Sources said China was forcefully pushing for inking the deal during the RCEP summit later in the day, which was seen as an attempt to counter-balance the impact of its lingering trade war with the US as well as to project the region's economic might to the West.
The network has been built by six telcos to handle high bandwidth demands of emerging technologies and applications.
South and South-West Asia could witness an economic growth of 5.3 per cent in 2015, which will be a four-year high.
For the second successive year, Monsoon is likely to be below normal with parts of north-west and central India to be the most affected.
'It is a testing time for our foreign policy which may involve a certain element of taking risks, assessing costs, and expecting failures,' asserts Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
There is enough room for growth in smaller Indian towns as per US and European aircraft manufacturers
The global chocolate market is expected to grow $98.3 billion in 2016.
The 7.0-magnitude quake struck at about 7:50 pm west southwest of the coastal community of Crescent City, according to the US Geological Survey Web site.
It will be for the first time since Independence that India and Pakistan will both be part of a military exercise.
The US intends to break up India's strategic partnership with Russia and to continue to interfere in Indian-Iranian relations, apart from inserting itself into the Sino-Indian bilateral discourse, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, analysing the US defence secretary's visit to India.
Mumbai's alternative business district of Bandra-Kurla Complex was at 18th position.
'It is unrealistic to expect that security dilemmas and strategic distrust to disappear or even diminish any time soon,' says Rup Narayan Das.
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).
According to Skymet Weather, the initial surge in the Monsoon rains can be attributed to the transition of El Nino into the neutral phase.
Though foreign banks outperformed domestic banks in quality services, they could not match the latter as public sector banks reigned supreme on the strength of their superior reach.
'By causing military humiliation of India it intends to send a signal to other Asian countries to toe the Chinese line,' argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Armin Kremer took the FIA APRC title after a courageous drive into second place.
The odds will be stacked heavily in favour of India when the title contenders, with an eye on securing a knockout berth, meet minnows Papua New Guinea in the ICC U-19 World Cup, in Mount Maunganui, on Tuesday.
India's commitment to an open and plural security architecture attests to the fact that Asia's transition is a dynamic of both power & identity, says Zorawar Daulet Singh
'The real significance of the visit lies in the extent of the receptivity in Myanmar of the account of Chinese perfidy given by India's military and civilian top brass and how they assess the danger to themselves of dancing with the dragon,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The long-term growth perspective or potential for India is one of the highest in the Asia Pacific region.
Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), which houses the offices of some of the biggest banks in the country, however, slipped to 26th position from the 16th position.
As many as 3,50,000 people have been rendered homeless in the region.
The bank (Williams & Glyn's), which was dormant for about 30 years, is being revived by UK-based lender the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.
It's Sanjeev Chadha, named Pepsi's chief executive for Asia, W Asia & Africa, versus Coca-Cola's Atul Singh.
The issues around trade gaps, especially around steel and aluminium tariffs imposed by the US, will be addressed separately.
Nariman Point was ranked 30th on the top 50 rankings for global prime office properties.
Indians at large harbour a notion that their country is cherrypicking out of the American basket of goodies, but the policymakers in Delhi and the political leadership are well aware that it can only be a pipe dream since a military alliance with a superpower is a profound irrevocable commitment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Indian diplomacy in West Asia under the present government has been a success story -- and with Saudi Arabia in particular,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
2016 has been the most important one for Renault in India, backed by strategic measures in all key biz dimensions.
Profile of the Golden State Warriors, who beat the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday to win their second NBA championship in three seasons.
During the course of the hearing last month, it emerged that Modi had made death threats to witnesses and also attempted to destroy evidence such as mobile phones and a server holding "material critical to the fraud".
Already a fifth of the nearly Rs 8,000 crore toothpaste market in India (around Rs 1,500 crore) is herbal with the segment estimated to become a fourth (or Rs 2,000 crore) in the next few years.
'We are not saying we are going to face a drought... We are a doing and performing government. A contingency plan is being prepared,' Science Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan tells Rediff.com
India needs to consider whether the Donald Trump administration can actually deliver, observes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
Trump was good for world peace. He didn't start a war anywhere, which is not something that can be said for most of his predecessors, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Lavitha Shinoj juggled a job and family to participate in her first-ever beauty contest. 'It was a new, life-changing experience,' she says.
India and Australia are clubbed together in Group B along with Zimbabwe and East Asia Pacific qualifier Papua New Guinea, an ICC release read on Wednesday.
Biden said, "One of the reasons why President Obama called our relations with India, quote, "a defining partnership of the century ahead" is that India is increasingly looking east as a force for security and growth in Southeast Asia and beyond."
The seasonal temperature would be above normal by more than one degree Celsius over Northwest India.
