The government is aiming to transform the villages along the frontier with China in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh into "model villages", Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday. In an address at a conclave, Singh said New Delhi is fully committed to the holistic development of border villages and described them as India's "first villages" and not remote areas. His comments came amid the government's increasing focus on boosting infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China following the eastern Ladakh row. The civil-military collaboration in border areas is leading to reverse migration to the frontier areas, Singh said at the 'Border Area Development Conclave'. The defence minister pointed out that India's geo-strategic position is such that it is exposed to different kinds of challenges and the best way to deal with them is to ensure border area development. "Our objective is to transform the villages along the Northern borders, .
India's ties with China are likely to become tense in the next 10 years due to China's policy and its growing presence in the Indian Ocean, former foreign secretary of India Vijay Keshav Gokhale said on Tuesday and called for steps to build deterrence. Risk management on a broader political level was also required till India is able to develop the economy to a certain level, he said. "If I am to make a prognosis of the future trajectory of our relationships from their perspective, I would say they would base their policy on two presumptions," Gokhale said while delivering a special talk on "India-China relations as seen from China's perspective" presided by Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi at the Raj Bhavan here. "Firstly, relations will become tense in the next ten years and more combative along the line of actual control and in the Indian Ocean too because China will have a naval presence in the Indian Ocean," the former diplomat, said. Therefore armed coexistence will be a norm where
India wants to join Russia's ambitious plans for a nuclear power plant on the Moon, which is part of a broader lunar base project in collaboration with China
Amidst reports of incursion by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Arunachal Pradesh, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said the mere painting of marks in undemarcated locations doesn't mean the areas have been encroached upon. Rijiju, who hails from Arunachal Pradesh, also said that overlapping of patrolling by Indian and Chinese forces does take place in the undemarcated areas along the Sino-Indian border but that does not lead to encroachment of Indian territory. The union minister's comments came amidst reports that the PLA allegedly entered inside Indian territory in the Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh last week and they were camping in the Kapapu area of the district for some time. Pictures of bonfires, painting of rocks and Chinese food materials found at the site have been shared on social media, the reports said. "China can't take our land. Overlapping of patrolling does take place in the undemarcated areas. They are not allowed to construct anything permanen
In the context of India being underweight in the average emerging markets portfolio, this is even better for foreign portfolio flows
India's reliance on imports of MSME goods such as articles of leather, toys, and musical instruments from China is declining steadily, reflecting the country's efforts to diversify import sources and strengthen domestic production capabilities, an official said on Monday. On the other hand, dependency on imports of these goods from China by other countries like Brazil is increasing. Citing data, the official said that the concentration of musical instrument imports from China has decreased from 77.58 per cent in 2013 to 51.51 per cent in 2023. The share of imports of essential oils, cosmetics, and toilet preparations from China has also declined from 16.33 per cent in 2013 to 11.86 per cent in 2023. Similarly, the inbound shipments of toys and games from the neighbouring country have dipped from 76.7 per cent in 2013 to 70.97 per cent in 2023. "India's trend of reducing its reliance on Chinese imports, particularly in categories like articles of leather, ceramic products, toys, an
Asserting that India has a "special China problem" which is over and above the world's "general China problem", External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said Saturday the border and the state of relations with the country call for investments from there be scrutinised. Jaishankar said that if people are complaining of trade deficit with China and "we are too", it is because decades ago, "we consciously overlooked the nature of Chinese production and the advantages which they enjoyed in a system where they got a level playing field with all the advantages they brought to bed". "China in many ways is a unique problem because it is a unique polity, it is a unique economy. Unless one tries to grasp that uniqueness and understand it, the judgements, the conclusions and the policy prescriptions flowing out of it can be problematic," he said at the ET World Leaders Forum here during a session titled 'New India's Risks, Reforms and Responsibilities'. "There is a general China problem. We are
India and China on Thursday held "frank, constructive and forward-looking" diplomatic talks on the situation along the Line of Actual Control to "narrow down" differences and find an early resolution to outstanding issues, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. The 31st meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on India-China Border Affairs was held in Beijing, the MEA said in a statement. During the meeting, it was reiterated that "restoration of peace and tranquillity, and respect for the LAC are the essential basis for the restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations", it said. In line with the guidance provided by the two foreign ministers' meetings in Astana and Vientiane in July to accelerate the discussions, and build on the WMCC meeting held last month, "the two sides had a frank, constructive and forward-looking exchange of views on the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to narrow down the differences and find early ...
India and China on Thursday had a "frank, constructive and forward-looking" exchange of views on the situation along the LAC to "narrow down" differences and find an early resolution to outstanding issues, the MEA said. The 31st meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination (WMCC) on India-China Border Affairs was held in Beijing, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement. During the meeting, it was reiterated that "restoration of peace and tranquillity, and respect for the LAC are the essential basis for restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations", it said. In line with the guidance provided by the two foreign ministers' meetings in Astana and Vientiane in July to accelerate the discussions, and building on the WMCC meeting held last month, "the two sides had a frank, constructive and forward-looking exchange of views on the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to narrow down the differences and find early resolution of the ...
Beijing is also continuing efforts to establish additional overseas military installations and secure access agreements, including in regions near New Delhi
In 'Muslim, Trader, Nomad, Spy', Sulmaan Wasif Khan writes about China's occupation of Tibet in 1950 and its attempts at assimilating an unfamiliar territory peopled by a strange mix of ethnicities
Recent incidents, such as the downing of Houthi drones in the Red Sea, have heightened interest in arming naval warships with directed energy weapons
The Congress on Saturday hit out at the Centre over the issue of trade deficit with China and said that while other countries around the world had taken measures to restrict uncontrolled Chinese imports, "our government has been caught napping at the wheels". Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the data revealed by the government in the Rajya Sabha shows that India's trade deficit with China has surged by about 16% over the last two years from USD 73,306.2 million in FY22 to USD 85,079.03 million in FY24. "Governments across the world are taking note of China's industrial overcapacity and its dumping of goods overseas. However, unlike most governments that have taken proactive measures to restrict uncontrolled Chinese imports, our government has been caught napping at the wheels," Ramesh said in a post on X. "Our domestic industries are being decimated and shutting down, unable to compete with the onslaught of cheap Chinese goods," the Congress ...
Niti Aayog member Arvind Virmani on Sunday said it is better for India to get Chinese firms to invest and produce goods here to boost local manufacturing than to keep importing goods from the neighbouring country. Virmani was responding to a pitch made by the pre-budget Economic Survey on July 22 for seeking foreign direct investment (FDI) from China to boost local manufacturing and tap the export market. "So, there is a trade-off the way an economist looks at it...So, the trade-off is that if there are going to be some imports, which we are anyway going to import for 10 years, 15 years from China, then it is better to get Chinese firms to invest in India and produce the same goods here," he told PTI in an interview. As the US and Europe are shifting their immediate sourcing away from China, it is more effective to have Chinese companies invest in India and export the products to these markets rather than importing from the neighbouring country, according to the Economic Survey. "S
China has begun an observation experiment on land-atmosphere interactions in the Mount Everest Region in Tibet to study the interaction between the land surface and the atmosphere, a crucial component of ecological and climate systems. A research team from the Aerospace Information Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences will conduct the observational experiment using unmanned aerial platforms at a site on the northern side of Mount Everest, called Qomolangma in Tibet, situated at an average altitude of approximately 4,200 metres (15,960 feet). In the Mount Qomolangma region, land-atmosphere interactions not only affect the climate of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau and its surrounding areas but also have the potential to influence the global climate through complex climate feedback mechanisms and atmospheric circulation, said Jia Li, a researcher at the Institute. Studying the Tibetan Plateau becomes imperative given the exponentially changing climatic conditions leadin
Chinese Consul General in Mumbai Kong Xianhua has said his country is ready to work with India to bridge the gap between the people of the two neighbours, recalling the Indian help during the Sino-Japanese war. The senior diplomat on Thursday visited the Indian Coast Guard Headquarters (West) to express gratitude to the maritime security agency for saving Chinese mariners over the past two years, an official statement said. Kong met Inspector General Bhisham Sharma, Commander of Indian Coast Guard (West), and said China is ready to work with India friends to bridge the gap between the people of the two countries and strengthen friendship. ... our two peoples will walk together like brothers and sisters, he said. The Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy have jointly carried out a successful rescue mission to evacuate a Chinese mariner who was critically injured and suffering heavy blood loss on July 24, the statement said. The Indian Coast Guard responded immediately to the medical .
The new Chinese submarine could be an advanced variant of an existing class of conventionally-powered vessels that are also being built for Pakistan
Citing security challenges related to China and Pakistan, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge urged the Centre on Tuesday to take Parliament into confidence and alleged that in its "false bravado and hollow propaganda", it has forgotten that it also has the responsibility to protect India's strategic interests. Kharge said new developments at India's two-front security paradigm have yet again exposed the Narendra Modi government's rank apathy. "Is it not true that China has built and operationalised a bridge connecting the north and south banks of Pangong Lake, which allows it to have a strategic dominance in the sector, close to our LAC?" the Congress chief asked in a post on X. "Is it not a fact that China has started constructing a new village along the LAC in the Demchok sector, which along with Depsang, is a point of standoff, post-Galwan?" he asked. On Pakistan, Kharge asked whether it is not true that since Prime Minister Modi took oath, there have been 25 terror attacks i
The Chinese bridge connects the two banks of the Pangong Tso lake in Eastern Ladakh and will help Chinese troops and tanks to access areas on the lake's southern banks
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday ruled out any role for a third party in India's border dispute with China, saying the two neighbours have an issue and it is for them to find a way out. "We are not looking to other countries to sort out what is really an issue between India and China," Jaishankar said while responding to a series of questions at a press conference in Tokyo. Jaishankar, who is here to attend a Quad foreign ministerial meeting, also said that India's relationship with China is not good and it's not doing well. "We have a problem, or, I would say, an issue between India and China...I think it is for two of us to talk it over and to find a way," he said. "Obviously, other countries in the world would have an interest in the matter, because we are two big countries and the state of our relationship has an impact on the rest of the world. But we are not looking to other countries to sort out what is really an issue between us," he said, recalling his meet