anil Pahwa, Logan-Fetterhoof chair professor of electrical and computer engineering, Kansas State University, was last month named among the 13 Jefferson Science Fellows. The prestigious program is administered by the National Academies and supported through partnerships with the science, technology and engineering academic community, professional scientific societies, the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development.
Over 300 drones and unidentified flying objects have been sighted along the sensitive border with Pakistan post the 2019 abrogation of Article 370, central security agencies have said, even as they grapple to find a suitable technology to check these lethal sky-floaters.
The United States has lifted most of its sanctions against Iran after a UN watchdog reported that Tehran had complied with a nuclear weapons deal.
Yet another young and talented Indian American with impeccable credentials in development work worldwide, has been appointed by United States President Barack Obama to a senior position in his administration.
'...to prevent this episode from disrupting ongoing cooperation.' 'The discovery of this plot had the potential to derail much of what has been achieved in the relationship during this administration's tenure -- I don't think that fact has been sufficiently appreciated in India.'
The Biden administration has come under criticism from several quarters, including from members and supporters of the Democratic party, for not releasing surplus COVID-19 vaccines to India when the country is experiencing its worst-ever public health crisis.
The first-ever Indian-American assistant secretary of state Richard R Verma gives Aziz Haniffa an insider's view of the administration.
