India | Pakistan

India raised on Friday the prices of commercial liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and jet fuel for international airlines, according to a state-run energy firm, as supply pressures from the Middle East war mount. The South Asian nation is heavily dependent on imported energy, including for roughly 60 per cent of its LPG, the fuel used for cooking by a vast section of its population, the largest in the world. As imports have been disrupted since the Middle East war began in late February, New Delhi has moved to ensure households and essential sectors remain adequately supplied, leaving many restaurants, manufacturers and power plants in the lurch. The government has maintained that India faces no overall fuel shortage. “Prices of bulk and commercial LPG cylinders have been revised,” the state-run Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), the country’s leading energy marketing company, said. IOCL’s price chart shows an increase of 993 rupees ($10.50) in the price of a 19 kilogramme LPG cylinder meant for commercial us...

Tech giant Google on Tuesday marked the ceremonial start of work on its largest artificial intelligence hub outside of the United States with a groundbreaking ceremony in India. The firm promised in October 2025 to spend $15 billion over five years to construct the vast centre in Visakhapatnam, a southeastern port in Andhra Pradesh state of around two million people, popularly known as “Vizag”. “Today marks the first concrete milestone in Google’s largest commitment to India’s digital future,” Bikash Koley, Google’s Vice President for Global Infrastructure, told the ceremony. “This project represents a $15bn blueprint to deliver a full stack AI ecosystem,” he added. “At its core is our gigawatt scale data centre campus, purpose built for the immense computational demand of the AI era, powering services like Gemini and Google Search.” Nara Lokesh, information technology minister for Andhra Pradesh state, said he was “excited as we embark on this journey to build India’s most coveted AI and deep-tech hub”. Viza...

India declares IIOJK seminary unlawful under UAPA

India named veteran politician Dinesh Trivedi as its next high commissioner to Bangladesh on Monday, in a rare appointment of a non-foreign service officer as New Delhi seeks to reset ties with its eastern neighbour. Ties between the countries soured after a popular uprising forced Bangladesh’s long-serving Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to New Delhi in 2024, where she remains. Trivedi’s appointment highlights India’s push to rebuild trust with Bangladesh as it faces stiff competition from China for influence and business. Trivedi, 75, a former railways and health minister, joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2021 from a regional party in West Bengal, a border state that plays a key role in India’s ties with Bangladesh and where Modi has been seeking to expand his party’s influence in ongoing local elections. “He is expected to take up the assignment shortly,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement about Trivedi. Relations between the two countries beg...

India and New Zealand signed a free trade deal on Monday as they seek to boost exports amid global economic uncertainty made worse by the war in the Middle East. Negotiations over the agreement concluded in December 2025, and will see India gain greater access for a range of products, including engineering goods, machinery and textiles, while also protecting its sensitive dairy sector. “This forward-looking agreement will also facilitate $20 billion of investment into India,” New Delhi’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said after signing the agreement alongside his New Zealand counterpart, Todd McClay. New Delhi, in return, has offered to reduce tariff barriers in sectors such as forestry, lamb and wool, while granting quota-based access for fruits such as apples. Two-way trade remains modest. Indian data showed merchandise trade at about $1.3bn in 2024-25, while total goods and services trade was estimated at roughly $2.4bn in 2024. The deal was struck at a time when US President Donald Trump’s tariff war had...

India will bid to host the 2038 Asian Games in Ahmedabad, the country’s Olympic chief told Reuters on Saturday, in its latest push to stage elite multi-sport events. The world’s most populous nation will stage the 2030 Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad and is also bidding for the 2036 Olympic Games in the western Indian city. “Indian Olympic Association has already sent an expression of interest to OCA (Olympic Council of Asia) for organising the 2038 Asian Games in Ahmedabad,” IOA President P. T. Usha told Reuters by telephone from China. “I met the OCA president and other functionaries here and they are all happy and want to support us.” Former Olympian Usha is in China to attend the Asian Beach Games in Sanya. “They had an EC (executive committee) meeting here where they discussed it. They will be sending an evaluation committee to India very soon,” she added. India hosted the inaugural Asian Games in 1951 in New Delhi and again in 1982 in the capital city. The country hosted the 2010 Commonwealth Games, whi...

India on Thursday criticised as inappropriate a post by US President Donald Trump that called the South Asian country a “hellhole.” The comments come ahead of a planned visit next month to India by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who would seek to turn the page on recent tensions between the normally friendly powers. Trump late Wednesday posted on social media a screed apparently written by someone else denouncing the US constitutional right to citizenship of everyone born in the country. The post accused Indian immigrants in the tech industry of not hiring white native-born Americans and inaccurately alleged that Indian immigrants lack English proficiency. “A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet,” the post said. The Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, responded that the remarks were “obviously uninformed, inappropriate, and in poor taste.” He added, “They certainly do not reflect the realit...

WASHINGTON: Pakistan on Thursday urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to take up the dispute over the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), warning that India’s continued unilateral suspension of the treaty carries “grave peace and security, and humanitarian consequences” for South Asia. Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad handed over a letter from Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar to the Security Council president, Ambassador Jamal Fares Alrowaiei of Bahrain. A statement issued by Pakistan’s Mission said the letter drew the UNSC’s attention to the matter “one year after India’s illegal decision to hold the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance” and highlighted the move’s “grave peace and security, and humanitarian consequences”. The Security Council was urged “to take cognisance of the alarming situation and call upon India to restore the full implementation of IWT, resume all Treaty-mandated cooperation and data-sharing without delay, desist from any fo...

ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar on Wednesday reiterated that the Pahalgam incident was a false flag operation, stating India has failed to substantiate its allegations against Pakistan even after one year.

Schools in India’s capital must ring regular bells to remind schoolchildren to drink water as the megacity gears up to face heatwave conditions, a new city order has said. Summer heat in the world’s most populous nation can be brutal — putting millions of people at risk, with nearly 11,000 people dying due to heat stroke between 2012 and 2021, according to government data. A heatwave in May 2024 in New Delhi saw temperatures match the capital’s previous record high: 49.2 degree Celsius clocked in 2022. That year was India’s hottest year since thorough records began in 1901, with sizzling temperatures following a global pattern of extreme weather driven by climate change. The temperature on Wednesday morning in New Delhi and the wider sprawling metropolitan region of 30 million residents was a relatively balmy 29.4 degree Celsius. But weather forecasters predict temperatures will hit 41-43 degree Celsius later on Wednesday, and rise to 42-44 degree Celsius later in the week. The India Meteorological Department...

A senior New Zealand minister has sparked outrage by deriding a planned free trade deal with India as a “butter chicken tsunami”. Wellington is poised to sign a free trade agreement with India in New Delhi next week. The New Zealand government has hailed it as a “once in a generation” deal that will give its businesses access to the world’s most populated country’s vast domestic market. But its ruling coalition partner, the right-wing populist NZ First party, has pulled support over fears it will open the country’s borders to thousands of Indian nationals. The split will mean the government will need the opposition Labour Party to vote in favour when legislation goes before parliament in the coming months. On Monday, the party’s deputy leader and Minister for Regional Development, Shane Jones, said his party would “never accept” the deal. “I don’t care how much criticism we get, I am just never going to agree with a butter chicken tsunami coming to New Zealand,” Jones told Reality Check Radio. The comments we...

Federal Minister for Information Attaullah Tarar hit out at India over the Pahalgam attack, calling it a "false flag operation" that indicates what he relates as a "hollow and irrational mindset.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Wednesday said that even a year on, India has failed to provide evidence for its allegations against Pakistan over the Pahalgam attack. The April 22, 2025 attack in Pahalgam saw 26 people, mostly tourists, killed in what is being described as the deadliest armed attack in the disputed Himalayan region since the year 2000. “To this day, India has not presented any solid evidence or proof regarding the Pahalgam incident, nor has it offered satisfactory explanations,” Tarar said in a televised statement issued on the incident’s anniversary. He recalled India’s refusal to accept Pakistan’s offer for a neutral and transparent investigation into the Pahalgam attack, adding that it “raises serious questions and suggests that the incident may have been a false flag operation”. “The false flag operation in Pahalgam reflects a mindset that is hollow — driven by false pride, arrogance and greed,” he contended. “Let me make it very clear that this was the last false flag operation ...

India and South Korea said on Monday that they would boost their economic ties by expanding cooperation in energy, critical minerals, shipbuilding, semiconductors and steel as they seek to double their trade to $50 billion by 2030. New Delhi and Seoul also agreed to resume and step up negotiations to give new energy to their 2010 trade agreement as India wanted their trade to be more balanced and South Korea wanted greater market access to the world’s fastest-growing major economy. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is in India for a three-day visit, the first South Korean presidential state visit to the country in eight years. “We decided to upgrade the framework of economic cooperation between the two countries to create a new engine for shared growth,” Lee told reporters after talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two countries created a ministerial-level economic cooperation committee for the first time, Lee said, adding that they would strengthen cooperation in areas such as nuclear power...

India’s government has decided not to go ahead with a proposal to require Apple, Samsung and others to pre-install the country’s biometric identification app Aadhaar on phones, a move that had been opposed by the smartphone giants, a state body said on Friday. It was reported last month that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the state body that operates Aadhaar, had asked the IT ministry in January to engage with Apple, Google and other leading smartphone makers to consider mandatory pre-installation of the Aadhaar app. A unique 12-digit identity number tied to an individual’s fingerprints and iris scans, Aadhaar is held by nearly 1.34 billion residents and is widely used for verification purposes in banking and telecom services, as well as for faster airport entry. India’s IT ministry reviewed the proposal and “is not in favour of mandating the pre-installation of the Aadhaar App on smartphones,” UIDAI said in a statement to Reuters on Friday, giving no reason for the decision. India’s IT...

India’s government was seeking to expand the size of parliament by two-fifths to increase the representation of women lawmakers, but opposition parties have cried foul, saying it would benefit the ruling party. “We’re set to take historic steps to empower women,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, ahead of the special sitting of parliament on Thursday, to debate constitutional amendments to both expand seats for women and the overall size of parliament to over 800. The bill proposes fast-tracking implementation of a 2023 law in the world’s largest democracy of 1.4 billion people, reserving 33 per cent of seats for women. Increasing the number of women in parliament has, in principle, broad cross-party support. “We are all united to give rightful positions to women in India,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Thursday. Women currently account for just 14pc of India’s 543 members of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament. To achieve the expansion, the government said it plans to redraw p...

Wisden has criticised Indian political interference in global cricket administration, labelling the current situation “increasingly Orwellian”. The UK-based Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, which dates back to 1864, is an annual record of all major cricket worldwide and is regarded as the sport’s “Bible”. In its 163rd annual edition, to be published on Thursday, editor Lawrence Booth highlighted what he sees as an unhealthy and politicised Indian dominance of the global game. The International Cricket Council has an Indian chief executive, Sanjog Gupta, and an Indian chairman, Jay Shah, who is the son of Amit Shah, India’s minister of home affairs and a longstanding ally of the prime minister, Narendra Modi. Wisden describes the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which Shah led before taking over at the International Cricket Council (ICC), as “the sporting adjunct of India’s ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)”. Booth also highlighted how politics intruded upon the 2025 Asia Cup, which took place against a ba...

The first batch of Sikh pilgrims arrived in Pakistan from India via the Wagah border on Friday to celebrate the Baisakhi festival. Pakistan has issued visas to 2,800 Sikh pilgrims from India for the festival, which begins on Friday and will continue till April 19. The main ceremony of the festival is scheduled for April 14 at Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hasan Abdal. The festival of Baisakhi is an ancient tradition of the Punjab region, a harvest festival which marks the beginning of a new year. It was once celebrated in Punjabi villages, on both sides of the border, with village fairs or melas. Baisakhi is especially important in Sikhism, as on this day in 1699, the 10th Guru of the Sikhs laid the foundation of the Panth Khalsa, the body of initiated Sikhs. Sikh pilgrims fulfil legal formalities as they arrive in Pakistan from India via Wagah border on April 10, 2026. — White Star/ Arif Ali A shuttle transports Sikh pilgrims as they arrive in Pakistan from India via Wagah border on April 10, 2026. — White Star/Ar...

SINGAPORE: India has withdrawn its offer to host the United Nations annual climate Conference of the Parties (COP33) in 2028, two government officials familiar with the matter said. India communicated its decision to not host the conference this month, the officials said, but it was not immediately clear why the government had pulled out. The officials declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed hosting the summit in 2023. The federal ministry for environment and climate change did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Climate Home News, which first reported the news, said India withdrew after a “review of its commitments” in 2028, citing a letter written by an Indian official to the chair of the Asia-Pacific Group. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment. France emissions cuts slow France’s cuts to greenhouse gas emissions slowed for a second ...

Bangladesh’s foreign minister met his Indian counterpart in New Delhi on Wednesday, the most senior visit by a Dhaka envoy since the 2024 revolution toppled India’s old ally, Sheikh Hasina. Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman is taking part in a “goodwill visit”, Bangladesh’s state news agency BSS said, but added that issues of “extradition, trade, water sharing and border security” would be discussed. Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visited Dhaka in December to attend the funeral of former leader Khaleda Zia, the mother of the prime minister elected in February, Tarique Rahman. Jaishankar said he had been “pleased to host” Khalilur Rahman, saying in a statement that they had discussed “strengthening our bilateral relationship”, without giving further details. Relations have improved since Tarique Rahman, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, won a landslide election victory, taking over from the interim administration that had led the country of 170 million people since Hasina was ousted. ...