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A Colorful World.’ -Falguni Shah is a singer, songwriter, and also the 1st South Asian woman to win a Grammy. -She is renowned ability to seamlessly blend a signature modern inventive style with a formidable Indian classically-trained vocal talent. -Shah been a Carnegie Hall’s ambassador of Indian Music since 2006.

NEW DELHI : As the festive fervour of Diwali and the unfolding wedding season, India’s alcoholic beverages industry is gazing at a varied landscape, with different states presenting a mixed bag of opportunities and challenges. Industry insiders project contrasting scenarios across states, influenced by state-level changes. Delhi, Karnataka, Pondicherry and Kerala are likely to see the impact of policy or duty changes.

Antony Blinken on Friday said that “far too many" Palestinians have died and suffered as Israel wages a relentless war against Hamas group in the Gaza Strip. Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Blinken said recent Israeli moves to improve dire conditions in Gaza as its military pushes deeper into the strip — including pauses in military operations to allow Palestinians to move from northern to southern Gaza and the creation of a second safe corridor — are positive but they are not nearly enough.

India flagged its concerns at the '2+2' foreign and defence ministerial meeting. «We have made our concerns very very clear,» Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said at a media briefing. The American delegation at the '2+2' ministerial dialogue talks was led by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin while External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh headed the Indian side. «We have core security concerns and I am sure you are all aware of recent video that has surfaced from one such individual,» Kwatra said adding the US side understood New Delhi's concerns. The ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations in September over the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June in the Canadian town of Surrey. Days after Trudeau's allegations, India temporarily suspended issuance of visas to Canadian citizens and asked Ottawa to downsize its diplomatic presence in the country to ensure parity. Canada has already withdrawn 41 diplomats and their family members from India. India has already resumed some of the visa services.

Israel showed interest in taking Indian workers, another nation has now shown its interest in doing the same. Taiwan which has tense relations with its neighbour China has shown interest in hiring nearly 100,000 Indians to work at factories, farms, and hospitals as reported by Bloomberg. A pact with Taiwan doesn’t suggest India is discarding the “One China Policy" — a position that recognizes the island as being a part of China.

Taiwan with a plan to send tens of thousands of workers to the island as early as next month, according to senior officials familiar with the matter, potentially angering neighbor China. Taiwan could hire as many as 100,000 Indians to work at factories, farms and hospitals, the officials said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are private. The two sides are expected to sign an employment mobility agreement by as early as December, the people said. Taiwan’s aging society means it needs more workers, while in India, the economy isn’t growing fast enough to create enough jobs for the millions of young people who enter the labor market every year.

Indo-Pacific region. The country said the US-India relationship is one of the most strategic and consequential of the 21st century, as per a fact sheet released by the US State Department. The fact sheet said the 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between the US Secretaries of State and Defence and their Indian counterparts is the premier recurring dialogue mechanism between the United States and India. «Through the 2+2 mechanism, US and Indian officials advance a wide range of initiatives across the breadth of the United States-India partnership,» it said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday arrived in New Delhi to co-chair the 5th India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Official Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said Blinken's visit will give further boost to India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership. «A warm welcome to U.S.

NEW DELHI : Online rummy and poker are legal again in Tamil Nadu, with the Madras high court ruling that a state law passed last year curbing online games will not apply to these “games of skill". While the state’s Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Act, 2022, remains valid in terms of time, age limit and spending restrictions, it cannot be used to ban online titles of rummy and poker, the court said. These titles have been referred to as games of skill, and are seen under a different lens away from betting and gambling, the court ruled.

Indian solar panel manufacturers are grappling with the influx of cheaper Chinese imports funnelled through intermediary countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore as Chinese companies exploit Free Trade Agreement (FTA) loopholes to export to India. Despite New Delhi's imposition of a 40% customs duty on solar modules and 25% on solar cells in April 2022 to boost domestic production and reduce Chinese imports, companies in China are finding ways to bypass these high tariffs and continue supplies to Indian solar farm developers. The Chinese companies have effectively utilised this strategy in the past to evade local tariffs, as demonstrated by a year-long investigation in August 2023 by US federal authorities, which revealed that five Chinese solar panel firms had circumvented tariff regulations by channelling their operations through countries such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Following the imposition of tariffs, direct Chinese exports to India have declined, but from April to August 2023, imports of solar panel modules from Vietnam and Malaysia have surged, accounting for 60% of all such imports into India, with majority of these products originating from Chinese companies. Indian manufacturers say the imports are hurting domestic industry as the Chinese firms are resorting to dumping their products by misusing the FTA route.

Indian Navy personnel by a Qatar court last month. «The judgement is confidential.

NEW DELHI : Gold, furniture and packaged goods companies have reported a pick-up in festive season sales in October and expect the momentum to continue. Traditionally, it is a bustling quarter for retailers, driven by festivities, prompting consumers to go on a spending spree to buy goods for personal consumption and for gifting. Additionally, the ICC men’s cricket world cup has further boosted demand for liquor, food, large TV sets and packaged snacks.

NEW DELHI : With AI tools becoming more accessible, deepfakes are a rising threat in audio, video and photo formats. But, catching the actual perpetrators is next to impossible, thanks to how cyber tools allow people to obfuscate the traces of origin. Mint explains why: A deepfake is more sophisticated than basic morphed content.

Indian Navy personnel by a Qatari court last month, said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday. MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the Indian embassy in Doha received another consular access to the detained Indians on Tuesday and that New Delhi will continue to extend all legal and consular support to them. The eight former Indian Navy personnel were on October 26 given death sentence by Qatar's Court of First Instance.

(This story originally appeared in on Nov 09, 2023)

Gopal Rai on Thursday said all ministers of the Delhi government will work at the ground level to ensure strict implementation of air pollution control measures in the national capital. Addressing a press conference here, Rai expressed concern over negligence on part of officers in the implementation of measures outlined in the Centre's air pollution control plan called Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

Diwali celebration. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the UK Prime Minister's office wrote, “Tonight Prime Minister @RishiSunak welcomed guests from the Hindu community to Downing Street ahead of #Diwali - a celebration of the triumph of light over darkness." The visuals showed that Downing Street was enlightened by diyas and colorful lights. A large number of people had joined the celebration.

fire at a shisha bar and restaurant in Bengaluru prompted the chef to jump off the building. This was captured in a horrific video; the chef remains in a coma. The building had not been inspected by the fire and emergency services department because it has no mandate to inspect buildings under 21 metres.

White House has called India a key strategic partner and said the US will leave it to the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to decide the country's stance on any particular crisis or contingency around the world. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said was speaking about India's stand on the Israel crisis. «India is a key strategic partner.

BERLIN : Germany is keen to have Chancellor Olaf Scholz visit India in October 2024, according to persons aware of the matter. The visit is expected to coincide with the Asia Pacific Conference of German Business. Scholz, who has visited India twice this year, is also expected to attend the next round of intergovernmental consultations that take place once every two years.

NEW DELHI : The law to improve the ease of doing business, passed by Parliament a few months ago, will need continuous upgrades, commerce minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday. The government is currently consulting with the industry and seeking feedback to upgrade the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2023, to address challenges to ease of doing business in India. “With our best intentions, the Jan Vishwas 2.0 bill will take us one step forward, but we will possibly need Jan Vishwas 3.0," Goyal said at a conference on ease of doing business organized by CII.

NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON : US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will hold talks with India this week that officials say will focus on security challenges in the Indo-Pacific and concerns over China, rather than the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. The talks in New Delhi on Friday with India's foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh are part of the so-called "2 2 Dialogue", launched in 2018 to boost defence cooperation and align policy objectives in the Indo-Pacific region.