Russia dominated Saudi Arabia in oil supplies as the world's fastest-growing major economy for fossil fuels in October, relegating the Kingdom to third place. Iraq was India's top oil supplier, according to the data from Vortexa. Saudi Arabia's decline in India's oil market has coincided with Russia's rise, and ironically occurred amid growing diplomatic ties between Riyadh and New Delhi. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud is visiting India this month to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Though the summer is expected to be hotter, global and domestic forecasts point to good rains.
While many Western countries, including the United States, Britain and Australia, are diplomatically boycotting the Winter Olympics over China's human rights record, Putin will join a number of Beijing-friendly leaders at the Games.
'Given the possibility that our unstable northern and western borders may become 'live' at short notice, any major systemic change which impacts combat effectiveness should be brought about in a cautious and progressive manner.'
China, the Ukraine crisis and Quad will dominate the discussions, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
Aircraft carriers of India, the United States, Japan and Australia are set to take part in the second phase of Exercise Malabar that is scheduled to take place from November 17 to 20 in the Indian Ocean region, the Navy said on Monday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be on a two-day official visit to India from Thursday, his first trip to the country since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine last month.
If the aim is to become a player with some strategic space of its own, not just in the Indian Ocean region but also in the adjoining region, then greater interaction with China is desirable, even necessary.
Amid deepening row with the United States over disputed South China Sea where American ships challenged China's claims of sovereignty, Chinese military has deployed its latest anti-ship cruise missiles which experts say can form a powerful defence line at sea.
As per Western Union's study on overseas education, 22 per cent students prefer new and unconventional study destinations such as Ireland, Turkey and Spain.
Naik said the prompt and effective deployment of the Navy in the time of crisis has underscored India's vision of being the "preferred security partner and first responder in our region".
India cannot choose its geography and devise regional strategies to dovetail into the Western Indian Ocean hypothesis conceived in the Pentagon, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
US Deputy National Security Adviser Daleep Singh also referred to the 'no limits' partnership between Moscow and Beijing and said no one believes that Russia would come running to India's defence if China breaches the Line of Actual Control.
'The aim of Russian policy is to reform European security, stop NATO expansion and in a more general sense -- set up the new rules of relations between the great powers.' 'From this perspective. the invasion of Ukraine is quite pointless.'
In the lead up to this week Indo-US Strategic Dialogue, for which United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, will be coming to Delhi, the Indo-US defence engagement is even more intense than usual.
'Even though as Xi will seemingly continue to stay in power beyond his third term, competitions for the post-Xi leadership would be inevitably unfolded beneath the surface of water, and that will be a big headache for Xi the dictator.'
Pompeo would leave for New Delhi on June 24.
'Both Russia and the USA seek New Delhi's friendship, because for both -- Russia and the USA -- India is a certain counterbalance to China.'
The agreement would divert China's attention and keep them busy in the Pacific theatre, probably resulting in a reduction in threat perception in our area of interest in the Indian Ocean, notes Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
Chushul and Depsang are not vital in this game of Chinese checkers, the Indian Ocean Region is. Keeping our maritime prowess restricted has to be a key Chinese strategic interest and it would appear that the LAC affair has helped China achieve its aim, points out Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
The 18 new members were elected by absolute majority through a secret ballot.
North Korea considers Assad's Syria an ally, so it views Donald Trump's decision to strike Syria as a message to Pyongyang as well.
Time's profile of Modi says that in its 74 years as an independent nation, India has had three pivotal leaders -- Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Modi. "Narendra Modi is the third, dominating the country's politics like no one since them."
This was the first phone call between the two leaders after Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on January 20.
The Modi government has been put on notice.'Will it buckle under such pressure? These are times when the moral fibre of the leadership makes all the difference, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Corporate India lags the rest of its Western and Asian peers by a wide margin when it comes to the presence of women on their boards, with just 17.3 per cent of the large companies having them on their key decision making bodies, an international report said on Tuesday. However, this is a near 6 percentage points improvement between 2015 -- when it was only 11.4 per cent -- and 2021, Swiss brokerage Credit Suisse said in the report, which covered over 33,000 executives from more than 3,000 companies across 46 countries, including over 1,440 firms across 12 Asia-Pacific markets. Female representation on boards of large Indian companies has increased by 5.9 percentage points from 11.4 per cent in 2015 to 17.3 per cent in 2021.
'The food security along the coastal region will be severely affected.'
'This, together with Chinese revisionism, will constitute the major test of the international system.'
The United States has asserted that it stands with India against Chinese aggression as several lawmakers slammed China for choosing a People's Liberation Army soldier.
The Western powers appear to regard Delhi as the most logical destination in the region in these extraordinary times -- as a counterpoint to the ascendance of political Islam and a rising red star over Afghanistan, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The pressure to work together is even greater than before, because the Chinese have launched a full-court press on the border, in the region, and globally to advance their geopolitical agenda.'
If confirmed by the Senate, Garcetti, 50, would replace Kenneth Juster, who served as India's Ambassador to the US during the Trump administration.
Mohapatra said there is a 40 per cent chance of a normal rainfall, 22 per cent above normal, 12 per cent excess and 18 per cent below normal.
Weather watchers said it can't be known till May whether El Nio will impact the monsoon or not.
'Storms push a lot of water into land, then there is heavy rainfall due to the cyclone.' 'Along with this, we see the gradual rising of the sea level.' 'We see this during and after the latest Cyclone Tauktae.' 'This kind of overlapping events are increasing and we do not know much about how to tackle them.'
'They talk about their 2021 centenary goal, their 2035 goal, and their 2049 goal. They're accelerating. There's also been this unfortunately bashing of nationalism inside the People's Republic of China by the government'
It will not be to India's advantage to create misperceptions that it is bandwagoning with some Anglo-American project for regime change in Myanmar, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Modi government has to embrace the history of Tamil conquests in South East Asia and stop obsessing about Babar/Humayun, argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'India will come increasingly in the US crosshairs if it insists on maintaining its strategic autonomy, warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
At any time, there is a need to operationally deploy two aircraft carriers in the vast Indian Ocean, asserts Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
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