Modi, Obama have forged close working relationship: think-tank

Modi, Obama have forged close working relationship: think-tank

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gone from somebody who was basically a "pariah" to someone who is now going to be celebrated in the course of just two years, a top American think-tank has said ahead of his meeting with US PresidentBarack Obama at the White House next week.

"This would probably be the Prime Minister's seventh meeting with the President since he took office which probably is a record both for Modi and for the President with respect to meeting a head of government from a country which is not a formal ally of the United States," Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment forInternational Peace said yesterday.

"This speaks to the personal relationship that the two have developed over the last two years and also the surprising quality of it, given the history that Modi had with the United States," Tellis said ahead of the Obama-Modi meeting on June 7 at the White House.

During his US visit, the Prime Minister will also address a joint meeting of the US Congress on June 8.

"The close personal relationship that has now developed between Modi and Obama is one of the surprises of the last two years," Tellis said.

Echoing Tellis, Milan Vaishnav of Carnegie said the personal transformation that Modi has undergone is nothing short of remarkable.

"In the course of just two years, Modi has gone from just who could not step foot on American soil as a legal matter to addressing a joint meeting of the US Congress. He has gone from somebody who was basically a pariah to someone who is now going to be celebrated by Washington.Read more.

Russia raids on Syria city kill 23 civilians

Russia raids on Syria city kill 23 civilians

Russian warplanes pounded an Al-Qaeda-held city in northwestern Syria before dawn on Tuesday killing 23 civilians in the heaviest strikes in months, a monitoring group said.

Dozens of civilians were also wounded in the raids on Idlib, a provincial capital held by Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front and its allies since March last year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Al-Nusra is not party to a Russian-and US-brokered ceasefire that went into force on February 27 between Moscow-backed government forces and Washington-backed non-jihadist rebels.

"The air strikes are the most intensive on Idlib since the beginning of the truce," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told.

"Even though Idlib is not covered by the truce, it had been relatively calm with only intermittent raids," he added.

The strikes hit near a hospital and a public garden.

Moscow has been carrying out an air campaign in support of its Damascus ally since September last year.Read More

20 killed in massive fire at Maharashtra ammunition depot

Two army officers and 18 jawans are feared dead in a massive fire at the Indian Army's central ammunition depot in Pulgaon in easternMaharashtra that houses the biggest stockpile of weapons in the country.

Another 19, including the commanding officer and the deputy commandant, have been injured.

The fire has been raging since 2 a.m Tuesday, reports said. The cause of the fire, however, is yet to be ascertained.

The fire at the ammo dump spread after secondary explosions. Villages in the vicinity have been evacuated.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is reported to be on his way to the site.

According to TV reports, mild explosions are still being heard from the area.

"The main fire at one of the sheds has been extinguished. The situation is being stabilised. Secondary fire and explosions cannot be ruled out now," the Army officer said refusing to go into the reasons of the fire. Read more.

6 killed, 20 injured in two bomb attacks in Turkey

Six persons, including two police officers, were killed and 20 others were injured in two bomb attacks in Turkey's Sirnak province on Monday, local media reported.

In the first attack, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants placed explosives under manhole cover and detonated it with remote control while a police vehicle was passing, killing four and injuring 19 people, Xinhua news agency reported.

Two police officers were killed and one other was injured in the second attack by the PKK members in Van province. The bomb was detonated with remote control targeting an armoured police car.Read More

MNS files FIR against AIB's Tanmay Bhat for video mocking Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Mangeshkar

MNS files FIR against AIB's Tanmay Bhat for video mocking Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Mangeshkar

A video from stand-up comic Tanmay Bhat, who is also co-founder of comic group All India Bakchod (AIB), in which he mimics venerated Bollywood playback singer Lata Mangeshkar and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has evoked a sharp reaction from the film fraternity as well as the political class.

On Monday, the Raj Thackeray-led MNS filed an FIR against Bhat and pledged to ban his shows in Mumbai.

MNS Chitrapat Sena' president Ameya Khopkar on Monday morning filed the police report in Shivaji Part and has demanded that the video uploaded by Bhatt be removed immediately.

The All India Bakchod (AIB) comedian reportedly posted the video on May 26 on Facebook titled "Sachin vs Lata Civil War" and made jokes about both, along with the disclaimer: "I make such nonsense on my Snapchat."

Using Snapchat’s face swap filter, Bhat first imitated Tendulkar, mocked Virat Kohli, saying who is a better player, Virat or Sachin, and then took a dig at Mangeshkar.

Some of the catch phrases that evoked criticism were:

“No, I’m very respectful for Virat. He is very good with bat and ladies.”

“Lata tai namaskar. Very respectfully I’d like to add that you are 5,000 years old.”

Read More.

Swachh Bharat, Digital India score poorly, top rating for Railways

Swachh Bharat, Digital India score poorly, top rating for Railways

The National Democratic Alliance government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has kicked off a two-part survey where the people will rate its policies and initiatives as it completes two years in office. Thousands have already joined in to answer the 30 questions covering anything from foreign policy to signature schemes such as Swachh Bharat, Digital India and Make In India, hosted on the citizen engagement platform mygov,in.

While Make in India, ease of doing business and controlling corruption figure somewhere in the middle of the ratings, other schemes such as Swachh Bharat, Digital India and unearthing black money have scored the least.

Initial data captured on the portal will make Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu happy. More than 74 per cent of the people who have participated in the survey so far have given 5 stars to the government effort in modernising Indian Railways, taking it to the top position out of a total of 15 schemes. Only 1.04 per cent of the people have given it 1 star. Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari is next with 65.8 per cent people giving 5 stars to government efforts in providing highway connectivity. It is the only sector where nobody has given it the lowest grade of 1.

The NDA's foreign policy has scored high as well with 63.21 per cent giving the initiative 5 stars. It got 1 star from 3.63 per cent of the respondents. The PM himself has mostly been at the forefront of the foreign policy initiatives, though Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj is also seen having contributed to the overall effort.Click here to read the full article.