The restrictive, illiberal trend that has come to characterise India over the last five years has a new data point. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government decided that Christmas Day was a good time to deny renewal of a license for the Missionaries of Charity to receive foreign funding. Founded by Mother Teresa, whom the Catholic Church canonized in 2016, this order of Christian nuns has been operating in the country since 1950.
On Tuesday, India reported 7,579 coronavirus cases - the lowest rise in 543 days, despite huge festival gatherings in recent weeks.“Even after [Hindu festival of] Diwali, we are not seeing a surge,” Dr M D Gupte, former director of National Institute of Epidemiology, was quoted as saying in media reports, attributing it mainly to the presence of antibodies in a huge majority of Indians through natural infection.“I think we are much safer now,” Gupte said.According to government surveys, nearl
After India’s recent defeat by Pakistan at the T20 World Cup cricket tournament, Indian bowler Mohammed Shami confronted vicious trolling on social media. It was the latest display of the Islamophobic bigotry that has consumed Indian society under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Shami had performed poorly in the match. But so had 10 other Indian players in the rout by Pakistan. Shami was singled out because he is Muslim.
President Joe Biden and the leaders of Australia, India and Japan promised Friday to work together for a stable, open and democratic Indo-Pacific in a veiled dig at China during their first in-person summit together.In Biden's latest effort to cement United States (US) leadership in the face of a rising China, the so-called Quad agreed to move ahead on a joint plan to provide COVID-19 vaccines around Asia, launched a new climate initiative and said the four nations would begin holding an
A few years ago, as Narendra Modi came into power, investigative reporters discovered that India was hiding its malaria deaths. While at the Indian national health ministry in New Delhi, they saw thousands of cases disappear.
Something has gone horribly wrong in India. Yesterday, the country reported 346,786 new cases of COVID-19 for the previous 24 hours, with 2,624 deaths – the world’s highest daily toll since the pandemic began last year. Overall, nearly 190,000 people have died from COVID in the country, while more than 16.6 million have been infected.The new outbreak in India is so severe that hospitals are running out of oxygen and beds, and many people who have been taken ill are being turned away.
In early March, India's health minister Harsh Vardhan declared the country was "in the endgame" of the COVID-19 pandemic.Mr Vardhan also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership as an "example to the world in international co-operation". From January onwards, India had begun shipping doses to foreign countries as part of its much-vaunted "vaccine diplomacy".Mr Vardhan's unbridled optimism was based on a sharp drop in reported infections.
As countries scramble to secure COVID-19 vaccines, ugly expressions like “vaccine race” and “vaccine apartheid” have entered the global lexicon.
United States (US) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo opened talks in India on Monday, kicking off a four-country Asia tour that he has said will focus on the "threats" posed by China.Pompeo and Defence Secretary Mark Esper, who is joining him for the two-day visit, will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday amid heightened tensions since a border clash between India and China in June.Pompeo opened his trip with talks and a dinner with External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaish
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday opened a Himalayan tunnel that will drastically reduce the time needed to rush troops to the country's remote Chinese border as tensions grow between the Asian neighbours.The tunnel traverses India's northern Himachal Pradesh state and lies on one of two main routes for troops headed to border areas in Ladakh.20 Indian and an unspecified number of Chinese troops were killed in June during a deadly clash in Ladakh, which shares a
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, India’s economy shrunk by 23.9 percent in the second quarter of 2020. This was a historic contraction, going down as the worst in the nation’s history. No other major economic power suffered as greatly during these past six months, and coming on the heels of 3.1 percent growth in the first quarter, it stings.As if to add insult to injury, now China and India are facing increasing tensions along their Himalayan border.
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, recently declared that aggression and expansionism have never been in the Chinese nation’s “genes.” It is almost astonishing that he managed to say it with a straight face.
