Congress leader and former diplomat Mani Shankar Aiyar called the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) of yore an "upper caste" service, which he claimed is becoming more democratic now with the flavour of the country getting into it.
The interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus as the Chief Adviser has asked Bangladesh's envoys in India, Brussels, Canberra, Lisbon, and the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York to return immediately and report to the foreign ministry here as part of the latest reshuffle.
Many were hoping that with Vajpayee's NDA gone, there would be a return to the Congress normal. Nobody was prepared for the opposite. Sonia Gandhi was sceptical. This became the only issue over which Manmohan Singh took on his party bosses and risked his government. Politically, it was riskier than the 1991 reform, recalls Shekhar Gupta.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Taranjit Singh Sandhu were colleagues at the ministry for external affairs for many years.
With a promising team at the helm and stellar cast steering the action, Ulajh may be that action-packed political drama that we have been missing in Bollywood of late, hopes Mayur Sanap.
Prashant Kishor declares the 2025 Bihar assembly election will be a contest between his Jan Suraaj Party and the BJP-led NDA.
Do not underestimate the ingenuity of the Deep State in America to have its way. Keeping the guard down will be a catastrophic mistake on the part of the Delhi establishment. We could get hit when least expected. That's what happened in Bangladesh and Syria, warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Khedkar, who was from the 2023 batch, has been accused of cheating and wrongly availing Other Backward Classes and disability quota benefits to ensure her selection in the government service.
The party was floated exactly two years after Kishor had embarked on a more than 3,000-km-long 'padayatra' of the state.
'He is convinced that this will help him in the next election.' 'But as we know, the best laid plans of mice and men can go awry.'
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Wednesday said it has cancelled the provisional candidature of probationary Indian Administrative Service officer Puja Khedkar and debarred her from all future examinations or selections.
'How can a citizen of this country having been a Member of Parliament, and the other who has seen enough of Foreign Service takes no time in saying that what happened in the neighbourhood will happen in India'
'Are we to believe that coordinated moves by the Canadian and US authorities are no longer taking place?', asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'In my earlier films, I played meek, very innocent, kind of roles but Suhana (her character's name in the film) is not like that. She is not an abla naari (damsel in distress) and that was very exciting for me.'
K Natwar Singh wore many hats as he straddled the worlds of diplomacy, politics and writing but what remained consistent across decades was his sharp-wit and plainspeaking.
'As a child, I didn't even know that he was an IPS officer... It was much later when I came back to India'
The 59-year-old Vikram Misri assumed charge of the key position at a time India is looking to navigate various geo-political challenges, including its frosty ties with China following the lingering eastern Ladakh border row and the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
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.
When S Jaishankar became India's external affairs minister in May 2019, he was largely considered a political lightweight despite his undisputed mastery over foreign policy.
Because of his proximity to Indira Gandhi, he was able to intervene directly at the level of the PMO, which he did in the days leading up to the partition of Pakistan in 1971 when he transferred crucial information about Pakistan's moves via information handed to him by an East Pakistani diplomat in Poland where he was posted.
The BSP leader won the Bijnor Lok Sabha seat in 1989, her first electoral triumph.
Will Foreign Minister Mr. Jaishankar please refer to the RTI reply dated 27-1-2015...The Reply justified the circumstances under which India acknowledged that a small island belonged to Sri Lanka," Chidambaram said.
Gandhiji asked me if I had sufficient warm clothes in view of the coming cold season. I said yes. But he verified my statement by asking Miraben to search my bag to make sure. Such was Gandhiji.
Khedkar, a 2023 batch Indian Administrative Service officer, was accused of misusing power and privileges during her training in Pune recently.
The argument with Nehru happened when Bachchan translated the president's speech in English into Hindi, which in accordance with regular practice was to be delivered by the vice president.
The Commission has desired to incorporate Aadhaar-based fingerprint authentication (else digital fingerprint capturing) and facial recognition of candidates, scanning of QR Code of e-admit cards and monitoring through live AI-based CCTV video surveillance, it said.
Ulajh strikes you as an attempt at statement-making gone horribly wrong, a punchline that doesn't land, a roar that never reaches the ear, observes Sreehari Nair.
In Geneva, Bagchi would succeed Indra Mani Pandey who is set to return to New Delhi.
The Indian team, currently in the Caribbean for their Windies tour, were hosted at the Indian high commission in Guyana.
A total of 1,016 candidates -- 664 men and 352 women -- have qualified in the examination and have been recommended by the Union Public Service Commission for appointment to various services.
Ambassador A K Damodaran was the last link between the freedom struggle and Indian diplomacy, the last of those, who walked from a British prison to take on national responsibilities.
Biden is not risking his reputation in a crucial election year, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Barring 2004 and 2009 when Navjot Singh Sidhu won the Amritsar seat as a BJP MP and 1998 when Daya Singh Sodhi from BJP was elected as the MP, it has essentially a Congress bastion.
'You treat me like eye candy and I will leave you like you're a wrapper.'
The BJP's top leadership will drop its MPs found to be facing anti-incumbency, according to its internal surveys -- a pivotal tactic to ensure the party achieves its target of winning 370 seats.
As we celebrate women achievers who are excelling in their careers, here are incredible tales of hard work and perseverance to inspire you this week.
'There is a view that there is a Pakistan angle to this.' 'Pakistan has a large presence in Qatar and would want India to be blacklisted.'
'But he was very quick and did a very stylish adab.' 'Of course, I didn't expect him to hug.'
'They were as late as June 2023 and they did not follow it up with concrete measures immediately in terms of a secretariat or common minimum programme, working group or seat sharing etc.' 'They continued to have periodic meetings after a gap of weeks where they had tasty dinner and coffee, but beside that they did nothing else.'
In the book, Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship Between India and Pakistan, Bisaria says this public telecast sounded to observers like a mid-summit report on the talks, where Pakistan's hard views were being inflicted on India, while New Delhi's positions were unclear.
