Elections

Defence

Roving Periscope: After targeting the Hindus, Pak Islamists pounce on Christians

August 17, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: Barely 48 hours after the outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led rickety coalition installed a caretaker government headed by a relatively unknown Baloch leader, Pakistan’s season of targeting minorities ahead of the next elections returned. This time, the militants’ target was not the Hindus, Ahmadiyya, or the Shias, but the Christians. […]

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Business

Roving Periscope: Niger’s junta to prosecute toppled President for ‘high treason’

August 14, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: Western African landlocked nation Niger’s military regime announced on Sunday to prosecute ousted President Mohamed Bazoum for “high treason” and slammed West African leaders for imposing sanctions on the country. On Saturday last week, New Delhi advised about 250 Indians stranded in Niger, a former French colony, to leave the […]

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Business

Roving Periscope: Now, Pak SC throws a spanner in ex-PM Nawaz’s return from self-exile

August 11, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: In the ongoing political drama, Pakistan Supreme Court on Friday unanimously struck down a recently-passed judgments review law, which will now dim former Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif’s prospects to challenge his lifetime disqualification from contesting elections and return home. The apex court’s ruling came on the day his younger […]

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Business

Confidence: From fragile to foremost economy in 9 years, says Sitharaman

August 10, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: Asserting that the Indian economy is currently the fastest-growing in the world, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday that a global ranking company has moved its rating for India from fragile to foremost in the last 9 years of the Narendra Modi government. Addressing the Lok Sabha during the […]

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Business

Roving Periscope: As Imran pleads ‘mercy’, and Shehbaz dissolves Parliament, bankrupt Pak sinks into uncertainty

August 9, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit   New Delhi: As Pakistan Prime Minister Mohammad Shehbaz Sharif prepared to dissolve the National Assembly on Wednesday, and set up an interim government to hold the next general elections without his predecessor in the fray, his jailed predecessor Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi has virtually pleaded for mercy. “Take me out of here; […]

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Business

I-Day: US lawmakers to attend PM Modi’s Aug 15 address at the Red Fort

August 8, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: As India celebrates the 75th anniversary of Independence Day on August 15, a bipartisan group of leading US lawmakers will attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort in the national capital. The US Congressional delegation will be led by Indian-American Congressman […]

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Business

The cycle of politics: Ex-Pak PM Imran arrested, barred from polls for 5 years

August 5, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: In Pakistan’s cycle of vendetta politics, everybody knew it was coming. Even former Prime Minister Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi was aware of it —for, he had done exactly the same unto his predecessor, Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, pushing him into jail and then forcing him into self-exile in London, from […]

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Business

Pakistan, again: PM Shehbaz Sharif to dissolve Parliament on August 9

August 4, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister Mian Mohammad Shehbaz Sharif will dissolve the National Assembly, the Lower House of the bicameral Parliament, on August 9, and seek fresh elections, the media reported on Friday. Next Wednesday, he will send formal advice to the President for the dissolution of the National Assembly. On Thursday, […]

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Business

Economy: India to be the world’s 3rd largest by FY28, says SBI Ecowrap

July 28, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi: India is likely to emerge as the world’s third-largest economy by 2027-28 and at least two of its states—Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh– would break the USD 500 billion mark, the State Bank of India’s Economic Research Department’s report, SBI Ecowrap, said. At its current rate of growth, the South Asian […]

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Business

Pakistan: Now, even its Army chief wants to “throw away the begging bowl!”

July 25, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit    New Delhi:  Two things that ‘distinguish’ Pakistan from other countries is that it never ceases to surprise others and that it has a vicarious sense of humor. Even the worst socio-political and economic crises have not changed Pakistan a bit. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Mohammad Shehbaz Sharif was the first to admit in […]

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