Elections

Business

Roving Periscope: Ahead of PM Modi’s US visit in June, a NATO ‘invite’

May 27, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: It was in the works for some years. And got a boost when India joined the revivified Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) three years ago, becoming the fourth democracy after the US, Australia, and Japan to create what is viewed as an informal “Asian NATO”, striving to contain China. Now, as […]

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Business

Roving Periscope: India, the fastest-growing economy worldwide in 2023, says WEF chief

May 26, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: While the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently pegged India’s GDP growth at 6.5 percent this year—and the government’s numbers expected next week may declare a 7 percent growth—the World Economic Forum is seeing the South Asian economy to clock the highest growth among the world’s biggest economies this year. […]

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Book Review

Multiple Whammy: Amid relentless political turmoil, Pakistan’s economy coming to a grinding halt

May 25, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: Amid continued political uncertainty, the Imran Khan factor, terror attacks on its Afghan borders, threats of a civil war or a military coup, and a bankrupt financial system, an already shattered economy in Pakistan is coming to a near-grinding halt by next month, which may finally force it to announce […]

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Business

Disaster: At least 145, mostly Rohingya Muslims, perish from Cyclone Mocha in Myanmar

May 19, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: The official death toll from Cyclone Mocha, which emerged in the Bay of Bengal last week, spared India and Bangladesh, but struck Myanmar in full force has reached 145, mostly Rohingya Muslims, late reports from Yangon said on Friday. Unofficially, however, many more are feared killed in the natural calamity. […]

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Business

Pakistan: Imran Khan gets 24-hr to handover “30-40 terrorists”

May 17, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: Rarely does a ‘democratic’ nation divide itself like this: on one side is the Pakistan Army, Parliament, and the government, and on the other is the country’s judiciary and the main Opposition party. Nothing could have been more ironic in this South Asian country, which once brazenly nurtured the Taliban […]

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Business

Recycling rant: Prior to PM Modi’s visit, the US State Dept builds up pressure on India

May 16, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming state visit to the US next month, the host country’s State Department has recycled old issues in an apparent bid to tighten diplomatic screws on New Delhi to do Washington’s bidding on geopolitical and economic matters. This rant came just five days after […]

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Business

Pakistan: Lahore HC grants bail to Imran’s wife Bushra Bibi until May 23

May 15, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: A day after exhorting his supporters to seek “Azadi”, which brought them back on the streets, former Prime Minister Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi reached the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday to seek bail in the fresh cases clamped by the government in connection with the last week’s riot and […]

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Business

Roving Periscope: Turkiye’s “Gandhi” may replace Islamist President Erdogan

May 15, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: Kemal Kilicdaroglu is popularly known as Turkiye’s “Gandhi” and also has an uncanny resemblance with veteran British actor Ben Kingsley who played the title role of the Mahatma in Richard Attenborough’s 1982 magnum opus, which won eight Oscars. A century after Mahatma Gandhi supported the “Khilafat Movement”, which aimed to […]

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Business

Pakistan: Imran gets bail in graft case; PM Shehbaz says he is pushing the nation toward destruction

May 12, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: Amid indications that former Prime Minister Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, against whom more than a hundred cases are pending, could be re-arrested anytime even after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) granted him bail in the Al-Qadir Trust case on Friday, his successor Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif warned that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf […]

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Business

Road to Perdition: SC releases Imran Khan; Pak Army “abducts” PTI leaders to quell riots

May 11, 2023 virendra pandit

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: Pakistan braced for more mayhem as the Supreme Court ordered the “immediate release” of former Prime Minister Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi on Thursday, terming his arrest “unlawful”, as his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders exhorted the people to hit the streets after prayers on Friday. His arrest on Tuesday sparked unprecedented […]

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