Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Monday conferred with the highest honour of Fiji by its premier Sitiveni Rabuka in recognition of his global leadership, in a rare honour for a non-Fijian.
To understand Modi, listen to what he does not say -- vide NRC, suggests Prem Panicker.
India has evacuated two nurses, other than the 46 nurses stranded in a hospital in Tikrit, from Iraq's conflict zone taking the total number of those rescued so far to 36.
"We have many relationships...they have a history. We will do what is in our national interest and part of that strategic partnership is the ability of each country to comprehend and appreciate the national interest of the other," Jaishankar said.
Replying to a question, Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed said most of the suicides have reportedly taken place on account of personal and family reasons.
The ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict has disrupted India's efforts to gain from a recent fall in crude oil prices. Since Hamas' invasion of southern Israel on October 7, petroleum has become costlier by around $5 per barrel, threatening to stoke prices and impact growth. Brent crude was trading at $89.8 per barrel on October 9 (9.15 pm IST), up over 4 per cent, thwarting India's anticipation of a period of declining oil prices - after the leading global petroleum benchmark declined by around 11 per cent last week.
With the deepening Iraq violence, India has set up three camp offices to facilitate departure of 10,000 Indians from non-conflicting zones even as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has summoned top Indian envoys in Gulf countries for consultations on Sunday.
About 2,200 Indians in non-conflict zone in southern Iraq have expressed their desire to leave the for home and they will be in India in the next 36 to 48 hours even as 200 others reached in New Delhi early on Sunday morning.
The Southeast Asian nation has been focusing on modernising its military in the face of myriad security challenges as well as decades-long territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea.
Relatives of one of the sailors claimed that pirates had initially demanded $15 lakh and later raised it to $25 lakh for the release of the crew but it was not clear whether the ransom was paid or not.
"I am not giving false assurance. If I had confirmation that they were killed, then definitely, I would have sought apology from their families the with folded hands and said they were killed. Their killing in such a situation in Mosul in Iraq would not have been blamed on me.
'...to bring the Global South and others to the negotiating table on the basis of Gandhi's non-violence so that we can leave a safer world for our children.'
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its condemnation and denunciation of the statements made by the BJP spokesperson, saying it insulted Prophet Muhammad.
It is the first visit to India by a senior minister of a member nation of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation after the controversial remarks triggered anguish in the Arab world.
India's unabated tryst with Russian crude oil is slowly coming to an end. The time has come for Indian refiners to navigate, creatively, the choppy waters of the post-honeymoon period, and for Indian policymakers to take cognisance of the broader impact on India from the spillover of the Russian crisis - after Washington's warning to transgressors last week. Shipments from Russia to India have averaged over 1.8 million barrels a day since February, according to data from Paris-based market analytics firm Kpler. But much of the crude shipped to India was non-sanctioned because it traded below a price cap set by the US led G-7 nations in December.
Indian prisoners lodged in UAE jails would be grateful if allowed to serve their sentences back home - but not all.
Twenty garment factories have closed down in the last four years, leaving only eight operational
Initially the visa will be offered for two weeks, an official said. Currently, nationals of 35 countries are granted visas on arrival at entry points, including Bahrain International Airport and King Fahad Causeway. The visitors should carry a valid passport and a return ticket and provide either hotel reservation details or family contacts in Bahrain for visas on arrival.
'The top-most functionaries and destiny-makers of the nation have thrown away the pretensions of statesmanship.' 'They seem to have made a categorical announcement that the next general election will be fought on the solo plank of Hindutva, rather than on good governance, economic development, and employment to youth', says Mohammad Sajjad.
The Indian agencies managed yet another breakthrough in cracking the Indian Mujahideen when an operative from Sharjah was deported to India. The man in question is Faizan Ahmed Sultan alias Faizan Azmi, a resident of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, who was allegedly working for the terror outfit from Sharjah.
The Mumbai Indians players were buoyed by the presence of Sachin Tendulkar, who joined the team's training session in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday as the high-profile franchise start their title defence against Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 7 on Wednesday.
India's imports of crude oil from Russia touched a new high of 1.64 million barrels per day in March and is now double of the purchases from Iraq - the nation's traditional top oil supplier. But the purchases appear to have plateaued as growth has slowed. Russia continued to be the single largest supplier of crude oil, which is converted into petrol and diesel at refineries, for a sixth straight month by supplying more than one-third of all oil India imported, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa.
Nearly 800 Indian workers are reportedly starving for the last three days in Saudi city of Jeddah after losing their jobs
They said stranded Indians in central Asia as well as in various European countries will be brought back home in the second phase of evacuation beginning May 15.
From the Gulf countries to Malaysia and the UK to the US, the multi-agency operation christened 'Vande Bharat Mission' will see the state-owned AI operate 64 flights till May 13 in the first phase to ferry around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries.
Abdollahian, who is on his first visit to India since he assumed office last year, raised the issue of the controversial remarks, made by two former Bharatiya Janata Party spokespersons, in his meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in the national capital on Wednesday.
'In a special gesture, UAE President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, accompanied by senior members of the Royal Family, was at Abu Dhabi airport for the interaction with PM'
India's reaction came after the US Navy, in an unusual move, announced that one of its ships conducted patrols in the Indian EEZ this week, without seeking consent from India.
This is a challenge India's political establishment will have to face unitedly, without looking for electoral benefit, warns Vir Sanghvi.
Prime Minister Modi is attending the G7 summit, to be held on June 26 and 27, following an invitation by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Saudi Arabia has also set up a crisis management group to address difficulties being faced by the jobless Indian workers.
'Prime Minister Narendra Modiji must personally intervene in the matter to make it clear to his officials and the rank-and-file that communal abuse should now stop'
With air traffic between India and the UAE on the rise, the Gulf state's national carrier Etihad Airways is on the move to start services to Indian cities of Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed and family members welcomed Antaryami, Tilak Raj and Sukhdeo Singh on their arrival at Indira Gandhi International Airport by a Kuwait Airlines flight.
Forty six Indian nurses initially stranded at a hospital in Tikrit and later moved to Mosul have been freed by the fighters of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Since becoming the president of the UAE, Sheikh Khalifa has presided over a major restructuring of both the Federal Government and the government of Abu Dhabi.
Swaraj, who met the families for the seventh time since the abduction of the Indians in June last year from Mosul, reassured the families about the well-being of the nationals on the basis of information received from various sources.
Dubai Police authorities said that there are still some unidentified bodies and the number of Indians who died in the accident could rise further.
'We have seen in India that radical ideology has by and large not been successful in taking root.'
India on Monday lost the ONGC Videsh Ltd-discovered Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf after Iran awarded a contract for developing the giant gas field to a local company. "The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed a contract worth $1.78 billion with Petropars Group for the development of Farzad B Gas Field in the Persian Gulf," the Iranian oil ministry's official news service Shana reported. "The deal was signed on Monday, May 17, in a ceremony held in the presence of Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh in Tehran." The field holds 23 trillion cubic feet of in-place gas reserves, of which about 60 per cent is recoverable.
