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Michael Rubin has described the concept of Khalistan as artificial as Pakistan was in its infancy and cautioned the USA establishment against entertaining any Khalistani figures. In an article titled ‘Khalistani Extremism: A Growing Threat In The U.S. And Canada’ in the National Security Journal, Rubin explained, “Khalistan today is as artificial as Pakistan was in its infancy. Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Choudhry Rahmat Ali and Muhammad Ali Jinnah created the concept of Pakistan to be a separate state for Muslims upon India’s independence. The name Pakistan, coined by Rahmat Ali, was completely artificial: It was both an anagram, taking the P from Punjab, A from Afghan, K from Kashmir, S from Sindh, I from the Indus River Valley, and the last four letters from Baluchistan, and a pun: Pakistan is both a Persian and Urdu word meaning “land of the pure.”” “Khalistan, likewise, has no historical basis. As with Pakistan, Khalistan literally means “land of the pure,” although it substitutes the Persian/Urdu “Pak” for the Punjabi/Arabic “Khalis.” Khalistani separatists use the term to frame their demand for an independent Sikh state in Punjab. Sikhs comprise slightly over half the population of Indian Punjab; their population is now near zero in Pakistani Punjab due to decades of Pakistani sectarian cleansing,” he alleged.

Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an alert for residents in parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh as a depression over the west-central and southwest Bay of Bengal is moving towards the coast. This weather system is expected to bring heavy rainfall and potentially disrupt daily life in several areas. According to the IMD, the depression moved west-northwestwards at a speed of 22 km/h over the past six hours. As of late last night, October 16, 2024, it was centered over the Bay of Bengal, approximately 80 km east-northeast of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and 150 km southeast of Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. This places the depression very close to the coastline.

Infosys will be in focus in Thursday's trade as the IT services exporter will announce its results for the quarter ended September 2024 later today. India's second largest software exporter is likely to report healthy numbers in the second quarter, driven by ramp-up of mega-deals and continued demand improvement in the financial services segment.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Growing up, I believed ‘Cadbury’ was just another word for chocolate, and I wasn’t the only one. Milk chocolate was first imported into India by the British and it’s now a daily habit for one in five Indians, according to a 2019 report by Mintel.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The promoters of Haldiram Snacks Food Pvt Ltd. are now looking to offload 10-15% stake against the initial plan to sell a majority holding in India’s largest snack-maker that has drawn interest from top global investors, said three people with the knowledge of the development.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Mumbai: The stock of BSE Ltd has surged this month on market expectation that it will benefit from a regulatory move to curb options trading, but the exchange’s low options premium turnover could dampen the party. BSE’s stock rose 17% through October to touch ₹4,521.85 apiece on Wednesday, compared to a fall of 1.3% for the Nifty Midcap 150 index, of which BSE Ltd is a constituent.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Bengaluru/Mumbai: Startup and e-commerce companies may rescue the hiring season for the batches of 2025 at India’s top engineering and business schools by ramping up campus placement targets when the jobs market is still tepid. “For the upcoming placement season, we have set an ambitious target of hiring over 230 recruits across multiple roles—a 55% increase from last year," said Manmeet Sandhu, head of human resources, for fintech platform PhonePe.

bomb threats, the Centre asserted that agencies are actively pursuing the cases even as the Mumbai Police apprehended a juvenile from Chhattisgarh for three such hoax calls. Meanwhile, to ensure the safety of passengers, the government is likely to increase the number of sky marshals on international flights. The government on Wednesday informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport that it is considering deploying a greater number of the elite National Security Guards (NSG) personnel on international flights. Civil aviation secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam also told the committee that investigators have gathered some information on the recent threats and are taking action. Separately, civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said he is monitoring the situation closely. A senior official of the Central Industrial Security Forces, the paramilitary force that handles airport security, said state police have been asked to arrest and take strong action against people making such threats. At least 19 Indian flights received hoax bomb threats in the past three days, leading to long delays and diversions. On Tuesday, Singapore's air force sent two fighter jets to escort an Air India Express plane away from populated areas after the airline received an email that there was a bomb on the aircraft.

Bengaluru: Primus Senior Living has secured $20 million in seed funds from investors led by General Catalyst, said Adarsh Narahari, its founder and managing director. The funding round also saw participation from Nikhil Kamath and Gruhas, the investment firm co-founded by Kamath and Abhijeet Pai. «At Primus, we envision a future where ageing is not seen as a burden but as a cherished phase of life. Our goal is to create a vibrant, inclusive ecosystem where seniors are not only cared for but celebrated-surrounded by love, connection, and purpose,» said Narahari.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA)-backed institutional investor Lake Shore has raised over ₹1,200 crore from HSBC Commercial Banking through a sustainability-linked loan for its retail property Viviana Mall in Thane, said persons with direct knowledge of the development. This is the first such fundraising linked to sustainability efforts undertaken for any retail property in the country and among the maiden real estate financing loans availed by any institutional investor in India. The integrated institutional investor has raised the funds through Lake Shore Group entity Salsette Developers that owns the retail property in Thane. HSBC Commercial Banking has provided the loan that was used to refinance the existing lenders and provide liquidity to the company.

India is expected to see steady revenue growth for the next three years, after recent quarterly declines following extraordinary growth in 2023 driven by 5G roll outs, aaid Andres Vicente, Senior Vice President, Market Area South East Asia, Oceania & India, Ericsson. Speaking to ET’s Subhrojit Mallick and Romit Guha, Vicente also backed the view of Indian telcos of a level playing field with satcom companies. Edited excerpts: Opportunities in India… Now that the (5G) infrastructure has been built, we need the adoption of this new infrastructure.

The discussion was moderated by Pradeep S Mehta, founder of CUTS International, who began the session by asking speakers to emphasise on the procedural aspects of policymaking instead of trying to find short-term solutions to complicated political problems. Speaking on the uncertainties of scenarios, he said, “There is a need to look at dynamic variables in scenario building. We will have to focus on the headwinds and tailwinds of the entire process.” The conference delved into various aspects of India's future, with technology emerging as a central theme across all scenarios. Kiran Karnik, former president of NASSCOM, said, “Technology has immense potential to promote decentralisation. Civil society organisations will remain important stakeholders and need to be empowered to conduct independent evaluations.”

sales growth in the first half of this fiscal year, underscoring continued weak consumer sentiment and sluggish demand in the world’s third-largest automobile market. Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Kia India reported higher sales, while others including the top three—Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata Motors saw sales decline during the period. Sales at Toyota Kirloskar—the maker of Fortuner and Innova Hycross models—grew more than 31%--the fastest pace among all automakers, in a market where overall volumes expanded by only 0.5%. M&M and Kia followed, clocking sales growth of 21% and 5.6%, respectively, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

«Over-the-top (OTT) communication services have benefited consumers and businesses, but certain regulatory issues have been raised by law enforcement agencies and traditional communications providers, and [so they] should be subject to structured regulations,» Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said Wednesday. Speaking on day two of the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2024 here, he added that regulators globally need to maintain a balance between fostering innovation and ensuring a fair and competitive market, given the cross-border nature of OTT services.

Vodafone Idea (Vi), boosted by equity funding, is set to start rolling out next generation (5G) commercial services by March 2025 across 17 circles, starting with Delhi and Mumbai, and is aiming to reach at least 90% of India's population with 4G coverage by June next year, said its chief technology officer Jagbir Singh. «We are going a little slow (wih 5G), but we will be doing 5G in Delhi and Mumbai first, and of course, all metros and major cities across 17 states (circles),» he told ET. Vi, as part of a revival plan, has raised equity funding of ₹24,000 crore including ₹18,000 crore from a follow-on public offer. The telecom operator has said that the bulk of the funds will be used to beef up 4G coverage and roll out 5G as it strives to become more competitive against rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel and stop the decline in the number of subscribers.

semiconductor powerhouse through the India Semiconductor Mission. AMD, Micron India, and LAM Research are among companies seeking to close the skills gap by putting new recruits through technical bootcamps, teaming up students with employees working on next-generation technologies, setting up research labs in universities, and rolling out mentorship opportunities. Despite being a late entrant, the government is pushing to make India a major player in the global semiconductor space. In 2021, the Modi government launched the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) with an outlay of Rs 76,000 crore for semiconductor manufacturing, packaging, and design units.

bomb threats on Wednesday taking the number of flights impacted to 19 in three days, with the Union government asserting that the law enforcement agencies are actively pursuing all cases and the Mumbai Police arresting a minor for issuing threats to three flights. Some flights were delayed, diverted and returned mid-way in the wake of bomb threats received through social media, sending security agencies into a tizzy. The Delhi Police has registered an FIR in connection with bomb threats to several flights in the last two days and has launched a probe. Bomb threats were received by at least three IndiGo flights, two SpiceJet flights and an Akasa Air flight on Wednesday. IndiGo's Riyadh-Mumbai flight was diverted to Muscat due to the threat. Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu on Wednesday said law enforcement agencies are actively pursuing all cases of bomb threats against airlines and the government is closely monitoring the situation.

digital applications which would be cheaper and more effective that can be shared with the Global South, a top IT ministry official said on Wednesday. Today, in many international fora, India has been recognised as a digital power, S Krishnan, secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said at a virtual address to the Nasscom Future Forge 2024 event held in Bengaluru. Apart from policy support and enabling requirements that big enterprises would have, there could be some ease of doing business issues for technology companies that require attention from time to time, and which are brought to MeitY's notice, he said.

Lady Justice' statue, long associated with courts and legal institutions, has been redesigned by the Supreme Court of India as part of an effort to move away from its colonial legacy. Traditionally depicted with a blindfold and a sword, the statue’s updated version removes the blindfold and replaces the sword with the Constitution, signaling a new era for Indian justice.

Justin Trudeau alleged on Wednesday that there were «clear indications» that India violated Canada's sovereignty. His remarks were made during an inquiry into alleged foreign interference, which highlighted what he described as illegal activities by representatives of the Indian government against Canadian citizens. «We had clear and certainly now ever clearer indications that India had violated Canada's sovereignty,» Trudeau stated, drawing attention to a recent Canadian police investigation that implicated Indian diplomats in a «campaign of violence.»

Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, gathered industry titans to discuss one of the most debated topics in personal finance: buying a home versus renting. Kamath was joined by Irfan Razack, Chairman & MD of Prestige Group, Nirupa Shankar, Executive Director at Brigade Group, and Karan Virwani, CEO of WeWork India. The discussion revealed key insights into the advantages and challenges of each option. Kamath, who has long favored renting, shed light on the uncertainty that often comes with renting. “The thing with renting, of all the advantages of renting, there is one disadvantage: you don’t have foresight as to when you can move out of the house. I had to move out of this house, whereas I might have liked to stay longer in this house,” he said. Kamath explained that the inconvenience of having to move often sways people toward buying their own homes.