India International Times Latest International News from India Perspective

India ushered in GST amid historic midnight session of Parliament, replicating the mid-night transfer of Independence from the British Raj on August 15, 1947. However, GST inauguration speaks volumes on the tax burden than power transfer. President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addressed the gathering, before the President and the Prime Minister pressed a ...

Football star player Lionel Messi finally married his childhood sweetheart Antonella Roccuzzo on Friday at his Argentine hometown Rosario, amid presence of top football players and celebrities including pop singer Shakira, billed as the “wedding of the century” in local media. After Messi said, “I do” to his bride whom he knew for two decades, they reached a hotel where ...

Election Commission of India (ECI) is launching a ‘Special Drive’ to enrol left-out electors, especially first time electors from 1st July , 2017 , to ensure that ‘NO VOTER TO BE LEFT BEHIND’. In order to reach out to maximum eligible voters, the ECI has roped in Facebook to launch first Nationwide “Voter Registration Reminder” on 1st July ,2017 .  With over ...

The Reserve Bank of India is planning to go ahead with the printing of Rs.200 currency notes to replenish the 18 percent gap in currency circulation owing to November 8 demonetisation drive that banned Rs.1000 and old Rs.500 notes, said a media report. The Economic Times report said the RBI did not confirm or deny to a query on this ...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated Indian Badminton Player Kidambi Srikanth, on winning Australian Open Super Series. “We are really proud of the victory of Kidambi Srikanth in the Australian Open. I congratulate him for yet another wonderful win”, the Prime Minister said. Srikanth won the Australian Open over his Chinese counterpart Chen Long, finishing the game 22-20, 21-16 on ...

Today, June 24, 2017, being a Saturday with Amavasya night, is witnessing the rare Brahma Kamal flower blooming once in a year for two hours in the night and Hindu mythology says that it has wish-fulfilling powers and believed to have been showered on the ground by Gods after Lakshmana was revived on the battle ground in Ramayana. Brahma Kamal, ...

The Indian Ministry of Urban Development on Friday, June 23, 2017, launched the ‘City Liveability Index’ for measuring the quality of life in 116 major cities including smart cities, capital cities and cities with a population of above one million each. The Index, a Common Minimum Reference Framework enables the cities realise their standing on qualities such as quality of ...

  Money is not the sole reason to be happy but India cannot bask upon its social cohesiveness and political leadership as the World Happiness Report 2017 has put it in 122nd rank, behind Pakistan and Nepal. It has also jumped from 118 last year to 122 this year. The report, released on Monday at the United Nations, ranked 155 ...

Diplomat Gopal Baglay, a 1992 batch IFS officer, will Succeed Vikas Swarup as Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry. Mr Swarup will move on to be India’s new High Commissioner to Canada. Mr Baglay was earlier heading the PAI (Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran) division in the ministry and in his place, Mr Deepak Mittal will assume the new charge of the PAI division. ...

The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will leave tomorrow, Febrary 24, 2017, for London on a five-day official visit to hold business interaction with UK-India Business Council, meet his UK counterpart and the Chancellor of Exchequer, besides delivering a talk at London School of Economics on ‘Transforming India: Vision for the Next Decade”. On Saturday, he will deliver a talk ...

India and Russia will celebrate 2017 is a special year of completion of 70 years of diplomatic relations with several programs and events scheduled throut the year. On 13 April 1947, four months before India’s independence, diplomatic relations were established by India with Russia, then USSR. Over the last seven decades, bilateral relations have seen strong and special Strategic Partnership. ...

Ms. Veronika Yadav, daughter of Mr. Sanjay Prasad Yadav, living in Kharkiv, Ukraine, who has won several international championships and trophies in gymnastics, met met with Ambassador of India to Ukraine Mr. Manoj K. Bharti on February 7th, 2017 and expressed her desire to represent India. A promising rhythmic gymnast, Veronika is sure to win many medals in international competitions ...

India’s Minister of Shipping and Road Transport & Highways Mr. Nitin Gadkari on Monday 7th Feb, 2017, met the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium Mr. Alexander De Croo, in Mumbai to seek greater participation of Belgian companies in Sagarmala projects, inland waterways and development of industrial clusters. The minister explained the immense opportunities in India in coastal shipping, inland water ...

India has been invited as a Guest Country in the St. Petersburg International Forum, Official Spokesperson said, confirmin the news on Wednesday in a briefing to the reporters. “This is to confirm that India has been invited as a Guest Country at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) which will be held in the city of St. Petersburg, Russia ...

Indian Republic Day function was celebrated with traditional fervor and gaiety at the Embassy of India, Kyiv on Thursday morning. Flag hoisting ceremony was performed by Indian Ambassador Manoj K. Bharti, which was followed by singing of the Indian National Anthem. Mr Bharti later read out speech of Indian President on the occasion, which was well attended by the Indian ...

The 68th Republic Day was celebrated at the Embassy of India in Jakarta, the Consulate General of India in Bali and the Consulate General of India in Medan with traditional gaiety and fervour on Thursday. Mr. Manish, Deputy Chief of Mission, hoisted the National Flag at the Indian Embassy premises as large gathering of Indian nationals and members of Indian ...

With 68th Republic Day celebrated, India can bask upon its Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) or Aadhaar Card that has covered 111 crore of the 125 crore population in the country. Ushered in 2009, the Aadhaar card has emerged as the world’s largest and unique biometrics based identification programme with a real time online authentication infrastructure which was recognised ...

India’s missile manufacturing facility DRDO successfully test fired the Guided PINAKA from Launch Complex-III, ITR, Chandipur today (Jan 21, 2017) at 12:45 PM for further enhanced range, making it useful with more accuracy now. PINAKA Rocket Mark-II, equipped with navigation, guidance and control kit, is transformed to a Guided PINAKA to enhance the range and improve the accuracy. The Radars, ...

Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, known for her Twitter-based interaction with Indians abroad who require help, has responded to a Twitter message from an NRI in Malaysia who had sought help. Yogendra singh, an Indian national had asked for her help through twitter saying that his father was abducted in Malaysia for ransom on January 17. Soon Sushma Swaraj ...

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health has announced that vaccination against meningitis is mandatory for all Haj pilgrims in 2017 and it said a flu shot was also recommended, besides the usual quarantine requirements based on the country of origin. “Meningitis vaccination should be taken at least 10 days before pilgrims arrive into the holy cities,” Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mirghalani ...

The Indian Cabinet has given ex-post facto approval to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Vietnam in the field of Cyber Security that was signed between Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and the Cyber Security Department, Ministry of Public Security, Vietnam on 3rd September 2016 at Hanoi. The MoU intends to promote closer cooperation for exchange of ...

A Festival of India is being organized in the Netherlands from 26 January – 27 March 2017 to showcase diverse Indian culture, including classical and folk dances, music, and exhibition on hand-made ethnically sourced silk clothes and accessories. The events will be held in the cities of The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam/Maastricht, Utrecht, Eindhoven and Groningen. During the Festival, the following ...

School children in unforms and colourful dances enthrall Republic Day every year but this year’s parade will have just one school with 162 students performing the key dance on the national tri-colour with the theme ‘Tiranga Sakshi Hai’. Their performance is being choreographed to convey how our national flag has been a witness to the glorious tales of our freedom ...

An Israeli delegation led by the Agriculture and Rural Development Minister of Israel, Mr. Uri Ariel met Indian Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Wednesday to discuss bilateral cooperation in agriculture. Both sides expressed their commitment to further strengthen bilateral relations in the field of Agriculture which is manifested by the fact that the third phase of Action Plan ...

India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians (IDF-OI),  a not-for-profit Trust set-up by the Government of India, was set up on the occasion of the closing day of the PBD convention in Bangalore on Monday. It facilitates philanthropic contributions by Overseas Indians to social and development projects in India and it will be chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. Presently, ...

Portugal Prime Minister António Costa, who is on an official visit to India, was greeted with six Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) between India and Portugal being signed on the occasion, including one pact on defence cooperation. Later Mr Costa visited Goa, his ancestral home and Bengaluru where he was the Chief Guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas opened on Saturday. ...

The announcement of Election Commission of India on State Assembly Elections in five States on 4th January, 2017 has gone viral reaching 21 lakh people on social media within 24 hours, achieving widest possible outreach of information on the election schedules and other ECI guidelines for citizens. The combined effort made by Press Information Bureau (PIB) and Ministry of Information ...

The Ministry of External Affairs has announced new passport rules liberalizing the process of issue of passport to benefit the ordinary citizens as government officials and ministers and legislators have the privilege of getting a Silver Passport that is considered a status symbol and obtained easily within the legislature and bureaucracy. Under the changed rules, all applicants born after January ...

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that an experimental Ebola vaccine has been found to be highly protective against the deadly virus in a major trial in Guinea. WHO said that an international vaccine-focussed organization, GAVI, provided $5 million to Merck, and the medical firm committed to ensure that 300,000 doses of the vaccine are available for emergency use ...

A capacity addition of 14.30 GW of renewable energy has been reported during the last two and half years under Grid Connected Renewable Power, which include 5.8 GW from Solar Power, 7.04 GW from Wind Power, 0.53 from Small Hydro Power and 0.93 from Bio-power.  As of 31st October, 2016, Solar Energy Projects with an aggregate capacity of over 8727.62 ...