Political

Defence

Pakistan: Now, 40% of people under poverty, says World Bank

September 23, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: With poverty in Pakistan rising from 34.2 percent to 39.2 percent within a year, the World Bank has cautioned the nearly bankrupt South Asian country to take urgent steps to achieve financial stability as about 100 million people in a country of 240 million now live below the poverty line. […]

Business

Roving Periscope: India more important to the US than Canada, says ex-Pentagon official

September 23, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: Rather than as a trusted friend or a good neighbor, the United States often viewed Canada as an unreliable ‘stepbrother’ who sided with Great Britain when 13 British colonies struggled against London for independence and merged to become America in the late 18th century. Amid the Indo-Canada faceoff, Washington may […]

Business

Grain: ‘Ungrateful’, Ukraine complaints against Poland, others in WTO

September 22, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: Although the West and its allies are still helping Ukraine with funds and arms in its war against Russia, the war-torn victim nation is now earning the wrath of those helping it as an ‘ungrateful’ country. In particular, Poland, which has sheltered over 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees, is both angry […]

Business

Ukraine: The UN system “sclerotic,” needs reform, says EU chief

September 22, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: After many countries voiced their concern over the lopsidedness in running the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the European Union chief has also said the UN system has become ‘sclerotic” and needs reforms at the earliest. He cited the UNSC’s helplessness in taking Russia to task after it invaded Ukraine […]

Business

Roving Periscope; After brokering the Saudi-Iran thaw, China hosts Syria’s Assad

September 22, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: Fearing a coup at home and fighting the financial demons he created, Chinese President Xi Jinping has for months been avoiding foreign visits. He did not attend even the G-20 Summit in New Delhi early this month. But he is ‘inviting’ foreign leaders to visit China to boost his supporters’ […]

Business

Pakistan: Nawaz to return in Oct, take on army bosses; polls in January 2024

September 21, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: With three-time Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, who has been in self-exile in London since 2019, announcing his return home next month and making the bosses in the army and judiciary “accountable”, the stage is being set for yet another stormy General Elections to the National Assembly in Pakistan in […]

Business

Roving Periscope: Drug gangsters, aka ‘Khalistanis,’ sour Indo-Canadian relations

September 21, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: The rivalry to control the multi-billion dollar worth of international drug smuggling, struggle for monopolistic supremacy, and inter-gang wars, have combined under the garb of the so-called “Khalistani Movement” and soured Indo-Canada bilateral relations. Some countries’ humanitarian policies to give ‘asylum’ to outsiders have become the latest tools the criminals […]

Business

Money matters: Tight-rope walking, Canada may lose more than India

September 20, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: As his opponents and social media dug out dozens of controversies involving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau—in February 2021, the Sikh truckers, who largely control Canada’s surface transport system, forced him to flee with his family on the COVID-19 compulsory vaccination issue—India turned more screws on him, issuing a travel advisory […]

Business

Roving Periscope: “Provide proof”, Oppn grills Trudeau; the US distances from Canada

September 20, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: As the Indo-Canadian bilateral relations nosedive on Ottawa’s ‘pro-Khalistan’ stance, Canada’s Opposition has criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, asking him to “come clean” and provide evidence to substantiate his claims. But even before his New Delhi visit for the G-20 Summit early this month, his allies had refused to condemn […]

Defence

Indo-Canada tension: The US, the UK, Australia “deeply concerned”

September 19, 2023 Vinayak Barot

Virendra Pandit New Delhi: Although the Khalistani angle in Indo-Canadian bilateral relations was simmering for years, the sudden meltdown of bilateral relations between New Delhi and Ottawa has taken the US-led West and its allies by surprise, barely a week after the G-20 Summit where India won accolades. The West appears worried that the […]