Category: Politics

HANOI—India on Saturday agreed to provide Vietnam with a $500 million loan for defense purposes, a further sign of warming ties between two countries in separate territorial disputes with China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc also announced after their meeting in Hanoi that Vietnam and India have upgraded their diplomatic relations to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership from strategic partnership. “Our decision to upgrade our strategic partnership to a comprehensive strategic partnership will provide a new direction and momentum to our bilateral…

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On Friday, readers of the national dailies The Times of India and the Hindustan Times woke up to a full-page jacket advertisement with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, dressed in a blue jacket, staring at them from under the words “Jio: Digital Life”. The advertisement for Reliance Jio, the second coming of Reliance Industries in telecom, carried the words “Dedicated to India and 1.2 billion Indians” in bold type, followed by a short message: “In the journey of time, there come a few life changing moments. Our honourable Prime Minister’s inspiring vision…

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Pakistan violates ceasefire in the Akhnoor sector of Jammu and Kashmir. Indian army responding to fire from Pakistan Army. Pakistani troops began indiscriminate firing at 11:45 am. No injury or casualty reported on the Indian side. Four months earlier, Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked mortar shelling on the Indian side along the Line of Control in Poonch sector. Nearly a dozen people had been killed and three dozen others injured between July-September last year in unprovoked firing and mortar shelling from across the border which had been started after Pakistan…

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The Congress mouthpiece National Herald is finally set for revival: the paper that became defunct in 2008 will resume publication, the Associated Journals Ltd announced on Wednesday, naming senior journalist Neelabh Mishra as its new Editor-in-Chief. Earlier in the day, Congress treasurer Motilal Vora, who is also managing director of AJL Limited, announced: “The Associated Journals Ltd, a company founded in 1937 by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, has taken steps to resume publication of its English and Hindi newspapers National Herald and Navjivan. The company has appointed senior journalist Neelabh Mishra…

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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and shared with him the U.S.’ perspective on developments in the region and beyond.”It looks like the rains this time have warmly welcomed you,” PM Modi said as he greeted Mr Kerry and the US delegation for talks. Mr Kerry’s motorcade was caught in two hours of traffic chaos when he arrived in Delhi on Monday night for the annual US-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue that seeks to deepen the bond between the world’s two largest…

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Officials say at least 40 people have died and hundreds of thousands have been evacuated as floods hit vast swathes of central and eastern India. Disaster management officials said Monday that days of heavy rain have caused the Ganges River and its tributaries to rise above the danger mark during the last 48 hours in some 20 districts of the states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Flooded houses are pictured at a residential area in Allahabad. Flooding in India has killed at least 40 people, officials say. They said…

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Hardening its stance on resuming dialogue with Pakistan, India Thursday announced it had set a five-point agenda for talks on terrorism in a letter submitted a day earlier by Indian envoy Gautam Bambawale to the Pakistan Foreign Ministry. New Delhi asked Islamabad to end incitement to violence and terrorism from Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir, stop cross-border terrorism, detain and prosecute terrorists like Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed, deny a safe haven to fugitives like Mumbai underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and close terror camps where terrorists like Bahadur Ali have…

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