India

New Delhi/Geneva, Aug 2: India is willing to sign a global trade deal, which it has torpedoed, if other World Trade Organisation members can agree to its parallel demand for concessions on stockpiling food, senior officials in New Delhi said on Friday. The deadline to sign the WTO pact to ease worldwide customs rules lapsed at midnight in Geneva on Thursday after India demanded that the group also

New Delhi, Aug 2: Prime Minister Narendra Modi told visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday that food security concerns of the poorest of the poor had to move in tandem with trade reform measures. Mr. Modi’s comments came after a U.S. State Department official said, “Failure to sign the Trade Facilitation Agreement [in Geneva] sent a confusing signal and undermined the very image

Chennai, Aug 2: The entire political spectrum of Tamil Nadu on Friday spoke in one voice to rally behind Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, hitting out in sharp terms against the Sri Lankan government for the insensitive portrayal of the CM and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Lankan Defence Ministry website. The virulent response in the State quickly resulted in an ‘unqualified apology’ by the

New Delhi, Aug 1: Visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry Friday held a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a prelude to the summit meeting between US President Barack Obama and Modi in Washington in September. Kerry's meeting with Modi at the Prime Minister's House, 7, Race Course Road, comes a day after he met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for the 5th India-US Strategic

Pune, Aug 1: The toll in a landslide disaster in Maharashtra’s Malin village touched 50, with another 22 injured, an official said here Friday. “So far we have recovered 50 bodies. The relief and rescue work continues on a war-footing,” Pune Collector Saurabh Rao, who is monitoring the situation round-the-clock, said. The village was entirely swept under a landslide Wednesday. It has also come to

New Delhi, Aug 1: The World Trade Organization failed on Thursday to reach a deal to standardise customs rules, which would have been the first global trade reform in two decades but was blocked by India's demands for concessions on agricultural stockpiling. "We have not been able to find a solution that would allow us to bridge that gap," WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo told trade diplomats

New Delhi, Jul 31: With former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh creating a row with his comments about Sonia Gandhi, the Congress President today said that she will come out with her own book, which will reveal the "truth". "I will write my own book and then you will come to know everything...the only way truth will come out is if I write...I am serious about it and I will be writing," she

New Delhi, Jul 31: Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, whose appointment as Army Chief had kicked up a row, today took over as the head of the 1.3 million strong force succeeding Gen Bikram Singh. Gen Suhag assumed charge after his predecessor handed over to him the Chief of Army Staff baton in his South Block office here. The new Chief takes over at a time when the force is facing challenges of modernsation

Lucknow, Jul 31: A United States report on the status of religious freedom in countries across the globe has slammed the Uttar Pradesh government for choosing "not to combat discrimination on the basis of religion and intolerance." Released by the US department of state, the 2013 International Religious Freedom Report is in its 16th year, and chronicles where and when the universal right to

New Delhi, July 31: US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has said that the US is prepared to work "hand in hand" with the Narendra Modi government, is to co-chair the fifth annual India-US Strategic Dialogue with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj here Thursday. Kerry, who arrived on a three-day visit Wednesday at the head of a high-power delegation, is meeting National Security Advisor Ajit