'While I was shooting fake guns in Minsk, there were real grenades being thrown just a little distance away.'
China's behaviour in the post-pandemic geopolitical landscape which may determine the Quad's future trajectory, notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
India shifted gears in rejuvenating strategic ties with its major partners like the US and Russia and focused on drumming up global support for its distinct strategy in the Indo-Pacific to check Beijing's increasing muscle-flexing in the region.
Concerned over the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka, United States and Britain have asked both the island nation and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to agree to a 'temporary no-fire period' to allow civilians and the wounded to leave the conflict zone. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband also called for a political resolution to the decades-old ethnic conflict in the country.
Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma on Sunday raised concerns over India's drugs regulator granting permission for restricted use of Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine and asked the government to explain why mandatory protocols and verification of data has been dispensed with.
Kasam Shaikh is the fifth person in India and first from Maharashtra to receive the award for Microsoft Most Valuable Professional title in Artificial Intelligence.
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.
'Kangana is such a stylo, she knows what will look good on her.'
Britain may witness another general election if the major political parties are unable to strike a deal to stitch up a coalition government before May 25.
'The future looks quite bleak unless we ramp up testing and start vaccinating on a war footing.'
With the Omicron variant of coronavirus slowly spreading its tentacles in the country, a number of states enhanced surveillance to trace, track and quarantine contacts of COVID-19 positive persons while Delhi began genome sequencing of samples of all infected people and has prohibited Christmas and New Year gatherings.
India will be the most consequential partner for the US in the Indo-Pacific this century, US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday ahead of the 2+2 ministerial dialogue between the two countries next week. Esper on Tuesday told a Washington audience that he and the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would be travelling to New Delhi next week for the 2+2 ministerial with their respective Indian counterparts Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
'The MEA, hopefully, made it clear that the Indian PM can't be seen in Xi Jinping's company when China has, for all intents and purposes, annexed over 1,000 sq kms of Indian territory in eastern Ladakh, and essentially that the Wuhan spirit and the Mamallapuram spirit have turned into vinegar.'
Sunday's edition of the British tabloid News of the World, one of the oldest newspapers in Britain, will be its last. The 168-year-old tabloid is shutting down following accusations of hacking into the mobile phones of crime and terror victims, celebrities and politicians.
The Congress on Friday alleged that Facebook was being used as a weapon by the Bharatiya Janata Party to spread hate and fake news in the country and demanded that a joint parliamentary committee probe be conducted on the issue and laws be enacted to restrict Facebook and WhatsApp.
A 75-year-old Indian-origin Maoist cult leader was on Friday found guilty of rape, child cruelty and falsely imprisoning his daughter for 30 years by a British court.
Farage, 52, said he felt he had done all he could to achieve a vote for the United Kingdom to leave the EU in a referendum on June 23 and now he wanted "his life back".
President Donald Trump has regularly used the phrase to criticise certain media reports.
The MHA said all the "glossy statements" about humanitarian work and speaking truth to power are nothing but a "ploy to divert attention" from their activities which were in clear contravention of laid down Indian laws.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, both 37, will visit the country shrugging off security fears to follow in the footsteps of William's grandparents, father and late mother, Princess Diana.
"It's a pity that because there are no big names attached to it, Sony Liv did not go all out to promote this dark and gripping series, the way they did with a Scam 1992. They should have made it track more to ensure it reached more people."
Funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches and other financial institutions, jumped to 2.55 billion Swiss francs (over Rs 20,700 crore) in 2020 on a sharp surge in holdings via securities and similar instruments, though customer deposits fell, annual data from Switzerland's central bank showed on Thursday. The increase in aggregate funds of Indian clients with Swiss banks, from 899 million Swiss francs (Rs 6,625 crore) at the end of 2019, reverses a two-year declining trend and has taken the figure to the highest level in 13 years. It stood at a record high of nearly 6.5 billion Swiss francs in 2006, after which it has been mostly on a downward path, except for a few years including in 2011, 2013 and 2017, as per the Swiss National Bank (SNB) data.
'The wish is that 2022, if not bring us into happier times, at least sees some easing of the pain,' hopes Aakar Patel.
The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday adopted a resolution against Sri Lanka's rights record, in a setback to Colombo, which made determined efforts to garner international support ahead of the voting.
China and India evoked the highest levels of confidence among major economies at 45 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively. The US was at 36 per cent, Canada at 27 per cent, the UK at 26 per cent, Germany at 20 per cent, France 18 per cent, and Japan having the least optimistic CEOs with only 11 per cent very confident of growing revenues in 2020.
'...to come back to power because it was not doing well.'
Stephen Hawking, in his final book Brief Answers to the Big Questions, considered an asteroid collision to be the biggest threat to the planet. At this point, we are as well prepared as dinosaurs were when a 10-km wide asteroid hit the planet 65 million years ago, notes Kumar Abishek.
The political-electoral calculus favours spending thousands of crores on vanity projects like Sardar Patel's statue and the Central Vista over building up our military to handle the confrontations and conflicts that loom large, points out Ajai Shukla.
A Bharatiya Janata Party MP on Wednesday dubbed the opposition members protesting in Rajya Sabha as 'Omicrons,' alleging they were a threat to democracy, and asked them to get the 'Modi vaccine' for protection against the new coronavirus variant.
HAL is poised to sell the Philippines at least seven Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopters and eight Dornier 228 aircraft for Rs 30 billion, reports Ajai Shukla.
Rahul knew this was coming. That 'dirt' would be dug up.
Stock markets are expected to remain under pressure this week due to the overhang of US presidential polls and uncertainty over global growth due to resurging cases of coronavirus, according to analysts.
'The trajectory of the disease will keep increasing because of the population density being very high.'
'By taking over these reactors, it will ensure Ukraine's supply of electricity is cut off.'
'But India, increasingly, is not that far behind, which is a story I never expected to tell.'
Gove, who had surprised political circles with his decision to stand for the Conservative party leadership instead of backing fellow Brexit champion Boris Johnson, laid out his case to be premier despite not being glamorous enough.
HR Guru Mayank Rautela offers practical advice.
Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday said the central bank's asset purchases, aimed at mitigating COVID-19-related liquidity stress in the system, did not dilute its balance sheet or compromise on core principles of central banking. In the wake of the pandemic, the RBI undertook several conventional and unconventional measures. "Unlike many central banks, the RBI's asset purchases did not dilute its balance sheet and hence, did not compromise on core principles of central banking," Das said while addressing an event organised by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce. These purchases were confined to risk-free sovereign (government) bonds including state government securities only, he said.
