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Saturday, June 27, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
FINANCE-INDIA: Powerful Lobbies Still Resist Value-added Tax Laws
A key piece of tax reform in India continues to come up against stiff resistance by powerful lobbies, including those within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that is known for its proximity to small traders.IRAQ: India Slams U.S. Action, but Hopes for Reconstruction Deals
India may have passed a resolution in Parliament condemning the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, but still hopes to recover two billion U.S. dollars worth of debt owed by the Saddam Hussein government - and even bag a few reconstruction subcontracts.POLITICS: India Makes Another Peace Overture to Pakistan
For the third time in his five years as India's prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee has extended the hand of peace to neighbouring Pakistan, offering to settle the long-standing dispute over Kashmir through talks.INDIA: Again, the Sacred Bovine Strays into Politics
Secular-minded politicians in India are discovering that keeping cows off busy roads in this majority-Hindu country is as impossible a task as keeping the sacred bovines from straying into politics at critical moments.POLITICS: After Iraq, South Asia’s Nukes May be Next U.S. Target
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, South Asian nuclear rivals India and Pakistan are busy pointing fingers and trying to draw Washington's attention to the weapons of mass destruction possessed by the other.ECONOMY-INDIA: Trader Lobbies Resist Rational Tax System
Once again, India's powerful traders have resisted the introduction of value added tax (VAT), a key element in rationalising the country's inefficient and corruption-ridden taxation system.HEALTH: India Still Cool to Pneumonia-like Bug
With nary a case of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) surfacing in India, authorities remain cool to the mystery pneumonia-like bug that has claimed 80 lives and infected more than 2,000 others worldwide.POLITICS: Indian Suspicions Signal New Tensions in Kashmir
Claiming a build-up of death squads in Pakistan across the border from disputed Kashmir, India said Wednesday that it is considering a massive beefing up of troops on its side of the Muslim-majority state, a move that may well portend a new round of tensions between the rival nations.IRAQ: Kashmir Problem Muddies India’s Stand on Iraq
Activists staged here on Monday the biggest of a series of rallies aimed at eliciting a stronger official stand against the war in Iraq from India, a government that says it needs western support on its dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir.IRAQ: Anti-war Protests Picking up in India, More Coming
The brief detention of a key Muslim leader in India and his supporters outside the Kuwait Embassy soon after Friday prayers this week, seemed to signal the start of a new phase of anti-war agitations in this country, home to 120 million Muslims.IRAQ: Software Stakes in U.S. Ensure Muted War Protests in India
‘'Given a chance, most Indians would emigrate to the United States tomorrow,'' is how Christopher Raj, professor of American studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University here, explains the muted, if not indifferent, public attitude in this country to the war on Iraq.INDIA: Killings Put Pressure on Peace Approach by Kashmir Gov’t
The Sunday killings of 24 Hindus in India's Muslim-majority state of Kashmir has shaken its new government, which was popularly elected in September on a mandate to bring peace to the territory long disputed by neighbouring Pakistan.IRAQ: Foes India and Pakistan ‘United’ against War
If there is one issue on which South Asia's bitter rivals India and Pakistan can see eye-to-eye on, it is their opposition to the U.S.-led war on Iraq.POLITICS: India Hits Unilateralism in Iraq, Anti-War Calls Rise
Indian officials kept up their opposition to the imminent, U.S.-led war on Iraq on Wednesday amid rising anti-war protests here, ranging from marches by Muslims and peace activists to calls for a boycott of U.S. and British goods.HEALTH: WHO Overreacting to Mystery Diseas – Indian Experts
Indian experts who have experience with the 1984 pneumonic plague scare in the western port city of Surat say the World Health Organisation (WHO) may be overreacting to the mysterious atypical pneumonia that has killed five people and affected hundreds in western China, where it is thought to have originated.ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Sceptics Question Plan to Link Major Rivers
On paper, India's ambitious, 112 billion U.S. dollar project to link together its major river systems looks good enough to drown out its most trenchant critics.POLITICS: India Takes Stance, Opposes Unilateral Action on Iraq
Bowing to pressure from both political allies and opposition and left-wing groups, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee formally stated in Parliament Wednesday that India opposes unilateral military action against Iraq and any forced regime change there.DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: Genetically Modified Food Aid Rejected
Not too many people were surprised when India, which is staggering under a 48 million tonne foodgrain surplus, rejected last week imports of 23,000 tonnes of corn and soya blend suspected to be contain genetically modified corn.DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: Support for Public Health Still Weak
India's continued lack of commitment toward public health is reflected in the government's latest budget, which public health experts and funders say is pushing it deeper into the privatisation of services that overlook the needs of the most needy.POLITICS-SOUTH ASIA: Cricket is War by Other Means
No sporting event can better prove the Orwellian thesis - that games between national teams are a ''continuation of war by other means'' - than a clash on the cricket pitch between eternal rivals India and Pakistan.POLITICS-INDIA: Communal Politics Defeated in State Poll
The pro-Hindu juggernaut unleashed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India's Gujarat state in December has run out of steam in northern Himachal Pradesh state, where a professedly secular party won in results announced Saturday.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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