India | Pakistan

India, one of the world’s largest sugar producers, has banned exports of the key commodity until the end of September to ensure enough domestic supplies and prevent prices from rising. The government prohibited exports “with immediate effect”, according to an order issued late on Wednesday, other than limited exceptions, including consignments already in the pipeline. Exports under government deals for food security with other countries would also be allowed, the order said. The ban will stay in place until September 30. The move comes amid concerns that the country’s next sugar harvest, which starts around October, could be affected by a lower-than-average monsoon because of the El Nino weather pattern. The US-Iran war has strained India’s economy, heavily reliant on Middle Eastern energy supplies and fertiliser imports, and has cast uncertainty over New Delhi’s growth outlook. India’s sugar exports have fallen sharply since their peak in 2021-22, government data shows. Shipments reached a record 11 million ...

India has boosted its import tariffs on gold and silver in an effort to shore up the sagging value of the rupee and bolster foreign currency reserves hit by war in the Middle East. Gold imports are financed through dollars, which means buyers have to spend down foreign reserves or convert rupees to make purchases. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already appealed days ago to the public to avoid buying gold for a year as the rupee’s year-long slide against the dollar has worsened during the Iran war. The government more than doubled import taxes on gold and silver to about 15 per cent from the existing 6pc, according to two official orders issued late Tuesday. The energy supply crisis caused by the Mideast war’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of the world’s crude passed — has hit India hard. India is the world’s third-largest oil importer and the spiking cost of petroleum has hit its foreign currency reserves. Elevated crude oil prices have increased India’s import bill, putting additi...

A powerful Hindu group from which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party emerged claimed on Tuesday it had organised foreign visits, including to the US, to counter perceptions that it is a paramilitary outfit involved in attacks on minority communities. The outreach by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or National Volunteer Organisation, came after the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a report in November that it “has been involved in acts of extreme violence and intolerance against members of minority groups for decades”. The commission is a bipartisan body of the US federal government that monitors religious freedom around the world and makes policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state and the US Congress. Modi joined the RSS in his youth, and the rise of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to near-national dominance is widely attributed to the RSS’ vast network of volunteers, during a period marked by a hardening Hindu-Muslim political divide in the offic...

The National Assembly on Monday unanimously approved a resolution hailing the armed forces’ “befitting response” to India’s unprovoked military aggression during last year’s May conflict. The conflict with India — starting from the April 22 Pahalgam attack to the end of Operation Bunyanum Marsoos with a ceasefire between the two countries on May 10 — has been dubbed “Marka-i-Haq” (Battle of Truth) by the state. Today, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar moved the resolution, which stated that the NA paid “rich tributes to the gallant armed forces of Pakistan”. It noted that the armed forces, under the leadership and command of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir, “launched Operation Bunyanum Marsoos on May 10, 2025, delivering a befitting response to this aggression”. The NA deplored that in the “aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist incident on April 22, 2025 in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, a malicious campaign was immediately orchestrated by the Indian...

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that the Pakistan Air Force delivered a strong response to India during what he described as “Marka-e-Haq,” claiming that Indian confidence in Rafale fighter jets was severely undermined.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recalled the “historic” response of Pakistan to India during Marka-i-Haq on Sunday as he addressed a ceremony held at the Pakistan Monument in Islamabad to commemorate the conflict’s first anniversary. The conflict with India — starting from the April 22 Pahalgam attack to the end of Operation Bunyanum Marsoos with a ceasefire between the two countries on May 10 — has been called “Marka-i-Haq” (Battle of Truth) by the state. President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir were among those attending the ceremony in Islamabad, where Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Naveed Ashraf and Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Baber Sidhu were also present. PM Shehbaz began his address by observing one minute of silence for those martyred during the period of conflict. Recalling the conflict, PM Shehbaz said that India “using Pahalgam as an excuse, made baseless accusations against us”. And despite Pakistan offering a transpa...

A year ago, Pakistan and India fought a short but intense war — the worst military confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours in decades. During the period of Marka-i-Haq (the battle for truth), Indian fighter jets were shot down, and Pakistan launched Operation Bunyanum Marsoos — a barrage of attacks against Indian military targets — in retaliation for missile strikes by New Delhi. The conflict ended with a US-brokered ceasefire. During the four-day war, Pakistan showcased a wide variety of weaponry and military technology, ranging from advanced missiles to network-linked warfare systems. Let’s take a look at some of them here. ‘Seeing without seeing’ — network-centric warfare One of the deadliest tools in Pakistan’s arsenal was unleashed in the early hours of May 7: the use of network-centric warfare. This doctrine involves sharing real-time data and information across multiple domains, such as between fighter jets, airborne early warning aircraft and ground-based command centres, to gain an adv...

WASHINGTON: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has once again urged the US State Department to declare India a “country of particular concern,” citing its 2026 assessment and hearing over “ongoing, systematic, and egregious religious freedom conditions” in the country. The issue was examined during an in-person hearing in Washington on Thursday, where commissioners, lawmakers, scholars, and legal experts shared their views on conditions faced by religious minorities in India, including Christians, Muslims, Sikhs and Dalits, as well as allegations of growing transnational repression targeting critics abroad. USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler said India’s trajectory on religious freedom had continued to decline. She stated: “Our 2026 Annual Report, USCIRF once again recommended that the State Department designate India as a ‘country of particular concern’ for its ongoing, systematic, and egregious religious freedom conditions.” Hartzler added that under the current political envi...

Pakistani players and teams will be able to participate in multilateral events hosted by India but bilateral events ​remain off the table, India’s sports ministry has said. India ‌also said the visa process for sportspersons and officials will be simplified, while office bearers of international sports governing bodies will be ​granted multi-entry visas. “With regard to international and multilateral events, ​in India or abroad, we are guided by the ⁠practices of international sports bodies and the interest of ​our own sportspersons,” the ministry said in a memorandum. “It is ​also relevant to take into account India’s emergence as a credible venue to host international sports events.” “In so far as bilateral sports events in each other’s country are concerned, Indian teams will not be ⁠participating in ​competitions in Pakistan. Nor will we ​permit Pakistani teams to play in India,” the ministry added. The statement comes as India is set to host the Commonwealth Games ​in 2030, while they have also bid for t...

India opens door to Pakistani athletes

Vietnamese President To Lam is expected to discuss expanding defence ties with India during a visit to New Delhi this week, including the potential purchase of BrahMos missiles jointly developed with Russia, two sources said. India, which has been building up domestic defence manufacturing for local use and exports, has already sold the supersonic cruise missiles to the Philippines and signed a contract with Indonesia in March. A deal with Vietnam could be worth about 60 billion Indian rupees ($629 million), including training and logistical support, said one of the sources. India considers Vietnam a key part of its strategy to ensure stability in the Indo-Pacific region amid China’s growing influence. A third source said some defence cooperation announcements could be made during To Lam’s May 5-7 visit, though no signing of a weapons deal was expected. To Lam arrived on Tuesday in the eastern city of Bodh Gaya, a Buddhist pilgrimage site, on Tuesday. All the sources declined to be identified as they were not...

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday hailed Pakistan’s “victory” against India during last year’s military conflict, affirming that the country was “not a nation that bows”. He was addressing an event in Karachi organised by the Sindh government to commemorate Marka-i-Haq, where Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah also spoke. The term “Marka-i-Haq” is used by the state to refer to the 2025 conflict with India, starting from the April 22 Pahalgam attack to the end of Operation Bunyanum Marsoos with a ceasefire on May 10. “This victory was not the victory of weapons alone. It was a triumph of resolve. It was a triumph of unity and of people who refused to kneel,” said Bilawal, who is also the former foreign minister and had led a delegation abroad to convey Pakistan’s stance on the conflict. “From the mountains of the north to the shores of the Arabian Sea, from the fields of Punjab to the deserts of Sindh and Balochistan, Pakistan stood as one,” he affirmed. “We are not a nation that bows before pressure. W...

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has alleged that India is conducting a proxy war against Pakistan through Afghanistan, intensifying already strained regional security rhetoric.

India raised on Friday the prices of commercial liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and jet fuel for international airlines, according to a state-run energy firm, as supply pressures from the Middle East war mount. The South Asian nation is heavily dependent on imported energy, including for roughly 60 per cent of its LPG, the fuel used for cooking by a vast section of its population, the largest in the world. As imports have been disrupted since the Middle East war began in late February, New Delhi has moved to ensure households and essential sectors remain adequately supplied, leaving many restaurants, manufacturers and power plants in the lurch. The government has maintained that India faces no overall fuel shortage. “Prices of bulk and commercial LPG cylinders have been revised,” the state-run Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), the country’s leading energy marketing company, said. IOCL’s price chart shows an increase of 993 rupees ($10.50) in the price of a 19 kilogramme LPG cylinder meant for commercial us...

Tech giant Google on Tuesday marked the ceremonial start of work on its largest artificial intelligence hub outside of the United States with a groundbreaking ceremony in India. The firm promised in October 2025 to spend $15 billion over five years to construct the vast centre in Visakhapatnam, a southeastern port in Andhra Pradesh state of around two million people, popularly known as “Vizag”. “Today marks the first concrete milestone in Google’s largest commitment to India’s digital future,” Bikash Koley, Google’s Vice President for Global Infrastructure, told the ceremony. “This project represents a $15bn blueprint to deliver a full stack AI ecosystem,” he added. “At its core is our gigawatt scale data centre campus, purpose built for the immense computational demand of the AI era, powering services like Gemini and Google Search.” Nara Lokesh, information technology minister for Andhra Pradesh state, said he was “excited as we embark on this journey to build India’s most coveted AI and deep-tech hub”. Viza...

India declares IIOJK seminary unlawful under UAPA

India named veteran politician Dinesh Trivedi as its next high commissioner to Bangladesh on Monday, in a rare appointment of a non-foreign service officer as New Delhi seeks to reset ties with its eastern neighbour. Ties between the countries soured after a popular uprising forced Bangladesh’s long-serving Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to New Delhi in 2024, where she remains. Trivedi’s appointment highlights India’s push to rebuild trust with Bangladesh as it faces stiff competition from China for influence and business. Trivedi, 75, a former railways and health minister, joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2021 from a regional party in West Bengal, a border state that plays a key role in India’s ties with Bangladesh and where Modi has been seeking to expand his party’s influence in ongoing local elections. “He is expected to take up the assignment shortly,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement about Trivedi. Relations between the two countries beg...

India and New Zealand signed a free trade deal on Monday as they seek to boost exports amid global economic uncertainty made worse by the war in the Middle East. Negotiations over the agreement concluded in December 2025, and will see India gain greater access for a range of products, including engineering goods, machinery and textiles, while also protecting its sensitive dairy sector. “This forward-looking agreement will also facilitate $20 billion of investment into India,” New Delhi’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said after signing the agreement alongside his New Zealand counterpart, Todd McClay. New Delhi, in return, has offered to reduce tariff barriers in sectors such as forestry, lamb and wool, while granting quota-based access for fruits such as apples. Two-way trade remains modest. Indian data showed merchandise trade at about $1.3bn in 2024-25, while total goods and services trade was estimated at roughly $2.4bn in 2024. The deal was struck at a time when US President Donald Trump’s tariff war had...

India will bid to host the 2038 Asian Games in Ahmedabad, the country’s Olympic chief told Reuters on Saturday, in its latest push to stage elite multi-sport events. The world’s most populous nation will stage the 2030 Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad and is also bidding for the 2036 Olympic Games in the western Indian city. “Indian Olympic Association has already sent an expression of interest to OCA (Olympic Council of Asia) for organising the 2038 Asian Games in Ahmedabad,” IOA President P. T. Usha told Reuters by telephone from China. “I met the OCA president and other functionaries here and they are all happy and want to support us.” Former Olympian Usha is in China to attend the Asian Beach Games in Sanya. “They had an EC (executive committee) meeting here where they discussed it. They will be sending an evaluation committee to India very soon,” she added. India hosted the inaugural Asian Games in 1951 in New Delhi and again in 1982 in the capital city. The country hosted the 2010 Commonwealth Games, whi...

India on Thursday criticised as inappropriate a post by US President Donald Trump that called the South Asian country a “hellhole.” The comments come ahead of a planned visit next month to India by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who would seek to turn the page on recent tensions between the normally friendly powers. Trump late Wednesday posted on social media a screed apparently written by someone else denouncing the US constitutional right to citizenship of everyone born in the country. The post accused Indian immigrants in the tech industry of not hiring white native-born Americans and inaccurately alleged that Indian immigrants lack English proficiency. “A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet,” the post said. The Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, responded that the remarks were “obviously uninformed, inappropriate, and in poor taste.” He added, “They certainly do not reflect the realit...