- Australian PM thinks he will not be harassed to buy stuff in Delhi’s Connaught Place this time Deccan Herald
- Australian PM Anthony Albanese Arrives In Ahmedabad, On Wednesday, On A State Visit To India India Today
- Australian leader plans meeting with Biden after India trip The Associated Press – en Español
- Beyond curry and cricket: Australian PM Anthony Albanese’s visit to India signals strengthened bilateral relations The Indian Express
- QUAD member Australia seeking to diversify investment partners | After India, Albanese to visit U.S. WION
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Delhis
Focus on New Delhi’s role as Jaishankar heads to Moscow
AMID THE Russia-Ukraine conflict, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is headed to Moscow on Monday for a bilateral visit.
Most of his meetings are scheduled on Tuesday, including a bilateral meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Industry, Denis Manturov. There is no word yet on a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but it cannot be ruled out.
Jaishankar’s visit assumes significance as it comes days before the G-20 summit in Bali, scheduled for November 15-16. This will be the first time since the war broke out in Ukraine that Putin and the western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, will be in the same room.
Jaishankar’s trip is being seen as a key moment, where Delhi is being billed as a potential negotiator between the two sides. He had last visited Moscow in July 2021.
It is learnt that India has intervened quietly in the past few months, when there has been a deadlock. In July, India had weighed in with Russia on the grain shipment from ports in the Black Sea.
Much of these messages have been delivered quietly, and Delhi is positioning itself as a player with credibility on both sides. But, that has not always worked.
The Washington Post reported over the weekend that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had offered assistance on peace talks in a call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month. But, Zelenskyy spurned the offer, according to the report.
The report said that according to a statement released by Zelensky’s office, “Zelensky told him Ukraine would not conduct any negotiations with Putin but said Ukraine was committed to peaceful settlement through dialogue”. The statement noted that Russia had deliberately undermined efforts at dialogue, it said.
But, as the winter approaches in the conflict zone, there is a sense that both sides would want a ceasefire before early next year, when they can regroup and resume the conflict. Many view this as a potential opportunity for a ceasefire, and Delhi could be a broker between the two sides.
For Delhi, the bilateral aspect is key. This is the first winter in the last three years, when Russian military supply lines are under strain due to the ongoing eight-month-old war in Ukraine, and, simultaneously, Indian and Chinese troops are locked in a border standoff in eastern Ladakh.
For India, which is dependent on Russia for its defence supplies, this is the most important pillar of the relationship.
The new element is the energy relationship, as Russia is reported to have become India’s largest supplier of crude oil in October 2022 as refiners stepped up the purchase of discounted seaborne oil. This has added a new element in the ties with Moscow, which has not gone down well with Ukraine as well as the Western partners.
Jaishankar’s visit is expected to look at this aspect as well, and officials said this will be part of his conversation with Manturov, his counterpart for the India Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation, the IRIGC-TEC.
“Issues pertaining to bilateral economic cooperation obviously, in various domains, will be discussed,” MEA’s official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday, ahead of the visit.
What is also significant is that it is Modi’s turn to visit Russia this year, and if a possible visit takes place next month, Jaishankar will be there to lay the groundwork.
In the run-up to Jaishankar’s visit, Putin has been effusive about Modi and India. He had praised India by calling its citizens “talented” and “driven”, a week after he showered praises on Modi and called him a “true patriot”.
Delhi’s air a ‘crime against humanity’, spurs calls to close schools
NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Delhi’s 20 million residents were effectively breathing smoke on Thursday as the air quality index (AQI) breached the “severe” and “hazardous” categories in nearly all monitoring stations of the Indian capital, raising calls to close schools.
The AQI exceeded 450 at many places early in the day, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board. A reading over 400 affects healthy people, with serious impacts on those with existing diseases, the federal government says.
The index was over 800 in some pockets of the city, according to data from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee.
“What is happening with air pollution in Delhi is nothing short of a crime against humanity!” author and socialite Suhel Seth wrote on Twitter. “There’s a total collapse of accountability!”
The world’s most polluted capital is blanketed in smog every winter as cold, heavy air traps construction dust, vehicle emissions and smoke from the burning of crop stubble in the neighbouring states to clear the fields for the next crop.
[1/3] A couple poses during a pre-wedding photo on the banks of Yamuna river on a smoggy morning in the old quarters of Delhi, India November 2, 2022. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo
Lower temperatures, calmer winds and their changing direction worsen the air quality from time to time.
Parents and environmentalists on social media demanded schools to be closed.
“I know children don’t vote for you, but still, requesting all the chief ministers of Delhi (capital region) to immediately SHUTDOWN all the schools,” environmental activist Vimlendu Jha wrote on Twitter. “It’s not NORMAL to breathe 500+ AQI, not for our children, where every third child already has some pulmonary challenge.”
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, whose party also rules Punjab where crop burning is rampant, said on Twitter that the “people of Punjab and Delhi are taking all steps at their level” to tackle pollution.
The capital this week stopped most construction and demolition work to curb dust pollution and appealed to residents to share car and motorcycle journeys, work from home when possible and reduce the use of coal and firewood at home.
Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Editing by William Mallard
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
On Delhi’s Toxic River, Prayers to a Sun Struggling to Shine Through Smog
Her brother-in-law, Sonu Prasad, 36, who sells buttons, said he knows what contributes to the pollution of the river: “When I shower, it goes into a small canal, then a big canal, then it goes into the river,” he said.
“It’s a sewer,” Ms. Devi’s husband and Sonu’s older brother, Ravi Shankar Gupta, said. “But the sun deity says: ‘Even if you stand in a gutter and make an offering, I will protect you for the rest of the year.’”
“It would be great if they improve it, but even if they don’t, what can we do?” Mr. Gupta added, pointing to the infighting over the pollution between the states that the river flows through. “We will still live, and enjoy life.”
The Yamuna forms the boundary between Delhi and the state of Uttar Pradesh, a circumstance that has complicated the already tortured process of cleaning it up. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent in recent decades, to little effect. Less than half of the roughly 16 billion gallons of daily sewage in India’s urban centers is treated, according to government figures, and much of the rest pollutes the country’s rivers.
New Delhi, overwhelmed by a growing population, treats about two-thirds of its sewage. But hundreds of millions of gallons are still dumped into the Yamuna untreated, along with untreated industrial waste, in its slog through the city.
Delhi gets a good portion of its drinking water from the Yamuna, which enters the city limits relatively clean. After that, the river is pummeled with wastes.