Yoga was the mantra and asanas the discipline on Wednesday as millions across the globe and distant corners of India stretched for the skies and dived for their toes, breathed in and out -- mindfully -- and twisted and turned to celebrate the International Day of Yoga.
India has said that it was deeply concerned over the deteriorating situation in Ukraine and reiterated its call for immediate cessation of violence and end to hostilities.
With the assembly polls only two years away, in 2026, any demoralising defeat in 2024, would challenge not only the party's continued relevance but also EPS's leadership, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
State Bank of India, the nation's largest lender, has stopped processing transactions of Russian entities that have been sanctioned by the West over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, sources said. To effect this, SBI has issued a circular as it fears that any transaction with entities or sectors under sanction will invite sanction on it as well, sources said. No transactions involving entities, banks, ports or vessels appearing on a US, European Union or United Nations sanctions list would be processed irrespective of the currency of the transaction, they said. Payments due to such entities have to be processed by other mechanism rather than through the banking channel, sources added.
There is, between Rao's tenure as PM and the current Modi regime, a powerful resonance of how transition can be managed. Rao's tenure saw many scams -- one where he was supposedly approached by Harshad Mehta with a bribe for making the securities scam go away. The Opposition insisted on a JPC. Despite knowing a JPC report would undermine him politically, Rao agreed to one, saying he had 'nothing to hide'.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow sees the prospect of making the Security Council more democratic, exclusively, through broadening the representation of countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The talks between the two leaders covered the entire gamut of bilateral ties as well as key regional and global issues, including the Ukraine conflict.
India abstained in the UN General Assembly on Thursday on a resolution that underscored the need to reach "comprehensive, just and lasting peace" in Ukraine, citing the resolution's "inherent limitations" in reaching New Delhi's desired goal of securing lasting peace and ending the conflict which has been raging for one year now.
The main elements of the programme are bilateral meetings with the US leadership, participation in the Quad Leaders' Summit, address at the UN General Assembly and business interactions.
Abstaining in the UN General Assembly on a vote to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council, India on Thursday asserted that if it has 'chosen' any side, it is the side of 'peace and it is for an immediate end to violence.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga are expected to deliberate extensively to give a new momentum to the functioning of the Quad at the summit, diplomatic sources said.
During her week-long stay, Swaraj, leading a high-powered Indian delegation, is expected to hold about 20 bilateral and trilateral meetings with leaders attending the session.
Modi will address world leaders from the iconic United Nations General Assembly hall on the morning of September 25, a day after he participates in the Quad Leaders' Summit in Washington, DC hosted by Biden on September 24.
The 193-member UN General Assembly adopted a resolution, introduced by Pakistan's ambassador Munir Akram under agenda item culture of peace, to proclaim March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
"The fight against impunity is critical to the larger pursuit of securing peace and justice. The Security Council must send an unambiguous and unequivocal message on this count," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the 15-nation UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine 'Fight against impunity'.
In his address to the high-level UN General Assembly session, Jaishankar said those who politicise the UNSC 1267 Sanctions regime, sometimes even to the extent of defending proclaimed terrorists, do so at their own peril.
As the UN marks 75 years of its existence, the 193-member UN General Assembly adopted a forward-looking political declaration that gave a clarion call for strengthening mechanism to combat terrorism, reformed multilateralism, inclusive development and better preparedness to deal with challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ambassador Pankaj Sharma, Permanent Representative of India to the Conference on Disarmament (CD), Geneva, said India has been drawing the attention of the world towards these threats and the need to strengthen international cooperation to address them through its annual consensus UNGA resolution titled 'Measures to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction'.
Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Noor-Ul-Haq Qadri was seen seated near Saeed as he addressed an All Parties Conference organised by the Difa-e-Pakistan Council on Sunday.
A total of over 75 Heads of State and Foreign Ministers will be meeting with Modi, external affairs minister S Jaishankar and minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan during the week across various platforms.
The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly adopted a Saudi-drafted resolution on Syria that denounced the escalating violence in the country and demanded a political transition, a voting in which India was among 31 nations that abstained.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is addressing the 71st session of the UN General Assembly where she is expected to give a stinging response to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's tirade on Kashmir.
The solution to globalisation is decentralisation and the solution to multilateralism is reformed multilateralism, not a 1945-version of multilateralism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said.
The BJP and the AIADMK are unable to sort out ideological differences, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Islamabad Declaration was issued at the conclusion of the 48th session of the foreign minister of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation which was attended by the ministers and delegates from 57 Muslim states and international organisations.
India said on Thursday that it desired normal relations with all its neighbours, including Pakistan, and advised Islamabad to create a conducive atmosphere, including by taking "credible, verifiable and irreversible actions" to stop cross border terrorism against it and enable the two countries to engage and address issues bilaterally.
Modi also gifted Harris a 'gulabi meenakari' chess set, the sources said, adding that the craft of 'gulabi meenakari' is closely associated with Varanasi, one of the oldest cities of the world and the prime minister's Lok Sabha constituency.
Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly this week.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, asked by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza to cut short her visit to the US amid growing tensions between the two countries, will return to Pakistan after addressing the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
T P Srinivasan outlines the importance of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly session
India has so many relationships, such an ability to communicate and find touch points with different countries and regions.
A 1987-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, Kamboj was previously Ambassador of India to Bhutan and was in June appointed India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, succeeding Ambassador T S Tirumurti.
The diplomat made the remarks replying to lawmakers' questions on New Delhi abstaining from several UN vote on Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The countries voting in favour included France, Germany, Japan, Nepal, The United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Modi met Hasina for a bilateral meeting on the margins of the high level segment of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly on Friday.
Prime Minister Modi held a number of bilateral meetings with top world leaders like United States President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of his UN address.
Both the meetings with the leaders of India and Pakistan would be held in New York on the sidelines of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, a senior administration official told reporters on Friday in a preview of Trump's engagements in the Big Apple next week.
The Secretary-General's Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric during the daily press briefing on Thursday said the UN chief has underscored the need for dialogue as the only way to resolve the issue and, "as part of the solution for the current crisis in Kashmir, to make sure that human rights aspects are very much dealt with, as well."
'What they want to do is their call. We've seen them mainstream terrorism in the past. And what you're now telling me is they may want to mainstream hate speech. It's their call, if they want to do that. Poison pens don't work for too long'
Vellore is one of the two seats that the DMK alliance won by the narrowest of margins in 2019. For the DMK's vote-score to be so low in a constituency with a substantial Muslim population has not missed the BJP strategists' eyes, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
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