India | Pakistan

India capped airfares on Saturday as hundreds of passengers gathered outside Bengaluru and Mumbai airports after IndiGo cancelled 385 flights on the fifth day of a crisis at the country’s biggest airline that has crippled air travel. IndiGo has cancelled thousands of flights this week due to a shortage of pilots after it failed to plan adequately for new rules limiting pilots’ work hours. The government responded on Friday, announcing special relief for the carrier and the operation of additional trains to help clear the backlog. The Delhi airport posted on X on Saturday that flight operations were steadily resuming, but cancellations remained rife elsewhere. ‘Waiting for my luggage’ With IndiGo’s spate of cancellations, fares rose on flights operated by other airlines on popular routes. The government said it was capping fares to maintain pricing discipline, without disclosing details of the caps. The Civil Aviation Ministry said it would “continue to closely monitor fare levels through real-time data and ac...

India’s aviation ministry on Friday rolled back a new policy of weekly rest for pilots after chaos caused by hundreds of flight cancellations by the country’s biggest airline, IndiGo. In a bid to improve air travel safety, Indian authorities have introduced new stricter regulations limiting pilot flying times and placing tighter restrictions on their operation of night-time flights. Airports across India have been in disarray since Monday, with the private carrier blaming the disruption on “unforeseen operational challenges”. On Thursday, IndiGo admitted to aviation regulators that “misjudgement and planning gaps” in adapting to new rules led to the operational meltdown, even though it had two years to prepare for the switch. The new rules came into effect last month with the aim of giving pilots more rest periods to enhance passenger safety. India’s civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said the ‘Flight Duty Time Limitations’ rules “have been placed in abeyance with immediate effect”. “Without compromising...

India’s government is reviewing a telecom industry proposal to force smartphone firms to enable satellite location tracking that is always activated for better surveillance, a move opposed by Apple, Google and Samsung due to privacy concerns, according to documents, emails and five sources. A fierce privacy debate erupted in India this week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was forced to rescind an order requiring smartphone makers to preload a state-run cyber safety app on all devices after activists and politicians raised concerns about potential snooping. For years, the Modi administration has been concerned that its agencies do not get precise locations when legal requests are made to telecom firms during investigations. Under the current system, the firms are limited to using cellular tower data that can only provide an estimated area location, which can be off by several meters. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents Reliance’s Jio and Bharti Airtel, has propo...

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in India on Thursday for a two-day visit aimed at deepening defence ties, as New Delhi faces heavy US pressure to stop buying oil from Moscow. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the airport to welcome the Russian leader in person, greeting him on the red carpet with a hug, before riding together in the same car. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin sit in a car as they depart Palam Air Force Base after the latter’s arrival in New Delhi. —AFP Putin, on his first visit to India since the Ukraine war, is accompanied by his Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, with possible deals on fighter jets and air defence systems expected to be discussed. In an interview with India Today, Putin said he was “very happy” to be meeting “my friend” Modi. “The range of our cooperation with India is huge,” he said in remarks translated by the broadcaster, citing ship and aircraft manufacturing, nuclear energy and space exploration. The Indian premier...

India is willing to amend an order requiring smartphone makers to pre-install a state-run cybersecurity app, the telecoms minister said on Wednesday, signalling a softening government stance following a backlash over surveillance fears. Earlier in the day, the main opposition party took the government to task over the issue, while newspaper editorials joined privacy advocates in denouncing the move. The government is also likely to find itself at odds with phone manufacturers. Apple does not plan to comply with the directive, sources have said. “We are ready to make changes to the order based on the feedback we receive,” Communications Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia told lawmakers in parliament. The Indian government has confidentially ordered companies including Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi to preload new phones with an app called Sanchar Saathi, or Communication Partner, within 90 days. The government says the app only helps track and block stolen phones and prevents them from being misused. Senior Congress ...

PAF punched India above its weight: ACM Sidhu

Islamabad - Pakistan yesterday dispatched 200 tonnes of relief supplies to Sri Lanka via sea cargo after India refused to use its airspace.

The Foreign Office (FO) said on Tuesday that India was preventing humanitarian assistance from being sent to Sri Lanka by air, prompting Islamabad to send aid by sea to the south Asian island, where severe flooding and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah have claimed more than 400 lives. In a post on X, the FO said: “India continues to block humanitarian assistance from Pakistan to Sri Lanka. The special aircraft carrying Pakistan’s humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka continues to face a delay of over 60 hours now awaiting flight clearance from India. “The partial flight clearance issued by India last night, after 48 hours, was operationally impractical: time-bound for just a few hours and without validity for the return flight, severely hindering this urgent relief mission for the brotherly people of Sri Lanka.” A statement issued later by the Pakistan High Commission in Sri Lanka said aircraft were awaiting clearance to fly and accused India of blocking the humanitarian relief operation through “shenani...

India’s imports of Russian oil may decline for only “a brief period” as Moscow plans to boost supplies, using sophisticated technology to avert the impact of Western sanctions, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. His remarks came ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s two-day visit to New Delhi from Thursday, looking to restore defence and energy ties as India is set to trim its Russian oil purchases this month to at least a three-year low. Russia’s top buyer of seaborne oil, India has cut crude imports from Moscow under pressure from Western sanctions, particularly by Washington, on Moscow’s top oil producers Rosneft and Lukoil. “There can be, for a very brief period of time, insignificant decreases in the volume of oil trade,” Peskov told Indian journalists, in response to a question about the impact of sanctions. Working to build the necessary environment for buyers Russia is the top oil supplier to India, the world’s third biggest oil importer and consumer. Moscow is working to build the “nec...

The Foreign Office (FO) received permission from India to use its airspace for humanitarian aid flights to Sri Lanka to provide flood relief, diplomatic sources confirmed to Dawn on Monday. The Sri Lankan government called for international aid and used military helicopters to reach people stranded by flooding and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah. At least 355 people have been killed, Sri Lankan officials said on Monday, with another 366 still missing. An official in the foreign ministry told Dawn that earlier this evening, the Indian high commission sent written confirmation allowing humanitarian overflights through Indian airspace. The flights have been cleared to start tomorrow. The toll in deadly flooding and landslides across parts of Asia climbed past 1,100 on Monday as Sri Lanka and Indonesia deployed military personnel to help survivors. Separate weather systems brought torrential, extended rainfall to the entire island of Sri Lanka and large parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and n...

India’s telecoms ministry has privately asked smartphone makers to preload all new devices with a state-owned cyber security app that cannot be deleted, a government order showed, a move likely to antagonise Apple and privacy advocates. India is one of the world’s largest telephone markets, with more than 1.2 billion subscribers, and government figures show the app, launched in January, has helped recover more than 700,000 lost phones, including 50,000 in October alone. Apple, which has previously locked horns with the telecoms regulator over development of a government anti-spam mobile app, is among the companies, such as Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi bound by the new order. The November 28 order, seen by Reuters, gives major smartphone companies 90 days to ensure that the government’s Sanchar Saathi app is pre-installed on new mobile phones, with a provision that users cannot disable it. For devices already in the supply chain, manufacturers should push the app to phones via software updates, the ministry ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will discuss all aspects of their countries’ “privileged strategic partnership” when Putin visits New Delhi next week, the Kremlin said. India, a major buyer of Russian oil, has also bought its weapons for decades, though a top defence official said the country had bought US arms worth nearly $30 billion in the past decade and aims to produce more of its own equipment. “They (the Russians) have been our friends through both fair and foul weather, and we are not going to sort of stop our defence cooperation with them anytime soon, but I do want to stress that India follows a policy of strategic autonomy,” Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said in New Delhi on Friday. India was diversifying its suppliers, he told an industry event, adding: “But more than anything else we are trying to ensure that we increasingly do spend the bulk of our money within the country.” Putin last visited India in December 2021, just a few months before Russia...

Thousands of trade union workers across India protested on Wednesday against the government’s rollout of new labour codes, saying they would lead to corporate exploitation and erode their hard-won rights. The world’s fifth-largest economy last week implemented long-awaited labour laws that will replace colonial-era legislation and simplify a maze of confusing regulations. The overhaul consolidates 29 existing labour laws into four key codes, with the number of rules being cut from more than 1,400 to about 350, but unions say the reforms will hurt workers’ rights. Gautam Mody from the New Trade Union Initiative said workers from across all sectors were protesting on Wednesday outside factories and in many city centres. “Workers have been blindsided by the government,” he told AFP. “We want fairness, justice and equity before the law, which are being denied under the new codes.” Workers cut wooden logs using a machine at a warehouse in Varanasi, India on November 26. — AFP While the new regulations boost safety...

Pakistan has noted with grave concern the latest findings by the United Nations Special Procedures experts regarding India’s illegal measures in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Spinner Simon Harmer took six wickets as South Africa thrashed India by 408 runs in the second Test on Wednesday to sweep the series and condemn the hosts to a record loss. It was South Africa’s first series win in India in 25 years, after bowling the home team out for a dismal 140 in a mammoth chase of 549 on day five in Guwahati. India suffered their biggest Test defeat by runs and a fifth loss in seven home Tests, having been whitewashed 3-0 by New Zealand last year. Off-spinner Harmer, 36, returned figures of 6-37 as South Africa clinched a Test series in India for only the second time, the first in 2000 under Hansie Cronje. “Winning a Test match and series in India is very special,” said left-arm quick Marco Jansen, who returned figures of 6-48 in India’s first innings after smashing a quickfire 93 with the bat. Jansen, named player of the match, added: “Very well done to everyone for putting their hand up and making this happen.” India lost the opening Test in Kolkata inside three days on a pitch with u...

New Delhi has asserted that Arunachal Pradesh is an “integral part” of India in response to Beijing’s claim over the territory as the two countries rowed over the detention of an Indian citizen at Shanghai Airport. On Tuesday, India had issued a demarche to China over the detention of Prema Wangjom Thongdok, a UK-based woman from Arunachal Pradesh, at the Shanghai airport. Thongdok had said immigration officials had held for 18 hours and “mocked” her by saying the region was not a part of India. China says Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing calls Zangnan, is a part of South Tibet — a claim India has repeatedly dismissed. Beijing has renamed places in the northeastern Himalayan state multiple times, prompting strong reactions from New Delhi. Responding to queries during a press briefing on Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning had said that “Zangnan is China’s territory”. “The Chinese side has never recognised the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ illegally set up by India,” she said. She further s...

The Foreign Office (FO) on Tuesday issued a statement condemning a flag raising at the Ram Temple in India’s Ayodhya — built on the site of the demolished Babri Masjid — and warned of a threat to religious minorities and Muslim cultural heritage by Hindu extremists. Devout Hindus believe that Ram was born in Ayodhya around 7,000 years ago, but that during the rule of the Mughal Empire, the Babri Masjid mosque was built on top of his birthplace in the 16th century. Thousands of Hindu activists, led by politicians of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), demolished the mosque in 1992. The Ram Temple was built at the site of the destroyed mosque and was inaugurated last January. The FO condemned the flag hoisting at the site and stated that judicial processes allowing the construction of the temple over the mosque “speak volumes about the Indian state’s discriminatory approach towards minorities”. “This reflected a broader pattern of pressure on religious minorities in India and deliberate attempts...

India’s alleged violations of the Indus Waters Treaty have escalated, with Pakistan reporting that New Delhi has nearly stopped sharing essential river-flow data required under the 1960 agreement.

India has issued a demarche to China after a woman from Arunachal Pradesh alleged that she was detained at the Shanghai airport by immigration officials for 18 hours, who “mocked” her and said that the territory was not part of India, according to Indian media. China says Arunachal Pradesh is a part of South Tibet — a claim India has repeatedly dismissed. Beijing has renamed places in the northeastern Himalayan state multiple times, prompting strong reactions from New Delhi. The woman, named Pema Wangjom Thongdok, said in yesterday’s interview to ANI that she was an Indian citizen residing in the United Kingdom for about 14 years. Thongdok said she was travelling from London to Japan’s Osaka via Shanghai on November 21, when Chinese authorities held her back for 18 hours. Detailing her “very long ordeal”, Thongdok alleged that Chinese immigration officials at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport declared her visa as “not acceptable” and her Indian passport as invalid. She further said the officials “mock...

India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd said on Monday the crash of a Tejas fighter jet in Dubai last week was an “isolated occurrence” caused by “exceptional circumstances”, without providing further details. On Friday, India’s Tejas fighter jet crashed in a ball of fire in front of horrified spectators during an aerial display at the Dubai Airshow. The Indian Air Force has said it is setting up a court of inquiry to investigate the cause. State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics manufactures the aircraft, which is powered by General Electric engines. Both companies have said they will support the investigation. Tejas, which means brilliance in Sanskrit, is seen as crucial for India’s efforts to modernise its air force fleet of mainly Russian and ex-Soviet fighters. The crash, which killed the pilot, dampens New Delhi’s hopes of exporting the home-built jet and leaves it reliant on Indian military orders to sustain its role as a showcase of domestic defence technology. Such a public loss could overshadow India’s efforts ...