India - Page 12

India, which is the world’s second-largest importer of fertilizer, received about 200,000 tons of fertilizers from Russia in the month of May, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported on Tuesday.

Outgoing Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s parents are trying to rescue his nomination as U.S. ambassador to India, hiring a lobbying firm to convince Senators to confirm him, despite allegations he ignored sexual misconduct in his office.

India plans to use units of a Russian-purchased S-400 air defense system — which utilizes a mobile, surface-to-air missile system — to defend itself against potential threats posed by neighboring China as soon as June, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported on Wednesday.

India’s Directorate-General of Foreign Trade banned wheat exports on Friday, causing market prices to skyrocket around the world and prompting expressions of grave concern from humanitarian groups

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s nomination as U.S. Ambassador to India is in jeopardy after a Senate investigation concluded this week that he “more likely than not” knew about sexual harassment by one of his aides.

Indian newspapers and agencies reported on Wednesday that Chinese dictator Xi Jinping had secretly been diagnosed with a brain aneurysm in 2021 and refused surgeries, preferring instead to use “traditional Chinese medicine.”

India’s fertility rate decreased from 2019 to 2021 according to newly released data from India’s latest National Family Health Survey, Asian News International (ANI) reported on Saturday.

India’s largest opposition party on Friday called for a dramatic increase in government compensation for the families of coronavirus victims after the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) released a report that accused India of radically understating how many deaths were caused by the pandemic.

Police in India’s northwestern city of Jodhpur imposed curfews on ten districts and ordered a city-wide internet blockage on Tuesday in an effort to quell a riot between local Muslims and Hindus that erupted on Monday, the Hindustan Times reported.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is projecting 8.2 percent growth for India in the current fiscal year, a substantial upward revision from earlier estimates and well ahead of the 3.6 percent global growth rate.

India’s Supreme Court has yet to receive data showing that individuals unvaccinated against the Chinese coronavirus pose a higher risk of transmission of the disease than people who are vaccinated against it, the top Indian court stated in a ruling on vaccine mandates issued on Monday, the Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

Facebook, which has rebranded itself “Meta,” published a “compliance report” on Tuesday that said 24.6 million pieces of content were censored in India in March. Another 2.7 million pieces of content were deleted on the Instagram platform.

In an interview this week, Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, now a special trade envoy to successor Scott Morrison, told India’s World Is One News channel (WION) that Australia was looking to expand trade with India specifically to limit ties to China.

China, the world’s worst polluter, has been dramatically increasing its coal consumption without much criticism from the climate change movement. Now the Indian government is urging its states to increase coal imports for the next three years to meet rising energy demands and create an emergency stockpile.

Indian Transportation Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday that Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. is welcome to manufacture or sell electric cars in India, provided the company does not import vehicles built in China.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has urged the State Department to designate India as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) for its “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations” of religious liberty.

A Hindu nationalist group in the southern Indian city of Bangalore recently accused an explicitly Christian private high school of “forcing” the Bible on students of the school by teaching it in class, Bangalore’s The News Minute digital platform reported on Tuesday.

Despite Conservative Party talk of securing the border, 2022 is likely to see record immigration when compared to pre-Brexit Britain.

The government of India on Sunday announced “tourist visas issued to nationals of China are no longer valid.” The Times of India called it a “tit-for-tat move” in retaliation for China barring over 20,000 Indian students from returning to Chinese soil after they ventured abroad.

Will Smith was seen landing in Mumbai, India, where he is reportedly meeting spiritual leader Sadhguru, who teaches “powerful methods for self-transformation.”

The Economic Times of India on Wednesday reported export quotas for fertilizer from Russia have been dramatically increased, despite international sanctions pressure against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. 

Boris Johnson’s plan to increase immigration from India for a trade deal has been described as a “kick in the teeth” to the British worker.

Police in the northern Indian village of Hariharganj recently arrested 26 local Christians for alleged “forced religious conversion” after the group of Christians was held against its will inside a church by a Hindu mob, the British Christian Asian Association (BCAA) reported on its website on Monday, noting that the Hindu mob faced no criminal charges in connection with the incident

The Russian embassy in New Delhi last week asked India for help with obtaining certain food supplies blocked by international sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. The Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) obliged by arranging a meeting between Indian food and pharmaceutical sellers and Russian buyers.

A Muslim mob in the southwestern Indian city of Hubbali stoned a local police station on Saturday after becoming enraged over the station’s handling of a local Hindu resident who changed his Whatsapp profile photo to a photoshopped pro-Hindu image, India’s the Wire news website reported on Sunday.

A cable-car accident in eastern India’s Jharkhand state on Sunday — which left dozens of frightened passengers hanging mid-air for 40 consecutive hours — turned deadly after two people fell to their deaths during subsequent helicopter rescue missions and a third person died from injuries sustained inside one of the carriages, the Indian Express reported Thursday.

Police in western India’s Maharashtra state recently arrested four men for allegedly “gang-raping” a Bengal monitor lizard, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported on Thursday, noting an official for the Maharashtra Forest Department confirmed the group’s arrest on Wednesday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday that India is ready to fill the food supply gap caused by Russia’s latest war with Ukraine and “feed the world” — but is waiting on approval for this effort from the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Times of India reported.

Violent clashes between Muslims and Hindus broke out across the Indian states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand on Sunday during local observances of a Hindu religious festival, prompting authorities in two of the three states to impose curfews or gathering bans later Sunday, the Times of India reported on Monday.

The Parliament of Pakistan speedily elected Shehbaz Sharif, younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, to replace the ousted Imran Khan on Monday.

Policing minister Kit Malthouse denied that Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak’s political career was doomed after it emerged that his Indian wife benefits from “non-domicile” tax status

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri appeared in a video released online on Tuesday in which he praised an Indian Muslim woman for defiantly shouting, “allahu akbar,” to a group of Hindu nationalists in southern India’s Karnataka state in February, the Indian Express reported on Thursday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reportedly offered Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi deep discounts on oil during a secretive meeting in New Delhi on Friday.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) join the growing list of Democrats to show concern over Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s nomination to serve as U.S. ambassador to India. This comes after reports that multiple Senate Democrats have privately said the nomination is “dead.”

New Delhi consulted with Cairo on Tuesday to discuss ways India may increase its export of wheat to Egypt, which has traditionally relied heavily upon wheat imports from the warring nations of Russia and Ukraine, the Times of India reported.

Senate Democrats have reportedly said Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti’s nomination to be ambassador to India is “dead” after sitting in limbo for months amid Republican opposition and allegations that the mayor witnessed a former aide sexually harass a police officer.