China realises that its maritime strength will give it the strategic leverage it needs to emerge as the regional hegemon and a potential superpower, says Harsh V Pant.
In a move that may cause unease in India, China on Monday announced that it will set up its first military base abroad in the Indian Ocean island of Seychelles to "seek supplies and recuperate" facilities for its Navy.
India needs to build its Grand Narrative, and its cultural power, which conquered all of ASEAN (then known as Indo-China), needs to be forcefully projected while simultaneously hard economic and military power are also emphasised, says Rajeev Srinivasan.
Concerned at growing sea piracy in the Indian Ocean, particularly off the Horn of Africa, the Indian Ocean RIM - Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) on Tuesday pledged to jointly combat the menace through sharing of information and technical assistance.
The move comes amid expectations that the government would allow foreign airlines to invest directly in Indian carriers.
How much money the Modi government has already spent and is going to spend on all those foreign trips, muses Sunita Iyer
The movie supposedly a feel-good romance, is quite oridnary.
Pitching for environmentally benign progress, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday favoured proper enforcement of regulatory standards to prevent green damage while making sure that there is no return to the license permit raj system.
Airline now financially more stable but still in the doldrums as the operating environment remains tough.
Bharti Airtel chief executive officer Sanjay Kapoor told reporters here that it was unlikely that there would be a tariff war in 3G space under rational circumstances.
Tata Teleservices has announced plans to launch 3G services by Diwali, while Vodafone has said it will launch the services by early 2011.
Former cricketer Kirti Azad on Sunday sat on a hunger strike, lambasting the "greed, lust for money and sleaze" in the IPL and demanded transparency in the cash-rich league's functioning.
Augustina Nkem Nwaokolo of Nigeria stormed her way to the first gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, with a record mark in the women's weightlifting event at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Sports Complex, in New Delhi, on Monday.
Leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said it has earmarked a capital expenditure of $3.1 billion (over Rs 14,000 crore) for India and other global operations in the current fiscal.
This could come as a huge relief as majority of the FIIs operating in India are registered in tax havens. The discussion paper also removed the ambiguity on income classification for tax computation.
The Russian-drafted resolution, which passed unanimously by all 15 member-states of the Security Council, appealed to all countries 'to criminalise piracy under their domestic law and favourably consider the prosecution of suspected, and imprisonment of convicted, pirates apprehended off the coast of Somalia, consistent with applicable international human rights law.'
Nine hijacked vessels, carrying 95 Indians, have been traced to Mogadishu off Somalia and efforts are being made to secure their release, official sources said on Monday.
After being held in captivity for more than three months by Somali pirates, seven out of 22 Indian crewmembers of the Panama-flagged cargo vessel 'Al Khaliq' returned safely in Mumbai on Thursday.
A look at the life and times of maverick businessman Chinnakannan Sivasankaran
At least 24 Indians were taken hostage by Somali pirates, who hjacked an Indian-managed and Panamanian-flagged ship near Seychelles on Thursday, officials said.
Two Indians are on board the Singaporean ship that was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, official sources said in New Delhi on Sunday.
In its hurried recognition of the new government in Male, has India lost sight of the ground realities in Maldives?
Bharti Airtel on Tuesday inked a definitive agreement with Kuwait's telecom firm, Zain, to acquire its African assets at an enterprise value of $10.7 billion
The Indian rupee could soon get a unique symbol, with the finance ministry holding a public competition for a design. The finance ministry, which has called for entries by April 15, would shortlist five designs. The five designers would have to make a presentation to the jury members, before a final decision is announced. But even if the design was not selected, the five shortlisted entries would be entitled to a prize of Rs 25,000 each.
Lionel Messi and Alexis Sanchez, club mates at Barcelona, sparkled as Argentina and Chile put behind them a weekend to forget with victories in the South American 2014 World Cup qualifiers on Tuesday.
It also had other suitors like French company Vivendi, Egyptian company Etisalat and even MTN.
Renowned Italian coach Massimo Constantini will groom Indian paddlers for the 2010 Commonwealth Games scheduled in the capital.
Olympian Neha Aggarwal and Soumi Mondal moved into the semi-finals after thumping victories in the table tennis competition at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune on Wednesday. In the boys' singles, sixth seed Soumyajit Ghosh and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran also stormed into the semi-final league.
Days after Pakistan said it would raise the alleged human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir in upcoming Indo-Pak talks, India on Tuesday made it clear that law and order cannot be questioned in the name of rights and that terrorism will be the focus of the parleys.
Political leaders, industrialists and businessmen are increasingly looking to tap the resource-rich countries of the world's second largest continent even as two-way trade between India and Africa is poised to reach $70 billion by 2015 from $46 billion at present.
The ship carrying 4,200 tonnes of sugar was travelling between Mumbai and Mogadishu. "The hijackers of MV Victoria have offloaded the cargo from the vessel. Now negotiations are on for the safe release of the crew that includes 10 Indians," a top DG Shipping official told PTI.
Bharti Airtel is all set to face competition in its proposed bid for South African telecom major MTN Group. United Arab Emirates-based telecom company Etisalat today said that it might bid for the South African company, too. Etisalat is evaluating a possible bid for MTN as it seeks to boost revenues from the continent to at least a quarter of its total revenues in four years, Reuters reported quoting the company Chairman Mohammed Omran.
The MTN Group, the largest mobile operator in sub-Saharan Africa, might seek a 'non-compete agreement' with Bharti Airtel, India's largest private telecom company, to bar it from entering the 21-odd markets in which the Johannesburg-listed company operates, banking sources said.
India is "seriously" looking at the "disparity" in border infrastructure on its side in Arunachal Pradesh compared to the development on the Chinese side and is "trying to change that", Army Chief Deepak Kapoor has said.
Reliance Communications, India's second-largest wireless operator, will launch phone services in Uganda by year-end, marking its first foray into international mobile phone markets.
Sulley Muntari struck a wonder goal in the final minute to give hosts Ghana a 2-1 win over Guinea in the opening match of the African Nations Cup.
ICICI Bank chief K V Kamath to be new CII vice president.
Dubai-based carrier, Emirates is adding a host of in-flight services, like the facility of using mobile phones onboard, toys for children and nutritious meals for them to attract more passengers.
Soon, the greatest global show will be over. Life will not be the same, probably a bit boring with no octopus, no blundering referees, no Paraguayan starlet or horrible cacophony (though by the end of the competition we will be missing it!).
When Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna visits Pakistan on July 15, he would be taking the next step on the road to reducing the trust deficit between India and its terror-vexed neighbour.
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