International - The Purbottar

19 Feb

India, UAE sign free trade deal expected to double trade to $100 billion in 5yrs

editor0 CommentsBusiness, Economy, India, InternationalUAE

India and the UAE on Friday inked a landmark Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and unveiled a roadmap for expansion of overall ties at a virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. In his remarks, Modi delved into various facets of ties between India-and United Arab Emirates and said both the nations will stand "shoulder-to-shoulder" against terrorism while referring to the recent terrorist attacks in the Gulf country. On CEPA, Modi noted that both sides could conclude the negotiations on such an important agreement in less than three…

18 Feb

Satellite images show new military bridge near Ukraine amid Russian buildup

editor0 CommentsInternationalukraine

The Russian Army has begun building a tactical bridge and a new road across the important Pripyat River in southern Belarus. Commercial satellite images uploaded on social media on February 16 claimed to show a military-style pontoon bridge at the Pripyat River, just 4 miles from the Ukrainian border and 14 miles northwest of the number 4 nuclear reactor, which notoriously melted down in the 1986 Chernobyl accident. "There's what Russia says. And then there's what Russia does. And we haven't seen any pullback of its forces," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview. "We continue to…

18 Feb

‘Uncalled for’: India objects to Singapore PM’s remarks on democracy

editor0 CommentsInternational, Political

Discussing how a democracy should work in Singapore, the country's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, on Tuesday, 15 February, during a Parliamentary session, invoked Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister. Starting with what actions the parliament should debate on, having received the report of the Committee of Privileges (CoP) on complaints about untruths spoken by the previous lawmaker of the Workers' Party Raeesah Khan, he put forth three fundamental questions to discuss. Delivering a speech in Singapore’s Parliament on February 15 on a report by the Committee of Privileges, which was looking into charges of lying by members of the…

17 Feb

Hundreds of Indians including Indian Students in Ukraine are in crisis

editor0 CommentsEducation, India, International, Lifestyle, Travel, world

20,000+ Indians are presently in Ukraine out of which 18,000 are students. The latest updates are as following:- According to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, 24% of overseas students in Ukraine are from India.Around 25 students from Indore, Madhya Pradesh are stuck in Ukraine. The MP of Indore's Lok Sabha Shankar Lalwani said, “He has written a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.”Around 1,000 students from Rajasthan are in Ukraine out of which 40 students are from Kota. Bundi's Congress leader Charmnesh Sharma said, “Many Indian students are in distresses who are studying at Zaporizhzhia State…

15 Feb

Russia shows signs of de-escalation, to pull back some troops from Ukraine border

editor0 CommentsInternationalRussia

Moscow is starting to return some troops at the Ukrainian border to their bases, the Russian government announced Tuesday — but Ukraine's president and Western officials have urged caution over taking Russia's claims at face value. In a statement early Tuesday, Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, said troops that had recently been posted to Russia's southern and western military districts — which share a border with Ukraine — had completed their military drills and "have already begun loading onto rail and road transport and will begin moving to their military garrisons today." It came amid…

10 Feb

Apex Medical body warns the Medical Aspirants

editor0 CommentsCovid-19, Education, Health, India, International, worldChina, education, medical

National Medical Commission (NMC) has asked medical aspirants from India to stay vigilant while applying to any of the medical universities of China because it has restricted the entry of foreign students. The top medical education regulator of India NMC has issued its advisory for medical students after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) warned against China universities that is offering admissions in medical colleges. The medical universities of China have informed that the courses will be conducted online because of Coronavirus expansion. The NMC has declared that the online medical courses will not be recognized by the commission. It…

02 Feb

Winter Olympics Manager of Indian contingent tests positive for Covid-19 upon arrival in Beijing

editor0 CommentsInternationalbeijing, Covid19, Olympics

Mohammad Abbas Wani, the manager of India's Winter Olympics contingent, has tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival at the Beijing Airport here. Abbas Wani is a part of the six-member Indian delegation at the Winter Olympics for which Kashmir skier Arif Khan is the only athlete from the country to have qualified this time. Arif will be competing in Slalom and Giant Slalom events during the Games. The contingent also includes Harjinder Singh, Ludar Chand Thakur, Puran Chand as technician and Rop Chand Negi as its chef de mission, as alpine coach and as team official respectively. Indian Olympic Association…

19 Jan

Pakistan’s new security policy seeks peace’ with India

editor0 CommentsInternationalINDIA, PAKISTAN

On January 14, Pakistan PM Imran Khan unveiled the countrys first National Security Policy, which purportedly focuses on the ‘security of its citizens. It aims to define the country's security priorities between 2022 and 2026, including relations with India. Prepared by the National Security Division of the government, the original version of the NSP remains a classified document. But a shorter public version stresses on human security, geoeconomics, regional connectivity, prosperity, trade and investment. It makes all the right noises and gives an impression of fresh thinking from the Pakistani establishment. The policy appears to be an expanded form of…

11 Jan

New York’s Deadliest Apartment Fire in Decades

editor0 CommentsInternational, Lifestyle, worldapartment fire, fire, killed, new york city

In New York City, on Sunday 9 children among 19 people were killed when an apartment fire started by a malfunctioning space heater sent smoke billowing through a Bronx high-rise. It is in the deadliest fire New York City had seen in more than three decades. The smoke from the fire spread to the top of the 19-storey building, darkening hallways and stairwells and shocking residents who had heard the fire alarms but did not immediately react because they had grown accustomed to frequent alarms in the building. The fire commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said at a news conference at…

07 Jan

New variant detected in France

editor0 CommentsInternationalB.1.640, covid, France, who

The new Covid-19 variant, B.1.640, was detected by French researchers and is probably of Cameroonian origin, is not "circulating widely at the moment" and has so far been identified in less than 1 per cent of the samples sequenced in France, the World Health Organization said. The strain is known as the 'IHU' variant because it was first identified by academics at the IHU Mediterranee Infection Institute in Marseille, France, reports Xinhua news agency. At a press meet on Thursday, Maria van Kerkhove the technical lead for the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said that it was first detected in September…