Category Archives: India

Delhi police arrest Muslim journalist Mohammed Zubair over tweet from 2018

Posted on by

Journalists demand release of co-founder of Alt News after he was accused of insulting Hindus

The co-founder of a factchecking website has been arrested by police in Delhi weeks after he highlighted derogatory comments made by a spokesperson for Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) about the prophet Muhammad.

Mohammed Zubair, who set up the Alt News website, flagged the remarks made during a television debate at the end of May on Twitter, bringing them attention they may not otherwise have had.

Continue reading...

Concerns that India is ‘back door’ into Europe for Russian oil

Posted on by

Volume of Russian crude bought and then exported by India suggests some of it may end up in European petrol stations

The huge blue and red hull of the SCF Primorye came into port at Vadinar, western Gujarat, India, earlier this month. The 84,000-tonne oil tanker, built in 2009 and sailing under the Liberian flag, had arrived from the port at Ust-Luga, a settlement in Russia near the border with Estonia.

Until 2017, the Vadinar oil refinery was controlled by Essar – the Indian owner of the Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port. Since then a consortium including the sanctioned Russian state-owned oil firm Rosneft and the commodities trader Trafigura, which holds a 24.5% stake, have owned Nayara Energy, which runs the refinery.

Continue reading...

Senior ministers to retire before Victoria’s election – as it happened

Posted on by

Housing market posts first monthly decline since September 2020; at least 52 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Australian scientists celebrate world first

AAP is reporting that in a world first, Australian scientists have developed a device with “exquisite precision” that they say is a huge step towards a commercial quantum computer.

This is a remarkable piece of engineering. This experiment paves the way for larger and more complex quantum systems to be emulated in future.

It won’t be long before we can start to realise new materials that have never existed before.

All of this is just a fantasy because they don’t understand what actually happens at the bargaining table.

I think the Reserve Bank governor has weirdly changed his tune, he was the one who said so long as wages keep up with inflation and productivity, they are not inflationary.

Continue reading...

‘Like a scene from Titanic’: floods in Assam submerge entire villages

Posted on by

India’s monsoon season has been worse than usual, sweeping away possessions and leaving people huddling on raised ground

People living in Assam, in north-east India, are usually stoical about the flooding that occurs to a greater or lesser extent every monsoon season. But this year they say the situation is dramatically worse. “It was like a scene from Titanic,” one man told local media of the rising waters that have flooded all but two of the state’s districts.

In some places entire villages are under water, while across the state 114,000 hectares of crops have been submerged and 5,000 livestock have been washed away. For those that remain, fodder is running out.

Continue reading...

Indian police: grenade launcher seized from suspects in rapper’s murder

Posted on by

Hip-hop star Sidhu Moose Wala was shot dead in his car in Punjab last month

Indian police say have arrested three men accused of murdering hip-hop star Sidhu Moose Wala and that they have seized a cache of weaponry including a grenade launcher from the suspects.

Moose Wala – also known by his birth name Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu – was shot dead in his car in the northern state of Punjab last month.

Continue reading...

Thousands ransack railway station as protests intensify over India’s military hiring plan

Posted on by

Government announces concessions to scheme as police arrest at least 260 people and hundreds of train services cancelled due to unrest

Protesters in India’s eastern state of Bihar have damaged public property and ransacked offices in a railway station, expressing outrage at a new military recruitment plan and demanding the government reverse course.

The government of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, has introduced a scheme called Agnipath, or “path of fire”, designed to bring more people into the military on four-year contracts to lower the average age of India’s 1.38 million-strong armed forces.

Continue reading...

At least 59 dead and millions stranded as floods devastate India and Bangladesh

Posted on by

Lightning kills 21 and millions of homes submerged while armed forces asked to help amid continuing storms

At least 59 people died as floods cut a swatch across north-eastern India and Bangladesh, leaving millions of homes underwater, authorities said on Saturday.

In India’s Assam state, 18 people died in the floods or landslides and 2 million others had seen their homes submerged in flood waters since Thursday, the state disaster management agency said.

Continue reading...

India takes tough stand at climate talks as Delhi endures brutal heatwave

Posted on by

As capital swelters, India urges rich countries to provide funds to help deal with effects of climate crisis

Throughout the day Virender Sharma splashes water from a bucket on to the sheet he has pulled over his lilies, tuberoses, carnations and gerberas in an attempt to protect them from the hot, dry wind sweeping through Delhi.

But the street flower seller’s attempts to protect his produce is futile. Since the onset of a brutal heatwave in mid-March, his income has dropped by 60%.

Continue reading...

Indian state razes Muslim homes after riots over prophet remarks

Posted on by

Uttar Pradesh authorities demolish property belonging to people allegedly involved in unrest

Authorities in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh have demolished the homes of several people accused of involvement in riots last week triggered by derogatory remarks made by ruling party figures about the Prophet Muhammad.

Muslims have taken to the streets across India in recent weeks to protest against anti-Islamic remarks by two members of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP).

Continue reading...

Australian visa backlog keeping engineers out of country amid skills shortage

Posted on by

Wait time for 476 visa, for overseas graduates who want to work or study in Australia for up to 18 months, has blown out to 41 months

Australia’s vast visa backlog is trapping engineering graduates out of the country for up to four years, compounding the skills shortages and causing heartache, frustration and depression among applicants.

The engineering job vacancy rate has increased 97% in 12 months, something the main industry body, Engineers Australia, fears could have a “catastrophic” impact, including by delaying major infrastructure projects relied upon for the nation’s economic recovery.

Continue reading...

Reliance Industries and Apollo Global Management in £5bn bid for Boots

Posted on by

Mukesh Ambani teams up with US private equity fund, with Walgreens expected to retain minority stake

The Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries has teamed up with the US private equity fund Apollo Global Management to make a £5bn bid for the UK’s Boots chain.

The US group Walgreens, which has controlled the pharmacy and beauty retailer since 2012, is expected to keep a minority stake under the deal.

Continue reading...

Al-Qaida in Indian subcontinent plans revenge attacks over prophet remarks

Posted on by

Suicide bombings threatened after ‘slandering’ comments made by Hindu Bharatiya Janata party

Al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent has said it plans to carry out suicide bombings in revenge for the “insulting and slandering” remarks made by leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party about the prophet Muhammad and his wife, Aisha.

The Indian news agency ANI has reported that in a letter dated 6 June, AQIS – the regional branch of al-Qaida – warned that Hindu nationalist “terrorists should now await their end in Delhi and Bombay and in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat”.

Continue reading...

India: more countries join Muslim protests over Muhammad remarks

Posted on by

Disciplinary action against members of BJP fails to quell growing anger in Muslim world over comments insulting the prophet

Six more countries have joined diplomatic protests across the Muslim world over derogatory remarks insulting the prophet Muhammad made by spokespeople for the party of Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.

Indonesia, the UAE, the Maldives, Jordan, Bahrain and Libya have joined Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Afghanistan in lodging official complaints over comments from representatives of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party. Meanwhile hardline party members have reacted angrily to disciplinary action against the pair after their comments went viral in the Middle East.

Continue reading...

South Africa seeking to extradite Gupta brothers after arrest in Dubai

Posted on by

Police begin process to transport Indian-born pair wanted on criminal and money-laundering charges

Police in Dubai are coordinating with their South African counterparts to secure the extradition of two wealthy Indian-born brothers wanted by South African authorities on criminal and money-laundering charges who were arrested in the emirate on Monday.

Atul and Rajesh Gupta are accused of paying bribes in exchange for lucrative state contracts and influence over ministerial appointments during the chaotic nine-year presidency of Jacob Zuma, which ended amid allegations of systematic corruption in 2018. The brothers fled to Dubai shortly after Zuma’s fall from power.

Continue reading...

Prophet Muhammad remarks embroil India in row with Gulf states

Posted on by

‘Insulting’ comments by spokespeople for ruling Bharatiya Janata party met with anger in Middle East

The Indian government has become embroiled in a diplomatic row with Gulf states after two ruling party spokespeople were accused of making Islamophobic and derogatory comments insulting the prophet Muhammad.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) suspended its national spokesperson, Nupur Sharma, and expelled its Delhi media head, Naveen Kumar Jindal, after their comments went viral in the Middle East, where they were met with a chorus of diplomatic anger.

Continue reading...

‘Fear is increasing’: Hindus flee Kashmir amid spate of targeted killings

Posted on by

Increase in violence prompts protests and biggest exodus of Kashmiri Pandit families for two decades

Hundreds of minority Hindus have fled from Indian-administered Kashmir, and many more are preparing to leave, after a fresh spate of targeted killings stoked tensions in the disputed Himalayan region.

Three Hindus have been killed by militants in Kashmir this week alone, including a teacher and migrant workers, prompting mass protests and the largest exodus of Hindu families from the Muslim-majority region in two decades.

Continue reading...

Indian MP visiting Australia appears to equate Muslim conquest of India with Holocaust

Posted on by

BJP’s Tejasvi Surya’s comments come as Muslim student associations, religious groups and academics protest his visit

An Indian politician visiting Australia called the Muslim conquest of India “the bloodiest chapter in the history of the world” and appeared to equate it with the Holocaust amid a controversial speaking tour.

Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) MP Tejasvi Surya, in Australia to take part in a series of events, including the Australia India Youth Dialogue (AIYD), told an audience in Parramatta on Monday that the history of Islam is “writ large with bloodshed and violence.”

Continue reading...

Starmer urges PM to request India release UK citizen Jagtar Singh Johal

Posted on by

Labour leader writes to Boris Johnson after UN working group declared Johal’s five-year detention arbitrary

Keir Starmer has asked Boris Johnson to intervene and request that the Indian government release a British citizen after a UN working group declared his five-year detention arbitrary and without any legal basis.

In a letter, the Labour leader asks why Johnson has not acted to ask for the release of Jagtar Singh Johal given the findings of the UN report on arbitrary detention last month.

Continue reading...

Rohingya refugee deported from Kashmir to Myanmar reunited with family

Posted on by

Separated in March, Hasina Begum’s family have now settled in Bangladesh as India continues to deport Rohingya despite UN refugee status

A Rohingya woman deported to Myanmar from Indian-administered Kashmir in March has been reunited with her family in Bangladesh.

Hasina Begum, 37, was deported from Jammu despite having UN refugee status, leaving her husband and three children behind in Kashmir. She was the first Rohingya refugee to be deported from among 170 who were detained by authorities in the region in March 2021.

Continue reading...

Indian singer KK dies aged 53 after falling ill while performing

Posted on by

Krishnakumar Kunnath, a star Bollywood singer best known as KK, complained of feeling cold and unwell before collapsing

Star Bollywood singer Krishnakumar Kunnath, popularly known as KK, has died of a suspected heart attack at age 53 after a concert on Tuesday, prompting a flood of tributes from fans including Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

“His songs reflected a wide range of emotions as struck a chord with people of all age groups,” Modi said on Twitter.

Continue reading...