India | Pakistan

France and India are entering a new era of defence cooperation with plans to jointly produce Rafale fighter jets as well as helicopters, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, adding France also hopes to sell more submarines to India. India’s expected order for another 114 Rafales is a “new step forward” in defence ties between the two countries and France hopes to see this replicated with submarines as well, Macron told reporters at the end of a three-day visit to India. “On Rafale, what we want to do is expand. India confirmed a few days ago its willingness to command a new bunch of Rafales … 114 … and to co-produce in India,” Macron said. The Defence Acquisition Council of India’s defence ministry last week gave initial clearance to acquire 114 more Rafale jets for the air force, besides other planes and missiles, months after the worst fighting in decades between India and Pakistan. So far, India has purchased 36 Rafales for its air force and ordered another 26 marine versions of the jet for t...

Bill Gates pulled out of India’s AI Impact Summit hours before his scheduled keynote address on Thursday, dealing another blow to a flagship event already marred by organisational lapses, a robot row and complaints of traffic chaos. Gates’ absence, followed by another high-profile cancellation by Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, adds to a difficult opening for a summit billed as the first major artificial intelligence forum in the Global South, where India has sought to position itself as a leading voice in worldwide AI governance. The Gates Foundation said the billionaire will not deliver his address “to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit’s key priorities”. Only days ago, the foundation had dismissed rumours of his absence and insisted he was on track to attend. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for children’s safety on AI platforms as he addressed the gathering on Thursday, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. “We must be ...

An Indian university has been asked to vacate its stall at the country’s flagship artificial intelligence (AI) summit after a staff member was caught presenting a commercially available robotic dog made in China as its own creation, two government sources said. “You need to meet Orion. This has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias University,” Neha Singh, a professor of communications, told state-run broadcaster DD News this week in remarks that have since gone viral. But social media users quickly identified the robot as the Unitree Go2, sold by China’s Unitree Robotics for about $2,800 and widely used in research and education globally. The episode has drawn sharp criticism and has cast an uncomfortable spotlight on India’s artificial intelligence ambitions. The embarrassment was amplified by IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who shared the video clip on his official social media account before the backlash. The post was later deleted. The stall remained open to visitors as of Wednesday morni...

Google will build new subsea cables from its planned artificial intelligence (AI) hub in India and other locations, the US company announced on Wednesday, as New Delhi hosts a major artificial intelligence summit. Global tech giants are racing to unveil deals and investments in the country this week, as world leaders and top industry figures gather to discuss the opportunities and challenges that AI poses. Google’s announcement follows its October commitment to spend $15 billion over five years to construct its largest AI infrastructure hub outside the United States, in Visakhapatnam, an Indian port city in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, also known as Vizag. The US giant said it would build “three subsea paths connecting India to Singapore, South Africa, and Australia”. It will also create “four strategic fiber-optic routes that bolster network resilience and capacity between the United States, India, and multiple locations across the Southern Hemisphere”. These would include a direct cable connect...

Indian cricket greats Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev joined a dozen other former international captains on Tuesday in demanding better prison treatment for “one of the finest all-rounders” of the game, former prime minister Imran Khan. Cricketer-turned-politician Imran, 73, has been in jail since August 2023, convicted in a string of cases that he says were politically driven following his ouster in a 2022 parliamentary vote. Imran’s lawyer, Salman Safdar, told the Supreme Court last week that the former premier had lost a significant amount of vision in his right eye while in custody. On Monday, a medical board said the swelling had reduced after treatment, and his vision had improved. On Tuesday, former India captains Gavaskar and Kapil signed a petition expressing “deep concern” about Imran’s treatment and prison conditions. Former Australia captain Greg Chappell, his brother Ian Chappell and compatriots Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Belinda Clark and Kim Hughes have signed the petition. England’s Mike Atherton...

LAHORE: A Pakistani national was repatriated to his home country from India on Tuesday after spending 17 years in jail on charges of spying. “Muhammad Shahid Iqbal Bhatti, a Pakistani citizen imprisoned in India, was repatriated to Pakistan via the Wagah-Attari border today,” Pakistan’s High Commission in India said in a post on X. Separately, an official told Dawn that Bhatti was a resident of Kasur and was handed a 17-year sentence by an Indian court after he was accused of spying for Pakistan. Quoting Indian media reports, he said Bhatti was arrested in August 2008 by police in Indian Punjab. While in custody, he was interrogated for living in India allegedly without legal documents, the official said, adding that the then-chief manager of the State Bank of India had filed a complaint against him in November 2008. “Subsequently, Bhatti was sentenced by a court and sent to jail on charges of spying. He spent nearly 17 years of his life in prison,” the official said. He further said that as Bhatti’s prison t...

Spinner Usman Tariq said on Tuesday he was confident that Pakistan can bounce back from their T20 World Cup drubbing against India and seal qualification for the next round. India’s 61-run romp means Pakistan must beat Namibia in their final match in Colombo on Wednesday to qualify for the Super Eights. A defeat would eliminate Pakistan, who are third behind the USA on net run rate in Group A. It would also leave an outside chance for the Netherlands to qualify, but they would need a big win over co-hosts India in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. “Lifting the team is only difficult when you don’t work on your mistakes committed in the last game,” Tariq told reporters. “We have worked on our mistakes, so I think it will not be a tough task. “We have a resolve not to commit the same mistakes again.” Pakistan were criticised for asking India to bat then folding meekly for 114 in 18 overs chasing a stiff 176 target. “We can feel their (fans’) disappointment because the match is watched by the whole nation,” Tariq said. “S...

French President Emmanuel Macron begins a three-day visit to India on Tuesday, with talks focused on artificial intelligence cooperation and a potential multibillion-dollar Dassault Rafale fighter jet deal. France is seeking to expand its military partnership with New Delhi, with discussions expected on a potential contract for 114 additional French fighter jets. Macron and his wife Brigitte arrived around midnight on Monday in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, for his fourth visit to India since taking office in 2017. He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi later on Tuesday. Macron will then travel to New Delhi for an artificial intelligence summit on Wednesday and Thursday. The visit follows New Delhi’s confirmation last week that it intends to place a major order for Rafale jets, as well as the signing of a landmark free trade agreement between India and the European Union in January. ‘Contract of the century’ New Delhi has sought over the past decade to reduce its dependence on Russia, its t...

Pakistan on Sunday lost their blockbuster clash with arch-rivals India by 61 runs, being bowled out for 114 in Colombo. With the win against Pakistan, India made it to the Super Eight. Pakistan, however, will have to beat Namibia in their last group-stage match on February 18 to qualify for the next round. After the match, criticism of the national team’s performance flooded social media, coming from former players and cricketing icons. Former Pakistan player and commentator Ramiz Raja called the match “a bit of a disaster — especially batting”. “India have been fielding [the] same bowling attack against Pakistan since last two or three years, and every time [the] batsmen have been woefully ordinary,” he said in a post on X, adding that there was no growth. Meanwhile, former Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf took aim at Shaheen Shah Afridi, Babar Azam and Shadab Khan, saying that “time’s up” for them. “Pakistan’s T20 squad needs new performers, not empty wins against weaker sides,” he said. Former opener Ahmed...

There are nights when Pakistan versus India feels like theatre: breathless, chaotic, hanging by a thread. And then there are nights like the one in Colombo. At the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, this was not a last-over classic or a heart-stopping choke. It was clinical. India posted 175, Pakistan were rolled for 114. A 61-run defeat. No controversy to dissect, no umpiring debate to hide behind, no “if only” moments to cling to. Just a gulf. Here are five takeaways from a game that was disappointingly straightforward. Agha’s captaincy: bold or baffling? Salman Ali Agha did not hide behind convention and that alone deserves akcnowledgement. He decided to chase on a slow Colombo surface that was expected to grip more under lights. Bold. He opened the bowling himself and dismissed Abhishek Sharma for a duck - poetic, especially after publicly stating he wanted the Indian opener to play. He even promoted himself to bat at no.3 earlier in the tournament, leading by example. But bold decisions are a double-edged sword. O...

As India races to narrow the artificial intelligence gap with the United States and China, it is planning a vast new “data city” to power digital growth on a staggering scale, the man spearheading the project says. “The AI revolution is here, no second thoughts about it,” said Nara Lokesh, information technology minister for Andhra Pradesh state, which is positioning the city of Visakhapatnam as a cornerstone of India’s AI push. “And as a nation… we have taken a stand that we’ve got to embrace it,” he told AFP ahead of an international AI summit next week in New Delhi. Lokesh boasts the state has secured investment agreements of $175 billion involving 760 projects, including a $15bn investment by Google for its largest AI infrastructure hub outside the United States. And a joint venture between India’s Reliance Industries, Canada’s Brookfield and US firm Digital Realty is investing $11bn to develop an AI data centre in the same city. Visakhapatnam — home to around two million people and popularly known as “Vi...

India captain Suryakumar Yadav admitted on Saturday that no matter how much his team tried to prepare for Sunday’s T20 World Cup clash against Pakistan as “just another game”, it would be much more than that. “It’s a big platform, obviously,” Suryakumar told reporters in Colombo, venue for Sunday’s massive Group A showdown. “No matter how much you say that it’s just another game, it is a big game.” The biggest and most lucrative clash in world cricket has sold out the 35,000-capacity R Premadasa stadium with hundreds of millions more expected to watch on television. The game was only confirmed as going ahead late on Monday night after the government reversed its decision to boycott the blockbuster Group A game. “We don’t play them often, don’t even play them regularly,” said the Indian skipper. “But at the end of the day, we try to keep things simple and try to execute our best game. “There is pressure, but there is a big opportunity,” said Suryakumar. “According to me, when you play an India-Pakistan game, i...

Prices of flights and hotel bookings to Colombo, Sri Lanka, have soared as thousands of fans flock to the city to watch India play Pakistan on Sunday in cricket’s Twenty20 World Cup. The neighbouring countries and cricket rivals are due to meet during the group stage of the tournament, which is being co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, after Pakistan reversed a decision to boycott the match earlier in the week. The game at Sri Lanka’s largest stadium is sold out with roughly 35,000 tickets sold, and ahead of the match, most hotels in Colombo have doubled their prices — the cost of a room has climbed as high as $660 a night from a typical price tag of about $100-$150 per night, multiple booking sites showed. After the match was finalised this week, last-minute bookings led to fuller flights from major cities like Chennai and Delhi, according to three Colombo travel agencies. Flights from Chennai, which is about one and a half hours away, have more than tripled to around $623-$756, while flights from Delhi are up...

The World Health Organisation has said the risk of the deadly Nipah virus spreading was low after three cases of infection were recently confirmed in India and Bangladesh. Nipah, which spreads from animals to humans, has no vaccine and a fatality rate ranging from 40 to 75 per cent, according to the UN health body. “In the past few weeks, three cases of Nipah — two in India and one in Bangladesh — made headlines and caused concern about a wider outbreak,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference in Geneva on Wednesday. WHO assessed the risk of spread of the Nipah virus regionally and globally and found it low, he added. Two cases of Nipah were confirmed last month in India’s West Bengal state, while one patient died in Bangladesh last week after contracting the virus. “The two outbreaks were not related, although both occurred along the India-Bangladesh border, and share some of the same ecological and cultural conditions, as well as populations of the species of fruit bat that are known t...

Indian defence officials on Thursday cleared the purchase of $39 billion worth of defence equipment, including more French Rafale jets, days ahead of a visit to the country by France’s President Emmanuel Macron. A defence ministry source told AFP that the clearance covered the purchase of 114 Rafale fighter jets, adding to the dozens already used by the Indian Air Force (IAF). “The procurement … will enhance the capability of undertaking air dominance roles across the spectrum of conflict and significantly boost the deterrence capabilities of IAF with long-range offensive strikes,” India’s defence ministry said in a statement, without specifying the number of jets being purchased. The approval by the defence acquisition council — comprising top military officers and the defence minister — is an important first step for any military hardware purchase in the country. “The majority of MRFA (Multi Role Fighter Aircraft) to be procured will be manufactured in India,” the statement added. New Delhi has pushed hard ...

Prolific India opener Abhishek Sharma was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday after being treated for an upset stomach, teammate Tilak Varma told reporters. The explosive left-hander is an integral part of India’s T20 World Cup title defence and is doubtful for the Group A fixture against Namibia on Thursday in New Delhi. “He has been discharged today and he is doing well,” Varma, an attacking batter, told reporters on the eve of the match at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium. “We have got one more day for the game. Hopefully, we decide by tomorrow on how he feels and we’ll go with it.” The 25-year-old was admitted to a Delhi hospital on Tuesday with a stomach issue he had carried since their opening win on Saturday, an official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Abhishek was out for a duck in India’s win over the United States. India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is expected to return for the second group match after he missed the opener due to having a fever, Varma said. India will move on after the Namib...

India’s oil minister said on Wednesday he had communicated with and met the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during his time in the United States, but said he had no connection to any wrongdoings or crimes. Hardeep Singh Puri, a career diplomat-turned-politician, said he was part of the International Peace Institute, a New York think tank headed by Norwegian diplomat and former cabinet minister Terje Roed-Larsen until 2020, and met Epstein “three or maximum four times” during his time there. Roed-Larsen, 78, has apologised for his connection to Epstein and his wife, Mona Juul, a Norwegian ambassador, stepped down over her links to Epstein. Puri’s comments came in response to questions by India’s opposition leader Rahul Gandhi in parliament on Wednesday. Gandhi said Puri’s name had been mentioned in Epstein’s emails and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to clarify what his dealings with Epstein were. Puri, who served as India’s ambassador to the United Nations from 2009-2...

In international cricket, principle is often loud, emotional and instantly gratifying. Strategy, on the other hand, is quieter, slower, and frequently misunderstood. Pakistan’s decision to eventually agree to play India on February 15 falls squarely in the latter category, and despite the initial optics, it is the right call. The dramatic boycott call did what it needed to do early on. It created noise, unsettled the International Cricket Council (ICC), and earned Pakistan something it has been desperately short of in recent years: an ally. Bangladesh’s open friction with the ICC and India over security, scheduling and governance issues suddenly aligned its interests with Pakistan’s. A meeting between the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials taking place in Lahore on Feb 8, 2026. — Screengrab via PCB video The alignment may be situational for now, but in a cricketing ecosystem where Pakistan often finds itself isolated, even a temporary ally matters. In what seemed li...

WASHINGTON: The United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) office has removed a controversial map of India from its official X (formerly Twitter) account after Pakistan lodged a strong diplomatic protest over the depiction of internationally-recognised disputed territories as part of India, diplomatic sources told Dawn on Wednesday. The map, which accompanied a USTR press release announcing a framework for an interim US-India trade agreement, showed the entire Jammu and Kashmir region — including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan — within Indian boundaries. It also depicted China’s Aksai Chin region as part of India, despite the fact that the area is claimed by China and remains disputed. It was posted on the site on Friday evening, but had been removed by Monday evening, which was also the first working day after the weekend. Diplomatic sources said Pakistan conveyed its protest both to the US Embassy in Islamabad and to State Department officials in Washington, stressing that the map contradicted...

India on Tuesday said it would be “a challenge” to face a “quality” Pakistan team in Colombo after Islamabad decided to play the blockbuster T20 World Cup clash. “It’s great that the game is back on, we kind of never changed the preparation,” said India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate. India will face a second Group A match against Namibia on Thursday in New Delhi before flying to Sri Lanka. It means a quick turnaround for Sunday’s match, the biggest and most lucrative clash in world cricket. “It’s going to be a challenge going to Colombo where Pakistan have been for the last two weeks,” added Ten Doeschate. “We are delighted to have another chance to play against a quality side in the first phase of the tournament. “We are fully focused on just bringing our best game to that fixture.” Sri Lanka, who will host the match that generates multi-millions of dollars in advertising, broadcast rights, sponsorship and tourism, also praised the decision. Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, in a social med...