When the International Indian Film Academy awards, Bollywood's annual global extravaganza, opened in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, actor Anil Kapoor, filmmakers Ramesh Sippy and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and industry honchos shared the stage with an unlikely co-speaker - India's number two diplomat. Anil Wadhwa, secretary (east) in the ministry of external affairs, is in charge of India's relations with almost half the world, from Palestine to the Philippines and Syria to South Korea.

Those in the know at Rashtrapati Bhavan will tell you President Mukherjee used to hate travelling abroad. He specifically disliked ceremonial visits, because he believed the role of the President of India, especially during foreign visits, should be in the national interest—proactive and dialogue-driven, while keeping the country’s geopolitical and economic priorities in mind.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come up with a clever and unexpected move of extending a new $2 billion line of credit to Bangladesh. It will make China sit up and ponder deeper over its chequebook diplomacy. It will also send a message to smaller neighbours like Maldives which is playing a teasing game with India and refusing to free former president Mohammed Nasheed.

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday denied any "flip-flop" in India's policy towards Pakistan and said talks with the neighbour can only be held in an atmosphere of "sadbhavna" or goodwill and without the involvement of a third party. Addressing a mega press conference here on the completion of the NDA government's one year in office, Sushma Swaraj said there were no talks planned with Pakistan as of now and also discounted media reports about cricket diplomacy being launched between the two countries. 

NEW DELHI: In a major faux pas that kept journalists guessing and the home ministry on tenterhooks for half a day, home minister  Rajnath Singh on Friday announced that India had entered into an agreement with France to make nuclear weapons in India as part of PM Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' campaign. 

On June 21, the world will observe International Day of Yoga for the first time ever. A United Nations resolution to this effect that India moved in the General Assembly last year was co-sponsored by an unprecedented 170 countries.

Nepal’s beleaguered citizens are struggling to recover from the April 25 magnitude-7.8 earthquake that claimed more than 8,600 lives, caused countless injuries and left many thousands missing. But a United States Agency for International Development official said broader collaboration continues concurrently with U.S. Pacific Command on regional priorities including disaster preparedness, nontraditional regional threats, such as resource insecurity; climate change, pandemic issues and environmental considerations.