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☆ Indian soldier dies of gunshot wound at same base where 4 others killed
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, April 13 (Reuters) - A soldier died of a gunshot wound at a military base in India's northern border state of Punjab, but it was not related to the killing of four soldiers there hours earlier, the Indian army said on Thursday. The soldier at Bathinda Military Station on Wednesday evening was thought to have shot himself, a statement from the army said. "There is no connection whatsoever" to the killing of four soldiers by unknown attackers 12 hours earlier, it added. The weapon and cartridge case from the same weapon was found next to the soldier," the statement said. The soldier, who had returned from leave on April 11, was rushed to a military hospital, where he died of his injuries, it added.

April 12 (Reuters) - A "firing incident" killed four people at a military station in the Indian border state of Punjab early on Wednesday, the army said, adding that a search operation was ongoing. An unknown number of shooters were still at large at the Bathinda military station and had ammunition on them, a defence source told Reuters, declining to be named citing the sensitivity of the matter. The incident took place at 4:35 a.m. (2305 GMT), the statement said. The military station, located about six hours north of New Delhi, houses mostly families of soldiers and is a residential army base. Reporting by Krishn Kaushik; writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Shri NavaratnamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ukrainian deputy foreign minister due to seek Indian aid - report
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, April 8 (Reuters) - Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova is due to visit India on Monday and will seek humanitarian aid and equipment to repair energy infrastructure damaged during Russia's invasion, the Hindu newspaper reported on Saturday. Dzhaparova is expected to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Kyiv, the newspaper said. Ukraine is keen to get an invitation to participate in G20 meetings and for Zelenskiy to be invited to speak to G20 leaders during the summit, the newspaper said. The Indian Council of World Affairs, a New Delhi-based think tank, said on Twitter it would host a talk with Dzhaparova on Tuesday. Writing by Neha Arora; Additional reporting by Krishn Kaushik in NEW DELHI; Editing by Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

HISTORY OF DEFAMATION AS A CRIMINAL OFFENCESection 499 of the Indian Penal Code enacted by British colonial rulers in 1860 made defamation a criminal offence and Section 500 set out punishment. Anyone found guilty of criminal defamation can be jailed but a civil offence means they can only be made to pay damages. The criminal law has been invoked in cases filed against journalists, politicians and industry leaders but convictions have been rare. "Criminal defamation laws have an inhibitory and silencing effect, even before a conviction,” it said. However, Supreme Court advocate Raju Ramachandran said the section on criminal defamation "is carefully and elaborately worded" and should stay.

Yet he remains at the centre of India's opposition politics and the main target of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu- nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Gandhi entered politics and was first elected to parliament in 2004 from his family borough of Amethi in the northern heartland state of Uttar Pradesh. He repeated that victory in 2009 and 2014 but suffered a shock setback in 2019 when he lost the seat. However, he had also contested a seat in the Kerala state and won there to return to parliament. Outside parliament, he has often reminded his supporters of his family's commitment and sacrifices, talking about the assassinations of his grandmother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and his former prime minister father, Rajiv Gandhi.

Airbus and Boeing have both highlighted the scale and technology of existing investments in India, playing down the significance of final passenger jet assembly. Boeing said it buys $1 billion a year in parts and services from India, while Airbus said it buys $700 million. "There's a desire in every country to have as much manufacturing as possible ... and final assembly is a desire that you see all around the world," Salil Gupte, president of Boeing India, told Reuters. "The volumes that you would require for final assembly on the commercial part of the business are just far, far greater," he said. "Even without the C295 FAL, the Airbus industrial footprint in India already generates more foreign exchange value and jobs for the country than any modern assembly activity would," said Remi Maillard, president of Airbus India & South Asia, by email.

☆ Russia cannot meet arms delivery commitments because of war, Indian Air Force says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Krishn Kaushik | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, March 23 (Reuters) - Russia is unable to deliver vital defence supplies it had committed to India's military because of the war in Ukraine, the Indian Air Force (IAF) says. An IAF representative told the panel Russia had planned a "major delivery" this year that will not take place. The biggest ongoing delivery is the S-400 Triumf air defence system units India bought in 2018 for $5.4 billion. IAF also depends on Russia for spares for its Su-30MKI and MiG-29 fighter jets, the mainstay of the service branch. Russia, and the Soviet Union before it, has been India’s main source of arms and defence equipment for decades.

☆ India hunts Sikh preacher who has revived calls for homeland
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Krishn Kaushik | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Top Punjab police officer Sukhchain Gill told Reuters that Singh had set up a militia called Anandpur Khalsa Fauj. Singh has said striving for a separate country, that Sikhs call Khalistan, was not an anti-democratic and should not be taboo. Sikh militants complaining of unfair treatment on the part of the central government began agitating for a separate homeland in the 1970s. Singh had become popular through social media during drawn protests in 2020-21 by thousands of farmers from Punjab, many of them Sikh, against agricultural reforms. Sikh militants were blamed for the 1985 bombing of an Air India Boeing 747 flying from Canada to India in which all 329 people on board were killed.

Kishida said there were four "pillars" to Japan's new Indo-Pacific plan: maintaining peace, dealing with new global issues in cooperation with Indo-Pacific countries, achieving global connectivity through various platforms, and ensuring the safety of the open seas and skies. Japan pledged $75 billion to the region by 2030 via private investment and yen loans and by ramping up aid through official governmental assistance and grants. "We plan to expand the cooperation of the free and open Indo-Pacific framework," Kishida told the Indian Council of World Affairs. China has ramped up its military presence in the Indo-Pacific and rapidly modernised its navy while promoting its Belt and Road Initiative. "Giving voice to the priorities of the Global South is an important pillar of our G20 presidency," Modi said after his talks with Kishida.

☆ PM Modi: India's econmic, banking systems are strong
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

NEW DELHI, March 18 (Reuters) - India's economic and banking system are strong even amid the turmoil currently rocking global markets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday. "Amidst a global crisis, today India’s economic system is strong, the banking system is strong. This is the power of our institutions," Modi said at an India Today gathering. While authorities have rescued lenders on the edge, the turmoil has spurred worries about what may be lurking in the wider global financial system. Reporting by Nidhi Verma and Krishn Kaushik Editing by Gareth JonesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ India says situation with China fragile, dangerous in the Himalayan front
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, March 18 (Reuters) - The situation between India and China in the western Himalayan region of Ladakh is fragile and dangerous, with military forces deployed very close to each other in some parts, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday. At least 24 soldiers were killed when the two sides clashed in the region in mid-2020, but the situation has been calmed through rounds of diplomatic and military talks. "The situation to my mind still remains very fragile because there are places where our deployments are very close up and in military assessment therefore quite dangerous," Jaishankar said at an India Today conclave. Jaishankar said he discussed the situation with China's new foreign minister, Qin Gang, on the sidelines of a meeting of the foreign ministers of the G20 nations hosted by India this month. Two G20 ministerial meetings in India in the last three weeks have been overshadowed by Russia's 13-month invasion of Ukraine.

☆ India approves purchase of military equipment worth $8.5 bln
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] An armed soldier stands guard outside India's Defence Ministry building in New Delhi, India, February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis/File PhotoNEW DELHI, March 16 (Reuters) - India on Thursday approved purchases of missiles, helicopters, artillery guns and electronic warfare systems worth $8.5 billion as it sought to add more teeth to its military. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the top government body for capital acquisition approvals for the Indian military, approved the orders worth 705 billion rupees ($8.52 billion) for all its services, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. The list of purchases approved included 200 additional BrahMos missiles, 50 utility helicopters and electronic warfare systems for the navy. All three Indian military services have been using versions of the missile for over a decade.

☆ Lahore is most polluted city, Chad worst among countries - survey
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Lahore's air quality worsened to 97.4 micrograms of PM2.5 particles per cubic meter from 86.5 in 2021, making it the most polluted city globally. Hotan, the only Chinese city in the top 20, followed Lahore with PM2.5 levels of 94.3, an improvement from 101.5 in 2021. While Chad had an average level of 89.7, Iraq, which had the second most polluted air for a country, averaged 80.1. Bangladesh's air quality improved from 2021, when it was tagged as the country with the worst air. The index was prepared using data from more than 30,000 air quality monitors in more than 7,300 locations in 131 countries, territories and regions.

☆ Australia, India agree on strengthening economic, defence ties
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Krishn Kaushik | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Altaf HussainNEW DELHI, March 10 (Reuters) - Australia and India have agreed to accelerate a broader economic partnership and to boost their defence ties, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in New Delhi on Friday. Last year the two countries signed a free trade deal called the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), the first signed by India with a developed country in a decade. However, a much larger Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) has been stuck in negotiations for over a decade. India and Australia are security partners through the Quad group, which also includes the United States and Japan. Australia and India made "significant and ambitious" progress in strengthening defence and security ties and also discussed climate change issues, Albanese said.

NEW DELHI/SYDNEY, March 8 (Reuters) - Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives in India on Wednesday seeking to strengthen the new momentum in ties between the two countries through deeper trade, investment and defence relations. Quad includes the United States and India besides Australia and Japan. Australia is due to host a Quad leaders summit in Sydney later this year. “India and Australia share warm and friendly relations based on common values and democratic principles. Australian Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell is a part of Albanese’s delegation and the visit is expected to provide an opportunity to hasten the ambitious deal.

DHAKA, March 5 (Reuters) - A "major" fire that broke out at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh on Sunday, destroying several homes, is now under control, police officials told Reuters, adding that there were no casualties. The blaze hit Camp 11 in Cox's Bazar, a border district where more than a million Rohingya refugees live, with most having fled a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017, Rafiqul Islam, additional police superintendent at Cox's Bazar told Reuters. Faruque Ahmed, a local police official, said the cause of the fire was not clear. The refugee camps in Cox's Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh are prone to such blazes. While the fire in 2022 only damaged homes, the massive blaze in 2021 killed at least 15 refugees and destroyed over 10,000 homes.

The government said the BBC had failed to respond to repeated requests to clarify its tax affairs related to the profits and remittances from its Indian operations. The documentary, which was only broadcast in Britain, accused Modi of fostering a climate of impunity that fuelled the violence. Reuters spoke to eight Indian journalists, industry executives and media analysts who said that some media which reported critically on the government have been targeted with inspections by government agencies, the suspension of state advertising, and the arrest of reporters. Modi's government has vigorously denied the BBC tax inspection - the first against an international news organisation in decades - was a response to the film. Gupta said there had been complaints after the government reduced its advertising spending but that was not an assault on media freedom.

Lavrov also said the question of when Russia will negotiate an end to the war should be put to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Earlier in the day Blinken had met with his counterparts from the Quad, as the grouping is informally called, and they issued a statement saying "the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible". Late last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended a landmark nuclear arms control treaty and threatened to resume nuclear tests. During their brief exchange on the sidelines of the G20 meeting on Thursday, Blinken told Lavrov to end the war and urged Moscow to reverse its suspension of the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) on nuclear weapons. China has denounced the Quad as a Cold War construct and a clique "targeting other countries".

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to end the war and urged Moscow to reverse its suspension of the New START nuclear treaty, a senior U.S. official said. The Russian foreign ministry said Lavrov and Blinken spoke "on the move" for less than 10 minutes at the end of the closed-door session, and did not engage in any negotiations, Russian news agencies reported. Blinken later told a news conference he had told Lavrov to engage in diplomacy during the unscheduled encounter. [1/6] U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken (top L) walks past Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (lower) during the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi on March 2, 2023. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said the war in Ukraine had hurt "almost every country on the planet, in terms of food, energy, inflation".

[1/6] A man arranges the flags kept outside the venue for G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi, India, March 2, 2023. The Russian foreign ministry said Lavrov and Blinken spoke "on the move" but did not hold negotiations or a meeting, Russian news agencies reported. News of the exchange came at the end of the day-long G20 meeting which, as expected, was overshadowed by the Ukraine war. "Unfortunately, this meeting has again been marred by Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine," Blinken said. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said the war in Ukraine had hurt "almost every country on the planet, in terms of food, energy, inflation".

☆ UK foreign minister raises BBC tax searches, India says laws are for all
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Krishn Kaushik | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly gestures during an interview with Reuters after a bilateral meeting with India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on the sidelines of G20 foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi, India, March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Sunil KatariaNEW DELHI, March 1 (Reuters) - British Foreign Minister James Cleverly raised the issue of tax searches at the BBC's offices in India during a meeting with his counterpart in New Delhi on Wednesday, the minister told Reuters. In response, Cleverly was "firmly told that all entities operating in India must comply fully with relevant laws and regulations", an Indian government source said. Cleverly did not share details about the conversation with India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar ahead of a G20 foreign ministers' meeting on Thursday. Asked if there were concerns about civil liberties in India, Cleverly said: "We want to ensure that values that both our countries feel strongly about are upheld.

[1/5] A man walks past a model of G20 logo outside the finance ministry in New Delhi, India, March 1, 2023. Germany responded saying it would counter Russian "propaganda" at the G20 meeting. The foreign ministers meeting comes days after a meeting of finance chiefs of G20 countries in Bengaluru that was also overshadowed by Russia's war in Ukraine. An EU source separately said the EU delegation would not support a statement at the G20 meeting if it did not include condemnation of the war. The G20 includes the wealthy G7 nations as well as Russia, China, India, Brazil, Australia and Saudi Arabia, among other nations.

[1/3] FILE PHOTO-Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a meeting with heads of foreign media outlets in Moscow, Russia, February 15, 2023. Last July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov walked out of a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting, also in Bali, after the West strongly denounced the war. The G20 bloc includes the wealthy G7 democracies, as well as Russia, China, India, Australia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia among other countries. The foreign ministers' meeting will also be watched for how tensions between Washington and Beijing play out, including over the Ukraine war. "It is unlikely that G20 foreign ministers can agree on common language suggesting ways and mechanisms to deal with the situation in Ukraine," he said.

NEW DELHI/BERLIN, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Germany will pursue a $5.2 billion deal with India to jointly build six conventional submarines in the country during Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Feb. 25-26 visit, two Indian and two German sources said. Under the deal, a foreign submarine manufacturer will have to partner with an Indian company to build the submarines in India. The Indian foreign and defence ministries did not respond to requests for comment. An Indian diplomatic source told Reuters that India has asked Germany for an assurance for joint manufacturing for the submarines, not just supply-side support. Another official from the Indian foreign ministry said that “Scholz was determined to reinvigorate trade and defence ties with India”.

[1/2] The Gateway of India monument in Mumbai is lit up to mark India's G20 presidency on December 13, 2022. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File PhotoBENGALURU, Feb 22 (Reuters) - India does not want the Group of 20 nations to discuss additional sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine during New Delhi's one-year presidency of the bloc, six senior Indian government officials told Reuters. "India is not keen to discuss or back any additional sanctions on Russia during the G20," said one of the officials. "The existing sanctions on Russia have had a negative impact on the world." India has also sharply raised purchases of oil from Russia, its biggest supplier of defence hardware.

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