Timeline of India (E) 2016-Present
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2016 Jan 1, In India more than a million private cars were banned from New Delhi's roads, as authorities began testing drastic new measures to cut smog in the world's most polluted capital. For the next 15 days private cars will only be allowed on the city's roads every other day to try to reduce pollutant levels.
(AFP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 2, In northern India 6 gunmen launched a deadly attack on an Air Force base in Pathankot, Punjab state, exchanging fire with Indian forces who, backed by tanks and helicopters, battled for over 15 hours before wresting back control of the compound. All the attackers and at least 7 Indian soldiers were killed. India blamed militants from Pakistan.
(Reuters, 1/2/16)(SSFC, 1/3/16, p.A6)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.34)
2016 Jan 3, Indian troops were still battling at least two gunmen at the Pathankot air force base near the border with Pakistan. At least 7 troops and 4 gunmen have been killed in the fighting so far.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 4, Indian security forces battled for the third day to clear out militants who attacked the Pathankot Air Force base in Punjab state and killed 7 soldiers.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, A powerful earthquake struck northeast India and Bangladesh, killing at least 11 people and injuring nearly 200, with efforts to reach remote areas where people may be trapped hampered by severed power lines and telecommunication links.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 5, India said defense forces have killed the last of the six militants who attacked the Pathankot Air Force base near the Pakistan border over the weekend.
(AP, 1/5/16)
2016 Jan 6, In northeastern India a bus fell into a pond in the remote northeast, killing 13 people in Tripura state.
(AP, 1/6/16)
2016 Jan 7, In India Mufti Mohammed Sayeed (79), a top elected pro-India leader of Kashmir, died in a New Delhi hospital of pneumonia. He tried to win over insurgent groups in the troubled region.
(AP, 1/7/16)
2016 Jan 11, An Indian court sentenced nearly three dozen crew members of an American-owned ship to five years in prison for illegally entering Indian waters while carrying weapons and ammunition. The Seaman Guard Ohio was intercepted in October 2013 by India's coast guard off the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
(AP, 1/12/16)(Econ, 1/23/16, p.41)
2016 Jan 11, In southeastern India short-finned pilot whales began washing up on beaches in the port town of Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state. Records showed that the last time whales washed up on the beaches of Tuticorin in large numbers was in 1973.
(AP, 1/12/16)
2016 Jan 17, Rohith Chakravarti Vemula (b.1989, an Indian PhD student at the University of Hyderabad, committed suicide. The University had reportedly stopped paying him a fellowship of 25,000 rupees per month after he was found "raising issues under the banner of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA)." His suicide sparked protests and outrage from across India and gained widespread media attention as an alleged case of discrimination against Dalits and low status caste in India.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohith_Vemula)
2016 Jan 23, India's government started declassifying secret files to settle questions over the death of Subhash Chandra Bose (1897-1945), a Congress party leader who formed a national army to fight British colonial rulers with the help of the Japanese in the 1940s.
(AP, 1/23/16)(Econ, 1/30/16, p.33)
2016 Jan 24, French Pres. Hollande began a 3-day visit to India.
(SFC, 1/25/16, p.A2)
2016 Jan 25, India signed an inter-governmental pact to buy 36 French-built Rafale fighter planes, but the leaders of both countries said there was still work to do to finalize financial terms after months of talks.
(Reuters, 1/25/16)
2016 Jan 27, In eastern India suspected Maoist rebels detonated a land mine, killing seven policemen and injuring six others.
(AP, 1/28/16)
2016 Jan, It was reported some 25k to 50k people in greater New Delhi die prematurely every year because of air pollution. The WHO has ranked India’s capital as the world’s most polluted big city.
(Econ, 1/16/16, p.43)
2016 Feb 3, An avalanche hit the Siachen Glacier in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir early today, trapping 10 Indian army soldiers in the snow. On Feb 8 soldier Hanamanthappa Koppad was found conscious and disoriented as the bodies of 9 others were recovered. Koppad died of his injuries on Feb 11.
(AP, 2/3/16)(AP, 2/9/16)(Reuters, 2/11/16)
2016 Feb 5, In Nepal vehicles passed through Birgunj, the main border town between Nepal and India, after frustrated local residents forcefully removed barriers set up by ethnic protesters who blockaded the border to demand changes in the new constitution.
(AP, 2/5/16)
2016 Feb 10, In India millions of children began getting deworming treatment in a massive national campaign to prevent parasitic worms from infecting them and impairing their mental and physical development.
(AP, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 11, Indian authorities detained dozens of Kashmiri activists and placed separatist leaders under house arrest to prevent them from holding anti-India protests to mark the anniversary of a top separatist leader's hanging more than three decades ago.
(AP, 2/11/16)
2016 Feb 12, Coca-Cola said it has suspended bottling at three plants in India, including one in the parched northwest where farmers have been protesting the company's use of dwindling groundwater reserves.
(AP, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 15, In India massive protests paralyzed a top university after the president of the student union was arrested on charges of sedition. Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested Feb 12 over a demonstration days earlier at Jawaharlal Nehru University to mark the anniversary of the 2013 execution of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri man convicted of an attack on India's Parliament.
(AP, 2/15/16)
2016 Feb 16, In India students, journalists and teachers protested in New Delhi after a student union leader's arrest and subsequent violence by Hindu nationalists.
(AP, 2/16/16)
2016 Feb 17, In India dozens of lawyers, many with links to the ruling nationalist party, attacked protesters in New Delhi who have been demanding the release of a university student leader arrested under colonial-era sedition laws.
(AP, 2/17/16)
2016 Feb 17, Indian government officials said said they have halted potash imports for the year to end-March and delayed negotiations for next year's purchases until at least June, as droughts have dented demand in one of the world's biggest fertilizer consumers.
(Reuters, 2/17/16)
2016 Feb 18, In India a protest that rocked a New Delhi university this week spread across the country, with students and teachers in at least 10 cities demanding the release of student leader Kanhaiya Kumar arrested on sedition charges and accused of being anti-Indian.
(AP, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 20, India pledged $250 million for post-earthquake reconstruction in Nepal as the two countries try to heal strained ties following protests in Nepal over the country's new constitution.
(AP, 2/20/16)
2016 Feb 20, In northern India hundreds of army and paramilitary soldiers tried to quell protests by angry mobs demanding government benefits in Haryana state, with at least 10 people killed in clashes between security forces and protesters.
(AP, 2/20/16)(AFP, 2/21/16)
2016 Feb 21, India deployed thousands of troops in Haryana state to quell protests that have severely hit water supplies to Delhi, a city of more than 20 million people. Rioting and looting by the Jats, a rural caste, is symptomatic of increasingly fierce competition for government jobs and educational openings.
(Reuters, 2/21/16)
2016 Feb 22, Rural Indian protesters paralyzed northern Haryana state despite a deal giving them more government jobs, but there was relief for New Delhi's 20 million residents as the army retook control of their main water source. Days of riots killed at least 28 people.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)(AFP, 2/22/16)(Econ, 2/27/16, p.29)
2016 Feb 22, Indian security forces battled for a third day amid heavy gunfire to clear militants who stormed a government building in the disputed Kashmir region and killed six people.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 23, In India thousands of students and teachers marched through the heart of New Delhi to protest the recent death of a student who faced caste discrimination and the arrest of a student leader on sedition charges.
(AP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 28, In India Hasnain Warekar (35) stabbed 14 members of his own family to death, including seven children, before hanging himself in Thane.
(Reuters, 2/28/16)(SFC, 1/29/16, p.A2)
2016 Feb 29, India introduced an additional 'green' tax on car sales, aimed at helping fight high levels of air pollution and congestion but hitting car makers that fear this could stall a fragile recovery in the market for their products.
(Reuters, 2/29/16)
2016 Feb, Chandrasekhar Reddy’s film 'Fireflies in the Abyss' won the award for Best Film in the Mumbai International Film Festival. It focused on children working in coal mines in Meghalaya state, many of which are illegal.
(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Mar 1, In central India security forces killed 8 suspected Maoist militants, including five women, in a raid on a rebel training camp in Chhattisgarh state.
(Reuters, 3/1/16)
2016 Mar 2, An Indian court said a university student leader can be freed on bail more than two weeks after he was detained for alleged sedition in a case that has sparked nationwide protests and accusations of government intolerance of dissent. The court said Kanhaiya Kumar could be released if he pays about $148 bail, refrains from political activity and is supervised by a faculty member at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
(AP, 3/2/16)
2016 Mar 3, In India a Tibetan (16) died in a New Delhi hospital three days after he set himself on fire in a protest against Chinese rule. He set himself on fire on Feb 29 in the northern city of Dehradun and was brought to New Delhi for treatment.
(AP, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 4, The Geneva-based World Trade Organization said India has filed a complaint against the United States over its measures raising fees on some applicants for temporary work visas, mostly involving the tech sector.
(AP, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 7, In India thousands of dead fish washed up on the banks of the polluted Ulsoor Lake in the southern technology hub of Bangalore. Sewage has been flowing into the lake, depleting its oxygen, and has been choked with water hyacinth with no effort by authorities to clear it.
(AP, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 7, In India a 15-year-old girl was fighting for her life in a New Delhi hospital after being raped and set on fire on the rooftop terrace of her family's home in a village outside the city. Police soon arrested a 20-year-old man and charged him with raping and burning the girl. The girl died on March 9.
(AP, 3/8/16)(AP, 3/9/16)
2016 Mar 7, In the Netherlands the Marshall Islands began legal proceedings against India at the International Court of Justice, as part of cases against three of the world's nuclear powers aimed at breathing new life into disarmament negotiations.
(AP, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 9, The Indian arm of global consumer giant Unilever said it has reached a settlement with hundreds of former employees 15 years after its thermometer plant in southern India was shut following accusations of mercury contamination.
(AP, 3/10/16)
2016 Mar 11, In India a massive cultural festival opened on the banks of the Yamuna River in the Indian capital despite concerns the sprawling construction of roads, ramps and pontoon bridges would irreparably damage the river's floodplains. The festival celebrating the Art of Living Foundation's 35th anniversary is expected to draw some 3.5 million visitors.
(AP, 3/11/16)
2016 Mar 20, In eastern India three elephants killed 4 people. One elephant in the group, a male, was tranquilized and later died.
(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, In India the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile called for China to engage in dialogue on autonomy for his people's homeland, as tens of thousands of Tibetans around the world voted for new leaders of a government that Beijing does not recognize.
(AP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 21, In India one man was after he walked out of his home in a village in Burdwan district of West Bengal state. The man encountered five elephants, and was tossed in the air and trampled by one of them.
(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 24, Pakistan arrested an Indian intelligence officer for his involvement in "subversive activities" in southwestern Baluchistan province and lodged a protest with India's envoy over the case. Kulbhushan Jadhav of India was arrested by Pakistan after he allegedly entered the country from Iran. Pakistani officials say he has been linked to 1,345 deaths in acts of terrorism in Pakistan, making secret trips to the country from Iran. The alleged spy was later sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court.
(AP, 3/25/16)(AP, 2/18/19)
2016 Mar 30, In central India Maoist rebels killed at least 7 paramilitary soldiers by blowing up their armored vehicle in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 3/30/16)
2016 Mar 30, Indian giant Tata Steel put its British business up for sale, sparking calls for the government to intervene and safeguard thousands of jobs in the crisis-hit industry.
(AFP, 3/30/16)
2016 Mar 31, In India an overpass under construction in Kolkata collapsed on to vehicles and street vendors below, killing 23 people with more than 100 people injured.
(Reuters, 4/1/16)
2016 Apr 2, In western India around 25 female activists were prevented from entering the Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra state, traditionally open only to men, a day after a Mumbai court ruled that women have a fundamental right to enter and pray inside temples.
(AP, 4/2/16)
2016 Apr 5, The Indian state of Bihar completely banned the sale of alcohol in a surprise move, including liquor at bars and hotels.
(AP, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 10, In southern India 108 people were killed and nearly 400 injured when a massive fire swept through a Hindu temple during an unauthorized fireworks display in the Kerala state village of Paravoor. Five employees of a fireworks manufacturer who was given the contract for running the show were soon taken into custody.
(AP, 4/10/16)(Reuters, 4/11/16)
2016 Apr 11, India launched its Unified Payment Interface (UPI), an electronic payments network. It is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and works by instantly transferring funds between two bank accounts on a mobile platform.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Payments_Interface)(Econ., 5/9/20, p.59)
2016 Apr 11, In India 10 people were electrocuted by an overhead high-voltage wire that fell on them during a demonstration outside a police station in the northeastern state of Assam. Police bullets hit the overhead cable, which came crashing down on the demonstrators demanding that police hand them two suspects arrested for the murder of two members of their tea workers community last week.
(AP, 4/11/16)
2016 Apr 12, In Kashmir 2 young men were killed in firing by Indian government forces at rock-throwing protesters, who were demanding the arrest of an Indian soldier for assaulting a girl (16) in a restroom.
(AP, 4/12/16)(Econ, 4/16/16, p.33)
2016 Apr 13, Indian authorities imposed a curfew in parts of Kashmir to stop fresh anti-India demonstrations following the killings of four people by Indian troops and a general strike called by separatists.
(AP, 4/13/16)
2016 Apr 15, India said it had suspended the diplomatic passport of embattled tycoon and lawmaker Vijay Mallya, who left the country last March 2 amid pressure from lenders to repay about $1.4 billion in debt owed by his defunct Kingfisher Airlines. On April 18 a Mumbai court issued a warrant for his arrest. In July the airline said its books had vanished.
(Reuters, 4/15/16)(Econ, 4/23/16, p.56)(Econ, 7/9/16, p.55)
2016 Apr 15, New Delhi imposed driving restrictions that will take around a million cars off its roads for the second time this year, seeking to improve air quality in the world's most polluted capital.
(AFP, 4/15/16)
2016 Apr 16, Conservationists said representatives from 13 Asian countries, meeting in New Delhi this week, have agreed to do more to protect tiger habitats.
(SFC, 4/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Apr 17, In India statewide marches in Gujarat calling for the freeing of Hardik Patel (22), a community leader who has been in jail since last October on sedition charges, turned violent in the town of Mehsana. Across the state more than 400 protesters were detained. Patel emerged overnight last year as leader of a mass movement demanding more government jobs and college places for the Patel -- or Patidar – community.
(Reuters, 4/17/16)
2016 Apr 17, In India a bus carrying members of an opera troupe plunged into a gorge killing at least 25 people in Orissa state.
(SFC, 4/18/16, p.A2)
2016 Apr 18, It was reported that India's capital has banned chewing tobacco in an effort to lower the high incidence of mouth and throat cancers. The ban was welcomed by health activists and doctors after it was announced last week.
(AP, 4/18/16)
2016 Apr 19, Indian officials said weeks of sweltering temperatures have caused more than 160 deaths in southern and eastern India.
(AP, 4/20/16)
2016 Apr 22, In northeastern India torrential rains triggered a mudslide that buried a labor camp bordering China in Arunachal Pradesh state, killing 17 people.
(AP, 4/22/16)
2016 Apr 22, In eastern India a fire killed 12 people who were sleeping after they attended a wedding in a village in Bihar state.
(AP, 4/22/16)
2016 Apr 28, India’s eastern state of Bihar issued an advisory asking people not to cook or conduct religious ceremonies between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. after 10 children and five adults were killed in a fire sparked during a Hindu prayer ceremony in the Aurangabad district. Accidental fires exacerbated by dry, hot and windy weather had swept through shantytowns and thatched-roof houses in villages killing 79 people. At least 300 people have died of heat-related illness this month including 110 in Orissa state, 137 in Telangana state and another 45 in Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 4/30/16)(http://tinyurl.com/znslygz)(SFC, 4/30/16, p.A4)
2016 Apr 28, In southern India a female law student (30) was sexually penetrated by sharp objects before being murdered in her home in Perumbavoor, Kerala state. On May 3 police detained three men for questioning in the rape and murder.
(AP, 5/3/16)
2016 Apr, India's Maharashtra state became the first in the country to ban village councils from imposing "social boycotts" that ostracize individuals or families for defying tradition.
(Reuters, 5/13/16)
2016 Apr, In India an American tourist was drugged and raped in her hotel room. On Dec 26 police said they have arrested four suspects including a tour guide, his associate, a car driver and a hotel worker. The suspects denied the accusations.
(SFC, 12/27/16, p.A2)
2016 May 2, In northern India dozens of fires were spreading unpredictably in the states of Uttarakhand and neighboring Himachal Pradesh. Massive wildfires in the two states have killed at least seven people in recent weeks. The fires extended into Nepal where 11 people have died fighting fires across the country, the worst in six years.
(AP, 5/2/16)(Reuters, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, A UN arbitration court ruled that India should release Italian marine Salvatore Girone, who has been detained in Delhi for more than four years, and allow him to return home.
(Reuters, 5/2/16)
2016 May 4, India's highest court ordered cigarette manufacturers to comply with controversial new rules requiring bigger health warnings on packets that sparked weeks-long factory shutdowns.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, In central India a passenger bus fell into a dry river bed after crashing through the railing of a bridge, killing 16 people in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 5/5/16)
2016 May 5, In central India a heavy rainstorm collapsed tents and gates at a sprawling Hindu pilgrimage site, killing at least 6 people and injuring 30 in the town of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh state. The festival is held every 12 years in Ujjain.
(AP, 5/5/16)
2016 May 11, Indian officials announced plans to close a tax loophole that allows its citizens to channel income through the tropical island of Mauritius and avoid paying taxes.
(AP, 5/11/16)
2016 May 11, India's government said South Asian nations will set up a toll-free helpline and online platform to fight human trafficking, and trace the thousands of children who go missing in the region annually. Ministers from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Nepal came to the agreement after a conference on child protection held under the auspices of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
(Reuters, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, In India television journalist Akhilesh Pratap Singh was also shot dead by unknown assailants as he returned home on a motorbike in restive Jharkhand state.
(AFP, 5/14/16)
2016 May 12, The World Health Organization said air pollution causes more than 3 million premature deaths worldwide every year. The worst air pollution was recorded at Zabol in Iran. The WHO said India has four of the 10 cities in the world with the worst air pollution and Saudi Arabia had two.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)(SFC, 5/13/16, p.A2)
2016 May 13, In India Rajdeo Ranjan, the local bureau chief for Hindi-language daily Hindustan, was travelling on his motorcycle in Bihar state when a group of unknown assailants shot him five times.
(AFP, 5/14/16)
2016 May 14, In southern India a truck and an overcrowded motorized rickshaw collided in Telangana state killing 16 people, half of them from a single family.
(AP, 5/15/16)
2016 May 14, In India an overcrowded boat sank following a village fair in West Bengal state. Rescuers soon recovered 18 bodies from the Hooghly river.
(AP, 5/16/16)
2016 May 19, Indian PM Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won power for the first time in the northeastern state of Assam.
(Reuters, 5/19/16)
2016 May 19, In northern India Phalodi wilted as the mercury reached a new high of 51 degrees Celsius, equivalent to 123.8 Fahrenheit, beating a 60-year-old record.
(AFP, 5/20/16)
2016 May 20, In India Masunda Kitada Oliver, a Congolese graduate student who had lived in India for over six years, hailed an auto rickshaw in New Delhi when three men insisted they had hired the vehicle. The men beat him up and hit him on the head with a stone, and he died later that night. India on May 25 promised swift punishment.
(AP, 5/25/16)
2016 May 21, In India Apple CEO Tim Cook laid out his company's plans for the vast Indian market in a meeting with PM Narendra Modi, who in turn sought Apple's support for his "Digital India" initiative focusing on e-education, health and increasing farmers' incomes.
(AP, 5/21/16)
2016 May 22, In northeastern India heavily armed rebels ambushed and killed 6 Indian paramilitary soldiers, including one officer. The soldiers were on their way for rescue work after a rain-triggered mudslide hit Chandel district in Manipur state.
(AP, 5/22/16)
2016 May 23, India said it will invest up to $500 million in a deal to develop a strategic port in Iran and both countries planned a number of projects they say are worth hundreds of millions of dollars as Indian PM Narendra Modi visited Tehran.
(AP, 5/23/16)
2016 May 23, The Indian Space Research Organization launched a small space shuttle on a rocket in southern India and completed a successful 13-minute test flight.
(AP, 5/24/16)
2016 May 26, In India a powerful blast in a chemical factory located near a residential area in a Mumbai suburb killed five people and left 92 injured.
(Reuters, 5/26/16)
2016 May 27, In Dharmsala, India, Lobsang Sangay was sworn in for his second term as prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile and said he will make maximum efforts to achieve regional autonomy for Tibet during his five-year term, but will prepare a strategy for the next 50 years if it's unsuccessful.
(AP, 5/27/16)
2016 May 29, Indian police in New Delhi said that they have arrested five people who assaulted six Africans in the Indian capital last week, as African diplomatic missions urged India's government to ensure the safety of Africans living in the country.
(AP, 5/29/16)
2016 May 31, In western India a fire broke out at a major ammunition depot, killing at least 17 army personnel at the Pulgaon ammunitions depot, Maharashtra state.
(AP, 5/31/16)
2016 May 31, In London the Walk Free Foundation's Global Slavery Index said about 45.8 million people around the world are trapped in modern slavery. India reportedly had the largest number of modern slaves, 18.35 million, followed by China with 3.39 million and Pakistan with 2.13 million.
(AP, 5/31/16)
2016 May, India passed a new bankruptcy law. It will allow banks from next year onward to foreclose on insolvent firms.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.56)
2016 Jun 2, An Indian court convicted 24 Hindu men for their role in one of the many deadly religious riots that swept across the western state of Gujarat for three months in 2002, leaving more than 1,000 dead.
(AP, 6/2/16)
2016 Jun 3, Indian officials said overnight slashes between police and followers of a revolutionary sect have left at least 24 dead after an operation in Uttar Pradesh to evict thousands of people from parkland erupted into violence.
(AFP, 6/3/16)
2016 Jun 3, Rebels in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir ambushed a convoy of Indian paramilitary soldiers in a busy market, killing at least 3 and injuring three others.
(AP, 6/3/16)
2016 Jun 4, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian PM Narendra Modi inaugurated a multi-million-dollar dam in western Afghanistan that will bring power and irrigation to vast tracts of the war-torn country. The Afghan-India Friendship Dam in Herat province, which borders Iran, was built with Indian aid at a cost of $300 million and was under construction for about a decade.
(AP, 6/4/16)
2016 Jun 5, India's PM Narendra Modi and Qatar's ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who visited India in March 2015, signed seven agreements to strengthen ties. Modi had arrived June 4 and met with Indian laborers that evening.
(AP, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 5, In western India a speeding bus struck two cars on the Navi Mumbai highway in a crash that killed at least 17 people and injured 35 others.
(AP, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 7, The members of the Missile Technology Control Regime, a key anti-proliferation grouping, agreed to admit India as a deadline for members of the 34-nation group to object to India's admission expired a day earlier without any of them raising objections. Later today PM Narendra Modi met with US Pres. Obama in Washington.
(Reuters, 6/7/16)
2016 Jun 8, In southern India annual monsoon rains arrived at the Kerala coast, a day later than forecast, easing fears over farm and economic growth after two straight droughts hit rural income and agricultural output.
(Reuters, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 14, In northeastern India a passenger bus skidded off a mountain road and fell into a gorge in Meghalaya state, killing at least 25 people near Sonapur town.
(AP, 6/15/16)
2016 Jun 17, Indian PM Narendra Modi and Thailand’s PM Prayuth Chan-ocha agreed in New Delhi to increase cooperation in tackling terrorism, threats to cybersecurity, narcotics, transnational economic offenses and human trafficking.
(AP, 6/17/16)
2016 Jun 17, In India the film “Udta Punjab" was released. It dramatized the state’s struggle with drugs. A recent study found that 20% of the young men in Punjab use opioids. Injectable heroine appeared about five years ago and quickly became the drug of choice.
(Econ, 6/25/16, p.34)
2016 Jun 21, India's PM Narendra Modi joined a crowd of 30,000 schoolchildren and other residents of the northern city of Chandigarh for a mass yoga session as millions of people twisted their bodies in complex positions in celebration of International Yoga Day.
(AP, 6/21/16)
2016 Jun 22, Indian officials said lightning has killed 74 people, mostly farm laborers working in fields, across eastern and northern India over the past 24 hours.
(AP, 6/22/16)
2016 Jun 28, In India Isak Chishi Swu (87), a militant leader of the Naga tribal insurgency, died in New Delhi without being able to see his people reach a long-negotiated peace accord with the Indian government.
(AP, 6/28/16)
2016 Jul 1, In northern India torrential rains triggered heavy floods and landslides that poured down hills in Uttarakhand state, killing at least 18 people and destroying dozens of homes. At least 25 people were missing in seven villages in Pithoragarh.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 3, An Indian official said at least 40 people were feared dead following a weekend downpour that triggered flash floods and landslides in Uttarakhand state.
(Reuters, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 4, US intelligence group SITE said a regional branch of al Qaeda has urged Muslims in India to revolt and carry out lone wolf attacks.
(Reuters, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 8, Indian PM Narendra Modi took his Africa tour to South Africa, seeking to boost trade between two countries.
(AFP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Indian security services Jammu and Kashmir state shot dead Burhan Wani (22), a militant known for his calls to arms on social media and leader of Hizb-ul Mujahideen, one of a number of groups fighting Indian control of the Muslim-majority region.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, In India’s Jammu and Kashmir state at least 9 protesters died as crowds angered by the killing of a separatist militant clashed with armed police, torching buildings and blocking streets. Over 20,000 people had gathered for the funeral of Burhan Wani, killed a day earlier.
(AP, 7/9/16)(Econ, 7/16/16, p.33)
2016 Jul 10, The death toll in India's northern Jammu and Kashmir state rose to 20 as clashes between Indian troops and protesters killed 4 protesters and a police officer, despite a curfew imposed in the to suppress anti-India anger following the killing of a popular rebel commander.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Tanzania visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi and President John Pombe Magufuli signed five agreements, including one to provide credit $92 million to improve water accessibility on the island of Zanzibar.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 11, Indian authorities struggled to contain street protests by Kashmiris defying patrols and a stringent curfew after at least 25 people died in clashes that followed the killing of a top rebel leader.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Indian PM Narendra Modi Monday held talks with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi and agreed to further expand investment ties between the two countries and diversify trade.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 12, India's PM Narendra Modi called an emergency meeting over escalating anti-India protests in Kashmir, where at least 29 people have died in clashes and hospitals are struggling with hundreds of injured.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 15, In Kashmir widespread anti-India protests and clashes erupted in dozens of places, even as authorities prevented tens of thousands of people from offering prayers in big mosques with a lockdown in place for a seventh straight day.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, UNESCO put four new sites on its World Heritage List. The new sites, announced in Istanbul, include China's Zuojiang Huashan rock art cultural landscape, Iran's ancient aqueducts known as Qanat, and India's archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara. The World Heritage Committee also selected Micronesia's artificial islets of Nan Madol and simultaneously placed it on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 17, Police in India said at least 19 people died and six others were blinded after drinking toxic bootleg liquor. Another 50 people fell ill after consuming the home-brewed liquor on July 15 and were being treated in hospitals in Etah district in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 18, India's top environmental court ordered authorities to remove all diesel vehicles at least 10 years old off the capital city's streets in a bid to help clean New Delhi's polluted air.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, Police in eastern India said at least 8 paramilitary soldiers were killed in an attack by Maoist rebels.
(SFC, 7/19/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 19, India's top court ordered Rahul Gandhi, a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family, to express regret or face defamation charges for blaming the country's top Hindu nationalist organization for the 1948 assassination of independence leader Mohandas Gandhi.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, In India a police officer was killed during clashes in Una, 340 km (210 miles) from Gujarat's main city, Ahmedabad, where tannery workers were attacked by self-styled hardline Hindu cow protectors.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 19, Authorities lifted a three-day publication ban in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, but newspapers delayed print runs due to uncertainties about the media restrictions.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 20, In India protesters from the low-caste Dalit community blocked roads and attacked government buses in PM Narendra Modi's home state in a third day of demonstrations over the flogging of four men accused of skinning a cow. Opposition lawmakers disrupted parliament to protest against the floggings in Gujarat and demanded that PM Modi apologize to the victims.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Police in northern India said that they have arrested two men for raping a young woman for the second time in three years. The woman told police that she was gang-raped again on July 13 because she was unwilling to withdraw the case.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Government forces in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir removed dozens of black and Pakistani flags hoisted by residents observing a "black day" to protest the killing of a top rebel leader.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 22, The Indian air force lost contact with a transport plane carrying 29 people to islands in the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, Two more people died in Indian-controlled Kashmir, as anti-India protests and clashes with government forces persisted despite a strict curfew in place for a 14th straight day.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 24, In India an Israeli tourist (25) was raped after she accepted a car ride while traveling in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh. Police soon arrested two of six men and a search was on for the other four.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 26, In northeast India local authorities in Assam state said more than 1.2 million people have been hit by floods which have submerged hundreds of villages, inundated large swathes of farmland and damaged roads, bridges and telecommunications services. At least 7 people were reported killed.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 27, India signed a contract to buy four maritime spy planes from Boeing Co for about $1 billion, aiming to bolster the navy as it tries to check China's presence in the Indian Ocean.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 28, In India a shopkeeper of the Brahmin caste axed to death a couple from the lower Dalit caste for not promptly paying a meager debt of 15 rupees (22 cents) for groceries in Mainpuri town, Uttar Pradesh state. The couple left behind five children. The shopkeeper fled but was soon arrested.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, India's upper house of parliament passed a bill late that would give state governments more than 60 billion rupees ($895 million) a year to conserve and protect forests and wildlife. Analysts and activists said the bill ignores the importance of indigenous people in conserving land and tramples on their rights.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Indian police in Bihar state arrested Hindu nationalist leader Dayashankar Singh on charges alleging he insulted a senior female politician by describing her as "worse than a prostitute." Singh was expelled last week from PM Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party for making the remark against Mayawati, a leader representing millions of lower-caste Dalits.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, India’s government said persistent heavy rains have caused widespread disruption in major cities and severe floods in the rugged northeast have killed at least 12 people.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In India a portion of a 13-story building under construction in the western city of Pune collapsed, killing at least 8 workers.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In northern India a woman and her 14-year-old daughter were gang-raped off a busy highway near the town of Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh state, after their car was stopped by a gang of men. 15 suspects were soon detained.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 30, India's army said that two rebels and two soldiers were killed in an overnight gunbattle close to the cease-fire line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, as a curfew continued to be enforced in parts of Indian-held Kashmir.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Indian authorities tried to rescue thousands of people stranded in flooded villages after a week of heavy rain killed at least 52 people and uprooted tens of thousands of others from their homes in the states of Assam in the remote northeast and Bihar in the east.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In India 32 people were killed by lightning in the eastern state of Odisha.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In India at least 9 people were killed when a three-storey building collapsed in heavy rains in a Mumbai suburb.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, India's foreign minister said the government is providing food aid to thousands of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia who are not able to buy food after losing their jobs in the kingdom.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Aug 1, India's government said it plans to evacuate thousands of Indian workers who have lost their jobs in Saudi Arabia and cannot afford to pay for a flight home. The workers were mostly employed by Saudi construction companies and were laid off amid a slowdown in the industry caused by low global oil prices.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, An Indian bank issued the first ever offshore rupee-denominated bond in London, a landmark celebrated by officials keen to highlight Britain's international business prowess despite Brexit.
(AFP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, In India man walked into the house of a girl (17) in Villupuram, Tamil Nadu state, set himself on fire and hugged her, all the while saying that he would not let her live for spurning him. He had stalked her for over a year and she had said no repeatedly. The girl died three days later.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 2, Indian officials said the death toll in flooding from heavy monsoon rains has climbed to 96, with about a million people taking shelter in government-run relief camps. A century-old bridge over the Savitri River between Mumbai and Goa collapsed killing at least 20 people.
(AP, 8/2/16)(Econ, 10/15/16, p.75)
2016 Aug 5, In northeastern India 5-6 gunmen opened fire on a busy market in Balajan, Assam state, killing 12 people and wounding several others. Authorities blamed the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). One of the gunmen was killed.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 10, In India a stream of cars, motorcycles and pedestrians passed by an injured man struck by a delivery truck on a New Delhi street, leaving him to die.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 11, An Indian government panel cleared commercial use for indigenously developed GM mustard seeds in what would be the country’s first genetically modified (GM) food crop. Politicians still needed to give final approvals amid wide-spread public opposition.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 13, Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir extended a strict curfew to most parts of the restive region as separatist leaders called for weekend protests against Indian rule.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 15, In Indian-controlled Kashmir at least one paramilitary soldier and four suspected rebels were killed in a series of gunbattles despite a security lockdown in the disputed region, as India celebrated the anniversary of its independence from British rule. Ten government troops were also wounded.
(AP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 17, Militants ambushed an Indian military convoy in Kashmir, killing three personnel, in an escalation of violence that officials have blamed on separatist protests that have tied down security forces for more than a month. Army soldiers and counterinsurgency police officers raided Khrew village late today and took Shabir Ahmed and around 30 other people into custody. The body of Ahmed, a young college teacher, was returned to his family early the next day.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)(AP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 20, India’s PM Narendra Modi appointed Urjit Patel as head of the Reserve Bank of India.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.54)
2016 Aug 21, Indian army soldiers killed 3 suspected rebels near the heavily militarized line of control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 22, Indian officials said at least 40 people have died and hundreds of thousands have been evacuated as floods hit vast swathes of central and eastern India in recent days.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 24, India said it is investigating the extent to which secrets about French Scorpene submarines being built in the country have been compromised, after a leak of documents relating to its combat capabilities. The leak contains more than 22,000 pages outlining the secret capabilities of six submarines that French builder DCNS has designed for the Indian Navy.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, An Indian official said heavy monsoon rains have ended two successive drought years with the Ganges River and its tributaries rising above the danger level, triggering evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from flooded homes in the north and east. Drowning, electrocution or injuries from collapsed houses have killed at least 175 people this season.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, Indian government forces fired shotguns and tear gas in India's portion of Kashmir to break up new protests demanding an end to Indian rule in the disputed region, killing a young man and wounding dozens of other people.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 25, Authorities in eastern India struggled to evacuate more than 100,000 people stranded in villages after floods intensified, killing more than 300 and driving hundreds of thousands from their homes.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 26, Police in India's portion of Kashmir arrested Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, one of the key separatist leaders spearheading protests against Indian rule. Farooq, already under house arrest, was locked up in a government facility in Srinagar. A young man was killed and dozens of civilians were wounded when Indian government forces fired bullets and shotguns to quell unrest in over a dozen places including Srinagar.
(AP, 8/27/16)(SFC, 8/27/16, p.A2)
2016 Aug 29, The United States and India signed an agreement governing the use of each other's land, air and naval bases for repair and resupply, a step toward building defense ties as they seek to counter the growing maritime assertiveness of China.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Sep 2, Indian PM Narendra Modi and visiting Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi agreed to boost cooperation in security and anti-terror efforts calling terrorism one of the gravest threats their countries face.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In India millions of public sector workers across the country went on strike to protest economic reforms, saying the government's plan for raising the country's minimum wage for unskilled workers did not go far enough.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 12, India's technology hub of Bengaluru deployed riot police and banned public gatherings to rein in protests as a water dispute turned violent. The violence erupted after India's Supreme Court ordered Karnataka state, where Bengaluru is based, to release 12,000 cubic feet of water per second every day from the Cauvery river to neighboring Tamil Nadu until Sept. 20. Police gunfire killed one protester and injured another after rampaging mobs set fire to dozens of buses, trucks and cars and attacked shops and businesses in Bangalore and other parts of the state. Police arrested nearly 400 people for looting and vandalism after the curfew was imposed to quell violence.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)(AP, 9/13/16)(Econ, 9/17/16, p.40)
2016 Sep 14, In India PM Narendra Modi and Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghanicalled for an end to all sponsorship, support and sanctuaries to militants, including those who have committed violence in the two countries. India offered a fresh $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan for building capacity in education, health, agriculture, energy and infrastructure. They also signed an extradition treaty.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 18, In Kashmir a separatist attack on an army base in Uri near the disputed frontier killed 18 soldiers. 4 rebels were killed as the soldiers returned fire. India accused Pakistan of being behind the attack.
(Reuters, 9/18/16)(SFC, 919/16, p.A4)(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 20, Indian soldiers battled two groups of suspected militants along the highly militarized de facto border dividing the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, leaving one soldier dead. Indian soldiers killed 8 people trying to cross the disputed border.
(AP, 9/20/16)(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 24, India's PM Narendra Modi said he'll work to isolate Pakistan internationally, accusing India's archrival of trying to destabilize Asia by exporting terrorism.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 28, Officials said Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India have expressed their "inability" to attend the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) scheduled for November in Islamabad.
(AP, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 29, Indian commandos carried out a series of lightning strikes along the de facto border with Pakistan in Kashmir, provoking furious charges of "naked aggression" from its nuclear-armed neighbor. Pakistan said two of its soldiers had been killed and nine more wounded in what it described as small arms fire. Pakistan said eight Indian soldiers died and that one was captured.
(AFP, 9/29/16)(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep, Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, launched Jio, a mobile telecoms network. Over the next six months it won 100 million customers.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.66)
2016 Oct 3, Indian and Pakistani troops fired at each other in disputed Kashmir, as Indian troops searched an army camp elsewhere in the region where suspected militants killed an Indian paramilitary soldier.
(AP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 6, Indian soldiers shot dead seven suspected militants who tried to attack two army bases in northern Kashmir, prompting anger from Pakistan as a crisis between the two neighbors over the disputed region grows.
(Reuters, 10/6/16)
2016 Oct 19, In Kashmir firing by Indian troops along the Line of Control, a ceasefire violation, killed one Pakistani and wounded 12.
(AP, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 20, In India the celebration of Bollywood and international film kicked off amid the sober announcement that at least one screening was canceled. The Pakistani classic "Jago Hua Savera," or "Awake, It's Dawn," was dropped from the Mumbai Film Festival schedule after a local organization claimed it would cause public outrage.
(AP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 23, In Kashmir shelling across the border between India and Pakistan killed two Pakistani civilians, an Indian soldier and a boy.
(Reuters, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 24, In eastern India police killed 24 rebels in a shoot-out near the border of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh states, one of the heaviest casualties inflicted in recent years on the Maoists who are waging a long-running insurgency.
(AFP, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 24, In India Ratan Tata orchestrated the firing of Cyrus Mistry from the Tata Holding Group holding company. Mistry continued to have support from some of the operating companies.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.12)
2016 Oct 28, In Kashmir soldiers from India and Pakistan continued to shell villages and border posts. An Indian paramilitary officer said a civilian and a soldier were killed by Pakistani firing.
(AP, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 29, In Kashmir two Indian soldiers were killed in fighting with Pakistani soldiers and suspected militants along the volatile frontier.
(AP, 10/29/16)
2016 Nov 3, Pakistan named eight Indian diplomats it accuses of espionage and terrorism, as tension mounted between the nuclear-armed rivals following days of artillery duels and skirmishes on the border dividing the disputed Kashmir region.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 5, In Indian-controlled Kashmir at least 30 people were injured after government forces fired shotgun pellets and tear gas as a funeral procession for a teenager turned into a protest against Indian rule.
(AP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 6, In India the Delhi state government said that schools in the capital will be closed for the next three days, as the city struggles with one of the worst spells of air pollution in recent years.
(AFP, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, The Indian army said Pakistani shelling killed two of its soldiers at posts along the border of Indian-administered Kashmir. Five others including three civilians were injured.
(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 7, Pakistani officials said Indian troops have opened fire across the Line of Control in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing three civilians and wounding six others as Indian and Pakistani troops continue to trade heavy fire.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 8, Indian PM Narendra Modi announced that 500 and 1000 rupee banknotes would be withdrawn from the financial system at midnight, saying it was part of a crackdown on rampant corruption. He added that new 500 and 2,000 rupee denomination notes will be issued later. The discontinued tender represented 86% of all currency in circulation in India.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)(Econ, 11/12/16, p.68)
2016 Nov 8, Indian officials worked to restore the websites of seven Indian embassies in Europe and Africa that were hacked and had data dumped online. The security of the websites of Indian embassies in Italy, Switzerland, South Africa, Libya, Malawi, Mali and Romania was breached by hackers who identified themselves to the media as Kaputsky and Kasimierz L.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, Indian and Pakistani troops once again traded fire across the Line of Control in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing three civilians and wounding four others on the Pakistani side, and killing one Indian soldier.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, In India authorities in New Delhi began revoking licenses for thousands of older diesel vehicles and halted construction work on the underground rail network, as air pollution remained several times over the safety limit.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 9, In India the Maharashtra State Child Rights Protection Commission launched the Child Helpline for Information on Rights and Address Grievances (Chirag), a mobile app for people to report child abuse.
(Reuters, 11/10/16)
2016 Nov 14, Pakistan’s military said Indian troops fired on its soldiers in Kashmir killing seven and prompting return fire.
(SFC, 11/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 19, In northeastern India rebels ambushed two army vehicles and killed at least three soldiers and critically wounded four others in Assam state.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, Pakistan's military announced that it has shot down a small Indian drone after it allegedly trespassed into the country's part of Kashmir amid daylong cross-border firing that killed four villagers, including two sisters and their brother.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 20, In northern India at least 146 people were killed close to 200 injured when an express train derailed in Uttar Pradesh state. The death toll soon climbed to 148 after two more people died from their injuries.
(Reuters, 11/21/16)(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 21, Pakistan's military said Indian shelling has targeted several villages in Kashmir, killing four civilians and wounding 10.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 22, India's central bank relaxed rules on loans to farmers, asking the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development to disburse up to 230 billion rupees ($3.36 bln) to district cooperative banks for crop loans. The recent demonetization scheme has badly hit farmers, leaving them without cash just ahead of sowing winter crops.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Three Indian soldiers were killed along the highly militarized de facto border that divides the disputed region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 23, Police in India said eleven people have been arrested on suspicion of duping single women into selling their newborn babies and trafficking the infants inside biscuit containers to an adoption center to be sold on to childless couples. The Crime Investigation Department (CID) in West Bengal said more arrests were likely.
(Reuters, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, India’s Jharkhand state assembly approved changes to two laws that will allow the state to buy protected tribal land to lease to investors, and use agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. The approval sparked immediate protests.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 23, Indian troops fired on a Pakistani passenger bus in Kashmir, killing 10 civilians in one of the deadliest incidents in weeks of violence in the disputed region.
(AP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 24, In eastern India protests over land rights flared for a second day in the Jharkhand state, as activists and indigenous people took to the streets after the state assembly approved amendments to colonial-era land laws despite strong opposition.
(AP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 25, India's top court stopped firecracker sales in and around New Delhi as the worst season for air pollution began.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, Rebels fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir ambushed a police patrol, killing two officers. Two militants and an Indian soldier died in a separate gunfight in the disputed region.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 27, In India hundreds of gay rights activists marched in a parade in New Delhi, highlighting the continuing discrimination India's LGBT community faces and demanding the repeal of a law criminalizing homosexual acts.
(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 29, In northern India militants attacked an army base near the city of Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir state, killing at least seven security personnel and taking hostages in the boldest assault on a military base in the region in recent months. Three militants were also reported killed in the gunbattle. In another part of Kashmir Indian border forces exchanged fire with three suspected militants from Pakistan. All three were killed.
(Reuters, 11/29/16)(SFC, 11/30/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 30, Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir released prominent human rights activist Khurram Parvez (39) from prison after a court in the disputed region ruled that his 76-day detention under a controversial security law was illegal.
(AP, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov, India mandated that all moviegoers stand during the playing of the national anthem at all the country’s cinemas.
(SFC, 12/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 5, Jayaram Jayalalithaa (68), chief minister of India’s Tamil Nadu state, died in Chennai following a massive weekend cardiac arrest. The former movie star who enjoyed god-like status was buried the next day alongside her on-screen lover. V.K. Sasikala, Jayalithaa’s live-in assistant soon claimed the mantle of chief minister forcing out O. Paneerselvam (OPS). On Feb 7 OPS declared that he had been unfairly forced from office by Sasikala.
(AP, 12/6/16)(Econ, 2/11/17, p.33)
2016 Dec 8, In Kashmir at least one civilian was killed and dozens of others injured in protests against Indian rule that erupted following a gunbattle between rebels and government forces.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 11, In India a helicopter crashed and caught fire in Mumbai, killing the pilot and injuring three passengers. The Robinson R-44 helicopter belonged to Aman Aviation, a company that offers aerial viewing of the city.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, In India police arrested moviegoer S. Viji in Chennai for failing to stand during the playing of the national anthem.
(SFC, 12/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 12, A cyclone barreled into the southeast coast of India, killing at least four people and bringing down trees and power lines as authorities moved tens of thousands of people from low-lying areas.
(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 17, In Kashmir militants attacked an Indian army convoy, killing 3 soldiers.
(Reuters, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 19, In India five men were sentenced to death by an Indian court for their role in two deadly bombings in February 2013 in the city of Hyderabad. They included Yasin Bhatkal, the co-founder of the outlawed Indian Mujahideen Islamist group accused of involvement in a series of attacks.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, Human Rights Watch said nearly 600 people have died in Indian police custody from 2009-2015, many of them after being tortured.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, Pakistani movie theaters began screening Bollywood films again, ending an 11-week boycott in response to political and military tensions with India.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 21, In India leading opposition figure Rahul Gandhi demanded an investigation into allegations that two Indian conglomerates paid millions of rupees as bribes to PM Narendra Modi in 2013-14 when he was governing a western state.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 23, In India an 18-month study, led by the My Choices Foundation in partnership with major anti-trafficking groups across India, found the average age of girls being trafficked had fallen to age 10 to 14 in recent years from 14 to 16 in the past.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 24, Indian PM Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for a massive memorial of a medieval warrior king that's expected to cost $530 million and has come under criticism from environmental activists and others. The memorial includes a proposed 192-meter (630-foot) -tall statue of Shivaji, a 16th century ruler from western India and will be built off the coast of Mumbai on land reclaimed from the Arabian Sea.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 25, Pakistani officials said 220 Indian fishermen have been released from a jail in Karachi and will be handed over to Indian authorities on Dec 26.
(AP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 29, In eastern India a coal mine collapse killed at least 10 workers and 13 others may be trapped by the mound of fallen earth at the Rajmahal Open Cast Mines in Jharkhand state. By Dec 31 the bodies of 16 of 23 trapped workers were recovered.
(AP, 12/30/16)(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 30, Indian PM Narendra Modi announced a slew of incentives to the poor, farmers, women and small businesses in a special New Year's address. He defended his shock decision to abolish high denomination bank notes as the window to exchange old notes closed.
(Reuters, 12/31/16)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.53)
2016 Dec 30, In western India six migrant workers, who had been locked inside a bakery by their employer, suffocated to death in a fire. This triggered calls for decades-old labor laws to be implemented to crack down on worker exploitation and abuse.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)
2016 Dec 31, In India several women were groped and assaulted by a mob in the Bangalore central business district as they celebrated New Year's Eve. The assaults spurred women's rights activists to demand that police investigate. On Dec 4 police detained six suspects in relation to the assaults.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)(SFC, 1/5/17, p.A3)
2016 Berenice Guyot-Richard, historian at London’s King’s College, authored “Shadow States: India, China and the Eastern Himalayas: 1910-1962."
(http://tinyurl.com/ybwfkqkb)(Econ 7/29/17, p.34)
2016 Nandian Nilekani a co-founder of IT giant Infosys, and Viral Shah authored “Rebooting India: Realising a Billion Aspirations."
(Econ, 3/12/16, p.79)
2016 Somini Sengupta authored “The End of Karma: Hope and Fury Among India’s Young."
(Econ, 3/19/16, p.89)
2016 Vinay Sitapati authored “Half-Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India."
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.71)
2016 India’s Muslim population numbered about 172 million.
(Econ, 10/29/16, p.32)
2017 Jan 2, India's top court prohibited politicians from using religion and caste to garner votes, a verdict that could force political parties to change their strategy in upcoming elections.
(Reuters, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 2, India and Sri Lanka agreed to release fishermen in each others' custody, a move that is likely to ease tensions between the countries which have held fishermen captive for crossing territorial waters.
(Reuters, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 4, Indian officials said police have rescued nearly 200 children, most of them under the age of 14, who had been found working in a brick kiln in the southern state of Telangana in one of the biggest operations in the region.
(Reuters, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, In India a 24-year-old housemaid died in hospital, two weeks after she was admitted with multiple fractures and injuries. She had said she was abused by her New Delhi employers after being lured to the city with the promise of a job.
(Reuters, 1/6/17)
2017 Jan 14, In eastern India at least 19 people drowned and others were missing after their overcrowded boat capsized in a river near Patna, Bihar state. The next day five more bodies were recovered from the Ganges river after as rescuers ended search operations.
(AP, 1/14/17)(Reuters, 1/15/17)
2017 Jan 14, In India Sunil Rastogi (38), a tailor, was arrested by police investigating sexual assaults on three girls aged between nine and ten in eastern Delhi in January and December. Rastogi confessed to abducting "hundreds" of girls since 2004 -- luring them with new clothes, and taking them to secluded places such as derelict buildings, where he would sexually assault and rape them.
(Reuters, 1/17/17)
2017 Jan 15, In eastern India at least six people were killed in a stampede during a Hindu religious festival.
(AP, 1/15/17)
2017 Jan 16, India's election commission backed Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, in his battle with his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, for control of their party, a feud PM Narendra Modi wants to exploit in a crucial election.
(Reuters, 1/16/17)
2017 Jan 16, In southern India police arrested an American man (42) in Hyderabad on suspicion of circulating child pornography on the internet.
(Reuters, 1/19/17)
2017 Jan 17, An Indian court sentenced 39 people to 10 years in prison each for buying and selling girls in Karnataka state, signaling a rare victory for prosecutors in a country where fewer than two in five trafficking cases ends in a conviction.
(Reuters, 1/18/17)
2017 Jan 19, In northern India a truck loaded with sand collided with a school bus early today, killing at least 24 young children in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 1/19/17)
2017 Jan 21, In India a train crash late today killed 39 passengers in Andhra Pradesh state.
(AFP, 1/22/17)
2017 Jan 22, In northeastern India rebels ambushed a patrol vehicle in Assam state, killing two paramilitary soldiers. An ongoing government counterattack has killed several rebels. Rebels participating in the attack included the United Liberation Front of Assam and groups from neighboring Manipur state.
(AP, 1/22/17)
2017 Jan 22, In India lawmakers in Tamil Nadu state passed an emergency order allowing bull-taming festivals (Jallikattu) to resume after a court ban on the traditional events led to mass protests. The Supreme Court had banned Jallikattu in 2014 and upheld the ban earlier this month.
(Reuters, 1/23/17)(Econ, 1/28/17, p.36)
2017 Jan 26, In Kashmir two separate avalanches buried a military post and swept away a patrol in Gurez, burying a total of 21 Indian soldiers. Seven soldiers were rescued. Over the next two days the remaining 14 bodies were recovered. Five of the rescued soldiers died on Jan 30.
(AP, 1/27/17)(SFC, 1/28/17, p.A2)(AP, 1/30/17)
2017 Jan 28, In India the BW Maple, with a total capacity of 82,000 cubic meters of liquefied petroleum gas, was half full when it collided near Chennai with the Indian ship Dawn Kanchipuram. Days later port authorities impounded the two ships and detained their crews after the collision caused an oil spill affecting marine life and local fishing.
(Reuters, 2/3/17)
2017 Jan 28, Bharati Mukherjee (76), Indian-American writer, died at NY Univ. Hospital. Her books included “The Tiger’s Daughter" (1972).
(SFC, 2/3/17, p.D3)
2017 Feb 1, In northern India a six-story tannery building under construction collapsed, killing at least five workers and possibly trapping up to 50 others in Kanpur city, Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 2/1/17)
2017 Feb 2, In northeastern India hundreds of protesters marched in the Nagaland state capital after setting ablaze half a dozen government buildings to protest a court decision. The protesters opposed a court ruling that would reserve 33 percent of seats for women in local municipal elections.
(AP, 2/2/17)
2017 Feb 6, In India Cyrus Mistry, the boss of Tata until last October, was finally booted out of the company. Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the boss of Tata Consultancy Services, took over as chairman on Feb 21. Mistry’s family held an 18% stake in Tata Sons, the main holding company.
(Econ, 2/11/17, p.54)
2017 Feb 11, Millions of voters in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, cast their ballots in a contest seen as a key test for Narendra Modi halfway through his first term as prime minister.
(AFP, 2/11/17)
2017 Feb 12, In Kashmir a protester was killed and dozens of others wounded as government forces fired at demonstrators demanding an end to Indian rule following a gunbattle that killed four suspected rebels, two soldiers and a civilian.
(AP, 2/12/17)
2017 Feb 14, India's top court upheld the corruption conviction of Sasikala Natarajan, the head of the ruling party in Tamil Nadu state, ending her chances of becoming the southern state's next chief minister.
(AP, 2/14/17)
2017 Feb 14, In northern Kashmir four Indian soldiers and four militants were killed in gunbattles in Bandipora district, in the second outbreak of violence between security forces and separatists in three days.
(Reuters, 2/14/17)
2017 Feb 15, The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, built by the Indian Space Research Organization, was launched with a record 104 satellites, 88 of which were made by Planet, a San Francisco-based company founded in 2010.
(Econ, 2/18/17, p.57)
2017 Feb 23, In the disputed region of Kashmir three Indian soldiers and a woman were killed when rebels ambushed soldiers in the southern Shopian area.
(AP, 2/23/17)
2017 Feb 26, In northeastern India at least 16 people were killed and 50 injured when a truck taking them to a church service overturned after hitting a concrete barricade on a highway in Meghalaya state.
(AP, 2/26/17)
2017 Mar 5, Anti-India protests erupted in Indian-controlled Kashmir following a fierce gunbattle in which two rebels and a counterinsurgency policeman were killed.
(AP, 3/5/17)
2017 Mar 7, An Indian court sentenced university professor G.N. Saibaba and four others to life imprisonment on charges of belonging to a banned communist rebel group and recruiting others to join them. Saibaba, arrested in 2014, is paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair. He has denied the charges.
(AP, 3/7/17)
2017 Mar 11, Narendra Modi's party won a landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, in a massive vote of confidence for the prime minister halfway into his first term. The BJP won 311 of the total 403 seats.
(AP, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 11, In eastern India Maoist rebels ambushed a paramilitary patrol in Chhattisgarh state, killing 11 policemen.
(Reuters, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 14, In India the body of an Irish woman (28) was found by a farmer on an isolated beach near Canacona village in the western beach state of Goa. She had been raped and strangled. A local criminal was arrested the next day and faced rape and murder charges.
(AP, 3/16/17)
2017 Mar 15, New Zealand approved a law that declared the Whanganui River to be a legal person, in the sense that it can own property, incur debts and petition the courts. Days later an Indian court declared the Ganges and Yamuna rivers to be people too.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.34)
2017 Mar 16, In India Farook Hameed (31) was murdered in Coimbatore, allegedly by members of a Muslim radical group, for having repudiated Islam and declaring himself an atheist. Six people were soon arrested in the case.
(http://tinyurl.com/n22lnau)(Econ 7/22/17, SR p.11)
2017 Mar 18, India’s PM Narendra Modi picked Hindu hardliner Yogi Adityanath to lead Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, after his party won a landslide victory last week. Adityanath has been accused of inciting violence against India's Muslim minority.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 19, In India Yogi Adityanath (44), hard-line Hindu religious leader, took the oath of office as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/19/17)
2017 Mar 20, British mobile phone giant Vodafone said it will merge its Indian unit with Idea Cellular to create India's largest telecoms operator, to help fend off the Mukesh Ambani-backed Reliance Jio, whose recent arrival has shaken up India's ultra-competitive mobile network market.
(AFP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 22, An Indian court sentenced two Hindu hard-liners to life in prison for triggering an explosion in Ajmer, a Muslim pilgrimage center in Rajasthan, that killed three people and injured more than a dozen in 2007.
(AP, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 25, In India one person was killed and about 14 injured when violence erupted following a scuffle between Muslim and Hindu school students in PM Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar, India slipped a new rule into the annual budget bill that frees taxmen to raid or seize any property at any time with no need to explain why.
(Econ, 4/8/17, p.34)
2017 Apr 1, In India a mob of Hindus stopped trucks carrying dairy cows in Behror town, Rajasthan state. Muslim men en route to Haryana state were pulled from the trucks and beaten with sticks and iron rods. Pehlu Kahn died of his wounds on April 4.
(SFC, 4/6/17, p.A4)
2017 Apr 2, Indian PM Narendra Modi inaugurated an 11-km (7-mile) tunnel through the Himalayan terrain to help ease travel on a highway linking the troubled Kashmir Valley with the rest of India. Separatist leaders fighting for the region's independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan shut businesses and public transport in the region and said the construction of tunnels and roads would not succeed in appeasing them.
(AP, 4/2/17)
2017 Apr 2, In southern India a German tourist was raped in the beach town of Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu state. Police searched for two men suspected in the rape.
(AP, 4/3/17)
2017 Apr 6, In northeastern India the Dalai Lama consecrated a Buddhist monastery in Arunachal Pradesh state, amid Chinese warnings that the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's visit to a disputed border region would damage bilateral relations with India.
(AP, 4/6/17)
2017 Apr 6, Retired Pakistani Lt. Col. Mohammad Habib went missing after arriving in Nepal. Pakistani officials later said he was seized by Indian intelligence and that the abduction was aimed at pressuring Pakistan to release Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian naval officer convicted of espionage who was sentenced to death on April 10.
(AP, 4/18/17)
2017 Apr 8, India offered a $4.5 billion line of credit to neighboring Bangladesh to help it implement projects in priority areas such as the energy sector, and a separate $500 million credit line to support defense related procurements.
(Reuters, 4/8/17)
2017 Apr 8, Indian police arrested Sagar Thakkar (24), aka Shaggy, the suspected mastermind behind a call center scam run out of a Mumbai suburb that targeted thousands of Americans and netted more than $300 million.
(Reuters, 4/8/17)
2017 Apr 9, In the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir six people were killed and more than 100 injured when police clashed with protesters during a by-election in Srinagar.
(Reuters, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 9, The navies of India and China carried out a joint operation to rescue the bulk carrier, OS 35, a merchant ship hijacked the previous evening by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates had fled overnight.
(AFP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 10, In Kashmir four suspected rebels were killed overnight in fighting with the Indian army, as businesses and schools shut in the disputed region in response to a separatists' call to protest the killing of eight civilians by government forces during a weekend by-election.
(AP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 10, Pakistan's military sentenced an Indian naval officer to death on charges of espionage and sabotage. Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested in March 2016, had been convicted by a military tribunal. Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan was never explained credibly.
(AP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 18, British police arrested Indian business tycoon Vijay Mallya in London on behalf of authorities in India, where he is wanted on charges of money laundering and bank demands that he pay back more than a billion dollars in loans extended to his now-defunct airline.
(AP, 4/18/17)
2017 Apr 19, In northern India a bus swerved off a mountain road and plunged into a deep ravine, killing at least 44 people in Himachal Pradesh state.
(AFP, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 20, India’s government blocked the Public Health Foundation of India from accepting money from foreign donors. Under PM Narendra Modi over 11,000 NGOs have lost their licenses to accept foreign financing.
(SFC, 4/21/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 21, In southern India at least 20 people were killed and several others seriously injured after a truck driver lost control and plowed into a group of protesting farmers. The farmers were gathered outside the main police station in the town of Yerpedu protesting against illegal sand mining in their area.
(AP, 4/21/17)
2017 Apr 24, In central India Maoist guerrillas ambushed a paramilitary patrol, killing at least 24 policemen and wounding six in Chhattisgarh state.
(Reuters, 4/24/17)
2017 Apr 24, Six people were awarded the annual Goldman Environmental Prize. They included Mark Lopez of southern California for work focusing on contamination from a battery recycling plant; Rodrigue Mugaruka Katembo of Congo DRC for efforts to protect the Virunga National Park from oil extraction; Prafulla Samantara of India for efforts to halt an open-pit bauxite mine in Odisha state; Uros Maceri of Slovenia for efforts to halt pollution by the Lafarge Cement Co.; Wendy Bowman of Australia for her efforts to halt coal mining and pollution in the Hunter Valley; and Rodrigo Tot of Guatemala for efforts to halt evictions and government corruption related to nickel mining in El Estor and Agua Caliente.
(SFC, 4/24/17, p.A10)
2017 Apr 26, Pakistan's military released a video in which Liaquat Ali, better known by his nom de guerre, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said Afghan and Indian intelligence agencies gave funds and other assistance to Pakistani Taliban militants to fight Islamabad. Ehsan, the group's former spokesman, surrendered last week.
(Reuters, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 30, In northeastern India two Muslim teenagers were beaten to death by a mob over allegations of cow theft in Assam state. This was the third cow-related death in the country in the past month.
(AP, 5/1/17)(SFC, 5/2/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr, India’s Supreme Court upheld an earlier decision to deny licenses to sell alcohol within 500 meters of a state or national highway and extended from retail outlets to embrace any place serving alcohol.
(Econ, 4/8/17, p.35)
2017 May 1, In Kashmir militants fighting Indian rule ambushed a van carrying cash for the state-run Jammu and Kashmir Bank, killing five policemen and two bank officials. India's army accused Pakistani troops of killing two of its soldiers paroling the de facto border in the disputed Kashmir region before mutilating their bodies, and vowed to exact revenge. Pakistan's military denied the allegations.
(Reuters, 5/1/17)
2017 May 2, In India Ghulam Mohammad, a Muslim man, was beaten to death in Uttar Pradesh state's Bulandshahar district for helping an interfaith couple elope. Police soon detained three members of Yuva Vahini, a Hindu militia, for suspected involvement in the killing.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 4, Thousands of Indian government forces cordoned off at least two dozen villages in southern Kashmir while they hunted for separatist militants believed to be hiding in the area, but called off the operation after about 10 hours without finding any.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 5, In France the Cartooning for Peace group, founded by French cartoonist Plantu, said cartoonists were increasingly becoming the victims of repressive crackdowns on free speech. Ten countries including Russia, Turkey and India were condemned for censoring, locking up or threatening cartoonists in a new report published by the group.
(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 5, The Norwegian central bank said Norway's wealth fund has excluded Bharat Heavy Electricals from its investment portfolio because of concerns over the environmental impact of a plant the Indian company is building. BHEL was building a coal-fired power plant close to the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, in Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)
2017 May 7, In India anti-corruption crusader Arvind Kejriwal's government in New Delhi plunged into a crisis as a minister he fired over the weekend accused him of accepting 20 million rupees ($300,000) in cash as a bribe. His Aam Admi Party spokesman, Kumar Viswas, rejected the allegation by party lawmaker Kapil Mishra, describing it as an attack by rivals.
(AP, 5/7/17)
2017 May 8, Japan and India affirmed plans to strengthen their military cooperation amid rising tension in the Asian region.
(AP, 5/8/17)
2017 May 9, Kashmiri militants kidnapped an Indian army officer (23) who was visiting home in the disputed Himalayan region. His bullet-riddled body was recovered the next morning.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 11, Indian PM Narendra Modi arrived in Sri Lanka o attend a UN celebration of Buddha's birth and hold talks with leaders of the island nation.
(AP, 5/11/17)
2017 May 11, In Kashmir two civilians were killed and three others injured when Indian and Pakistani soldiers traded gunfire and shelled each other's border posts in the disputed region.
(AP, 5/11/17)
2017 May 12, In India the Allahabad High Court ruled that the state should start re-issuing licenses to the abattoirs in Uttar Pradesh, allowing them to re-open. The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state had ordered the closure of unlicensed slaughter houses after he was appointed by PM Narendra Modi in March.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, The western Indian city of Ahmadabad, a city of more than 7 million people, launched its first air quality monitoring system that will be used to send out pollution alerts.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 13, In Kashmir Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire, killing two civilians and wounding six others.
(AP, 5/13/17)
2017 May 15, India reported three cases of Zika virus to the WHO. They were detected through routine blood surveillance in a hospital in Ahmadabad. Two cases were detected in February and November last year, while a third case was detected in January this year.
(AP, 5/28/17)
2017 May 16, An Indian court in New Delhi ruled that doctors were free to carry out an abortion on a girl (10) who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather.
(SFC, 5/17/17, p.A2)
2017 May 18, The UN International Court of Justice ordered Pakistan not to execute Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, convicted of espionage and terrorism, in a case that has further strained relations between the Asian neighbors.
(AP, 5/18/17)
2017 May 19, In southern India a woman (24) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala state, cut off the genitals of a Hindu holy man who tried to rape her and who she alleged has been sexually assaulting her for the past eight years. Gangeshananda Theerthapada (54) was reported to be in stable condition after reconstructive surgery.
(AP, 5/20/17)
2017 May 20, India finalized a policy that would allow local private companies to work with foreign players to make high-tech defense equipment, in a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bid to cut reliance on imports.
(Reuters, 5/20/17)
2017 May 23, India said it had attacked and damaged Pakistani army posts in Kashmir as it sought to prevent militants infiltrating from the Pakistani side of the disputed region, but Pakistan denied the assertion.
(Reuters, 5/23/17)
2017 May 23, India’s government issued notification regarding changes to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. The environment ministry said that animal markets will only be able to trade in cattle meant for agricultural purposes. Animals for slaughter will have to be bought from farmers directly, a big blow to the meat business run mainly by Muslims.
(AP, 5/27/17)
2017 May 25, Indian police arrested around 150 people protesting against a breakdown in law and order in the eastern city of Kolkata, after street battles broke out during a march to police headquarters and police cars were set ablaze. Regional and national leaders from PM Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged the march to protest against a perceived deterioration in security in the state of West Bengal, which is ruled by a rival left-wing party.
(Reuters, 5/25/17)
2017 May 26, In India rules took effect requiring that cattle traders pledge that any cows or buffalos sold are not intended for slaughter. At least one state government is planning a challenge in court.
(AP, 5/29/17)
2017 May 27, In Indian-controlled Kashmir one civilian was killed and dozens of others injured after massive anti-India protests and clashes erupted following the killing of a prominent rebel commander and his associate in a gunbattle with government forces. Rebel leader Sabzar Ahmed Bhat and a fellow militant were killed after troops cordoned off the southern Tral area overnight following a tip that rebels were hiding there.
(AP, 5/27/17)
2017 May 30, A court in southern India ordered a four-week stay on the federal government's decision to ban the sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter.
(AP, 5/30/17)
2017 May 31, The Trump administration cancelled preferential trading rules for India.
(Econ, 6/8/19, p.13)
2017 Jun 1, India's troops fired mortars and used small arms to target civilians in border towns in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing a villager. Another four civilians were wounded in the shelling, which the Pakistani military said was in violation of a cease-fire agreement. Pakistani troops returned fire.
(AP, 6/1/17)
2017 Jun 3, French President Emmanuel Macron and India’s PM Narendra Modi put forth a common front on the need to fight climate change, with the French leader saying he would travel to India before year's end for a summit on promoting solar energy.
(AP, 6/3/17)
2017 Jun 3, The Pakistani military said its troops had killed five Indian soldiers in retaliation to Indian firing along the Line of Control in disputed Kashmir. The Indian army said two of its soldiers were killed in an ambush by suspected insurgents.
(Reuters, 6/3/17)(AP, 6/3/17)
2017 Jun 5, India successfully launched its most powerful home-produced rocket, another milestone for its indigenous space program which one day hopes to put a human into orbit. The GSLV Mk III rocket carried a satellite weighing more than three tons into a high orbit above Earth.
(AFP, 6/5/17)
2017 Jun 6, In India five farmers were killed by gunshots at a rally in Madhya Pradesh. Farmers there have protested for several weeks demanding better prices for crops and waivers from the state government for repayment of farm loans.
(AP, 6/7/17)
2017 Jun 6, Arundhati Roy's eagerly-awaited second novel, "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness," went on sale, two decades after her prize-winning debut "The God of Small Things" propelled her to global fame and launched her career as an outspoken critic of injustice in her native India. Roy (55) became the first Indian woman to win the prestigious Booker Prize with her 1997 work, which sold around eight million copies and turned the young author into a star of the literary world.
(AFP, 6/6/17)
2017 Jun 9, In northeastern India S.S. Khaplang (77), head of a faction of the separatist National Socialist Council of Nagaland, died of renal failure in Taga region, his outfit's headquarters. Khaplang called off peace talks with India in 2015 after 14 years of futile negotiations and resumed his fight for an independent Naga homeland.
(AP, 6/10/17)
2017 Jun 10, The Indian army said it has foiled infiltration bids by suspected militants from the Pakistani side along a heavily militarized de facto border dividing Kashmir between the two countries and killed six intruders over the 24 hours.
(AP, 6/10/17)
2017 Jun 12, Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing two civilians and wounding three others on the Pakistani side.
(AP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 19, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the first Afghanistan-India air corridor during a ceremony at the Kabul International Airport — a direct route that bypasses Pakistan and is meant to improve commerce.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 20, The London-based group World Animal Protection said dried penises of endangered Bengal monitor lizards and yellow monitor lizards look similar to a rare plant root sought by people who believe it brings good luck. Wildlife authorities conducted raids in five Indian states last month and some raids were continuing.
(AP, 6/20/17)
2017 Jun 22, In Kashmir government forces killed three suspected rebels in fighting in the disputed region and fatally shot a rock-throwing protester during an ensuing rally demanding an end to Indian rule.
(AP, 6/22/17)
2017 Jun 23, In India a Muslim man was killed following a knife attack on a running train near New Delhi. An arrested man told reporters the next day that he was drunk when he attacked four men on the train after he was told by his friends that they were "beef-eaters."
(AP, 6/25/17)
2017 Jun 24, In Kashmir insurgents attacked a paramilitary patrol vehicle with gunfire on a key highway connecting the Kashmir Valley to the rest of India. They were killed in gunbattles that raged until late the next day.
(AP, 6/25/17)
2017 Jun 25, In Kashmir Indian security forces put an outskirt of Srinagar under security lockdown as they battled two rebels who took shelter in a school building after killing one paramilitary officer and wounding another soldier.
(AP, 6/25/17)
2017 Jun 26, In Washington, DC, US President Donald Trump met for the first time with India's PM Narendra Modi. The two countries pledged to work together to try to end global terrorism.
(AP, 6/26/17)(AP, 6/27/17)
2017 Jun 27, A Swiss government information technology agency said ransomware known as Petya seems to have re-emerged to affect computer systems across Europe, causing issues primarily in Ukraine, Russia, England and India. In 2018 Britain blamed the Russian government for the NotPetya cyber-attack.
(Reuters, 6/27/17)(Econ 7/1/17, p.72)(SFC, 2/16/18, p.A4)
2017 Jun 28, In India thousands of people gathered in several cities to protest recent violent attacks across the country targeting minority Muslims.
(AP, 6/28/17)
2017 Jun 29, Indian PM Narendra Modi condemned a rise in deadly mob attacks on cattle traders, beef eaters and dairy farmers, saying that killing people in the name of protecting cows is unacceptable.
(AP, 6/29/17)
2017 Jul 1, India launched its biggest ever fiscal reform with the government promising that a new nationwide tax would make the economy stronger and less corrupt. The new goods and services tax (GST) replaces more than a dozen levies imposed nationally and by the 29 states.
(AFP, 7/1/17)`
2017 Jul 1, Indian security forces shot dead Bashir Ahmad, alias Bashir Lashkari, a top Islamist militant during a seven-hour gun battle in Dialgam, in the disputed Kashmir region. He was accused of killing six police officers last month. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant Azad Malik was also killed as well as a woman caught in the crossfire. A young man was killed and several other people injured during anti-India protests that followed.
(Reuters, 7/1/17)
2017 Jul 4, India’s PM Narendra Modi arrived in Israel for the first ever visit by an Indian premier, amid growing ties between the two countries including billions of dollars in defence deals.
(AFP, 7/4/17)
2017 Jul 5, Indian authorities said heavy rains since the start of the monsoon season have triggered floods and landslides in parts of the remote northeastern region, causing at least 20 deaths in Assam state.
(AP, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 5, Israel and India signed several agreements on cooperation in the fields of technology, water and agriculture on the second day of a landmark visit by the Indian PM Narendra Modi to the Jewish state.
(AP, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 7, In India Tashi Bhutia (31), a supporter of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), was killed during a protest. Violence followed and two people were killed in the protests over Bhutia’s killing.
(Reuters, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 8, In Kashmir seven people were killed in cross-border shelling by both Pakistan and India as hundreds of militants and political activists took to the streets in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir to commemorate the 2016 death of Burhan Wani.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 9, Pakistan summoned India's deputy high commissioner in Islamabad after five civilians were killed by "unprovoked" Indian fire across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region. In a separate 'goodwill gesture' it also released scores of Indian fishermen held for illegal fishing in its territorial waters.
(AP, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 10, In Kashmir gunmen sprayed bullets on a passenger bus as it returned Hindu pilgrims from the Amarnath cave shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Seven Hindu pilgrims were killed and 19 wounded.
(AP, 7/12/17)(SFC, 7/12/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 11, India's Supreme Court suspended a government ban on the trade of cattle for slaughter, a boost for the multi-billion dollar beef and leather industries mostly run by members of the Muslim minority.
(Reuters, 7/11/17)
2017 Jul 11, In India at least 14 people were killed after a mudslide swept through a village Arunachal Pradesh. Since mid-June flooding in Assam state has left some 45 people dead.
(SFC, 7/14/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 16, In Indian Kashmir at least 16 Hindu pilgrims were killed and 27 injured after a bus they were traveling in skidded off a mountain road and fell into a gorge.
(Reuters, 7/16/17)
2017 Jul 17, Lawmakers voted to choose India's next president. Hindu nationalist Ram Nath Kovind (71), a little-known member of a political group closely allied to India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, was elected by the Parliament and state legislatures as the country’s new president, a largely ceremonial position.
(AP, 7/17/17)(AP, 7/20/17)
2017 Jul 17, In Kashmir four Pakistani soldiers, one Indian soldier and a child were killed as Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire across a cease-fire line dividing the troubled region between the two countries.
(AP, 7/17/17)
2017 Jul 21, Indian soldiers fired at worshippers outside a mosque in disputed Kashmir, killing one man and wounding another after some threw rocks. Residents said only a few rocks were thrown and none hit any soldier.
(AP, 7/22/17)
2017 Jul 25, In India Ram Nath Kovind (71) was sworn in as the country’s 14th president, becoming the first member of a powerful Hindu nationalist movement to assume the highest public office in the world's largest democracy. His elevation boosted the representation of his Dalit community, which ranks at the lower end of India's ancient caste hierarchy.
(Reuters, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 25, In India a five-story building came crashing down in Mumbai killing 17 people and injuring nine others. The next day police arrested the owner of several apartments in the four-storey building.
(AP, 7/25/17)(Reuters, 7/26/17)
2017 Jul 25, Indian officials said least 16 people have been killed this week in heavy monsoon rains that have lashed western India, including the desert state of Rajasthan, with more than 24,000 villagers evacuated to higher ground.
(AP, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 26, In India Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar state and once seen as a potential challenger to PM Narendra Modi, quit in a move that could shake up national politics.
(Reuters, 7/26/17)
2017 Jul 26, Indian officials said at least 48 people have been killed as large swaths of Gujarat and Rajasthan states were lashed by heavy monsoon rains and flooding over the last week.
(AP, 7/26/17)
2017 Jul 29, India's navy seized a ship carrying about 1,500 kg of heroin worth 35 billion rupees ($545 million) in what it said was its biggest ever drugs haul.
(Reuters, 7/30/17)(AP, 7/31/17)
2017 Aug 1, Indian forces killed Abu Dujana, a top militant commander in Kashmir, triggering clashes in which one protester was killed and dozens injured. Large anti-India protests and clashes spearheaded mostly by students erupted in disputed Kashmir after government forces killed two senior militants in a gunbattle and fatally shot a protester during an ensuing demonstration demanding an end to Indian rule.
(AFP, 8/1/17)(AP, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 1, India released data this week data showing that about one person has been killed every day for the past three years by roaming tigers or rampaging elephants.
(AP, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 2, In Kashmir a fresh strike called by anti-India separatists to protest the killings of two top rebels and a civilian shut down the disputed region while Akeel Ahmed Bhat, a teenage boy, died a day after he was wounded by government forces.
(AP, 8/2/17)
2017 Aug 3, China's Foreign Ministry said India has been building up troops and repairing roads along its side of the border amid an increasingly tense stand-off in a remote frontier region beside the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.
(Reuters, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 3, In Kashmir a pair of ambushes by Indian government forces and Kashmiri rebels killed two soldiers and two militants in the disputed Himalayan region.
(AP, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 5, In southern India four Spanish nationals and their Indian driver were killed in a collision between their bus and a trailer truck on a highway.
(AP, 8/5/17)
2017 Aug 5, In Kashmir a gunbattle between Indian troops and Kashmiri rebels killed three insurgents in the disputed Himalayan region and triggered a new round of anti-India protests and clashes.
(AP, 8/5/17)
2017 Aug 9, In India at least half a million protesters brought Mumbai to a standstill as they pressed their demands for reserved quotas in government jobs and college places amid a slumping rural economy.
(Reuters, 8/9/17)
2017 Aug 9, In Kashmir a teenage boy was killed during anti-India protests following a gunbattle that killed three rebels near Tral town.
(AP, 8/9/17)
2017 Aug 11, In India an elephant blamed for killing more than a dozen people in the eastern states of Jharkhand and Bihar was shot dead, after an elaborate hunt that involved dozens of forest officials and a sharpshooter.
(Reuters, 8/12/17)
2017 Aug 11, In Nepal seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal) agreed to conclude early a free trade accord, implement the Paris agreement on climate change and step up cooperation among their security agencies to combat terrorism.
(AP, 8/11/17)
2017 Aug 12, Indian officials said at least 64 children suffering from encephalitis have died over six days at the government run Baba Raghav Das Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh state, as it suffered oxygen shortages. State health minister Sidharth Nath Singh denied that any of the deaths were linked to the oxygen shortage.
(AFP, 8/12/17)(Econ, 3/21/20, p.34)
2017 Aug 13, In India two packed buses were swept into a gorge overnight by a landslide so powerful it destroyed an entire stretch of highway in Himachal Pradesh state. 17 bodies were recovered from the site, but dozens remained missing.
(AFP, 8/13/17)
2017 Aug 13, In south Kashmir two Indian soldiers and three militants were killed in a 12-hour overnight gunfight in the Shopian district.
(Reuters, 8/13/17)
2017 Aug 14, Officials said heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed at least 173 people in recent days and displaced millions more across Bangladesh, northern India and southern Nepal.
(AP, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 14, Officials said heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed at least 173 people in recent days and displaced millions more across Bangladesh, northern India and southern Nepal.
(AP, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 15, Officials said the death toll in flooding and landslides that devastated parts of Bangladesh, northern India and southern Nepal over the past few days has risen to 245, while millions of others have been displaced.
(AP, 8/15/17)
2017 Aug 17, In India a girl (10), raped by an uncle, gave birth to a 5-pound girl by cesarean section in Chandigarh. She had lost a legal battle to have an abortion.
(SFC, 8/18/17, p.A2)
2017 Aug 19, In northern India a crowded train went off the tracks, killing 23 people and injuring more than 80 others in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 8/20/17)
2017 Aug 19, In India park director Satyendra Singh said rising floodwaters have inundated large parts of Kaziranga National Park in Assam state, killing more than 225 animals and forcing hundreds of other animals to flee.
(AP, 8/19/17)
2017 Aug 19, Officials said the death toll in flooding and landslides that devastated parts of Bangladesh, northern India and southern Nepal over the last week has risen to 600, while millions of others have been displaced.
(AFP, 8/19/17)
2017 Aug 22, India's Supreme Court struck down “triple talaq" as unconstitutional. The Muslim practice allowed men to instantly divorce their wives by saying “I divorce you" three times. The judgement did not ban other forms of Muslim divorce that favor men.
(AP, 8/22/17)(Econ, 8/26/17, p.34)
2017 Aug 22, McDonald's India announced it will close nearly 170 McDonald's outlets in northern and eastern India after the American fast food giant decided to terminate a franchise agreement with its Indian partner.
(AP, 8/22/17)
2017 Aug 24, India's Supreme Court ruled that citizens have a constitutional right to privacy, a landmark decision that could jeopardize Aadhaar, a government program holding biometric data on over a billion people.
(AFP, 8/24/17)
2017 Aug 24, Officials said more than 950 people have been killed in floods triggered by seasonal monsoon rains in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
(SFC, 8/25/17, p.A4)
2017 Aug 25, In India violent protests erupted, leaving at least 38 people dead, after a court convicted self-styled "godman" Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insaan of raping two women, angering thousands of his supporters who said he was innocent. Singh, the head of a social welfare and spiritual group, was found guilty of raping two followers in a case dating back to 2002 at the headquarters of his Dera Sacha Sauda group in the northern town of Sirsa.
(Reuters, 8/25/17)(AP, 8/25/17)(AP, 8/26/17)(AP, 8/27/17)
2017 Aug 26, In Kashmir four police officials, four paramilitary soldiers and two suspected militants were killed after anti-India rebels stormed a heavily guarded police camp in the disputed Himalayan region, triggering daylong fighting.
(AP, 8/26/17)
2017 Aug 28, India's foreign ministry said India and China have agreed to an "expeditious disengagement" of troops in a disputed border area where their soldiers have been locked in a stand-off for more than two months.
(Reuters, 8/28/17)
2017 Aug 28, In India the popular and flamboyant Indian spiritual guru, who calls himself Dr. Saint Gurmeet Singh Ram Rahim Insan (Insaan), was sentenced by a judge to 20 years in prison on charges dating from 2002 of raping two female followers. His Dera Sacha Sauda sect claims to have about 50 million followers and campaigns for vegetarianism and against drug addiction. It also organizes blood-donation and tree-planting drives. 38 people died in riots after his conviction.
(AP, 8/28/17)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.33)
2017 Aug 29, In India heavy monsoon rains brought Mumbai, a city with a population of more than 20 million people, to a halt with authorities struggling to evacuate people with the scheduled high tide adding to the chaos.
(Reuters, 8/29/17)
2017 Aug 30, In India police said two toddlers were among 14 people killed in Mumbai after floods caused by heavy monsoon rains destroyed homes and disrupted traffic.
(Reuters, 8/30/17)
2017 Aug 31, In India torrential rains caused a five-story apartment building to collapse in Mumbai, killing at least 33 people and possibly burying more than a dozen others.
(Reuters, 8/31/17)(AP, 8/31/17)(AP, 9/1/17)
2017 Sep 1, In India at least two people were killed when part of a huge mountain of garbage came crashing down in a landfill on the eastern outskirts of New Delhi. Media reports said about 2,800 tons of garbage are dumped at the site every day. The garbage comes from east Delhi, home to more than 4 million of the capital's 21 million people.
(AP, 9/1/17)
2017 Aug, India barred state authorities from unilaterally cancelling or modifying solar power purchase agreements (PPAs) after six state governments in last two months pushed developers to lower tariffs, threatening to derail projects worth $7.5 billion.
(Reuters, 8/30/17)
2017 Aug, India’s federal finance ministry renewed the National Health Mission with $20 billion of funding between 2017-20, against the health ministry's estimated requirement of $25 billion.
{India, Medical}
(Reuters, 11/23/17)
2017 Sep 4, In India Murray Dennis Ward, a 54-year-old British man, was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing three blind students at a school in New Delhi.
(AP, 9/5/17)
2017 Sep 5, In India Gauri Lankesh (55), the editor and publisher of the Kannada-language “Gauri Lankesh Patrike" newspaper, was shot dead by unidentified assailants near her home in the southern city of Bengaluru. She had recently published an essay arguing the Lingayatism should be considered a distinct faith.
(Reuters, 9/6/17)(Econ, 9/23/17, p.34)
2017 Sep 6, Indian journalists and rights activists protested against the murder a day earlier of Gauri Lankesh, an outspoken publisher of a weekly tabloid, amid growing concerns about freedom of the press at a time of rising nationalism and intolerance of dissent.
(Reuters, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 6, India's top court allowed a 13-year-old rape survivor to have a late abortion after lawyers said carrying the baby to full term would cause her trauma and agony.
(AFP, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 6, The Vatican declared Mother Teresa a patron saint of the Archdiocese of Calcutta at a Mass in the city where she dedicated her life to the poorest of the poor.
(AP, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 10, In eastern India at least one person was killed and several others injured when an under-construction flyover bridge collapsed in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha state.
(Reuters, 9/10/17)
2017 Sep 14, The leaders of India and Japan met in Gujarat state and agreed to deepen defense ties and push for more cooperation with Australia and the United States, as they seek to counter growing Chinese influence across Asia. Abe flew to Gujarat to lay the foundation stone of a $17 billion bullet train project, India's first, that was made possible by a huge Japanese loan.
(Reuters, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 17, India’s PM Narendra Modi inaugurated India's biggest dam, the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river, ignoring warnings from environment groups that hundreds of thousands of people will lose their livelihoods. The foundation stone was laid by PM Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961. Construction of the project began in 1987.
(Reuters, 9/17/17)
2017 Sep 18, India's government said that it has evidence there are extremists who pose a threat to the country's security among the Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar and settled in many Indian cities.
(AP, 9/18/17)
2017 Sep 22, Indian officials said security along the largely porous eastern border with Bangladesh has been stepped up and that "chilli and stun grenades" were being used to block the entry of Rohingya Muslims fleeing from violence in Myanmar.
(Reuters, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 22, Pakistan's military said at least six Pakistani villagers were killed and 26 were wounded in an overnight attack by India in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, adding that hundreds of villagers were forced to move to safer places.
(AP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 23, Police in western India arrested popular spiritual guru Kaushlendra Prapannacharya Falahari Maharaja (70), the second in the past month, for allegedly raping a 21-year-old woman in Rajashtan state.
(AP, 9/23/17)
2017 Sep 23, Indian troops, according to Pakistan, fired across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region, killing a young girl and wounding two other people.
(AP, 9/24/17)
2017 Sep 27, Indian troops exchanged gunfire with separatist guerrillas in a remote northeastern region bordering Myanmar, killing or wounding several of the insurgents.
(Reuters, 9/27/17)
2017 Sep 27, Pakistan's army said Indian troops have fired across the frontier in the disputed region of Kashmir, killing a young man and wounding four people.
(AP, 9/27/17)
2017 Sep 29, In India a stampede broke out on a crowded pedestrian bridge connecting two railway stations in Mumbai during the morning rush, killing at least 22 people and injuring 32 others.
(AP, 9/29/17)
2017 Sep 29, Indian troops with heavy weapons reportedly targeted civilians from across the frontier in the disputed region of Kashmir, killing two villagers and a Pakistani soldier.
(AP, 9/30/17)
2017 Oct 2, In Kashmir Indian and Pakistani troops fired at each other, killing a boy (10) and a girl (15) and injuring 12 other civilians on the Indian side.
(AP, 10/2/17)
2017 Oct 3, In Kashmir Indian police killed three suspected militants in army uniforms after they infiltrated a security camp beside the main airport in the disputed region. One Indian security official was killed and three wounded in a gun fight that followed. Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammad took responsibility for the attack.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)
2017 Oct 6, The European Union and India agreed to step up cooperation in countering violent extremism and radicalization, particularly online, and in enhancing maritime security in the Indian Ocean and beyond in a joint declaration issued at the end of the 14th EU-India Summit.
(AP, 10/6/17)
2017 Oct 9, Indian officials said twenty farmers have died since August and hundreds of others are in hospital after inhaling poisonous pesticides while spraying crops. The farmers in the western state of Maharashtra died after using the dangerous pesticides without wearing protective gear.
(AFP, 10/9/17)
2017 Oct 11, India’s Supreme Court ruled that having sexual intercourse with a wife younger than 18 is rape. A 2011 government census indicated that the percentage of below-18 marriages in India was as high as 47%.
(SFC, 10/13/17, p.A3)
2017 Oct 11, In Kashmir two Indian air force commandos and two rebels were killed in a fierce gunbattle following an anti-militant operation in northern Hajin town.
(AP, 10/11/17)
2017 Oct 14, In Kashmir a young man was killed during anti-India protests following a gunbattle that killed two rebels. Indian troops had cordoned off southern Litter village on a tip that militants were hiding in a civilian home. Later in the day a police officer was killed and another injured after rebels sprayed gunfire at two police vehicles passing through the southern Kulgam area. The next day Pakistan said Indian fire across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region had killed two children.
(AP, 10/14/17)(AP, 10/15/17)
2017 Oct 17, The Indian government ordered diesel generators and a power plant in Delhi to be shut down as air quality in the capital deteriorated ahead of the Hindu festival of lights, when a night of firecrackers sends pollution levels rocketing.
(Reuters, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 18, In eastern India flames swept through an illegal firecracker workshop in the state of Odisha, killing at least eight workers.
(AP, 10/18/17)(SFC, 10/19/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 21, India's central bank dismissed media reports that it was not necessary to link national identity card numbers, known as Aadhar numbers, to bank accounts. It said the requirement remained in force under anti-money laundering rules.
(Reuters, 10/21/17)
2017 Oct 24, India’s top court banned the use of petroleum coke, a dirtier alternative to coal, in and around New Delhi in a bid to clean the air in one of the world's most polluted cities. The court also ordered a ban on the sale and use of furnace oil, another dirty refinery by-product, in and around the capital and ordered implementation of strict emission norms by the end of December.
(Reuters, 10/24/17)
2017 Oct 29, India shipped its first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan by sea through Iran's strategic Chahbahar Port, launching a trade route bypassing longtime rival Pakistan.
(AP, 10/29/17)
2017 Oct 29, Pakistan released 68 Indian fishermen held for trespassing into its territorial waters. 380 Indian fishermen remained behind bars in the country.
(AFP, 10/29/17)
2017 Oct 30, The leaders of India and Italy held talks in New Delhi and signed a slew of agreements that mark a thaw in their relations following the fatal 2012 shootings of two Indian fishermen by Italian marines who mistook them for pirates.
(AP, 10/30/17)
2017 Nov 1, In India an explosion at a power plant in Uttar Pradesh state killed at least 16 workers and seriously burned dozens of others. Preliminary findings suggested that ash had collected in the furnace below the boiler, causing the explosion at the coal-fired plant run by the government-owned National Thermal Power Corporation.
(AFP, 11/1/17)
2017 Nov 4, In India participants from 20 countries took part in the three-day World Food India exhibition in New Delhi.
(AP, 11/4/17)
2017 Nov 4, India’s government said thousands of people have taken refuge in relief camps as torrential monsoon rains flooded parts of southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, killing at least 12 people this week.
(AP, 11/4/17)
2017 Nov 4, In India at least three people were killed and another six injured when a stampede broke out during a Hindu religious ritual on a crowded bank of the Ganges River in Begusarai, Bihar state.
(AP, 11/4/17)
2017 Nov 4, Officials said smog has enveloped much of Pakistan and neighboring India, causing highway accidents and respiratory problems, and forcing many residents to stay home.
(AP, 11/5/17)
2017 Nov 5, In India five boys aged 9-12 and one woman, all from a single extended family, drowned in the Ganges River while on a picnic near Patna. Three other people drowned when their boat capsized in the Sarswati River in the state's Samastipur district.
(AP, 11/5/17)
2017 Nov 7, Pollution in the Indian capital hit a dangerous level, putting residents at risk, forcing the closure of schools, and bringing calls from doctors for the city's half marathon to be canceled.
(Reuters, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 7, In disputed Kashmir three militants and an Indian army soldier were killed in a gunbattle in southern Aglar village following a tip that militants were hiding there.
(AP, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 8, In India Delhi's government ordered schools shut for the rest of the week as air pollution worsened and criticism mounted over the failure of authorities to tackle the public health crisis.
(Reuters, 11/8/17)
2017 Nov 10, Officials said India plans to spray water over its capital, New Delhi, to combat toxic smog that has triggered a pollution emergency, with conditions expected to worsen over the weekend.
(Reuters, 11/10/17)
2017 Nov 12, In India hundreds of gay rights activists and supporters, marched through New Delhi in celebration but also defiance in a nation that continues to outlaw homosexual acts. This was New Delhi's 10th annual Queer Pride march.
(AP, 11/12/17)
2017 Nov 12, In India at least 11 people died when a tourist boat capsized in the Krishna River in southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
(Reuters, 11/12/17)
2017 Nov 18, In China an Indian medical student was crowned Miss World at a glitzy event Hainan Island, making her country the joint-most successful in the beauty pageant's history. Her win brings India level with Venezuela as the countries with most victories in the history of the pageant, now in its 67th edition.
(AFP, 11/18/17)
2017 Nov 18, In disputed Kashmir at least five suspected militants and an Indian air force commando were killed in a fierce gunbattle in northern Hajin village. Thousands of residents in Srinagar participated in the funeral of a local militant who police said was killed overnight in a shootout with troops.
(AP, 11/18/17)
2017 Nov 19, A member of India's Hindu nationalist ruling party offered a 100 million rupee ($1.5 million) reward to anyone who beheads lead actress Deepika Padukone and filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali of the yet-to-be released Bollywood film "Padmavati" over its alleged handling of the relationship between a Hindu queen and a Muslim ruler. The film is based on a 16th century Sufi epic poem, "Padmavat," a fictional account of a brave and beautiful Rajput queen who chose to kill herself rather than be captured by the Muslim sultan of Delhi, Allaudin Khilji.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 19, In northeastern India two endangered Asian elephants were hit and killed by a passenger train near the city of Gauhati.
(AP, 11/19/17)
2017 Nov 27, An Indian appeals court acquitted 35 crewmembers and security guards of the private US ship MV Seaman Guard Ohio, including six former British soldiers and 10 Indians, who were sentenced last year to five years in prison on charges of illegally transporting weapons and ammunition in Indian waters in October, 2013.
(AP, 11/27/17)
2017 Nov 27, In India police in Assam state used elephants and tear gas in an attempt to evict hundreds of people living illegally in the Amchang forest, an elephant habitat threatened by unauthorized settlements.
(SFC, 11/28/17, p.A2)
2017 Nov 28, In India Ivanka Trump described the hurdles faced by women during a speech at a business conference in Hyderabad. The city had cleared away beggars and filled potholes ahead of her visit.
(AP, 11/28/17)
2017 Nov 30, Officials in Indian-administered Kashmir said five suspected rebels were shot dead by government forces.
(AFP, 11/30/17)
2017 Dec 1, In India former President Barack Obama spoke to a leadership forum in New Delhi at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, as part of a three-country tour Obama is undertaking in one of his first global outings as a private citizen.
(AP, 12/1/17)
2017 Dec 1, An Associated Press investigation found that US oil refineries that are unable to sell a dirty fuel waste product at home are exporting vast quantities of it to India instead.
(AP, 12/1/17)
2017 Dec 2, In southern India a strong cyclone over the southeast Arabian Sea triggered heavy rains and strong winds, damaging hundreds of huts, power lines and trees and killing at least 12 people.
(AP, 12/2/17)
2017 Dec 4, In India Shashi Kapoor (79), a leading Bollywood actor and producer from the 1970s and '80s, died after a long illness. Kapoor acted in more than 100 Hindi films and was also a key theater personality.
(AP, 12/4/17)
2017 Dec 4, In London Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya (61) insisted he was innocent of money-laundering accusations after the evacuation of a London court building forced him to face a swarm of journalists he had sought to avoid.
(AP, 12/4/17)
2017 Dec 9, Indian PM Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat went to the polls, in a key electoral test of his popularity after a series of controversial economic reforms.
(AFP, 12/9/17)
2017 Dec 11, India's main opposition Congress party named Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the country's Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, as party president.
(AP, 12/11/17)
2017 Dec 15, Indian police arrested a Christian priest and were questioning members of a seminary after a hardline Hindu group accused them of trying to convert villagers to Christianity by distributing Bibles and singing carols.
(Reuters, 12/16/17)
2017 Dec 16, In India Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India's most famous political dynasty, took over as president of the main opposition Congress party while facing a stiff challenge from PM Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalists.
(AP, 12/16/17)
2017 Dec 20, India’s Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar held talks with Myanmar leaders and signed a memorandum of understanding to support development of Rakhine and help create jobs. India will provide Myanmar with $25 million for development projects including prefabricated houses in troubled Rakhine state to enable the return of Rohingya Muslims who have fled the area.
(Reuters, 12/21/17)
2017 Dec 22, India and China discussed ways to prevent a repeat of a recent face-off between their armed forces at a Himalayan plateau where their borders meet and agreed that resolving their boundary disagreements served the interests of both countries.
(AP, 12/22/17)
2017 Dec 23, An Indian court convicted Laloo Prasad Yadav, former Bihar state chief minister, a second time for embezzling state government funds as a top elected official two decades ago. In 2013, another court sentenced him to five years in prison for fraudulently withdrawing 378 million rupees ($5.8 million) from the Bihar state government treasury for fictitious medicines and fodder for cattle over a period of 20 years.
(AP, 12/23/17)
2017 Dec 23, In western India at least 33 people were killed after a passenger bus veered off a bridge and plunged into the Banas river in Rajasthan state.
(AP, 12/23/17)
2017 Dec 23, India officials said least four Indian soldiers were killed in Pakistani firing along the highly militarized de facto border that divides the disputed region of Kashmir between the nuclear-armed rivals.
(AP, 12/23/17)
2017 Dec 25, India's capital launched a metro train with driverless technology, though officials said it would operate with a driver for at least a year or two.
(AP, 12/25/17)
2017 Dec 28, India's lower house of parliament passed a bill aimed at prosecuting Muslim men who divorce their wives through the "triple talaq", or instant divorce. The bill moved to the upper house of parliament, where it was likely to be approved.
(Reuters, 12/28/17)
2017 Dec 29, In India a fire engulfed an upscale rooftop restaurant in Mumbai, killing 15 people and sending others fleeing for their lives.
(AP, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 29, A Pakistani official said 145 Indian fishermen have been handed over to Indian authorities at a border crossing near the eastern city of Lahore.
(AP, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 31, India’s movie superstar Rajinikanth said he is entering politics in Tamil Nadu state with a plan to launch his own party, calling it his duty.
(AP, 12/31/17)
2017 Dec 31, Five Indian soldiers and three suspected militants were killed after rebels stormed a paramilitary camp in disputed Kashmir, triggering a daylong battle. Separately, Indian and Pakistani soldiers traded gunfire along the highly militarized line dividing Kashmir between the two rivals, killing an Indian soldier.
(AP, 12/31/17)
2017 The Indian film “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion" became the first Indian film to break through the $156 million mark for worldwide box office takings.
(Econ 5/20/17, p.59)
2017 India spent about 2.7% of its GDP on education.
(Econ 6/10/17, p.18)
2018 Jan 1, In India celebrations by Dalits in Pune, 150 km (95 miles) from Mumbai, of the 200th anniversary of a battle they won, fighting alongside British colonial forces, against an upper caste ruler, were marred by clashes with right-wing Hindu groups. The clashes resulted in the death of one man (28).
(Reuters, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 1, In India Rona Wilson and a group of activists were arrested after intercommunal violence broke out at the Bhima-Koregaon war memorial. In 2021 it was reported that key 'evidence' against the group of activists, accused of trying to overthrow the Indian government, was planted on a laptop before it was seized by police.
(The Telegraph, 2/10/21)
2018 Jan 2, India’s defense ministry announced it is to buy 131 surface-to-air missiles from Israel in a $70 million deal, ahead of a visit by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. An Israeli arms company said India has cancelled a $500 million deal ahead of a visit by pm Benjamin Netanyahu. Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. said in a statement the Indian Defense Ministry cancelled the Spike missile deal.
(AFP, 1/2/18)(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 2, In India thousands of Dalits, who rank at the lower end of the country’s ancient caste hierarchy, disrupted traffic and threw stones at buses in Mumbai as they protested against violence in Pune in which one man was killed.
(Reuters, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 2, In India some 200,000 Hindu pilgrims arrived at Allahabad, where the Yamuna river meets the Ganges as well as the mythical Saraswati river, on the first major bathing day of a 45-day annual ritual known as the Magh Mela.
(AP, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 3, In India demonstrators from the lowest caste blocked roads and railways across Mumbai in protest against violence involving Hindu nationalist groups at an event commemorating a 200-year-old battle.
(AFP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 4, India began investigating a report that access to its database of the identity details of more than 1 billion citizens was being sold for just $8 on social media, in what could be one of the giant program's biggest security breaches.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, A New Delhi court declared India's flamboyant tycoon Vijay Mallya a "proclaimed offender" for failing to appear to answer allegations of money laundering by flouting foreign currency laws. The order paved the way for the government to take over Mallya's businesses and real estate holdings.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 6, An Indian court sentenced a powerful regional politician to 3 1/2 years in prison on a second conviction of embezzling state government funds as a top elected official two decades ago. The court found Laloo Prasad Yadav and 15 others guilty of conspiracy to defraud the Bihar state government of 8.45 million rupees ($130,000).
(AP, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 8, In India a fire in a restaurant early today killed five workers who were sleeping inside the building in the southern city of Bangalore.
(AP, 1/8/18)
2018 Jan 8, Pakistan released 147 Indians, detained for fishing illegally, from prison and handed over to Indian authorities.
(AP, 1/8/18)
2018 Jan 13, In India a helicopter carrying employees of the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Commission to an off-shore rig in the Arabian Sea crashed, killing five people and leaving another two missing.
(AP, 1/13/18)
2018 Jan 13, In India a ferry boat carrying mostly teenage schoolchildren sank in the Arabian Sea off the western coast, killing three students.
(AP, 1/13/18)
2018 Jan 14, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu arrived for his first visit to India to expand defense, trade and energy ties. During his six-day stay the two countries are expected to sign agreements on cybersecurity, energy and space cooperation and film production.
(AP, 1/14/18)
2018 Jan 15, In Kashmir four Pakistani soldiers were reported killed in shelling by Indian forces in the disputed region. Pakistan said its forces responded, killing three Indian soldiers and wounding several others. India's military said that Pakistani forces fired first and no casualties were recorded on the Indian side. India said its forces killed five members of a pro-Pakistan militant group trying to slip into Indian Kashmir.
(Reuters, 1/15/18)
2018 Jan 18, India's Supreme Court cleared the way for the release of the film "Padmaavat," a controversial Bollywood movie based on an epic poem about a 14th-century queen, a day after its producers went to court to fight bans by several states.
(Reuters, 1/18/18)
2018 Jan 18, India successfully test-fired a long-range nuclear-capable missile from an island in the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 1/18/18)
2018 Jan 19, India's environment ministry placed restrictions on the use of imported petroleum coke in the capital Delhi and its surrounding region, in the latest effort to curb rising air pollution.
(Reuters, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 19, In India nearly five thousand troops battled for hours a huge fire emanating from the highly polluted Bellandur Lake., causing panic among thousands of people in the southern city of Bangalore.
(AP, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 19, In Kashmir tensions soared along the volatile frontier between India and Pakistan, as rival troops shelled villages and border posts for a third day. Officials in the two countries said 3 civilians and 2 soldiers were killed on both sides in the latest clash.
(AP, 1/19/18)
2018 Jan 20, Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire along their volatile frontier in Kashmir, killing at least five civilians and a soldier in the latest escalation of violence in the disputed region.
(AP, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 20, In India 17 people died after a fire broke out at a warehouse in an industrial area on the outskirts of New Delhi.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, France called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over Syria following a Turkish incursion into northern Syria's Afrin province.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 22, Indian and Pakistani soldiers again targeted each other's posts and villages along their volatile frontier in disputed Kashmir after a day's lull, killing at least one civilian and wounding three others. The recent flare-up has left 13 civilians and nine soldiers dead and dozens injured on the two sides.
(AP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 23, India's Supreme Court rejected bids by two states to re-instate a ban on the release of controversial Bollywood film "Padmaavat", saying it stood by its previous ruling clearing the way for the movie to be shown in theaters.
(Reuters, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 24, In India right-wing Hindu groups stepped up protests against the release of a controversial Bollywood film, as several states boosted police patrols a day after the Supreme Court refused to allow bans on the movie.
(AP, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 26, In northern India two groups shot guns and attacked each other with rocks in Kasganj, a small town in Uttar Pradesh state. The clash between Hindu and Muslim groups left one person dead and three others injured during India's National Day celebrations.
(AP, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 27, The leaders of India and Cambodia agreed in New Delhi to work toward a bilateral investment treaty that could see tens of millions of dollars pour into the Southeast Asian nation.
(AP, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 27, Indian soldiers opened fire on protesters in the disputed region of Kashmir, killing two young men and wounding several others in southern Shopian.
(AP, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 27, India and the Seychelles amended a 2015 pact to build a military base on Assumption Island. The government of the Seychelles said the base will help coastguards to patrol its 1.3 million square km (500,000 square mile) exclusive economic zone for illegal fishing, drug trafficking and piracy.
(AFP, 3/3/18)
2018 Jan 29, India’s annual economic survey was released with statistics indicating that India has 63 million fewer women than it should have, a "missing" population explained by sex-selective abortions and a range of other issues.
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 29, In India bus plunged nine meters (30 feet) into the canal in Murshidabad district in West Bengal state. At least 43 people were killed and 4 remained missing.
(AP, 1/31/18)
2018 Jan, The oil tanker MT Barret went missing off the coast of Benin. Pirates released the crew of 22, mostly Indians, within days after a ransom was paid.
(SFC, 2/6/18, p.A2)
2018 Feb 1, India's finance minister Arun Jaitley announced a federal budget with a string of populist giveaways, from affordable housing to a health plan for millions of the poor, in an attempt to woo voters ahead of national elections next year. Jaitley also announced a 10 percent tax on some long-term capital gains.
(AP, 2/1/18)
2018 Feb 5, In India survivors of female genital mutilation (FGM) called on the government to ban female genital mutilation, an age-old ritual practiced by the small Dawoodi Bohra Muslim sect in the country.
(AFP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 6, It was reported that India is seeking the help of the navies of Benin and Nigeria to find the Marine Express oil tanker that has gone missing in the Gulf of Guinea with 22 Indian crew members.
(SFC, 2/6/18, p.A2)
2018 Feb 10, In Indian-controlled Kashmir two soldiers were killed and three others wounded as soldiers traded fire with armed militants who were holed up inside an army camp on the outskirts of the city of Jammu. Two militants were also killed.
(AP, 2/10/18)(Reuters, 2/10/18)
2018 Feb 10, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi that he is counting on India's support for a multi-country sponsorship of any future Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
(AP, 2/10/18)
2018 Feb 11, In Abu Dhabi Indian PM Narendra Modi started the second day of his visit to the United Arab Emirates by unveiling a model of the first Hindu temple that will be built in the UAE capital.
(AP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 12, India's defense minister said gunmen belonging to the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed were behind a weekend attack on an army camp in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
(AP, 2/12/18)
2018 Feb 12, In Indian-controlled Kashmir at least one paramilitary soldier was killed when two gunmen opened fire near a camp in Srinagar.
(AP, 2/12/18)
2018 Feb 15, In southern India a five-story building under construction collapsed, killing at least three workers and trapping several others.
(AP, 2/15/18)
2018 Feb 15, An Indian air force helicopter crashed in the remote northeast, killing both crewmembers on board.
(AP, 2/15/18)
2018 Feb 15, Pakistan's army accused neighboring Indian soldiers of targeting a school van from across the frontier in Kashmir, killing the driver, leaving the students "severely traumatized" and forcing local residents to flee to safety.
(AP, 2/15/18)
2018 Feb 16, India said it had suspended the passports of a billionaire jeweler and a diamond merchant accused of defrauding a state-run bank after reports they had left the country. India's financial crimes agency is investigating allegations that Nirav Modi and his business partner Mehul Choksi were involved in defrauding the Punjab National Bank (PNB) of almost $1.8 billion.
(AFP, 2/16/18)
2018 Feb 16, Indian investigators arrested three people who allegedly helped billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi obtain fake documents for overseas loans in one of the country's biggest bank scams.
(AFP, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 16, In southern India seven workers died of suffocation while cleaning an underground drainage pit at a poultry farm in Morem village, Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 2/16/18)
2018 Feb 17, India and Iran said that they would step up cooperation in combatting extremism, terrorism and drug trafficking in Afghanistan in an effort to restore peace and stability to the war-wracked country. India and Iran also signed agreements including Tehran leasing to New Delhi operational control of part of the Iranian east coast port of Chabahar for 18 months.
(AP, 2/17/18)(Reuters, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 17, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau arrived in India for a weeklong visit aimed at enhancing business ties between the two countries.
(AP, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 21, India handed Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau a list of nine people in Canada who are suspected of trying to revive a Sikh separatist movement in the Indian state of Punjab.
(Reuters, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 22, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Indian troops have opened fire in the disputed Kashmir region, killing a laborer on the Pakistani side of the boundary.
(AP, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 23, In India Donald Trump Jr., the US president's eldest son, heaped praise on the local media, and accused American journalists of unfair criticism, as he neared the end of a whirlwind trip across India promoting Trump-brand luxury real estate.
(AP, 2/23/18)
2018 Feb 24, In eastern India a speeding jeep plowed through a group of schoolchildren crossing a road, killing nine and injuring 10 of them on the outskirts of Muzzafarpur, Bihar state. The jeep driver sped away after the accident.
(AP, 2/24/18)
2018 Feb 24, Sridevi (54), Bollywood's leading lady of the 1980s and '90s, died in Dubai. She had redefined stardom for actresses in India. Her famous roles included "Mr. India," in which she played a reporter, and "Lamhe," or "Moments," a 1991 film in which she played dual roles of mother and teenage daughter.
(AP, 2/25/18)
2018 Feb 24, India and Pakistan exchanged artillery fire in the disputed Kashmir region forcing hundreds of people to flee in the Uri area.
(AP, 2/25/18)
2018 Mar 1, Pakistan said an "unprovoked" Indian attack killed two soldiers and a 70-year-old villager in the disputed Kashmir region.
(AP, 3/1/18)
2018 Mar 3, Indian PM Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party ended the 25-year uninterrupted rule of a communist party in a northeastern state and consolidated its position in two other states in key provincial elections.
(AP, 3/3/18)
2018 Mar 5, In Kashmir tens of thousands of angry protesters poured into the streets of Shopian more than a dozen times, hurling rocks and shouting anti-India slogans after soldiers killed four civilians and two suspected militants. Government forces responded with tear gas.
(AP, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 7, India said it has imposed new restrictions on trade with North Korea, in line with UN Security Council sanctions slapped on the reclusive country for its nuclear and missile programs.
(Reuters, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 7, Air India said Saudi Arabia has given it permission to fly between New Delhi and Tel Aviv over Saudi airspace, ending a 70-year ban and marking a diplomatic shift.
(Reuters, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 7, Tom Pritzker of the Chicago-based Hyatt Foundation announced that architect and educator Balkrishna Doshi has been awarded the 2018 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the first Indian to win architecture’s highest honor in its 40-year history.
(AP, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 7, Pakistan’s said it has approved India’s proposals for exchanges of civilian detainees, in a statement believed to also cover some of those held over the Kashmir conflict.
(AP, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 9, India's Supreme Court said individuals have a right to die with dignity, in a landmark verdict that permits the removal of life-support systems for the terminally ill or those in incurable comas. Passive euthanasia, as it is called, will apply only to a terminally ill person with no hope of recovery.
(Reuters, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 10, Indian PM Narendra Modi met with French President Emmanuel Macron in New Delhi. They pledged to work together to ensure freedom of navigation in the Indian Ocean and signed an agreement to expedite construction of a major nuclear power plant in India by a French company. Modi highlighted a solar alliance and cooperation between the two countries in defense, security, technology, space and counterterrorism.
(AP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 11, In India French President Emmanuel Macron said his country will commit 700 million euros to the International Solar Alliance (ISA) at the founding conference of the organization, reiterating the European country's commitment to the alliance and clean energy. The treaty-based organization, launched by India's PM Narendra Modi in 2015, aims to promote solar energy in 121 countries.
(Reuters, 3/11/18)
2018 Mar 12, In India tens of thousands of protesting farmers from Maharashtra state marched into the state capital of Mumbai to demand government support to address hardship in a sector that employs the majority of the country's workforce.
(Reuters, 3/12/18)
2018 Mar 12, In Kashmir a gunbattle between Indian troops and rebels killed three insurgents and triggered more anti-India protests and clashes.
(AP, 3/12/18)
2018 Mar 16, In Kashmir Indian government forces killed two militants overnight who tried to snatch a guard's rifle. Protests against Indian rule and clashes erupted as word of the killings spread.
(AP, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 17, It was reported that more than half of Bangalore's estimated 10 million inhabitants have to rely on borewells and tankers for their water because there isn't enough mains supply to go round. An ecologist with the Indian Institute of Science has predicted the Karnataka state capital could be the first Indian city to follow Cape Town in running out of water.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In eastern India a speeding bus plunged into a dry river bed, killing at least 12 people and injuring 35 in Bihar state.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 18, In Kashmir five members of an Indian family were killed and two injured by shelling from Pakistani troops in the Poonch region along the Line of Control, the de facto border between India and Pakistan.
(Reuters, 3/18/18)(SFC, 3/19/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 20, India and China agreed to consult each other on regional and international issues, the Indian side said after a phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian PM Narendra Modi.
(Reuters, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 20, Iraqi and Indian authorities said they have confirmed that a mass grave outside the village of Badush contained the bodies of 38 Indian construction workers abducted when Islamic State militants overran the northern city of Mosul in 2014.
(AP, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 21, In Kashmir five Indian soldiers and five suspected militants were killed in a gun battle near the de facto border between India and Pakistan.
(Reuters, 3/21/18)
2018 Mar 22, India's health minister said $1.54 billion has been allocated for an ambitious health program aimed at providing insurance cover for about half the population, labeling it the largest such scheme in the world.
(Reuters, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 22, In Kashmir officials said government forces have ended a two-day operation against rebels fighting against Indian rule in which 10 combatants died.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 23, India set a March 31 deadline for London-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica to respond to a query on whether it was engaged to improperly harvest Facebook data on Indian citizens.
(Reuters, 3/24/18)
2018 Mar 24, Business technology news website ZDNet reported that India's biometric ID program, Aadhaar, has been hit by another major security lapse, allowing access to private information.
(Reuters, 3/24/18)
2018 Mar 24, Powerful Indian politician Lalu Prasad Yadav was sentenced to 14 years in prison for embezzling 37 million rupees ($570,000) from Bihar state government's treasury while he was the state's top elected official (1990-1997).
(AP, 3/24/18)
2018 Mar 26, Clashes in India between supporters of PM Narendra Modi's party and those of an opposition party snowballed into Hindu-Muslim rioting, with three people killed and dozens injured over two days of violence.
(Reuters, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, In India reporter Sandeep Sharma was killed in Madhya Pradesh state's Bhind district. He had been investigating illegal sand mining in the region for a television station.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 30, Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, in a filing to the Shenzhen stock exchange, agreed to launch a $930 million Indian joint solar energy venture with Chinese firm GCL System Integration Technology Co as part of its India solar investment roadmap.
(Reuters, 4/2/18)
2018 Mar 31, In northern India Lobsang Sangay, the prime minister of the self-declared Tibetan government-in-exile, urged his compatriots to strengthen efforts to make the return of the Dalai Lama to his native land a reality.
(AP, 3/31/18)
2018 Mar 31, In central India a four-story rickety hotel building collapsed in Indore, Madhya Pradesh state, killing at least 10 people and injuring three. A driver lost control of his vehicle and struck a pillar holding up the near 100-year-old structure.
(AP, 4/1/18)(AFP, 4/1/18)
2018 Apr 1, In Kashmir at least four civilians were killed and dozens injured after massive anti-India protests erupted in several parts of the Indian-controlled territory amid fierce fighting between rebels and government forces that left at least 12 militants and three army soldiers dead.
(AP, 4/1/18)
2018 Apr 2, In India low-caste Dalits fought street battles with police that left at least six dead as protests against a Supreme Court rights ruling swept across large swathes of the country.
(AFP, 4/2/18)
2018 Apr 2, A security clampdown and a strike sponsored by separatists fighting against Indian rule shut down most of Indian-administered Kashmir.
(AP, 4/2/18)
2018 Apr 3, India withdrew rules to control "fake news" less than 24 hours after announcing them, following an outcry that the regulations could be used by the government to curb press freedom.
(Reuters, 4/3/18)
2018 Apr 5, In India Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was convicted of poaching rare deer in a wildlife preserve two decades ago and sentenced to five years in prison.
(AP, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 5, In India Subhabrata Majumdar (46) was arrested after his mother's body was found in the large freezer during a police raid on their home in the city of Kolkata. He allegedly kept his mother's body in the freezer for almost three years while collecting her monthly pension payments, about $460.
(AP, 4/6/18)
2018 Apr 5, In India a girl (11) was sexually assaulted and murdered in the western Gujarat city of Surat. Her body was found the next day. The case was made public on April 15.
(Reuters, 4/15/18)
2018 Apr 5, Students protesting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir clashed with government forces after authorities reopened schools following the killings of 13 rebels and five civilians. Government forces fired tear gas to stop students from marching at several colleges in Indian-controlled Kashmir's main city of Srinagar.
(AP, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 7, India agreed to construct a rail link to Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, and to open up inland waterways in the landlocked Himalayan nation. Analysts said the latest Indian move was spurred by China's expansive infrastructure projects in Nepal as both Asian giants jostle for influence.
(Reuters, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 7, In India a court in Jodhpur granted bail to Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, who will be allowed to remain free while he appeals his conviction on charges of poaching rare deer in a wildlife preserve two decades ago.
(AP, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 7, A Pakistani government official says Indian troops have fired across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region, killing a woman and wounding six others.
(AP, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 9, In India at least 27 children were killed when their school bus skidded off a mountain road into a gorge in Himachal Pradesh state in the foothills of the Himalayas.
(AP, 4/9/18)
2018 Apr 11, In Kashmir at least four men were killed when government forces fired on anti-India protesters who thronged Khudwani village where soldiers battled a group of militants. One soldier was also killed.
(AP, 4/11/18)
2018 Apr 11, Saudi Aramco announced a $44-billion deal to build a giant refinery complex in India with three Indian firms that will become a crucial new outlet for the world's biggest supplier.
(AFP, 4/11/18)
2018 Apr 13, In India lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar from the ruling Hindu nationalist party was arrested after being accused of abducting and raping a teenage girl last year. Sengar was arrested after being questioned by authorities in Lucknow, the capital of northern Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 4/14/18)
2018 Apr 15, In India thousands of people protested across the country to seek an end to sexual violence against women.
(AP, 4/15/18)
2018 Apr 18, In London Indian PM Narendra Modi signed 1 billion pound ($1.42 billion, 1.14 billion euros) of investment deals with Britain during a visit, where he was met by hundreds of religious protesters. Modi also confirmed the new India-UK Trade Partnership, to improve the accessibility of trade for businesses in both countries.
(AFP, 4/18/18)
2018 Apr 17, In Sweden Indian PM Narendra Modi and Swedish PM Stefan Lofven held talks that focused on trade, growth, global security and climate. Later in the day Modi met with the five Nordic prime ministers for the first India-Nordic Summit.
(AP, 4/17/18)
2018 Apr 20, In India Leaders of the opposition Congress party and six other parties presented a notice to the chairman of Parliament's upper house seeking an inquiry into Chief Justice Deepak Misra's conduct, to be followed by a vote on impeachment. They also accused Misra of providing false information when he bought land before becoming chief justice.
(AP, 4/20/18)
2018 Apr 20, A Indian court overturned the conviction of Maya Kodnani, a former state minister from PM Narendra Modi's party, for involvement in riots in Gujarat state 16 years ago, citing lack of consistency in witness testimonies.
(Reuters, 4/20/18)
2018 Apr 21, India's government prescribed the death penalty for people convicted of raping children under 12 to help combat an increase in violent crime against women. The ordinance will require the approval of Parliament within six months in order to become law. In the meantime, suspects can be prosecuted using the ordinance.
(AP, 4/21/18)
2018 Apr 22, In western India government forces killed at least 14 Maoist rebels during a raid on their hideout in a forested area of Gadchilori district, Maharashtra state.
(AP, 4/22/18)
2018 Apr 23, India's VP M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected a move by a group of opposition parties to impeach the country's top judge on grounds of misusing his office and bowing to government pressure.
(AP, 4/23/18)
2018 Apr 24, Police in western India said at least 37 Maoist rebels were killed in two gunbattles between troops and insurgents over the last three days.
(AP, 4/24/18)
2018 Apr 25, An Indian court jailed a self-styled religious preacher (77) for life for raping a teenage girl, the latest sexual abuse case against a so-called "godman." Asumal Harpalani, commonly known as Asaram Bapu, has been held since September 2013.
(Reuters, 4/25/18)
2018 Apr 26, In India thirteen children were killed when a train hit their school van at an unmanned crossing in Uttar Pradesh state.
(Reuters, 4/26/18)
2018 Apr 27, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for stepped-up cooperation with India during an informal summit with PM Narendra Modi, amid tensions along their contested border and a rivalry for influence with their smaller neighbors that could determine dominance in Asia.
(AP, 4/27/18)
2018 Apr 28, The leaders of China and India stressed the importance of close ties in talks, against the background of their rivalry for leadership in Asia and the potential for cooperation on economic and security matters.
(AP, 4/28/18)
2018 Apr 28, India's government electrified all of its villages 12 days ahead of a deadline set by PM Narendra Modi.
(Reuters, 4/29/18)
2018 Apr 29, In India bridegroom Sunil Verma (25) was hit in the chest late today as he performed Hindu wedding rituals. Indian police on May 1 arrested a man accused of killing Verma when he marked his friend's wedding with gunfire.
(AFP, 5/1/18)
2018 Apr 30, Police in India arrested four teenagers after a video of them allegedly tearing the clothes off a girl in the village of Bharthura, Bihar state, was shared widely on social media.
(AP, 4/30/18)
2018 Apr 30, In India a 16-year-old girl committed suicide after being raped a day earlier by eight men in the Nuh district of the northern state of Haryana.
(Reuters, 5/3/18)
2018 Apr 30, In Indian-controlled Kashmir a young man was killed and at least 14 others wounded when government forces fired at anti-India protesters who were trying to help rebels escape during a gunbattle. Two rebels were killed.
(AP, 4/30/18)
2018 May 1, In northern India a 19-year-old woman was raped by five men, including the driver of an autorickshaw she hailed in near Gurugram town, Haryana state.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, Residents of Kanpur reacted with dismay after the Indian city was found to have the worst air quality in a global World Health Organization survey that urged the nation to clean up its act. 14 Indian cities feature in the 15 cities with the dirtiest air in the WHO's global list.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh was hammered by more than 41,000 lightning strikes in a matter of hours. At least 14 people were killed.
(AFP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 3, In India a mob blocked highways and sat on railway tracks near Guntur, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, demanding public punishment for a rickshaw puller accused of raping a girl (9). The accused, said to be around 55, was found hanging in a wood the next day. Police said he had likely committed suicide.
(Reuters, 5/4/18)
2018 May 3, A powerful dust storm and rain swept parts of north and western India overnight, causing house collapses, toppling trees and leaving at least 134 people dead and more than 160 injured.
(AP, 5/3/18)(AFP, 5/3/18)(SFC, 5/15/18, p.A4)
2018 May 3, In eastern India a bus caught fire after falling into a ditch along a highway in Bihar state. The Press Trust of India news agency said 20 people were feared dead.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 4, In eastern India a girl (17) was raped, doused in kerosene and set alight. Police soon arrested a 19-year-old man who lives in the same neighbourhood as the girl struggled to survive. On the same day another girl (16) was raped and burned to death, both in the state of Jharkhand. Fifteen people were soon detained in the case of the 16-year-old, who was torched to death in the state's Chatra district.
(AFP, 5/7/18)
2018 May 5, Indian police arrested 14 people suspected of kidnapping, raping and burning to death a teenage girl. The girl was raped on May 3 while attending a wedding ceremony in Jharkhand state. Suspects beat up the girl's family members for complaining against them and burned her to death after finding her at home alone on May 4.
(AP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 5, Indian troops killed three suspected rebels during a gunbattle in Srinagar. Police blamed insurgents for killing three other men during a day of violence and protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
(AP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 6, Indian soldiers shot dead five Kashmir militants including a rebel university teacher in a gunfight that triggered violent protests in which five civilians were killed. A top commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, a key rebel group, was also among the dead.
(AFP, 5/6/18)
2018 May 7, India's Supreme Court ordered the trial of eight men accused of the January rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl to be moved from Kashmir to another state after her family and lawyer said they faced death threats.
(Reuters, 5/7/18)
2018 May 7, Indian officials said 12 children between the ages 5 and 12 have been killed in dog attacks in and around the northern town of Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh state, since November. Roaming packs of feral dogs killed six children in the area last week.
(AP, 5/7/18)
2018 May 8, In Kashmir an Indian tourist was killed overnight during a stone-throwing protest. A teenage boy who had been shot by Indian troops May 6 died in a hospital, triggering protests and clashes in his southern village.
(AP, 5/8/18)
2018 May 9, In northeastern India a homemade bomb exploded, killing two paramilitary soldiers and wounding two civilians in Manipur state.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In northern India a powerful dust and rain storm demolished homes and downed power lines late today, killing at least 14 people in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, It was reported that Walmart is breaking into India's massive and growing consumer market with its biggest acquisition yet, spending $16 billion for a controlling stake in the online retailer Flipkart, whose delivery drivers, with their motorcycles and oversized backpacks, have become ubiquitous across the nation of 1.3 billion people.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 14, Officials in India said powerful winds and rainstorms that have swept across a crowded swath of northern India left 43 people dead. 42 were killed in Uttar Pradesh state and at least one person in New Delhi.
(AP, 5/14/18)(SFC, 5/15/18, p.A4)
2018 May 15, In northern India a highway overpass being built collapsed in Varanasi. Disaster officials said at least 16 people were killed when an immense concrete slab slammed down onto the road below. More people were feared trapped beneath the slab.
(AP, 5/15/18)
2018 May 15, In southern India a ferry capsized on the Godavari River leaving at least 40 people missing in Andhra Pradesh state.. 20 people swam to safety.
(SFC, 5/16/18, p.A3)
2018 May 16, India announced that its troops will halt counterinsurgency operations in disputed Kashmir during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, its first such declaration in 18 years.
(AP, 5/16/18)
2018 May 17, In Kashmir an Indian paramilitary soldier was killed by a Pakistani sniper late today, leading to cross-border firing and shelling at several forward posts. Eight civilians, including an Indian husband and wife and four members of a Pakistani family, were killed when Indian and Pakistani soldiers fired at border posts and villages along the highly militarized frontier.
(AP, 5/18/18)
2018 May 19, In India B.S. Yeddyurappa, BJP leader of southern Karnataka state, quit after just two days in office, rather than face a confidence vote his minority Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was unlikely to win.
(AP, 5/19/18)
2018 May 20, In eastern India at least six police officials were killed and another was critically injured when Maoist rebels targeted their vehicle with a bomb in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 5/20/18)
2018 May 22, In southern India at least nine were killed after police fired at protesters calling for the closure of a Vedanta Resources-controlled copper smelter. Residents of the port city of Thootukudi in Tamil Nadu state and environmentalists have been demonstrating against one of India's biggest copper plants for more than three months, alleging it is a major source of pollution and a risk to fisheries. Autopsy reports later showed that 12 of the 13 protesters killed when police opened fire on a demonstration against Vedanta's copper smelter were hit by bullets in the head or chest, and half of those were shot from behind.
(Reuters, 5/22/18)(Reuters, 12/22/18)
2018 May 22, Indian health officials said at least 10 people have died of Nipah since an outbreak began earlier this month in Kerala. There is no vaccine for the virus, which can cause raging fevers, convulsions and vomiting, and kills up to 75 percent of people who come down with it.
(AP, 5/22/18)
2018 May 23, In southern India a protester was killed by a rubber bullet, a day after 10 were shot dead when police opened fire on a rally demanding the closure of a copper plant in the port city of Tuticorin.
(AP, 5/23/18)
2018 May 23, The Bosnian unit of Indian renewable energy developer Suzlon Energy won the right to build a 25.2 megawatt (MW) wind farm in Bosnia to help it cut greenhouse gas emissions and meet the EU renewable energy standards.
(Reuters, 5/23/18)
2018 May 23, In Kashmir Indian and Pakistani soldiers shelled dozens of villages and border posts for a sixth straight day. Officials said a total of six civilians and a soldier were killed on the two sides. The fighting followed days of confrontations that left four civilians on each side and two Indian soldiers dead.
(AP, 5/23/18)
2018 May 24, India's Tamil Nadu state said that it was seeking a permanent closure of a big copper smelter run by London-listed Vedanta Resources after 13 people died in protests demanding the closure of the plant on environmental grounds.
(Reuters, 5/24/18)
2018 May 26, In Kashmir at least four suspected militants were killed in a gunbattle with government troops after crossing into the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir from the Pakistani side of the disputed territory.
(AP, 5/26/18)
2018 May 27, Indian PM Narendra Modi said he expected around a 30 percent drop in the number of vehicles entering Delhi, as he opened two new expressways around the capital aimed at decongesting its streets and reducing deadly pollution.
(Reuters, 5/27/18)
2018 May 27, Indian authorities said another patient has died from the Nipah virus, taking the number of fatalities from an outbreak of the rare disease in Kerala state to 13. Nipah is named after the Malaysian village where it first appeared in 1998. The bat-borne pathogen ended up killing 21 out of 23 people infected. In 2019 the film "Virus," the true story of the struggle to contain the virus, won critical acclaim in Mollywood.
(AFP, 5/27/18)(Econ., 5/9/20, p.25)
2018 May 28, India's southern Tamil Nadu state ordered the permanent closure of a copper smelter run by London-listed Vedanta Resources after 13 people protesting to demand its shutdown on environmental concerns were killed last week.
(Reuters, 5/28/18)
2018 May 28, In Indian-administered Kashmir rebels attacked an Indian army camp and an armored vehicle overnight. A soldier and a civilian were killed and three soldiers were wounded.
(AP, 5/28/18)
2018 May 29, Indian disaster management officials in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand said 47 people had died in night-time storms that swept across the region.
(AP, 5/29/18)
2018 May 29, Pakistan's military said that local generals using a special hotline have reached an understanding to stop trading artillery fire in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
(AP, 5/30/18)
2018 May 31, Indian PM Narendra Modi held talks with new Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad in a brief visit aimed at bolstering bilateral ties.
(AP, 5/31/18)
2018 Jun 2, Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir fired shotgun pellets and tear gas at hundreds of mourners during a funeral march for a man killed when he was run over by a paramilitary vehicle during a protest.
(AP, 6/2/18)
2018 Jun 3, Indian officials said two paramilitary soldiers were killed and eight civilians wounded today when Pakistani soldiers attacked dozens of forward posts along the highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir.
(AP, 6/3/18)
2018 Jun 6, India's central bank raised its benchmark lending rate to 6.25 percent to tamp down rising inflation following an increase in oil prices.
(AP, 6/6/18)
2018 Jun 10, A group of militants sneaked into the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir from the Pakistani side of the disputed territory, sparking a gunbattle that left at least six suspected rebels dead.
(AP, 6/10/18)
2018 Jun 11, India requested an international arrest warrant for fugitive billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi, hours after reports claimed he had sought asylum in Britain.
(AFP, 6/11/18)
2018 Jun 13, Indian and Pakistani forces traded fire along the highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir after Pakistani firing killed at least four Indian paramilitary soldiers and injured three others on border patrol.
(AP, 6/13/18)
2018 Jun 15, In India New Delhi officials ordered a two-day halt to construction in an attempt to reduce choking pollution that has cloaked the city in smog and dust.
(AP, 6/15/18)
2018 Jun 17, In northeastern India insurgents attacked a passing security convoy with automatic weapons and hand grenades leaving four paramilitary soldiers dead. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) soon claimed responsibility.
(AP, 6/18/18)
2018 Jun 19, India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) quit the ruling coalition in Jammu and Kashmir state and called for federal control over the disputed Himalayan region, citing a deterioration in security that could herald a new crackdown.
(Reuters, 6/19/18)
2018 Jun 19, Indian officials said police in northern India have broken up a gang that promised professional test-takers and high-tech listening devices to help applicants pass a two-day test to become police constables.
(AP, 6/19/18)
2018 Jun 20, India's federal government took direct control of Kashmir state after the ruling Hindu nationalist party ended its long-troubled alliance there with a Kashmiri political party.
(AP, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 20, Vedanta Ltd said a sulphuric acid leak from a tank at its southern Indian copper smelter was severe and inaction could lead to serious environmental consequences. The Tamil Nadu state government ordered a permanent closure of the plant and disconnected the power supply last month following protests over alleged pollution.
(Reuters, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 21, Indian PM Narendra Modi traveled to the hill town of Dehradun for the fourth International Day of Yoga, and shortly after sunrise was doing yoga exercises with about 50,000 people.
(AP, 6/21/18)
2018 Jun 23, In India a new ban on single-use plastics in Mumbai went into effect. Over the next few days 132 premises were issued with penalties including outlets of Burger King, McDonald's and Starbucks.
(AFP, 6/26/18)
2018 Jun 26, In India a girl (7) was abducted and raped while waiting to be picked up from school by her parents in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh state. Two suspects were soon arrested on suspicion of raping the girl and trying to slit her throat with a knife.
(AP, 6/30/18)
2018 Jun 26, GE and French utility EDF said they have agreed to team to build six reactors for a nuclear power project in western India, which is due to be the world's biggest when finished.
(Reuters, 6/26/18)
2018 Jun 28, In northeastern India crazed mobs in Tripura beat three people to death in lynchings sparked by rumors spread on smartphones.
(AFP, 6/29/18)
2018 Jun 28, Industry sources said India, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil after China, will be forced to take action to protect its exposure to the US financial system. They said India's oil ministry has asked refiners to prepare for a 'drastic reduction or zero' imports of Iranian oil from November.
(Reuters, 6/28/18)
2018 Jun 28, In India a small chartered plane crashed in a busy area of Mumbai, killing at least six people including two on the ground.
(AP, 6/28/18)
2018 Jun 29, In India thousands of people held a street protest in northeastern Assam state against a decision by the government to grant citizenship mainly to Hindus who have fled neighboring Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, alleging persecution by the Muslim majority there. The protest was led by the All Assam Students Union, which demands deportation of thousands of illegal migrants, both Hindus and Muslims, from neighboring Bangladesh.
(AP, 6/29/18)
2018 Jun 29, Authorities in northeastern India cut internet access after crazed mobs, sparked by rumors spread on smartphones, beat three people to death in Tripura. More than 25 similar killings in recent months across India have been ignited by false information spread on messaging service WhatsApp.
(AFP, 6/29/18)
2018 Jun 29, In northeastern India five paramilitary soldiers were killed and another six injured as huge boulders rolled down on their bus following a mudslide triggered by monsoon rains in Arunachal Pradesh state.
(AP, 6/30/18)
2018 Jun 30, In central India hundreds of people blocked streets and shut down businesses to protest the June 26 rape of a 7-year-old girl in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh state. Protesters demanded the death penalty for two suspects arrested on suspicion of rape and trying to slit her throat.
(SSFC, 7/1/18, p.A4)
2018 Jun 30, India's Maharashtra state eased a ban against single-use plastic, imposed on June 23, following what sources said was intense lobbying by multinational companies and plastic industry bodies for softer rules and extensions. Maharashtra allowed e-commerce companies to use plastic packaging for three more months.
(Reuters, 7/3/18)
2018 Jul 1, Police in India's capital found 11 bodies at a home under mysterious circumstances, including 10 that were blindfolded and hanging. The victims were all from the same family and most had lived in the home in Burari village in the northern part of New Delhi.
(AP, 7/1/18)
2018 Jul 1, In India five men were bludgeoned to death in a remote, mountainous village in Maharashtra state. Villagers pounced on the men when one of them tried to speak to a child at a weekly market.
(AP, 7/2/18)
2018 Jul 1, In northern India at least 48 people were killed when an overcrowded bus plunged off a mountain road into a gorge in Uttarakhand state.
(AP, 7/1/18)
2018 Jul 2, Police in western India said that they have arrested 23 people who took part in the weekend lynching of five men suspected of being members of a gang of child kidnappers.
(AP, 7/2/18)
2018 Jul 4, India's government said it has asked WhatsApp to take "immediate action" to prevent the social media platform from being misused to spread rumors and irresponsible statements like those blamed for recent deadly mob attacks in the country.
(AP, 7/4/18)
2018 Jul 4, India's Supreme Court upheld the powers of Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, in a win for his Aam Aadmi Party, embroiled in a protracted fight with PM Narendra Modi's government that has compounded the capital city's problems.
(Reuters, 7/4/18)
2018 Jul 4, In eastern India a nun and another worker at a shelter for unwed mothers run by Mother Teresa's charity were over the last 24 hours for allegedly selling a baby.
(AP, 7/5/18)
2018 Jul 6, Police in eastern India arrested a school principal, two teachers and three students after a teenage girl blamed them and another 13 schoolmates for repeatedly raping her for the last seven months.
(AP, 7/7/18)
2018 Jul 7, Indian police charged five people, including the brother of a lawmaker from the ruling party, in relation to the death of the father of a teenage girl raped last year. The rape victim's father died in April while in the custody of police in northern Uttar Pradesh state. Police arrested Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a BJP member of the state legislature of Uttar Pradesh, in April in connection with the rape of the teenager.
(Reuters, 7/7/18)
2018 Jul 10, Indian police arrested seven people in Bihar state, including a school principal and a teacher, on suspicion of raping and blackmailing a teenage girl over several months. The girl (15) had told police she was raped by students in a school lavatory in December 2017 and that the abuse continued for seven months.
(Reuters, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 11, in northeastern India a mudslide triggered by monsoon rains demolished tin-roofed homes on a hillside, killing at least eight children and one woman while they were sleeping in Tamenglong village, Manipur state.
(AP, 7/11/18)
2018 Jul 11, In southern India a suspected carbon monoxide gas leak killed at least six workers at a steel mill in Padipari, Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 7/12/18)
2018 Jul 13, In southern India a mob armed with sticks and stones lynched Mohammed Azam (32), a call center employee, and wounded three men late today in Karnataka's Bidar district after rumors spread over WhatsApp that the victims were members of a gang of child kidnappers. Nearly three dozen people were soon arrested for participating in the attack.
(AP, 7/15/18)(Reuters, 7/15/18)
2018 Jul 14, In India a woman (35) was gang raped and burned alive in the northern city of Sambhal. A police case was soon filed against five men involved.
(Reuters, 7/15/18)
2018 Jul 15, In eastern India Maoist rebels ambushed a unit of government forces, leaving two soldiers dead and another wounded in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 7/15/18)
2018 Jul 16, India's government said it has ordered inspections of all centers run by Mother Teresa's charity following the arrest of a nun and a worker at one of its shelters for unwed mothers for allegedly selling a baby.
(AP, 7/17/18)
2018 Jul 17, India's highest court asked the federal government to consider enacting a law to deal with an increase in lynchings and mob violence fueled mostly by rumors that the victims either belonged to members of child kidnapping gangs or were beef eaters and cow slaughterers.
(AP, 7/17/18)
2018 Jul 17, In India a six-story building under construction collapsed onto an adjacent building east of New Delhi, killing at least three people and trapping several others under the debris.
(AP, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 19, In central India security forces killed eight Maoist insurgents, including four women, in an exchange of gunfire early today in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 7/19/18)
2018 Jul 19, India's lower house of parliament approved a bill that would allow authorities to seize assets of fugitives accused of crimes involving sums over 1 billion rupees ($14 million). The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill law will go to the upper house and the president in the coming days.
(Reuters, 7/19/18)
2018 Jul 21, In western India a Muslim man was beaten to death by a mob overnight over allegations of smuggling cows in Rajasthan state.
(AP, 7/21/18)
2018 Jul 21, In central India a woman was found dead after being lynched on rumors that she was part of a gang that kidnapped children. At least 14 people were arrested in Madhya Pradesh state's Singrauli district following the killing.
(AP, 7/23/18)
2018 Jul 22, India said people whose names are missing from a list of citizens to be issued by Assam state this month will not be detained, amid concerns that Muslims will be targeted under the guise of detecting illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 7/22/18)
2018 Jul 22, In Kashmir three rebels were killed in a gunbattle with Indian troops early today in southern Khudwani village.
(AP, 7/22/18)
2018 Jul 24, Indian police admitted they made a mistake in handling a deadly vigilante attack on a man suspected of cow smuggling by tending to his cows before taking him to hospital on July 21.
(Reuters, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 24, Indian PM Narendra Modi stopped in Rwanda, where he signed a number of bilateral agreements and visited a model farm to which he donated 200 cows.
(AP, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 24, Indian PM Narendra Modi arrived in Uganda for the second stop in his tour of Africa ahead of this week's summit of the BRICS emerging economies.
(AP, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 25, Speaking in Uganda Indian PM Narendra Modi pledged to "intensify and deepen" his country's engagement with Africa, saying his government will do more to support governments across the continent.
(AP, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 25, In South Africa leaders of the BRICS emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) began an annual three-day summit, with attention focused on the threat of a US-led global trade war. The meeting opened with a business forum.
(AFP, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 26, In the Philippines the six winners of this year's Ramon Magsaysay Awards, regarded as Asia's version of the Nobel Prize, were announced. The recipients included a Cambodian genocide survivor (Youk Chhang) who helped document the Khmer Rouge atrocities, an Indian psychiatrist (Bharat Vatwani ) who led the rescue of thousands of mentally ill street paupers to treat and reunite them with their families, a Filipino (Howard Dee ) who led peace talks with communist insurgents, a polio-stricken Vietnamese (Vo Thi Hoang Yen) who fought discrimination against the disabled, an East Timorese (Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz) who built care centers for the poor amid civil strife and an Indian (Sonam Wangchuk) who tutored village students to help them pass exams.
(AP, 7/26/18)
2018 Jul 26, In South Africa the leaders of the BRICS bloc of emerging economies, meeting in the wake of tariff threats by US President Donald Trump, signed a declaration supporting an open and inclusive multilateral trading system under World Trade Organization rules at their summit. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa agreed at the three-day meeting to fight unilateralism and protectionism.
(Reuters, 7/26/18)
2018 Jul 28, Indian officials said at least 58 people have been killed in the past two days as monsoon rains in the north triggered house collapses and flooded wide swaths of land.
(AP, 7/28/18)
2018 Jul 28, In western India 33 people were feared dead after a bus fell into a deep gorge in Maharashtra state.
(AP, 7/28/18)
2018 Jul 30, In India more than 4 million people were excluded from a draft list of citizens released by a census official for the northeastern border state of Assam, in a long-running campaign against immigrants. Thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims worried about being sent to detention centers or deported.
(Reuters, 7/30/18)
2018 Jul 30, In eastern India heavy rains flooded a hospital critical care unit in Bihar state, as annual monsoon rains destroyed homes in several parts of the country and forced others to flee to higher ground. More than 1,500 people have died so far this year across the country due to storms, floods and landslides.
(Reuters, 7/30/18)
2018 Aug 4, In Kashmir a young man was killed and two other people wounded when India's army fired at a funeral of a rebel in the suburbs of southern Shopian town.
(AP, 8/4/18)
2018 Aug 6, In northern India police rescued 24 girls and shut down a care home that had been operating illegally in Uttar Pradesh state, after a youngster living there fled and complained to officers about sexual exploitation.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, In India Muthuvel Karunanidhi (94), a highly popular scriptwriter-turned-politician in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, died after a prolonged illness. He became the state's chief minister in 1969 and held that position five times for a total of 19 years.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 8, In India a stampede among thousands of mourners at the funeral of a powerful southern Indian politician killed two people and injured 47.
(Reuters, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 9, Indian authorities arrested Neeraj Singhal, a former managing director of Bhushan Steel Ltd, over an alleged fraud, after a probe found billions of rupees had been siphoned off by the firm's founders from funds borrowed from state-run banks.
(Reuters, 8/9/18)
2018 Aug 9, In India torrential monsoon rains killed at least 26 people in flooding, landslides and house collapses in the southern state of Kerala in the last 24 hours with more than 15,500 people taking shelter in state-run relief camps.
(AP, 8/9/18)
2018 Aug 9, Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA opened its first store in India in the southern city of Hyderabad.
(AP, 8/9/18)
2018 Aug 11, In southern India more than half of the 14 districts in Kerala state were put on high alert, as the death toll from one of the worst floods in the state reached 34.
(Reuters, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 14, The Indian rupee fell to an all-time low against the US dollar amid worries that Turkey's growing financial crisis could spread to other developing-world economies.
(AP, 8/14/18)
2018 Aug 14, An explosion struck the MT Desh Vaibhav in the Gulf of Oman while it was en route to Fujairah on the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates. The explosion on the Shipping Corporation of India crude oil tanker caused "two casualties" and injured one sailor.
(AP, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 15, PM Narendra Modi said that India will send a manned flight into space by 2022. The announcement was made as part of India's independence day celebrations.
(AP, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 15, Indian officials said torrential monsoon rains have disrupted air and train services in the southern Indian state of Kerala, where flooding, landslides and bridge collapses have killed at least 67 people in the past week.
(AP, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 16, Former Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee (93) died after a prolonged illness. The Hindu nationalist had set off a nuclear arms race with rival Pakistan but later reached across the border to begin a groundbreaking peace process.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 17, Indian authorities said the death toll from floods that have triggered landslides and sent torrents sweeping through villages in Kerala state trebled to 324. Rescuers moved quickly to take those marooned by floods to 1,500 state-run camps.
(AFP, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 18, In India thousands of stranded people were waiting for rescue and officials pleaded for more help as relentless monsoon floods battered the southern state of Kerala, where more than 190 have died in a little over a week.
(AP, 8/18/18)
2018 Aug 19, Indian officials said some 800,000 people have been displaced and over 350 have died in the worst flooding in a century in southern Kerala state.
(AP, 8/19/18)
2018 Aug 20, In southern India floodwaters receded in Kerala state, leaving rescuers the grim task of retrieving bodies as the death toll from the worst monsoon rains in a century rose above 400.
(AFP, 8/20/18)
2018 Aug 21, Pakistan's newly installed PM Imran Khan offered to start a dialogue with archrival India to resolve conflicts between the two nuclear armed nations, including the long-standing dispute over the Kashmir region.
(AP, 8/21/18)
2018 Aug 22, In India a fire in the financial hub of Mumbai killed four people and injured 16, as the blaze spread quickly through a tall, residential building.
(Reuters, 8/22/18)
2018 Aug 23, In India the ruling party in Kerala state, run by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), protested the central government's refusal to accept $100 million in relief offered by foreign governments.
(AP, 8/23/18)
2018 Aug 28, In India police raided the homes of at least half a dozen activists, writers and lawyers across the country, known for supporting resistance movements and marginalized groups, or for speaking out against the government.
(SFC, 8/31/18, p.A4)
2018 Aug 29, India's Supreme Court ordered police to put five prominent rights campaigners suspected of links to Maoist guerrillas under house arrest as outrage grew over their detention a day earlier.
(Reuters, 8/29/18)
2018 Aug 29, Indian police arrested Bangladeshi monk Bhante Sangh Priya on suspicion of sexually abusing children at the Bodh Gaya Buddhist shelter and meditation center in Bihar state.
(AP, 8/30/18)
2018 Aug 30, India's main opposition Congress party lashed out at PM Narendra Modi after central bank data showed that his shock 2016 move to ban high-value notes failed to meet his key objective of flushing out money hidden from the tax man.
(Reuters, 8/30/18)
2018 Aug 30, In Nepal a two-day summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation began in Kathmandu. Leaders of seven South and Southeast Asian nations (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand) met to discuss regional trade, economic cooperation, security and peace.
(AP, 8/30/18)
2018 Aug 31, In Nepal an agreement to study the feasibility of a rail line linking India and Nepal was signed by officials during a meeting between Nepal's PM K.P. Sharma Oli and Indian premier Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a regional summit of seven South and East Asian countries.
(Reuters, 8/31/18)
2018 Sep 2, In India there were nearly 200 confirmed cases of what is locally called rat fever in Kerala state following the worst flooding in a century. The waterborne disease leptospirosis is transmitted via the urine of infected animals, with symptoms including muscle pain and fever.
(Reuters, 9/3/18)
2018 Sep 4, In India a highway overpass collapsed in the crowded city of Kolkata, and some injured people were being treated at a nearby hospital.
(AP, 9/4/18)
2018 Sep 5, In India thousands of farmers and laborers paralyzed central New Delhi in a protest against what they called the anti-people policies of PM Narendra Modi's government, as opposition parties step up pressure ahead of key elections.
(Reuters, 9/5/18)
2018 Sep 5, In India police searched for 22 people who were missing after a motorized boat capsized in the flooded Brahmaputra River in the remote northeast. Three bodies were recovered and 11 people were rescued.
(AP, 9/5/18)
2018 Sep 6, India and the United States signed an accord on secure military communications that both sides hailed as a breakthrough. The Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) had been stalled for years because of India's concerns that it would open up its communications network to the US military.
(Reuters, 9/6/18)
2018 Sep 6, India's top court scrapped Section 377, a colonial-era ban on gay sex, in a landmark judgment that sparked celebrations across India and elsewhere in South Asia, where activists hope to push for similar reform.
(Reuters, 9/6/18)
2018 Sep 7, In the Czech Rep. Indian President Ram Nath Kovind called on Czech defense firms to come to India to create joint venture companies after meeting his Czech counterpart Milos Zeman in Prague.
(AP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 9, In India five men asphyxiated by toxic fumes while cleaning a septic tank at a housing complex in New Delhi. Four men were declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital, and the fifth man died at the hospital the next day.
(AP, 9/10/18)
2018 Sep 11, In southern India a bus carrying pilgrims from a Hindu temple in the hills of Telangana state plunged off a road, killing at least 55 people including four children.
(AP, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 12, In northern India three men reportedly drugged, kidnapped and raped a teenage girl while she was on her way to a test-preparation course. The girl was able to name the suspects.
(AP, 9/15/18)
2018 Sep 13, In India a group of Indian Catholic nuns staged a rare street protest in the southern state of Kerala demanding justice after an alleged sexual assault of a nun by a bishop. The protest, now in its sixth day in Kochi, Kerala's financial hub, gathered momentum as the locals, activists, writers and politicians came out in support.
(Reuters, 9/13/18)
2018 Sep 13, Indian health authorities rushed medical supplies to northern towns and villages where at least 50 people have died from fever over the past two weeks in the Rohilkhand region of Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 9/13/18)
2018 Sep 14, An Indian court ruled there is enough evidence to send former UN climate chief Rajendra Pachauri to trial on sexual harassment charges in a case filed by a former female colleague in New Delhi. Police registered the case against Pachauri after the 29-year-old female colleague accused him three years ago of sexual harassment and criminal intimidation.
(AP, 9/15/18)
2018 Sep 16, In India four police officers were suspended, three days after a mob beat a Muslim business-school graduate to death near Imphal. A video showed armed policemen standing around the man as he lay on his side in a field.
(AP, 9/17/18)
2018 Sep 18, Bollywood actress and former porn star Sunny Leone (37) appeared in New Delhi for the unveiling of her wax likeness at the city's Madame Tussauds museum. She made a name for herself in the porn industry before breaking into Bollywood in 2012, starring in the sequel to the hit movie "Jism" (Hindi for body).
(AP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 19, India's government approved an ordinance to implement a top court ruling striking down the Muslim practice that allows men to instantly divorce.
(AP, 9/19/18)
2018 Sep 19, Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir fired tear gas and used batons to break up religious processions marking the Muslim month of Muharram.
(AP, 9/19/18)
2018 Sep 20, A Pakistani official said PM Imran Khan has written to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, seeking to resolve outstanding disputes between the two nuclear-armed nations, including the issue of the divided region of Kashmir.
(AP, 9/20/18)
2018 Sep 20, The Vatican accepted a request from a bishop in India to be temporarily relieved of his pastoral duties as police questioned him for a second day. A nun from the southern state of Kerala has accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, who heads the Diocese of Jalandhar, of raping her repeatedly over a period of two years.
(Reuters, 9/20/18)
2018 Sep 21, India called off a planned meeting between its foreign minister and her Pakistani counterpart on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York this month following the killing of an Indian border guard in Kashmir and Pakistan's glorification of insurgents fighting Indian rule in the Himalayan territory.
(AP, 9/21/18)
2018 Sep 22, Pakistani PM Imran Khan labeled India arrogant for cancelling what would have been the countries' first high-level talks in years.
(Reuters, 9/22/18)
2018 Sep 23, India's PM Narendra Modi launched the world's biggest health insurance scheme, dubbed "Modicare," promising free coverage for half a billion of India's poorest citizens ahead of national elections next year.
(AFP, 9/23/18)
2018 Sep 23, In India at least 40 Maoist rebels were involved in the fatal shooting of lawmaker Kidari Sarveshwara Rao, an Andhra Pradesh state assembly member from the ruling Telugu Desam party, while he visited with constituents of a tribal area about 700 km (435 miles) northeast of Hyderabad. His supporters attacked two police stations in anger over the killing, setting fire to one and vandalizing the other.
(AP, 9/23/18)
2018 Sep 24, India's army said five suspected militants and a soldier have been killed in two days of fighting near the highly militarized de facto frontier that divides the disputed region of Kashmir.
(AP, 9/24/18)
2018 Sep 25, In India the relatives of thousands of workers who died cleaning sewers protested in New Delhi, aiming to stop the practice of workers entering underground conduits to unclog drains and remove waste with their bare hands.
(Reuters, 9/25/18)
2018 Sep 26, India's top court upheld the government's policy of issuing a 12-digit identification number to every citizen, but said it can't be made mandatory for services such as bank accounts, cellphone connections and school admissions.
(AP, 9/26/18)
2018 Sep 27, India's Chief Justice Dipak Misra and the rest of the five-member court struck down a 158-year-old law that treated adultery in certain cases as a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison. The court called the law unconstitutional and noted that a "husband is not the master of woman." The law did not allow wives to prosecute adulterous husbands.
(AP, 9/27/18)
2018 Sep 27, Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in several places in disputed Kashmir after Indian troops killed a young shepherd who was tending his sheep. An Indian soldier and three rebels were killed in two separate gunbattles.
(AP, 9/27/18)
2018 Sep 28, India's Supreme Court lifted a temple's ban on women of menstruating age, holding that equality is supreme irrespective of age and gender. The historic Sabarimala temple had barred women age 10 to 50 from entering the temple, one of the largest Hindu pilgrimage centers in the world.
(AP, 9/28/18)
2018 Sep 29, In India Vivek Tiwari, a sales manager for Apple, was shot dead early today by a police constable in the Gomti Nagar neighborhood in Uttar Pradesh state. State police soon arrested two constables over the shooting.
(Reuters, 9/30/18)
2018 Oct 2, Indian police fired teargas and water cannons to halt and scatter a march by thousands of protesting farmers heading for the capital New Delhi to demand better prices for their produce.
(Reuters, 10/2/18)
2018 Oct 3, India raised state-mandated prices for winter crops such as wheat and rapeseed, as PM Narendra Modi tried to defuse discontent among farmers ahead of elections in 2019.
(Reuters, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 3, Indian police bussed seven Rohingya Muslims to the border to be deported to neighboring Myanmar for illegal entry. An estimated 40,000 Rohingya live in India after having fled violence and persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar's Rakhine state over the years.
(Reuters, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 4, India deported seven Rohingya Muslim men to Myanmar.
(Reuters, 10/4/18)
2018 Oct 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in India for a two-day visit during which India is expected to sign a $5 billion deal to buy Russian S-400 air defense systems despite a new US law ordering sanctions on any country trading with Russia's defense and intelligence sectors.
(AP, 10/4/18)
2018 Oct 5, Russia signed a $5 billion deal with India to supply five regiments of S-400 anti-aircraft missiles to India. The contract was signed during Pres. Vladimir Putin's trip to India.
(Reuters, 10/5/18)(SFC, 10/6/18, p.A3)
2018 Oct 6, In eastern India 34 schoolgirls aged between 12 and 16 were taken to hospital after being beaten with sticks by a group of boys, along with the boys' mothers and neighbors, who had harassed them earlier in the day in the village of Darpakha, Bihar state. Ten people, including four women, were arrested.
(Reuters, 10/8/18)
2018 Oct 9, In India it was reported that tens of thousands of workers have fled Gujarat state in recent days, and many of the small factories and businesses they work in have come to a standstill. This followed news of violence in Gujarat against migrant workers from the central states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The exodus began after the rape of a 14-month-old girl last month, allegedly by a man from the state of Bihar, sparked anger among locals.
(Reuters, 10/9/18)
2018 Oct 10, In northern India an express train partially derailed, killing five passengers and injuring dozens more in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 11, In eastern India Cyclone Titli (Butterfly) damaged homes and blew down trees and power poles, where nine people were killed and about 300,000 forced to move to higher ground.
(AP, 10/11/18)(SFC, 10/12/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 11, Manan Wani, a Kashmiri scholar-turned rebel leader, and his colleague were killed in a gunbattle with Indian troops.
(AP, 10/11/18)
2018 Oct 12, In eastern India 12 people were feared dead in a cyclone shelter swamped by a landslide caused by heavy rains from Cyclone Titli in Orissa state.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 14, India's junior external affairs minister, M.J. Akbar, denied any wrongdoing after more than a dozen women accused him of sexual misconduct when he was a newspaper editor.
(AP, 10/14/18)
2018 Oct 15, Indian government minister M.J. Akbar filed a defamation suit against one of at least 10 women who have accused him of sexual harassment, calling her allegations false and malicious.
(Reuters, 10/15/18)
2018 Oct 15, China and India launched a program to train Afghan diplomats and China's ambassador said it would likely be followed by joint programs in other fields to help war-torn Afghanistan. The joint training of 10 Afghan diplomats will take place at the Indian Foreign Service Institute.
(Reuters, 10/15/18)
2018 Oct 16, In India tensions rose at the Sabarimala hill temple in Kerala state before an expected face-off between women of menstrual age who can enter for the first time in centuries and conservative Hindu groups who want to stop them.
(Reuters, 10/16/18)
2018 Oct 17, In India conservative Hindu groups prevented women from entering an Indian hill temple, in defiance of India's top court which says a centuries-long ban at the holy site is illegal.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, Indian government junior minister M.J. Akbar resigned to fight accusations of sexual harassment from more than a dozen women during his previous career as a journalist.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in the main city in disputed Kashmir after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed at least two rebels.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 18, In India Hindu hardliners blocked intersections, threatened drivers, threw stones at buses and ordered a 12-hour strike to successfully bar women from the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala for a second day. India's ruling party and the main opposition both supported the protest blocking women from entering the pilgrimage site, in what political observers said is a bid to court voters in the country's south ahead of a general election due next year.
(AFP, 10/18/18)(AP, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 19, In India dozens of Hindu priests joined conservative protesters to block women of menstruating age from the Sabarimala temple, one of the world's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites, defying a ruling from India's top court to let them enter.
(AP, 10/19/18)
2018 Oct 19, In India a train ran over people in the northern state of Punjab. 59 people watching fireworks were killed on the outskirts of Amritsar with another 57 injured.
(Reuters, 10/19/18)(AP, 10/19/18)(Reuters, 10/20/18)
2018 Oct 20, An Indian court ordered the trial of sexual harassment charges against one of world's leading climate change experts, Rajendra K. Pachauri (78).
(Reuters, 10/20/18)
2018 Oct 21, In disputed Kashmir three local rebels were killed in a gunbattle with Indian government forces, and six civilians were killed in an explosion at the site after the fighting was over. 3 Indian army soldiers and two suspected militants were killed in a gunbattle along the militarized line of control dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The death toll of civilians climbed to seven as another injured young man died at a hospital the next day.
(AP, 10/21/18)(AP, 10/22/18)
2018 Oct 22, In India the body of Kuriakose Kattuthara, a Catholic priest who police said had spoken to them about Bishop Franco Mulakkal, was found in his room in a church in the northern state of Punjab. He was witness in a case involving the alleged rape of a nun by the Roman Catholic bishop. Mulakkal, bishop of the Diocese of Jalandhar in Punjab, was arrested in the southern state of Kerala last month on charges of raping the nun.
(Reuters, 10/22/18)
2018 Oct 22, The Press Trust of India news agency reported that the number of Zika virus cases has crossed 100 in the northern state of Rajasthan.
(AP, 10/22/18)
2018 Oct 24, In Kashmir government forces killed two rebels during a gunbattle on the outskirts of Srinagar, sparking violent anti-India protests by residents.
(AP, 10/24/18)
2018 Oct 26, Indian officials said police have rounded 2,061 people for stopping women from entering the Sabarimala temple complex, a flashpoint Hindu shrine, in defiance of a Supreme Court order.
(AFP, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 26, India's Central Pollution Control Board said New Delhi's air quality had plummeted to the worst possible category. The level of PM2.5, tiny particulate matter that can dangerously clog lungs, was 187, more than six times higher than the World Health Organization considers safe.
(AP, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 26, In northern India a powerful explosion at a fireworks factory in Uttar Pradesh state killed at least eight people and injured three others, as Hindus prepare to celebrate the highly popular Diwali festival early next month.
(AP, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 26, In Kashmir eight rebels and two Indian soldiers were killed in gunbattles in northwestern Sopore area that sparked violent anti-India protests by residents seeking an end to Indian rule in the region.
(AP, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 27, In southern India protesters set fire to a Hindu religious center in Kerala state for supporting a Supreme Court decision allowing women of menstruating age at one of the world's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites.
(AP, 10/27/18)
2018 Oct 27, In central India at least four Indian paramilitary soldiers were killed in a powerful land mine blast triggered by Maoist rebels in their stronghold in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 10/27/18)
2018 Oct 27, In eastern India seven elephants in search of food were electrocuted after coming in contact with loosely hanging electric wires in Orissa state.
(AP, 10/27/18)
2018 Oct 27, Pakistan's top court reinstated a ban on the broadcast of Indian TV content following a petition from local producers.
(AP, 10/28/18)
2018 Oct 28, In Japan visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi met with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe at a resort area near Mount Fuji reaffirming their ties amid growing worries about trade and regional stability.
(AP, 10/28/18)
2018 Oct 30, In central India Maoist rebels killed a cameraman working for a state-run television channel and two policemen in an ambush in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 10/30/18)
2018 Oct 31, India's PM Narendra Modi unveiled a towering bronze statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, a key independence leader being promoted as a national icon in the ruling party's campaign ahead of next year's general elections.
(AP, 10/31/18)
2018 Nov 1, India's environment minister blamed the Delhi government and its neighboring states for failing in their efforts to check air pollution which today was six times above the recommended limit, posing severe health risks.
(Reuters, 11/1/18)
2018 Nov 2, In India a man-eating tiger that stalked the hills of Maharashtra state was killed after an attempt to tranquilize her failed. She was suspected of killing at least 13 villagers.
(SSFC, 11/4/18, p.A6)
2018 Nov 4, Police in India said that they are investigating allegations that a 4-year-old girl was gang-raped the previous evening while being treated for a snake bite in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh state. One man was in custody and police were looking for others.
(AP, 11/4/18)
2018 Nov 4, In India villagers circled around the female tiger after it killed the farmer late today in Uttar Pradesh state. When the tiger tried to escape, the villagers crushed it under the wheels of a tractor. Villagers said the tiger injured another person in an attack about 10 days ago.
(AP, 11/5/18)
2018 Nov 6, In India the northern city of Ayodhya broke a Guinness World Record by lighting 300,150 earthen lamps and keeping them lit for at least 45 minutes as part of the annual celebration of Diwali.
(SFC, 11/7/18, p.A2)
2018 Nov 7, In India Yogi Adityanath, a robe-wearing Hindu priest who is the BJP chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, changed the name of Faizabad district to Ayodhya, the place where Hindus believe Lord Ram was born thousands of years ago. Before the change, Ayodhya was the name of a town in Faizabad. Last month PM Narendra Modi changed the name of Allahabad, where three rivers considered holy by Hindus meet, to the Hindu name Prayagraj.
(Reuters, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 8, In India Maoist rebels blew up a bus, killing four civilians and a paramilitary soldier in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 8, In India pollution levels in New Delhi that shot up to 681, as reported by the US Embassy from 200 a day earlier after tens of thousands of people set off a multitude of firecrackers to celebrate the major Hindu festival of Diwali.
(AP, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 10, As pollution in India's capital hit "severe" on the air quality scale, the New Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, came under fire following reports he had left the city for an overseas family trip to Dubai.
(Reuters, 11/10/18)
2018 Nov 11, In central India Maoist rebels triggered a blast and exchanged gunfire with government forces in Chhattisgarh state on the eve of legislative elections. One suspected rebel was killed.
(AP, 11/11/18)
2018 Nov 11, In disputed Kashmir two Indian soldiers were killed over the last 24 hours when Pakistani soldiers fired along the highly militarized de facto frontier.
(AP, 11/11/18)
2018 Nov 14, Police in India said a monkey has snatched a 12-day-old boy from his mother and killed him in Runkata town on the outskirts of Agra.
(Reuters, 11/14/18)
2018 Nov 16, In India thousands of protesters blocked all the exits at a southern airport for more than 14 hours, stopping rights activist Trupti Desai from heading to a Hindu temple to defy a centuries-old ban on most women entering. Desai has led a successful campaign to give women the right to enter the inner sanctums of three temples in the western state of Maharashtra under the slogan "Right to Pray".
(Reuters, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 16, Cyclone Gaya made landfall in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, killing at least 11 people, uprooting trees and knocking down electricity poles after more than 80,000 people were moved out of its path to safety.
(Reuters, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 18, Indian officials said Cyclone Gaya has killed at least 33 people in Tamil Nadu state, caused massive damage to homes and roads and drove tens of thousands of people into relief camps.
(AP, 11/18/18)
2018 Nov 18, In northern India three people were killed and over a dozen injured when two men on a motorbike targeted a prayer hall with a grenade on the outskirts of Amritsar, Punjab state.
(AP, 11/18/18)
2018 Nov 21, Indian police officer Vijay Singh said seven fishermen have been arrested for facilitating a visit by American John Allen Chau to North Sentinel Island, where he was apparently killed. North Sentinel is in the Andaman Islands, a group of islands at the juncture of the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. Chau had reached the vicinity of the island on Nov. 16, before transferring to a canoe. His body was spotted the following day by the fishermen on their return.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 22, India approved the building of a new border entry point and road connecting the northern state of Punjab to the border with arch rival Pakistan, making it quicker and easier for Sikh pilgrims to visit a holy site.
(Reuters, 11/22/18)
2018 Nov 23, Indian security forces killed six suspected insurgents in a fierce exchange of gunfire early today in the Indian portion of disputed Kashmir.
(AP, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 24, In southern India at least 25 people, many of them schoolchildren, were killed when a speeding bus fell into a canal in Karnataka state.
(AP, 11/24/18)
2018 Nov 24, In Ethiopia seven employees of Indian company Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) were taken hostage by local staff due to non-payment of salaries by the debt-laden firm. The Indian government took control of IL&FS in October after it defaulted on some of its debt. On Dec. 1 Two of the 7 employees were reported released.
(Reuters, 12/1/18)
2018 Nov 25, In northern India tens of thousands of Hindus gathered in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh state, and renewed calls to build a Hindu temple on a site where a 16th century mosque was attacked and demolished by Hindu hard-liners in 1992, sparking deadly Hindu-Muslim violence.
(AFP, 11/25/18)
2018 Nov 25, In Indian-controlled Kashmir six rebels and an army soldier were killed in a gunbattle, sparking violent protests by residents seeking an end to Indian rule over the disputed region and leaving a teenage boy dead and 20 people injured.
(AP, 11/25/18)
2018 Nov 29, Indian police said they have arrested nearly two dozen people on suspicion of defrauding people around the world by sending fake pop-up messages warning them that their computers were infected with a virus and offering to fix the problem at a price. Those arrested over the last two days posed as representatives of Microsoft and other companies and used their logos.
(AP, 11/29/18)
2018 Nov 30, In India thousands of farmers marched to the Parliament in New Delhi demanding higher prices for their produce and a government waiver on their farm loans to alleviate hardships.
(AP, 11/30/18)
2018 Dec 1, Controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik (53), wanted in his home country of India, said he has not broken any Indian law and was being targeted by the "enemies of Islam," in a rare public speech in Malaysia where he has sought refuge. Naik faced charges in India of money laundering and hate speech.
(Reuters, 12/2/18)
2018 Dec 3, In India a senior policeman and another man were killed in violent protests over a dead cow in Uttar Pradesh state.
(Reuters, 12/3/18)
2018 Dec 3, Indian authorities said two men accused of trying to molest a woman (20) in northern India set her on fire two days later after she lodged a complaint with police. Her suspected attackers have been arrested and three policemen suspended for dereliction of duties.
(Reuters, 12/3/18)
2018 Dec 4, Authorities in northern India said they have arrested four people for their alleged involvement in an attack on police over rumors of cow slaughter that left two people dead, including a police official, a day earlier. A case was filed against 28 people who allegedly set a police outpost on fire and killed a local police inspector.
(AP, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 5, An Indian court remanded to custody British businessman Christian Michel accused of paying bribes to Indian officials to win a helicopter deal for Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland, following a rare extradition.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 9, In India dozens of Hindu monks and tens of thousands of followers, gathered under the banner of groups linked to PM Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party, urged the Indian government to help build a temple on the ruins of a 16th-century mosque, torn down in 1992, in the northern town of Ayodhya.
(Reuters, 12/9/18)
2018 Dec 9, In Kashmir Indian troops killed three rebels on the outskirts of Srinagar, ending a nearly 18-hour-long gunbattle. Mudasir Rashid Parray (14) and Saqib Bilal Sheikh (17) were killed in the gunbattle.
(AP, 12/9/18)(AP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 9, Gerald Cotton (30), the CEO of Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, died of complications from Crohn's disease while traveling to an orphanage in India. He was the only person who knew the security keys and passwords needed to access at least $250 million in client accounts.
(SFC, 2/7/19, p.D2)
2018 Dec 10, Reserve Bank of India Gov. Urjit Patel resigned amid a growing split between the Indian government and the independent monetary policy authority. The government of PM Narendra Modi has disagreed with some of the central bank's decisions under Patel, including a move to restrict lending by debt-ridden banks.
(AP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 10, A British court handed charismatic Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya a substantial setback by ruling he should be extradited to India to face financial fraud allegations.
(AP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 10, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Indian Bishop Prasad Gallela (56) of Cuddapah who, according to news reports, was accused of misappropriating church funds to support a secret family.
(AP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 11, India's ruling party lost power in three key states, dealing PM Narendra Modi his biggest defeat since he took office in 2014 and boosting the opposition ahead of national polls next year. The opposition Congress party was a clear winner in Chhattisgarh state, and fell one seat short of a majority in both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
(Reuters, 12/11/18)(AP, 12/12/18)
2018 Dec 12, In India Isha Ambani, the Ivy League-educated daughter of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, thought to be India's richest man, married Anand Piramal, whose father is industrialist Ajay Piramal, thought to be worth $10 billion.
(AP, 12/12/18)
2018 Dec 13, In northeastern India at least 15 young miners went missing and were feared dead following the collapse of a shaft and flooding of a coal mine they were digging illegally in the state of Meghalaya. Three weeks later rescuers trying to reach the miners struggled to pump out water from the 370-foot-deep pit, further dimming their chances of survival. On Jan. 26 rescuers located a second body from the site of a "rat-hole" mining accident, two days after recovering the first body.
(AP, 12/14/18)(Reuters, 1/4/19)(Reuters, 1/26/19)
2018 Dec 15, In southern India police arrested three people after at least 11 died of suspected food poisoning following a ceremony to celebrate the construction of a new Hindu temple in Karnataka state. Laboratory tests later showed the presence of monocrotophos, a pesticide which attacks the nerves, in food and vomit samples.
(AP, 12/15/18)(AP, 12/18/18)
2018 Dec 15, In Kashmir seven civilians died and dozens were injured when Indian security forces opened fire at people protesting the killing of three militants in a gun battle in a village in Pulwama district. The gunfight also left three armed rebels and a soldier dead. The separatist group Hurriyat Conference called for a three-day strike and protests across Kashmir.
(Reuters, 12/15/18)(AFP, 12/15/18)
2018 Dec 16, In India a New Delhi security guard allegedly raped a three-year-old girl after luring her with sweets. The girl was hospitalized and her suspected attacker was soon arrested.
(Reuters, 12/17/18)
2018 Dec 17, PM Narendra Modi said India will give financial assistance of $1.4 billion to the Maldives, the biggest aid yet to the Indian Ocean island nation that is grappling with debt from a Chinese building spree.
(Reuters, 12/17/18)
2018 Dec 17, An Indian court jailed for life Sajjan Kumar, a leader of the main opposition Congress party, for his role in anti-Sikh riots that erupted after the 1984 murder of the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, and killed nearly 3,000 people.
(Reuters, 12/17/18)
2018 Dec 17, In India at least six people died and 129 others were injured in a fire that broke out in the five-story government-run ESIC Kamgar Hospital in the suburban Andheri area of Mumbai. The death toll soon rose to eight.
(AP, 12/17/18)(AP, 12/18/18)
2018 Dec 17, Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman, Mohammad Faisal, said that Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari is being repatriated to New Delhi after serving a three-year prison sentence for spying.
(AP, 12/17/18)
2018 Dec 19, In India Swaroop Raj (35), an assistant vice president at Genpact India, committed suicide following accusations of sexual misconduct.
(http://tinyurl.com/ya8cj4a2)(Reuters, 12/21/18)
2018 Dec 20, An Indian schoolgirl (15) died in a Delhi hospital of severe burns after two men set fire to her on a busy street earlier this week in the tourist city of Agra.
(Reuters, 12/21/18)
2018 Dec 21, Indian police arrested 126 people working for a allegedly fake call center making up to $50,000 a day by duping US citizens.
(AFP, 12/21/18)
2018 Dec 21, In India boulders crashed down on Indian workers who were widening a mountainous road leading to a Hindu temple in the Himalayas, killing seven of them in Uttarakhand state.
(AP, 12/21/18)
2018 Dec 21, Pakistan reportedly opened fire in the Keran sector of Kashmir, killing two Indian army officers.
(AP, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 22, In Kashmir a gunbattle between Indian troops and rebels early today left six militants dead and triggered a new round of anti-India protests in the disputed Himalayan region.
(AP, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 25, In India many Delhi residents were forced to spend Christmas indoors as air quality remained at "severe to emergency" levels for a fourth day, in the capital's worst smog crisis this year.
(Reuters, 12/25/18)
2018 Dec 25, In India a woman (42) attacked her alleged stalker (25) and cut off his genitals before rushing him to a Mumbai hospital to save his life. The woman and her two alleged acquaintances were taken into police custody as investigations continued.
(Reuters, 12/27/18)
2018 Dec 27, India's lower house of Parliament approved a bill to implement the Supreme Court's ruling that found the Muslim practice of instant divorce was unconstitutional.
(AP, 12/27/18)
2018 Dec 28, In India a top official at Purvanchal University urged his students to "murder" fellow students if confronted instead of complaining to him, amid a wave of violence being reported from across Uttar Pradesh where the school is based.
(Reuters, 12/30/18)
2018 Dec 28, It was reported that steep price drops in India in recent weeks for onions and potatoes have badly hit the rural economy in large states.
(Reuters, 12/28/18)
2018 Dec 29, In India a police officer was stoned to death during violent protests in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh state.
(Reuters, 12/30/18)
2018 Dec 29, In Kashmir anti-India protests and clashes erupted after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed four rebels in the Pulwama area.
(AP, 12/29/18)
2018 Dec 31, Indian troops fired at Pakistani forces across the two countries' line of control in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing a woman and wounding nine civilians.
(AP, 12/31/18)
2018 Dec, British businessman Christian Michel (57) was extradited to India from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where he was working over his role in a £500 million helicopter deal. Michel was extradited after India handed over Sheikha Latifa, a runaway Dubai princess, to the UAE following her capture by Indian coastguards when they boarded her yacht. Michel later alleged that he was tortured after refusing to sign a fake confession that he bribed Indian officials in order to secure the helicopter deal.
(The Telegraph, 1/30/21)
2018 India applied to the EU for "geographical indication" status for basmati rice. Pakistan, which also produced basmati rice, rejected the claim.
(SSFC, 11/29/20, p.A6)
2019 Jan 1, In southern India millions of women stood should to shoulder along highways in Kerala state creating a human wall 300 miles long standing fast against sexism and oppression.
(SFC, 1/3/19, p.A4)
2019 Jan 2, In India two women entered the Sabarimala temple in Kerala state, one of the country's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites that had been forbidden to females between the ages of 10 and 50, sparking protests across the state.
(AP, 1/2/19)
2019 Jan 2, In India Hindu nationalists linked to PM Narendra Modi’s ruling party urged him to push through laws to allow the building of a temple on the ruins of a 16th century mosque in Ayodhya.
(Reuters, 1/2/19)
2019 Jan 3, India deported a second small group of Rohingya Muslims, five members of a family, to Myanmar after ordering the expulsion of members of the Myanmar minority group and others who entered the country illegally.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, In southern India Hindu hard-liners shut shops and businesses and clashed with police in Kerala state to protest the entry of two women into the Sabarimala hill temple, one of India's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 4, In India the office of the chief minister of Kerala state said a woman (46) has become the third to enter the Sabarimala Hindu temple in defiance of an ancient ban on females of menstruating age. Temple management denied that the Sri Lankan woman had in fact entered. Only small protests were reported from across the state.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 5, In southern India twin arson and bomb attacks rocked Kerala state, continuing a violent backlash that followed the entry of two women into the Sabarimala Hindu temple that forbids female devotees.
(AFP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 5, An Indian court declared tycoon Vijay Mallya (62) a "fugitive economic offender," a ruling that empowers authorities to confiscate his properties and other assets. Mallya, who left India in 2016, is accused of money laundering and cheating Indian banks out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
(AP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 5, In northern India six schoolchildren and their bus driver were killed as the vehicle rolled down a gorge on a hilly road in Himachal Pradesh state.
(AP, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 7, In India a small regional party quit PM Narendra Modi's ruling coalition, protesting against his bid to give citizenship to hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims from neighboring countries such as Bangladesh. The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), based in the border state of Assam in the northeast, has become the fourth ally to quit the ruling National Democratic Alliance in the past year.
(Reuters, 1/7/19)
2019 Jan 8, India's lower house of Parliament approved a bill that would grant residency and citizenship rights to non-Muslims who entered India illegally, allegedly after fleeing persecution in several neighboring nations, despite protests against the legislation in the populous northeast that brought the region to a near standstill.
(AP, 1/8/19)
2019 Jan 8, India's Supreme Court cleared the way for Vedanta to reopen its south Indian copper smelter by refusing to stay an order from the country's environmental court.
(Reuters, 1/8/19)
2019 Jan 9, India's upper house of Parliament approved a bill providing a 10 percent quota in government jobs for the poor members of upper castes who have been excluded from existing quotas for low-ranking castes. The bill now only needs the approval of India's president, a formality, to become law.
(AP, 1/10/19)
2019 Jan 10, India's federal police chief was ousted by a panel led by PM Narendra Modi, drawing criticism from the main opposition Congress party. Alok Verma, chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), was suspended in October along with his deputy after they accused each other of bribery and interfering in investigations.
(Reuters, 1/10/19)
2019 Jan 11, In India leaders of two political rivals in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh said they will form an alliance in a bid to defeat PM Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in national election scheduled for May.
(Reuters, 1/11/19)
2019 Jan 12, In Kashmir rebel commander Zeenatul Islam was killed along with his associate late today in a gunbattle with Indian troops.
(AP, 1/13/19)
2019 Jan 13, In Kashmir massive anti-India protests and clashes erupted, leading to injuries to at least 16 people after a gunbattle between militants and government forces overnight killed two rebels.
(AP, 1/13/19)
2019 Jan 15, In India Kanaka Durga (39), one of two Indian women who entered an ancient Hindu Sabarimala temple hill temple earlier this month in defiance of a centuries-old ban on women of menstruating age, alleged she was beaten up by her mother-in-law.
(Reuters, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 17, An Indian court sentenced a popular and flamboyant spiritual guru and three followers to life in prison in the murder 16 years ago of a journalist who published a letter about the guru's alleged sexual exploitation of women. Dr. Saint Gurmeet Singh Ram Rahim Insan and his three followers were convicted on Jan. 11 on murder charges.
(AP, 1/17/19)
2019 Jan 18, Germany-based Volkswagen Group said that it will pay a fine of 1 billion rupees ($14.2 million) imposed by India for installing software on vehicles that allegedly cheated pollution testing devices, though it is still appealing the order.
(AP, 1/18/19)
2019 Jan 19, India's main opposition parties joined forces against PM Narendra Modi at a rally in Kolkata which attracted hundreds of thousands of people months ahead of elections.
(Reuters, 1/19/19)
2019 Jan 21, An Indian official said police in Kerala state are investigating a suspected attempt to illegally transport more than 100 Indians by boat to New Zealand. The boat had reportedly left Munambam harbor in Kerala on Jan. 12.
(AP, 1/21/19)(Reuters, 1/21/19)
2019 Jan 21, In southern India at least eight people drowned when their boat capsized in a river as they were returning home from a religious festival on a nearby island in Karnataka state.
(AP, 1/21/19)
2019 Jan 21, In India police arrested 30 Rohingya, including 12 children, who were found traveling on a bus to Gauhati, the capital of Assam state.
(AP, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 22, In northeastern India police arrested 31 Rohingya In Tripura state after they spent two days in the open in a no man's land along the border with Bangladesh.
(AP, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 24, In northern India at least six people were killed when a building collapsed as workers were adding an additional floor to it in Haryana state.
(AP, 1/24/19)
2019 Jan 24, Scientists prepared to embark on an unprecedented, years-long mission to explore the Indian Ocean and document changes taking place beneath the waves that could affect billions of people in the surrounding region over the coming decades.
(AP, 1/24/19)
2019 Jan 25, Indian PM Narendra Modi and visiting South African Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa announced they will boost ties in key areas such as defense, maritime security, information technology and trade under a 3-year strategic exchange program.
(AP, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 26, India held national day celebrations. Thousands of Indians converged on a ceremonial boulevard in New Delhi to watch a display of the country's military power and cultural diversity amid tight security.
(AP, 1/26/19)
2019 Feb 1, An Indian air force Mirage 2000 trainer aircraft crashed in Bangalore while taking off after being upgraded by a state aerospace company, killing the two pilots.
(AP, 2/1/19)
2019 Feb 3, India's PM Narendra Modi paid a daylong visit to disputed Kashmir to review development work as separatists fighting Indian rule called for a shutdown in the Himalayan region.
(AP, 2/3/19)
2019 Feb 3, Indian news reports said as many as 129 Indians were among those detained Jan. 30 by US immigration authorities in connection with enrollment at a fake university.
(AP, 2/3/19)
2019 Feb 3, In eastern India seven people were killed and 29 injured when nine coaches of a New Delhi-bound train derailed early today.
(AP, 2/3/19)
2019 Feb 4, A report by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development said that one-third of Himalayan glaciers will melt by the end of the century due to climate change, threatening water sources for 1.9 billion people, even if current efforts to reduce climate change succeed.
(AP, 2/5/19)
2019 Feb 4, A British official signed an order that paves the way for tycoon Vijay Mallya's extradition to India to face financial fraud allegations. Mallya has 14 days to appeal.
(AP, 2/5/19)
2019 Feb 6, India's Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that imports of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) grew 12.5 percent over the past five years to 12 million metric tons (13 million tons) in 2018-19, surpassing Japan and putting India in second place behind China.
(AP, 2/6/19)
2019 Feb 6, In southern India the board of the ancient Hindu Sabarimala hill temple said it now favored allowing female worshippers of menstruating age to enter, reversing its previous support for a centuries-old ban.
(Reuters, 2/6/19)
2019 Feb 8, An Indian court sentenced seven Muslim men to life in prison for the murder of two Hindu men on Aug. 27, 2013, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The incident had sparked religious riots killing about 65 people and displacing thousands.
(Reuters, 2/8/19)
2019 Feb 9, Indian officials said at least 39 people have died and another 27 fallen sick from drinking cheap spurious liquor containing toxic methanol in several villages in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand states.
(AP, 2/9/19)
2019 Feb 9, China's foreign ministry condemned Indian PM Narendra Modi's visit to the disputed northeastern border state of Arunachal Pradesh, saying it "resolutely opposes" activities by Indian leaders in the region.
(AP, 2/9/19)
2019 Feb 12, In India a fire engulfed the Arpit Palace Hotel, a shoddily built budget hotel in central New Delhi, killing 17 people and injuring at least four others. The general manager of the Arpit Palace Hotel, Rajender Singh, and manager, Vikar Kumar, were booked on suspicion of culpable homicide for the fire.
(AP, 2/12/19)(AP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 13, India's Supreme Court issued an order to remove forest dwellers in 21 states where about 1.3 million land claims, each potentially representing a household, were rejected.
(Reuters, 2/25/19)
2019 Feb 14, In Kashmir at least 41 soldiers were killed and more than two dozen others wounded in a car bomb attack on a paramilitary convoy along a key highway on the outskirts of Srinagar. Adil Ahmad Dar (20) from the village of Lethipora in Indian Kashmir, rammed a car full of explosives into the convoy. His parents said he had been beaten by Indian troops a few years back when he was returning from school. Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for the car bomb attack. India's PM Narendra Modi soon placed the blame for the bombing squarely on neighboring Pakistan.
(AP, 2/14/19)(AP, 2/15/19)(Reuters, 2/15/19)
2019 Feb 15, Indian activist S Mugilan, who released a video critical of the police shooting of protesters at Vedanta's south Indian copper smelter in May, killing 13 and injuring many others, went missing following a press conference in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state. He released an analysis of publicly available video footage that he said showed the police had escalated the situation, leading to unnecessary deaths.
(Reuters, 2/26/19)
2019 Feb 16, India's first locally built semi high-speed train broke down early today on its way back to New Delhi from Varanasi in northern Uttar Pradesh, a day after its inauguration by PM Narendra Modi. The railway ministry said the disruption was possibly due to cattle run over.
(Reuters, 2/16/19)
2019 Feb 17, Indian police said authorities have detained 23 men suspected of links to the Pakistan-based militant group that masterminded the Feb. 14 bombing of an Indian security convoy in Kashmir that killed 44 paramilitary police.
(Reuters, 2/17/19)
2019 Feb 17, Hundreds of Indian soldiers descended on the village of Pinglan, which is surrounded by south Kashmir's apple and apricot orchards, just before midnight. By the time they left 18 hours later, one civilian, three armed militants, and five members of the security forces were dead, a row of houses was reduced to rubble, an unexploded missile had been planted in a rice paddy, and more than 120 villagers had sought treatment for exposure to tear gas, alleged beatings, and in some cases mental trauma.
(Reuters, 4/30/19)
2019 Feb 18, Indian troops suffered new losses in a battle with Kashmir militants that left nine dead. Officials said four soldiers, a policeman, three militants and a civilian were killed in the latest clash. The suspected organizer of last week's suicide bombing was said to be among the dead.
(AP, 2/18/19)(Reuters, 2/18/19)
2019 Feb 19, Pakistan accused India of sponsoring terrorism and of using the United Nations' highest court for "political theater" as it urged judges to dismiss an Indian case seeking to save alleged spy Kulbhushan Jadhav from execution.
(AP, 2/19/19)
2019 Feb 19, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in India after visiting Pakistan.
(AP, 2/19/19)
2019 Feb 20, In India Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Indian leader Narendra Modi vowed to increase pressure on countries that fuel terrorism.
(AFP, 2/20/19)
2019 Feb 20, India's Supreme Court found Anil Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Communications, and two of his directors guilty of contempt of court and ordered them to pay 5.5 billion rupees ($77.29 million) owed to Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson.
(AP, 2/20/19)
2019 Feb 20, India's top court ordered more than a dozen states to evict nearly 1 million people from forest land as they have their failed to prove ownership claims. The court says the eviction must be carried out within five months.
(AP, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 20, Pakistani and Indian officials said that India has halted a key bus service with the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, cutting the only land route linking the divided Himalayan region.
(AP, 2/20/19)
2019 Feb 21, An Indian government minister said India has decided to stop the flow of water to Pakistan from its share in the rivers under the Indus Water Treaty regulating river flows between the two nations.
(Reuters, 2/21/19)
2019 Feb 21, Pakistan's PM Imran Khan authorized the armed forces to "respond decisively and comprehensively to any aggression or misadventure" by neighboring India.
(AP, 2/21/19)
2019 Feb 22, India's top court ordered state authorities to stop threats, assaults and social boycotts of thousands of Kashmiri students, traders and professionals in an apparent retaliation for the killing of 40 paramilitary soldiers in a suicide attack in the Indian portion of Kashmir last week.
(AP, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 22, An Indian government minister said at least 41 tea plantation workers have died from drinking toxic bootleg liquor after receiving their weekly wages, and 20 are critically ill in hospital after nearly 100 people drank the liquor a day earlier.
(AP, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 23, Indian authorities said least 93 people have died and about 200 people have been hospitalized after drinking tainted liquor in two separate incidents in Assam state.
(AP, 2/23/19)
2019 Feb 23, Indian authorities arrested dozens of Muslim leaders in raids across Kashmir and sent thousands of reinforcements to the troubled territory. Officials in Kashmir said police have arrested at least 200 activists seeking the end of Indian rule.
(AFP, 2/23/19)(AP, 2/23/19)
2019 Feb 23, In northern India 10 people died in an explosion at a house where firecrackers were being illegally manufactured in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 2/23/19)
2019 Feb 23, In India a fire at the Aero India airshow in Bengaluru, run by the country's defence ministry, destroyed three hundred cars.
(AP, 2/23/19)
2019 Feb 25, In eastern India hundreds of indigenous people waved flags and shouted slogans to protest against an order to evict more than one million indigenous families accused of encroaching on forest lands.
(Reuters, 2/25/19)
2019 Feb 26, India's air force carried out air strikes inside Pakistan killing hundreds of militants in a training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the militant group that claimed credit for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing attack that killed Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir. Pakistan said there had been no casualties at all. Following the air strike India and Pakistan troops exchanged gunfire across the border in the disputed region of Kashmir.
(Reuters, 2/26/19)
2019 Feb 27, Pakistani PM Imran Khan called for talks with India and hoped "better sense" would prevail to de-escalate the dispute with its nuclear-armed neighbor following air strikes by both sides.
(Reuters, 2/27/19)
2019 Feb 27, Pakistan's military said it shot down two Indian warplanes in the disputed region of Kashmir and captured a pilot, raising tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals to a level unseen in the last two decades. Mortar shells fired by Indian troops from across the frontier dividing the two sectors of Kashmir killed six civilians and wound several others. A helicopter crash in the region also killed six Indian air force officials and a civilian on the ground.
(AP, 2/27/19)
2019 Feb 28, Pakistan's PM Imran Khan pledged his country would release a captured Indian fighter pilot, a move that could help defuse the most serious confrontation in two decades between the nuclear-armed neighbors over the disputed region of Kashmir..
(AP, 2/28/19)
2019 Feb 28, India banned the largest political and religious group in Indian-controlled Kashmir in an ongoing crackdown on activists seeking the end of Indian rule. India's home ministry issued the five-year ban on Jama'at-e-Islami, or JeI, accusing the group of being an "unlawful association" and supporting militancy in the region.
(AP, 3/1/19)
2019 Mar 1, Pakistani officials handed over a captured Indian Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman at a border crossing with India in a "gesture of peace" promised by PM Imran Khan amid a dramatic escalation with the country's archrival over the disputed region of Kashmir. In a heavily edited video distributed by the Pakistani military just before his release, Varthaman praised the professionalism of the Pakistani army and criticized Indian media for creating war hysteria.
(AP, 3/1/19)(AFP, 3/2/19)
2019 Mar 2, Pakistan's military said two of its soldiers have been killed in an exchange of fire with Indian forces near the Line of Control that separates the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between the rivals. Over the last 24 hours a total of at least six civilians have been killed on both sides of Kashmir.
(AP, 3/2/19)
2019 Mar 4, A key train service with neighboring India resumed and schools in Pakistani Kashmir opened in another sign of easing tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals since a major escalation last week over the disputed Kashmir region.
(AP, 3/4/19)
2019 Mar 4, The Trump administration said Washington will scrap the preferential trade status of India and Turkey, as President Donald Trump ramped up his battle against what his administration views as unfair foreign trade practices.
(AFP, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 5, Two groups monitoring air pollution said New Delhi was the world's most polluted capital city in 2018 in a study of the amount of fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 in 61 capital cities around the world. It was followed by the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka and Kabul, capital of Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 5, It was reported that Nepal has chosen a railway-track gauge used by China for its network and not the main one India uses citing lower costs, a setback for India as it tries to limit Chinese involvement in the Himalayan country.
(Reuters, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 6, Indian and Pakistani soldiers shelled military outposts and villages along their highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir, in an outbreak of new violence despite stepped-up diplomatic efforts by the rival countries to ease tensions.
(AP, 3/6/19)
2019 Mar 9, India said that it was returning a key diplomat to Pakistan's capital amid an easing of tensions between the nuclear neighbors, but also demanded that its archrival take concrete steps against terrorists operating from its territory.
(AP, 3/9/19)
2019 Mar 10, In Kashmir Indian troops shelled the Pakistani-controlled sector, killing a 70-year-old man. India blamed Pakistani troops for the initiating fire.
(AP, 3/11/19)
2019 Mar 11, Police in India said they had recovered four videos from four arrested men, involving other victims in Tamil Nadu state. A woman (19) had said in a complaint filed with the police that she was traveling with the four men, two of whom she knew, in a car last month when she was forcibly disrobed and videotaped. She alleged the men then threatened to upload the video online if she did not meet them whenever summoned.
(Reuters, 3/12/19)
2019 Mar 14, India and Pakistan agreed to go forward with a new border crossing and route for Sikh pilgrims to visit a holy temple in Pakistan, a rare glimmer of cooperation after tension flared over the neighbors' decades-old Kashmir dispute.
(Reuters, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 14, In India part of a pedestrian bridge connecting a train station with road has collapsed in Mumbai, killing at least one person and injuring more than a dozen others.
(AP, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 18, An Indian police official said a protester and a policeman have died in clashes outside Vedanta Ltd's eastern Indian alumina refinery in Odisha state.
(Reuters, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 19, Hundreds of Indian traders in New Delhi burned Chinese goods and urged the government to raise import taxes on them to protest against China's trade and foreign policies. Chinese good were burned in similar protests in several other cities.
(Reuters, 3/19/19)
2019 Mar 20, An Indian court acquitted four Hindu men accused of bombing a train between India and Pakistan on Feb. 19, 2007, that killed 68 people, mostly Pakistanis, citing a lack of evidence.
(Reuters, 3/20/19)
2019 Mar 20, Diamond tycoon Nirav Modi, whose jewels once adorned stars from Bollywood to Hollywood, was ordered held without bail in London, more than a year after Indian authorities alleged he was involved in a $1.8 billion bank fraud.
(AP, 3/20/19)
2019 Mar 22, Indian security forces killed seven militants who they said belonged to Pakistan-based groups during four gunbattles in Kashmir - the highest number of clashes in a single day in recent years. Police said the militants belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).
(Reuters, 3/22/19)
2019 Mar 25, The board of India's private Jet Airways accepted the resignations of Chairman Naresh Goyal, his wife and a nominee of Gulf carrier Etihad Airways. Goyal quit amid mounting financial woes which have forced Jet Airways to suspend 14 international routes and ground more than 80 planes. The board approved the setting up of an interim management committee to oversee daily operations and cash flow of the company.
(AP, 3/25/19)
2019 Mar 27, India shot down one of its satellites in space with an anti-satellite missile. The government said the test was aimed at protecting India's assets in space against foreign attacks. The United States ran the first anti-satellite test in 1959, when satellites themselves were rare and new.
(Reuters, 3/27/19)
2019 Apr 1, Facebook said it has deleted 712 accounts and 390 pages in India and Pakistan for "inauthentic behavior," many of them linked to India's opposition Congress party days before a general election, and others related to Pakistan's military.
(Reuters, 4/1/19)
2019 Apr 2, In Kashmir Pakistan and India traded fire in the disputed Himalayan region, leaving seven people dead.
(AP, 4/2/19)
2019 Apr 3, India's PM Narendra Modi staged a massive rally in Kolkata, stepping up the battle with a local rival who could frustrate his party's return to power.
(AFP, 4/3/19)
2019 Apr 4, India's central bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 6%, moving to prop up economic growth ahead of a national election next week.
(AP, 4/4/19)
2019 Apr 4, In central India Maoist rebels ambushed and killed four Indian paramilitary soldiers and wounded another two in the Kanker district of Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 4/4/19)
2019 Apr 5, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said officials will release 360 Indian prisoners detained for fishing illegally in the country's territorial waters in the Arabian sea. The anglers will be freed in four batches starting April 15.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 7, Authorities in India's portion of disputed Kashmir began enforcing a ban on the movement of civilian vehicles on a key highway to keep it open exclusively for military and paramilitary convoys two days a week.
(AP, 4/7/19)
2019 Apr 9, In India at least seven people including a state legislator for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were killed in two separate attacks, days before India begins a general election.
(Reuters, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 10, British PM Theresa May expressed regret for a massacre by British troops in India in 1919 but stopped short of a full apology. The April 13, 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, in which British troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters, remains an enduring scar from British colonial rule in India.
(AFP, 4/10/19)
2019 Apr 11, In India at least 4 people were killed on the first day of polling in general elections, which are seen as a referendum on PM Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The mammoth vote ends May 19, and counting will he held on May 23.
(AP, 4/11/19)(AP, 4/12/19)
2019 Apr 15, India's election commission banned Yogi Adityanath, a member of PM Narendra Modi's ruling party and a Hindu state chief minister, from campaigning for three days after anti-Muslim comments in an election that will end next month.
(Reuters, 4/16/19)
2019 Apr 15, In India Jet Airways pilots demonstrated in Mumbai, saying they had not received a salary in four months.
(AP, 4/16/19)
2019 Apr 16, India's Supreme Court agreed to consider a petition from a Muslim couple to allow women into mosques, seeking to overturn a centuries-old practice that largely bars women from the places of worship.
(Reuters, 4/16/19)
2019 Apr 16, Indian airline Jet Airways' stock fell sharply after its former chairman reportedly withdrew plans to bid for a controlling stake in the company and news media said its flight operations might be temporarily halted. Naresh Goyal had founded Jet Airways in 1992. Etihad Aviation Group purchased a 24% stake in Jet Airways in 2013.
(AP, 4/16/19)
2019 Apr 16, In central and western India a powerful storm bringing dust, lightning and unseasonal rain has killed at least 47 people in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan states.
(AP, 4/17/19)
2019 Apr 17, In India Mukesh Ambani, who heads Reliance Industries, and Uday Kotak, managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, both endorsed Milind Deora, the Congress candidate for the South Mumbai constituency.
(Reuters, 4/18/19)
2019 Apr 17, India's debt-stricken Jet Airways halted all of its operations after failing to secure emergency funding from lenders, leaving it teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
(AFP, 4/17/19)
2019 Apr 18, Voting in the second phase of India's general election remained largely peaceful amid massive security and a lockdown in parts of the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Sporadic violence flared in the east and the insurgency-wracked state of Jammu and Kashmir.
(AP, 4/18/19)(Reuters, 4/18/19)
2019 Apr 19, In India Priyanka Chaturvedi, a spokeswoman for India's main opposition Congress party, quit and joined a group allied with PM Narendra Modi's ruling party, complaining that misbehavior toward her by male Congress members was ignored.
(Reuters, 4/19/19)
2019 Apr 23, In India one person was killed as people in the third phase of the country's general election. A man (52) was hacked to death with a cleaver as two groups clashed during voting in Murshidabad constituency in West Bengal state.
(AP, 4/23/19)
2019 Apr 24, An Indian state court moved to lift a ban on popular video app TikTok in the country, in a boost for its developer Beijing Bytedance Technology Co., reversing its April 3 decision pushing for the ban. The southern state of Tamil Nadu had ordered the federal government to prohibit TikTok downloads, saying the app was encouraging pornography and could expose children to sexual predators.
(Reuters, 4/24/19)
2019 Apr 29, The fourth phase of India's staggered national election was marred by multiple clashes that injured at least seven people and led to security forces firing warning shots outside one polling station.
(AP, 4/29/19)
2019 May 1, In western India Maoist rebels triggered a land mine blast on van carrying police commandos in the insurgents' stronghold in Maharashtra state and killed 15 officers and their driver.
(Reuters, 5/1/19)
2019 May 1, India began evacuating hundreds of thousands of villagers and shut down operations at two major ports on its east coast ahead of impending Cyclonic Storm Fani expected to make landfall on May 3.
(AP, 5/1/19)
2019 May 2, In India hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated along the eastern coast as authorities braced for Cyclone Fani moving through the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 3, Cyclone Fani tore through India's eastern coast as a grade 5 storm, lashing beaches with rain and winds gusting up to 205 km (127 miles) per hour and affecting weather as far away as Mount Everest as it approached the former imperial capital of Kolkata. At least three people died Cyclone Fani slammed into eastern India. Media reports put the death toll at up to six.
(AP, 5/3/19)(AP, 5/3/19)
2019 May 4, Tropical cyclone Fani, the strongest to hit India in five years, killed at least 12 people in eastern Odisha state before swinging north-eastwards into Bangladesh where five more people died and more than a million were moved to safety.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 5, Indian officials said hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless after a cyclone packing winds of about 200 km per hour slammed into eastern India. At least 33 people were killed after cyclone Fani struck the state of Odisha.
(Reuters, 5/05/19)
2019 May 6, Indian voters cast ballots in the crucial fifth phase of the country’s marathon elections.
(AP, 5/06/19)
2019 May 6, In India a panel of judges dismissed a sexual harassment complaint against chief justice Ranjan Gogoi. Protesters soon responded carrying placards demanding a new and impartial investigation.
(Reuters, 5/07/19)
2019 May 6, Officials said Cyclone Fani, that tore through parts of South Asia, has killed at least 34 people in India and 15 in neighboring Bangladesh and smashed thousands of thatched-roof huts.
(AP, 5/06/19)
2019 May 10, Islamic State (IS) claimed for the first time that it has established a "province" in India, after a clash between militants and security forces in the contested Kashmir region killed a militant with alleged ties to the group. An Indian police statement said that a militant called Ishfaq Ahmad Sofi was killed in an encounter in Shopian.
(Reuters, 5/11/19)
2019 May 12, Indians voted in the next-to-last round of a six-week-long national election marked by a highly acrimonious campaign that has seen PM Narendra Modi blame opposition party chief Rahul Gandhi's family for the country's ills.
(AP, 5/12/19)
2019 May 14, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif met with his Indian counterpart in New Delhi, days after India decided to follow US restrictions on buying Iranian oil. Zarif held discussions with Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on issues of mutual interest, including the evolving situation in Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/14/19)
2019 May 16, Indian troops and separatist militants clashed in Indian-controlled Kashmir and five people were killed including civilian Rayees Ahmad Dar (32). Three JeM militants, including a Pakistani commander, and an Indian soldier were killed in the gun battle in Dalipora, a village in south Kashmir, which began in the early hours.
(AP, 5/16/19)
2019 May 16, In Indian-controlled Kashmir a Muslim man was shot and killed and another injured by Hindu vigilantes over allegations of smuggling cows.
(AP, 5/16/19)
2019 May 19, Voting in India's mammoth national election ended with the seventh and final phase of a grueling poll that lasted more than five weeks. Exit polls predicted a victory for PM Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party and its allies. Violent clashes broke out in the eastern state of West Bengal.
(AP, 5/19/19)(Reuters, 5/19/19)
2019 May 20, The Jammu-Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society released a detailed report saying India is using torture as a "matter of policy" and "instrument of control" in Kashmir, where rebels have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989.
(AP, 5/20/19)
2019 May 21, An Indian lawmaker in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh was reported killed in an ambush by suspected rebels. Legislative Assembly member Tirong Aboh of the National People's Party and 10 relatives and party workers were attacked with automatic weapons as they traveled to Aboh's constituency.
(AP, 5/21/19)
2019 May 23, In India vote-counting trends showed PM Narendra Modi's ruling party winning 285 seats against just 53 for Congress. PM Modi (68) and his party declared victory.
(Reuters, 5/23/19)
2019 May 24, In India at least 19 students were killed in a fire that broke out in a four-story building in the western city of Surat. A youth died in hospital the next day, increasing the toll to 20. Police soon charged three owners of the tuition center at the Takshashila Arcade with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and attempted culpable homicide.
(AP, 5/24/19)(AP, 5/25/19)(SFC, 5/25/19, p.A2)
2019 May 25, In India Rahul Gandhi announced his resignation as leader of India's Congress Party after losing a second general election to PM Narendra Modi.
(Reuters, 7/2/19)
2019 May 26, India's Pres. Ram Nath Kovind appointed Narendra Modi as the prime minister, soon after newly elected lawmakers led by Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party chose him as their leader following a thunderous victory in national elections. Modi’s BJP party won 303 seats in the 542-member lower house of Parliament.
(AP, 5/26/19)(SFC, 5/31/19, p.A2)
2019 May 26, In India Surendra Singh was shot dead overnight in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh state. He was an aide to Smriti Irani, a former television actress and dogged minister in PM Narendra Modi's cabinet.
(Reuters, 5/26/19)
2019 May 26, Eight climbers failed to return after climbing on Nanda Devi East peak, India's second highest mountain. Officials later said they are all presumed dead. On June 23, paramilitary soldiers found the bodies of seven of the eight climbers at an altitude of more than 5,000 meters (16,400 feet).
(AFP, 6/1/19)(AP, 6/24/19)
2019 May 30, In India Narendra Modi was sworn in for a 2nd term as prime minister.
(SFC, 5/31/19, p.A2)
2019 Jun 3, Indian air force pilots spotted five bodies in the Himalayas near the border with China and Nepal while searching for eight climbers who went missing in an avalanche while attempting to chart a new route on India's second-highest mountain.
(AP, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 3, An Indian air force aircraft with 13 people on board went missing in remote northeastern mountains bordering China.
(Reuters, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 3, India issued heat wave warnings for some places in western Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh state following similar extreme weather a day earlier.
(Reuters, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 4, In India hospitals across the desert state of Rajasthan reported a surge in heatstroke cases as fierce temperatures kept up for a fourth day across northern India.
(AFP, 6/4/19)
2019 Jun 6, India's central bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 5.75% with immediate effect to fortify the economy as consumer spending and corporate investment falter.
(AP, 6/6/19)
2019 Jun 6, In India at least 24 people were killed in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh overnight as raging winds flattened homes, trees and electricity poles.
(AFP, 6/7/19)
2019 Jun 8, Indian PM Narendra Modi arrived in the Maldives on his first official overseas trip since being elected to a second term.
(AP, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 8, India's annual monsoon, which delivers about 70 percent of the country's rainfall, officially arrived on the coast of southern Kerala state, a week later than usual.
(Reuters, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 9, In Sri Lanka Indian PM Narendra Modi paid homage to the more than 250 people killed in the Easter suicide bombings, and agreed with Sri Lanka's leaders to step up cooperation to combat terrorism.
(AP, 6/9/19)
2019 Jun 10, India's top court ordered the release of journalist Prashant Kanojia (26), arrested for a social media post about a Hindu nationalist state chief minister, in a case that highlighted growing concerns over free speech and media freedom.
(Reuters, 6/11/19)
2019 Jun 10, In India a bomb killed two people in West Bengal, taking the death toll in post-election violence to 15.
(Reuters, 6/11/19)
2019 Jun 10, In India Girish Karnad (81), a top playwright, actor and director and a rights activist, died in Bangalore after a prolonged illness.
(AP, 6/10/19)
2019 Jun 11, The Indian air force spotted the wreckage of an AN-32 transport plane nine days after it went missing near the border with China. On June 13 authorities said there were no survivors.
(AP, 6/11/19)(AP, 6/13/19)
2019 Jun 11, In India four people, ages 69-81, returning from a Hindu pilgrimage died while traveling in a non-air-conditioned coach on a train during a summer heat wave.
(AP, 6/12/19)
2019 Jun 12, In India thousands of supporters of PM Narendra Modi clashed with police as they marched in Kolkata to protest against weeks of political violence that has claimed at least 12 lives.
(AFP, 6/12/19)
2019 Jun 12, Indian authorities raided the home of Mohammed Azarudeen in Tamil Nadu state. Police later said Azarudeen was friends on Facebook with Zahran Hashim, the alleged leader of the suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter that killed more than 250 people. Azarudeen was arrested for spreading Islamic State group ideology on social media to recruit young people to participate in a terrorist attack in southern India.
(AP, 6/14/19)
2019 Jun 12, In northern India two policemen were suspended for beating a TV journalist and damaging his equipment after he reported on unlicensed vendors at a railroad station. It was the third incident involving journalists in Uttar Pradesh state in the past week.
(AP, 6/12/19)
2019 Jun 12, Amnesty International said the Indian government is widely misusing a law allowing for detention without trial in the Indian part of the contested Kashmir region, and fuelling animosity with it.
(Reuters, 6/12/19)
2019 Jun 12, Indian health officials said at least 31 children have died in northern Bihar state in the last 10 days from a deadly brain disease believed linked to a toxic substance found in lychee fruit.
(AP, 6/12/19)
2019 Jun 13, Cyclone Vayu battered an Indian fishing hub with heavy wind, waves and rain and was forecast to bring dangerous weather conditions even as it veered away from the subcontinent's western coast.
(AP, 6/13/19)
2019 Jun 14, In India nearly 30,000 doctors went on a one-day strike, most in West Bengal, New Delhi and the western state of Maharashtra. The protests were launched in response to an attack at the NRS Medical College in Kolkata on June 10 that left three junior doctors seriously injured after a dispute with a family whose relative had died.
(AP, 6/14/19)
2019 Jun 16, It was reported that nearly 43% of the new members of India's lower house of Parliament, that convenes on June 17 for the first time since the election, won despite facing criminal charges. More than a quarter of those relate to rape, murder or attempted murder, according to a report by the civic group Association of Democratic Reforms.
(AP, 6/16/19)
2019 Jun 17, Tens of thousands of Indian doctors went on strike calling for more protection against violence by patients and their families, as parliament met for the first time since national elections.
(AFP, 6/17/19)
2019 Jun 17, Two Indian soldiers were killed late today after a car bombing targeted an armored vehicle in disputed Kashmir.
(AP, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 18, Indian authorities said more than 100 children have died in an encephalitis outbreak in the eastern state of Bihar.
(AP, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 19, Indian authorities said that 114 children have died in an encephalitis outbreak this month in eastern Bihar, one of the country's poorest states. There have been more than 500 cases of encephalitis registered since the outbreak began June 1.
(AP, 6/19/19)
2019 Jun 19, It was reported that millions of people are turning to water tank trucks in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu as house and hotel taps run dry because of an acute water shortage caused by drying lakes and depleted groundwater.
(AP, 6/19/19)
2019 Jun 20, India's government created a new ministry to respond to a growing water crisis, with more than 60% of the country's 1.3 billion people dependent on farming and favorable monsoon rains. The new Ministry of Water Power will tackle water conservation and management.
(AP, 6/20/19)
2019 Jun 20, An Indian court sentenced former police officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who alleged PM Narendra Modi's complicity in killings of Muslims in 2002, to life in prison over the 1990 death of a person in custody.
(AP, 6/20/19)
2019 Jun 20, In northern India a bus plunged down a 1,600-foot gorge killing at least 44 people in Himachal Pradesh state.
(http://tinyurl.com/yytbqrfc)
2019 Jun 21, India's PM Naredra Modi practiced various yoga asanas alongside an estimated 40,000 people in Jharkhand state on the 5th Int'l. Yoga Day. In 2014 Modi successfully lobbied the UN to designate June 21 as Int'l. Yoga Day.
(SFC, 6/22/19, p.A4)
2019 Jun 21, In southern India pumping stations began lifting Godavari River water toward parched land in Telangana state in what is said to be the world's largest such irrigation project.
(AP, 6/21/19)
2019 Jun 21, A US State Department report said some senior officials from India's PM Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) last year had made "inflammatory speeches" against religious minorities.
(Reuters, 6/23/19)
2019 Jun 22, In India Tabrez Ansari (24), a Muslim man suspected of stealing a motorcycle, died four days after he was beaten by a Hindu mob for some 12 hours and forced to chant prayers to Hindu gods in Jharkhand state. Videos of the attack had circulated widely.
(SFC, 6/26/19, p.A4)
2019 Jun 23, In India at least 14 people died and 50 others were wounded when the tent collapsed during a Hindu ceremony in Barmer, Rajasthan state.
(AP, 6/23/19)
2019 Jun 23, In eastern India a medical official said at least 129 children have now died of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in the town of Muzaffarpur, Bihar state, since an outbreak earlier this month.
(Reuters, 6/23/19)
2019 Jun 24, India's Supreme Court directed state and national authorities to file reports to the court on an encephalitis outbreak in the eastern state of Bihar this month in which 152 children have died.
(AP, 6/24/19)
2019 Jun 28, It was reported that India's government has cut off advertisements to at least three major newspaper groups in a move that executives and an opposition leader said was likely retaliation for unfavorable reports.
(Reuters, 6/28/19)
2019 Jun 28, In eastern India Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh state killed three paramilitary soldiers patrolling on motorbikes and a young girl who was riding in a passing bus.
(AP, 6/28/19)
2019 Jun 29, In northern India customs officials in Punjab seized narcotics worth $390 million that were smuggled from neighboring Pakistan, in the country's largest seizure of illegal drugs.
(AP, 7/1/19)
2019 Jun 29, In western India a 4.5-meter (15-foot) high wall collapsed on a cluster of tin-roofed huts housing migrant workers and their families following heavy rains, killing at least 16 people in Pune, Maharashtra state.
(AP, 6/29/19)
2019 Jun 30, Indian PM Narendra Modi pushed for greater grassroots water conservation efforts amid concerns weak monsoon rains would push millions of drought-hit people to the edge and hammer agricultural production.
(Reuters, 6/30/19)
2019 Jul 1, In India heavy rains flooded parts of Mumbai, as the country's four-month summer monsoon swung into full force.
(AFP, 7/1/19)
2019 Jul 1, Thousands of Hindu pilgrims began the arduous trek to an icy Himalayan cave in disputed Kashmir, with tens of thousands of Indian government forces guarding roads and mountain passes. Hindus worship a stalagmite at the Amarnath shrine as an incarnation of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration.
(AP, 7/1/19)
2019 Jul 2, In western India heavy monsoon rains caused at least four walls to collapse onto huts and city shanties overnight and into today, killing at least 31 people and injuring dozens of others. Two men died after they were trapped in a submerged car, raising the overall death toll in Maharashtra state to 33.
(AP, 7/2/19)
2019 Jul 3, In India Rahul Gandhi resigned as president of the opposition Congress Party, long led by his politically powerful family.
(SFC, 7/4/19, p.A2)
2019 Jul 13, Authorities in India said rain-triggered floods and mudslides have left a trail of destruction across the northeast killing at least a dozen people.
(SSFC, 7/14/19, p.A4)
2019 Jul 16, In India a four-story dilapidated residential building collapsed in Mumbai killing at least ten people.
(SFC, 7/17/19, p.A4)
2019 Jul 17, India's interior minister said India will identify and deport illegal immigrants from across the country, stepping up a campaign that critics say could stoke religious tension and further alienate minority Muslims.
(Reuters, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 17, Indian officials said millions of people are stranded by flooding in the northeast with concern growing about food and water supplies, and that water levels of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries were rising even further.
(Reuters, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 17, In India the Goa bench of the Bombay High court held Samson D’Souza (36) guilty on all five counts of drugging, raping and murdering 15-year old Scarlett Keeling on north Goa’s Anjuna beach, after she had attended a belated Valentine’s Day party over 11 years ago. A 2nd man was acquitted.
(The Telegraph, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 17, In India a village headman and his supporters allegedly shot at a group of tribal people who were working a piece of disputed agricultural land in the state of Uttar Pradesh. 10 tribal people were gunned down over the land dispute.
(Reuters, 7/19/19)
2019 Jul 20, Officials said the death toll from south Asian monsoon rains has hit 164 with 90 people dead in Nepal, 62 in India's Assam state and 12 in Bangladesh.
(SSFC, 7/21/19, p.A2)
2019 Jul 21, In northern India lightning killed at least 39 people in Uttar Pradesh state.
(SFC, 7/25/19, p.A2)
2019 Jul 22, India launched a rocket into space in an attempt to safely land a rover on the moon, its most ambitious mission yet in the effort to establish itself as a low-cost space power.
(Reuters, 7/22/19)
2019 Jul 23, In India a vote of no-confidence bought down the government of Karnataka state led by chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
(Econ, 7/27/19, p.33)
2019 Jul 23, In eastern India lightning killed at least 39 people in Bihar state, raising the number of deaths in the state to 123 from lightning and flooding since the monsoon season started in June.
(SFC, 7/25/19, p.A2)
2019 Jul 25, India's parliament passed an amendment to the right to information law despite protests from activists who say the changes would diminish the independence of the commissioners who administer it.
(Reuters, 7/25/19)
2019 Jul 28, In India a highway collision critically injured a woman who had accused Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a legislator of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of rape. The woman and her lawyer were in hospital battling for their lives after a truck hit a car in which they were travelling, killing the woman's two aunts, who were also in the car. One of the aunts was a witness in the rape case.
(Reuters, 7/29/19)
2019 Jul 30, Indian and Pakistani soldiers traded heavy gunfire across a cease fire line dividing Kashmir leaving one Indian soldier and one Pakistani civilian dead.
(SFC, 7/31/19, p.A2)
2019 Jul 31, In India the body of entrepreneur V.G. Siddhartha was fished out of the Netravati River. He was the head of Coffee Day Enterprises, a firm he had founded in 1996. His suicide note included the phrases “I have failed" and “I gave up".
(Econ, 8/3/19, p.55)
2019 Aug 1, Indian authorities questioning the former vice president of the Maldives, Ahmed Adeeb (37), for illegally entering the country after he arrived on a tugboat in the southern Indian port city of Thoothukudi.
(AP, 8/1/19)
2019 Aug 2, Indian security officials said they had found evidence of attacks planned by Pakistani military-backed militants on a major Hindu pilgrimage in Kashmir. Thousands of Indian tourists, pilgrims and workers soon started leaving the disputed region.
(Reuters, 8/2/19)(AP, 8/3/19)
2019 Aug 5, India scrapped a 1947 constitutional provision that gave the state of Jammu and Kashmir its own constitution and broad decision-making rights. The decision split the state into two territories (Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh). Pakistan's foreign ministry rejected India's revocation of a special status for the portion of disputed Kashmir that it controls saying the move violates a UN resolution. Music videos soon began appearing about Indians moving to the Muslim-majority region, buying land there and marrying Kashmiri women.
(AP, 8/5/19)(SFC, 8/23/19, p.A3)(Econ., 9/12/20, p.30)
2019 Aug 5, India announced a strict curfew and communications blackout, with the movement goods and people in and out of the region also strictly controlled. Panic buying last week, as rumors circulated of an imminent curfew, saw shelves stripped of food, ATM's emptied and prices rocket - leaving many of Kashmir's poorest without key supplies.
(AP, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 6, Pakistan’s foreign minister wrote to the United Nations, while its army pledged to go to “any extent’’ against India’s move to revoke the autonomous status of Kashmir, that’s claimed in full by the two South Asian nations.
(Bloomberg, 8/6/19)
2019 Aug 8, It was reported that as many as 500 people have been rounded up in the latest crackdown in Indian Kashmir, which has been on the edge since the right-wing government revoked its autonomy.
(The Telegraph, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 8, Pakistan halted its main train service to India and banned Indian films as it kept up the diplomatic pressure on New Delhi for revoking the special status of Kashmir, the region at the heart of 70 years of hostility between them.
(Reuters, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 9, Indian authorities said at least 22 people have died in the southern state of Kerala after torrential monsoon rains caused landslides and flooding that cut off some areas.
(Reuters, 8/9/19)
2019 Aug 10, India's main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi demanded a statement from PM Narendra Modi on the situation in Kashmir, saying there are reports of violence and people dying.
(AP, 8/10/19)
2019 Aug 10, Officials Indian figures said the death toll from floods in the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra rose to 95, as heavy rain and landslides forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate their homes.
(Reuters, 8/10/19)
2019 Aug 10, Pakistan said it had cancelled a bus linking Lahore with India's capital New Delhi, the last remaining public transport link between the neighbors divided by a dispute over the Kashmir region.
(Reuters, 8/10/19)
2019 Aug 11, Authorities enforcing a strict curfew in Indian-administered Kashmir promised easing of restrictions and essential supplies for an Islamic festival, as the divided Himalayan region remained in a lockdown after India's decision to strip it of its constitutional autonomy.
(AP, 8/11/19)
2019 Aug 12, Large parts of Kashmir remained cut off from the rest of the world as a communications blackout entered its eighth day. India said it would soon begin gradually easing restrictions.
(Bloomberg, 8/12/19)
2019 Aug 12, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil company, the world’s most profitable company, held an earnings call, its first interaction with public investors. India-based Reliance industries said Aramco would pay $15 billion or so for a 20% stake in its refining and petrochemicals business.
(Econ, 8/17/19, p.48)
2019 Aug 13, Pakistan called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, saying India's decision to strip its part of disputed Kashmir of autonomy poses "an imminent threat" to international peace and could lead to ethnic cleansing and genocide in the Muslim-majority region.
(AP, 8/13/19)
2019 Aug 14, Indian authorities said floods and landslides have killed more than 270 people this month, displaced one million and inundated thousands of homes across six states after two weeks of heavy monsoon rains.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 15, India's PM Narendra Modi delivered an Independence Day speech that spotlighted a decision to remove the special rights of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir among the bold moves of the first 10 weeks of his second term. Modi also urged people and government agencies to "take the first big step" on Oct. 2 towards freeing India of single-use plastic.
(Reuters, 8/15/19)(AP, 9/17/19)
2019 Aug 15, India under PM Narendra Modi launched its Jal Jeevan Mission, a program to provide clean tap water to all of its 192 million households by 2024.
(https://tinyurl.com/wf533mv)(SFC, 12/22/21, p.A2)
2019 Aug 15, Thousands of people, many waving Pakistani and Kashmiri flags, protested outside the Indian High Commission in London in support of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
(Reuters, 8/15/19)
2019 Aug 15, Pakistan said three of its soldiers and five Indian troops were killed in a cross-border exchange of fire in the contested Kashmir region, one of the deadliest clashes between the rival armies this year.
(Reuters, 8/15/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Indian-controlled Kashmir hundreds of people protested an unprecedented security crackdown and clashed with police, as India's government said it was constantly reviewing the situation in the disputed region and the restrictions there will be removed over the next few days.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 17, Indian authorities eased restrictions on movement and restored landline telephone links in some parts of Kashmir, the biggest relaxation in a crippling lockdown since New Delhi announced it was removing the region's special status on Aug. 5.
(Reuters, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 18, Indian authorities reimposed restrictions on movement in major parts of Kashmir's biggest city, Srinagar, after violent overnight clashes between residents and police in which dozens were injured.
(Reuters, 8/18/19)
2019 Aug 19, Schools reopened in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's main city, but most classrooms were empty as parents kept their children home, fearing unrest over the government's decision two weeks ago to revoke the region's autonomy.
(Reuters, 8/19/19)
2019 Aug 24, Indian PM Narendra Modi received the Order of Zayed, the United Arab Emirates' highest civilian honor, during a visit to the oil-rich Gulf nation, reinforcing ties between the countries even as he pursues stripping statehood from the disputed Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.
(AP, 8/24/19)
2019 Aug 24, Arun Jaitley (66), the former Indian finance minister and one of PM Narendra Modi’s closest associates, died in a New Delhi hospital, nearly two weeks after he was admitted following breathing difficulties.
(Reuters, 8/24/19)
2019 Aug 28, An Indian health official said Tamil Nadu state has banned sex assignment surgery on babies whose sex is not clear at birth, in a first to protect intersex children.
(Reuters, 8/28/19)
2019 Aug 31, Indian authorities updated the list of so-called “genuine citizens." About 1.9 million people risked losing their Indian citizenship as PM Narendra Modi’s government pushed its Hindu nationalist agenda to target so-called “illegal migrants" in the northeastern state of Assam.
(Bloomberg, 8/31/19)
2019 Aug 31, In India at least 12 people were killed and around 50 injured after a series of explosions at a chemical factory in the western state of Maharashtra.
(Reuters, 8/31/19)
2019 Sep 2, Pakistan granted rare consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian man facing the death penalty after being convicted of spying.
(AP, 9/2/19)
2019 Sep 4, India officially declared that the leaders of two Pakistan-based militant groups are terrorists under a new law. The Home Ministry named Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, as terrorists under the amended Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act.
(AP, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Indian PM Narendra Modi for talks in Vladivostok on boosting investment and trade, with a special emphasis on energy and arms deals.
(AFP, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 4, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates sent their top diplomats to Pakistan to help Islamabad defuse tensions with India over the disputed Kashmir region.
(AP, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 5, An Indian court cleared JSW Steel Ltd's takeover plan for debt-ridden Bhushan Power and Steel, bringing an end to a bankruptcy case that has dragged on over two years.
(Reuters, 9/5/19)
2019 Sep 7, India's national security adviser said more than 200 suspected militants are trying to cross into Indian Kashmir from Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of trying to stoke violence in the region.
(Reuters, 9/7/19)
2019 Sep 7, India's space agency lost contact with a spacecraft it was trying to land on the moon, in a setback for the nation's ambitious plans to become the first country to probe the unexplored lunar south pole. Communication was lost just as it was about to touch down.
(Reuters, 9/7/19)
2019 Sep 8, India imposed curfews in several parts of the contested Kashmir region, after clashes between security forces and Shi'ite Muslims taking part in a procession.
(AP, 9/8/19)
2019 Sep 13, In India at least 11 people drowned when their boat capsized on a lake in Bhopal. More than 30 Hindu worshippers were reported drowned in swollen rivers and lakes as thousands participated in religious ceremonies.
(SFC, 9/14/19, p.A2)
2019 Sep 15, In southern India a sightseeing boat capsized on the Godavari River in Andra Pradesh state, killing 12 people and leaving 25 others missing.
(SFC, 9/16/19, p.A2)
2019 Sep 18, The Indian government announced a ban on the production, manufacture, import, export, transport, sale, distribution and storage of e-cigarettes. India was the sixth country in the region to ban e-cigarettes after North Korea, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and East Timor.
(AP, 9/19/19)
2019 Sep 22, Tens of thousands of Indian-Americans packed into a Houston stadium for a rally with Indian PM Narendra Modi, joined by US President Donald Trump, in a rare mass show of support for a foreign leader on US soil.
(Reuters, 9/22/19)
2019 Sep 27, Pakistani PM Imran Khan has denounced India's crackdown in Kashmir and warned of a "bloodbath" in the disputed region. Indian PM Narendra Modi earlier denounced terrorism but avoided any mention of Kashmir.
(AP, 9/27/19)
2019 Sep 28, Indian officials said dozens of people were killed last week following flooding from monsoon rains in the north.
(SSFC, 9/29/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 1, India said it is holding off imposing a blanket ban on single-use plastics to combat pollution, a measure seen as too disruptive for industry at a time when it is coping with an economic slowdown and job losses.
(Reuters, 10/1/19)
2019 Oct 1, Ford Motor Co and Mahindra & Mahindra said they would form a joint venture in India, in a move aimed at reducing risks for the US automaker's local business and cutting the cost of developing and producing vehicles for emerging markets.
(Reuters, 10/1/19)
2019 Oct 2, India announced an ambitious campaign at eliminating single-use plastics within three years, but the environment ministry said the government would not impose a blanket nationwide ban.
(SFC, 10/3/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 11, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in India for meetings with PM Narendra Modi at a time of tensions over Beijing's support for Pakistan in opposing India's downgrading of Kashmir's semi-autonomy and continuing restrictions on the disputed region.
(AP, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 12, In India Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian PM Narendra Modi agreed to set up a new mechanism to discuss trade during two days of informal talks in southern India that were aimed at re-calibrating strained ties between the nations.
(Bloomberg, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 16, Indian and Pakistan troops traded fire in the disputed Kashmir region killing four civilians and wounding nearly a dozen others.
(SFC, 10/17/19, p.A2)
2019 Oct 20, India and Pakistan blamed one another for cross-border shelling in the disputed Kashmir region which killed and injured soldiers and civilians on both sides and made it one of the deadliest days since New Delhi revoked Kashmir's special status in August. India said shelling overnight by Pakistan killed two Indian soldiers and one civilian. Pakistan said one of its soldiers and three civilians had died and that India had violated the ceasefire.
(Reuters, 10/20/19)
2019 Oct 21, India's top vegetable oil trade body asked its members to stop buying palm oil from Malaysia, an unprecedented call aimed at helping New Delhi punish the country for criticising India over its policy towards Kashmir.
(Reuters, 10/21/19)
2019 Oct 22, India's No.2 software services exporter, Infosys Ltd, said it is probing whistleblower complaints that its top two executives engaged in "unethical practices" to boost short-term revenue and profit, sending its shares down 16%.
(AP, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 22, Indian forces in Kashmir killed Hamid Lelhari, a top militant commander, and his two associates in a counter-insurgency operation in the southern Awantipora area.
(SFC, 10/24/19, p.A2)
2019 Oct 29, Indian budget carrier IndiGo said it has placed an order for 300 Airbus A320neo-family jets worth at least $33 billion at recent catalog prices, handing the European plane maker what could be its biggest ever order from a single carrier.
(Reuters, 10/29/19)
2019 Oct 31, India formally implemented legislation approved by Parliament in August that removed Indian-controlled Kashmir's semi-autonomous status and begins direct federal rule of the disputed area.
(SFC, 11/1/19, p.A2)
2019 Oct 31, A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel ruled that Indian export subsidies are prohibited and should be removed, upholding a complaint brought by the United States.
(Reuters, 10/31/19)
2019 Nov 1, German Chancellor Angela Merkel got a toxic welcome to India as PM Narendra Modi welcomed her in air so polluted that authorities declared a public health emergency. The two sides signed a series of agreements in agriculture, maritime technology, "green urban mobility" and even yoga.
(AFP, 11/1/19)
2019 Nov 2, Indian officials said more than 100 migrant workers from Kashmir will be moved after a spate of killings by suspected separatist militants underlined the threat to outsiders in the restive region.
(Reuters, 11/2/19)
2019 Nov 3, India's main opposition Congress party said that its general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had been informed by messaging service WhatsApp that her phone was hacked during this year's election campaign by malware from Israeli surveillance firm NSO.
(Reuters, 11/3/19)
2019 Nov 4, Authorities in India's capital New Delhi banished from the roads cars with number plates ending in an odd number in a bid to cut hazardous air pollution shrouding the city.
(Reuters, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 4, China joined 14 ASEAN countries meeting in Thailand in agreeing terms for what could be the world's biggest trade pact. India pulled out at the last minute on the grounds that the deal would hurt its farmers, businesses, workers and consumers.
(Reuters, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 6, India's cabinet approved 100 billion rupees ($1.41 billion) for a fund to help clear stalled housing projects. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the State Bank of India (SBI) and state-run insurance company Life Corporation of India will contribute an additional 150 billion rupees, taking the total size of the fund to 250 billion.
(Reuters, 11/6/19)
2019 Nov 9, India's Supreme Court awarded a bitterly contested religious site to Hindus, dealing a defeat to Muslims who also claim the land that has sparked some of the country's bloodiest riots since independence. The ruling paves the way for the construction of a Hindu temple on the site in the northern town of Ayodhya. In 1992 a Hindu mob destroyed the 16th-century Babri Mosque on the site.
(Reuters, 11/9/19)
2019 Nov 10, Police in India detained dozens of people in Uttar Pradesh state on suspicion of publishing inflammatory social media posts and setting off celebratory firecrackers after the Supreme Court a day earlier awarded a bitterly contested site in the town of Ayodhya to Hindus.
(Reuters, 11/10/19)
2019 Nov 10, Officials said at least 13 people were killed in Bangladesh and India after cyclone Bulbul lashed coastal areas this weekend, though prompt evacuations saved many lives and the worst was over. At least seven people were killed in India's West Bengal state and another seven in Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 11/10/19)(SFC, 11/11/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 13, India's top court censured the federal government for its inaction in fighting pollution, as poisonous smog choked the streets of the capital New Delhi forcing schools to shut and half of vehicles to be banned from the streets.
(Reuters, 11/13/19)
2019 Nov 14, India's capital Delhi was shrouded in a deeper cover of toxic smoke, as data showed that PM Narendra Modi's pledge to stamp out the burning of crop stubble in neighboring states is not working. Schools in the Delhi area were ordered to close as the city's air quality index hit a dangerously high 474 on a scale of 500.
(Reuters, 11/14/19)
2019 Nov 19, Tata Steel, the Indian steel manufacturer, announced that it will be slashing 3,000 jobs across its operations in Europe, citing a global consumption slowdown and the uncertainty surrounding the UK general elections and Brexit that is scheduled to follow right after.
(Benzinga, 11/19/19)
2019 Nov 30, In India thousands of protesters gathered outside a police station on the outskirts of the city of Hyderabad demanding four men accused of raping and murdering a 27-year-old woman be handed over to them. The charred body of the woman, a veterinarian, was found in the town of Shadnagar, near Hyderabad, on Nov. 28.
(Reuters, 11/30/19)
2019 Dec 2, In India the state government of Tamil Nadu said at least 25 people have died in recent monsoon rains.
(SFC, 12/3/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 6, In southern India police fatally shot four men being held on suspicion of raping and killing a woman after investigators took them to the crime scene, drawing both praise and condemnation in a case that has sparked protests across the country. The suspects had reportedly seized some weapons from policemen who had taken them there and started firing.
(AP, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 6, In India a 23-year-old rape victim set on fire by a gang of men, which included her alleged rapists, died in a New Delhi hospital. A day earlier the woman was on her way to board a train in Unnao district of northern Uttar Pradesh state to attend a court hearing over her rape when she was doused with kerosene and set on fire. Her death prompted protests from opposition leaders who blamed the ruling party for failing to check incidents of violence against women.
(Reuters, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 8, In India a fire believed to be caused by an electrical short circuit engulfed a building New Delhi, where handbags and other items were made by workers earning as little as 2 dollars per day. At least 43 people were killed.
(AP, 12/8/19)
2019 Dec 9, In India day laborers in one of New Delhi's most congested neighborhoods demonstrated against unsafe working conditions, a day after at least 43 people were killed in a devastating fire at an illegal factory there.
(AP, 12/9/19)
2019 Dec 11, India's ruling Hindu nationalist government won parliamentary approval for a far-reaching citizenship law that critics say undermines the country's secular constitution, as protests against the legislation intensified. India's Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 inserted religion as a criterion for citizenship.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenship_(Amendment)_Act,_2019)(AP, 12/11/19)
2019 Dec 12, In India violent mobs in the northeastern state of Assam torched buildings and clashed with police, leaving two dead and 11 with bullet wounds, as protests grew over a new citizenship law for non-Muslim minorities from some neighboring countries. Protesters in Assam, which shares a border with Bangladesh, say the measure would open the region to a flood of foreign migrants. Tens of thousands rioted in three northeastern states. Authorities in Assam state shut down the internet and imposed a curfew. Neighboring Meghalaya state banned groups of more than four people from assembling.
(Reuters, 12/12/19)(SFC, 12/13/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 16, India's PM Narendra Modi appealed for calm today as violent nationwide student-led protests against "anti-Muslim" citizenship legislation continued for a fifth day.
(AP, 12/16/19)
2019 Dec 16, It was reported that mass abuse of the opioid drug tramadol, originally made by Grumenthal of Germany, is now creating havoc spanning continents from India, to Africa to the Middle East. Most of the unregulated drug was coming from India.
(SFC, 12/16/19, p.A4)
2019 Dec 18, In India a student-led protest movement against a new law that grants citizenship on the basis of religion spread nationwide despite efforts by the government to contain it.
(AP, 12/18/19)
2019 Dec 18, The United States and India agreed to expand defense, science and technology cooperation following security talks at the US State Department.
(Defense News, 12/19/19)
2019 Dec 19, India's police detained several hundred protesters in some of the biggest cities as they defied bans on assembly that authorities imposed to stop widespread demonstrations against a new citizenship law that opponents say threatens the country's secular democracy.
(AP, 12/19/19)
2019 Dec 19, Pakistan's foreign minister said that he has written to the United Nations this month, warning the world body of what he says are actions by New Delhi to position missile launchers in the Indian-controlled Kashmir.
(AP, 12/19/19)
2019 Dec 20, India's police banned public gatherings in parts of New Delhi and other cities for a third day and cut internet services to try to stop growing protests against a new citizenship law that have left 11 people dead and more than 4,000 others detained.
(AP, 12/20/19)
2019 Dec 20, A court in India sentenced a regional politician to life imprisonment for raping a teenage girl (17). Kuldeep Singh Sengar had been jailed since last year on charges of having brutalized the young woman in 2017. The ruling came a few months after the teenager was critically injured in a car crash on a rural highway that killed two of her aunts.
(NY Times, 12/21/19)
2019 Dec 21, In northern India 9 people died during clashes between demonstrators and police, raising the nationwide death toll in protests against a new citizenship law to 23.
(AP, 12/21/19)
2019 Dec 21, The Times of India reported that Indian banks may ask depositors and customers to list their religion. Reserve Bank of India made changes to a banking law that allows selected non-residents to open bank accounts and own property. The amendments were made last year but went unnoticed.
(Bloomberg, 12/21/19)
2019 Dec 22, Protesters angered by India's new citizenship law that excludes Muslims defied a ban against demonstrations, as PM Narendra Modi used a rally for his Hindu nationalist party to defend the legislation, accusing the opposition of pushing the country into a “fear psychosis".
(AP, 12/22/19)
2019 Dec 22, Pakistani authorities said mortars fired by Indian troops into its portion of the Kashmir region killed three civilians and damaged nearly a dozen home in recent days.
(SFC, 12/23/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 23, India’s main opposition party staged a silent protest in the capital against a contentious new citizenship law. The protest was led by opposition Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi along with other senior leaders, including former PM Manmohan Singh.
(AP, 12/23/19)
2019 Dec 23, India and Iran agreed to accelerate the development of an important Iranian port. Chabahar port, being jointly developed by India, Iran and Afghanistan, is on the Indian Ocean about 100 km (62 miles) west of the Pakistan border.
(AFP, 12/23/19)
2019 Dec 25, India and Pakistan traded fire in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, with the latest exchanges killing two Pakistani troops, an Indian soldier and a civilian woman.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 25, In India more than a thousand students, artists and writers protested in New Delhi and northeastern Assam state against a new citizenship law introduced by the Hindu nationalist government that excludes Muslims.
(SFC, 12/26/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 27, In India a group of protesters in New Delhi was beaten and shoved into buses by police as they attempted to demonstrate against a new citizenship law that has triggered nationwide protests in recent weeks.
(AP, 12/27/19)
2020 Jan 3, In India more that 1,000 members of the LGBTQ community, rights groups and their supporters marched through New Delhi to protest a new citizenship law that excludes Muslims. Opposition parties say the Modi government is trying to consolidate its Hindu base.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 5, In India masked assailants beat students and teachers with sticks on the campus of a prestigious university in New Delhi, injuring more than 20 people in an attack opposition lawmakers are trying to link to the government.
(AP, 1/6/20)
2020 Jan 7, In India a death warrant was issued for the four men convicted of the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a New Delhi bus that galvanized protests and brought attention to the country's sexual violence epidemic.
(The Telegraph, 1/7/20)
2020 Jan 8, The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said India has reported an outbreak of the highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus on a poultry farm in the central state of Chhattisgarh.
(Reuters, 1/8/20)
2020 Jan 10, India's top court ordered the government to review all restrictions in Indian-controlled Kashmir, saying the measures amount to an abuse of power.
(SFC, 1/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jan 13, India's Supreme Court directed the government's crime fighting agency to seize local assets of JPMorgan in relation to some transactions the bank engaged in with a local real estate company in 2010.
(Reuters, 1/13/20)
2020 Jan 14, Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos arrived in India for a 3-day visit, as thousands of small traders across 300 cities planned protests, claiming the firm is distorting local retail market.
(Reuters, 1/14/20)
2020 Jan 25, In India a building that was being expanded in New Delhi collapsed killing five people, including four students. Eight other students were injured.
(SSFC, 1/26/20, p.A4)
2020 Jan 26, In India hundreds of thousands protested across the country against a citizenship bill that many fear is discriminatory against the minority Muslim community. The protests took place as India celebrated Republic Day, in commemoration of the day the Indian constitution came into effect.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 28, It was reported that most major railway stations in India will use facial recognition to fight crime by the end of 2020. Digital rights campaigners warned the move could breach people's privacy in the absence of stringent laws.
(Reuters, 1/28/20)
2020 Jan 31, An Indian diplomat said two Indian sailors were killed and two remain missing after the Zoya 1 oil tanker caught fire earlier this week off the UAE's sheikhdom of Sharjah.
(AP, 1/31/20)
2020 Feb 1, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled the budget for fiscal 2020/21, vowing to boost income of Indians and their purchasing power, in a bid to revive domestic economic growth. India raised taxes on imports of goods such as electronic items, toys and furniture, aiming to give impetus to domestic manufacturing.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 8, Voters in New Delhi began voting in a state election seen as a test of Indian PM Narendra Modi's popularity following months of deadly anti-government protests over a new citizenship law.
(Reuters, 2/8/20)
2020 Feb 8, In India seven people died as a fire swept through the Nandan Denim factory on the outskires of Ahmedabad, Gujarat state.
(SFC, 2/13/20, p.A4)
2020 Feb 9, In India the regional Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) party held a rally in Mumbai to support a citizenship law introduced by PM Narendra Modi last year that has triggered nationwide protests.
(Reuters, 2/9/20)
2020 Feb 13, Indian environmentalist Rajendra Kumar Pachauri (79) died after recent heart surgery. He led the Intergovernmental panel on Climate change from 2002-2015. Under his leadership a UN climate change panel shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
(AP, 2/14/20)(SSFC, 2/16/20, p.B10)
2020 Feb 17, India's top court ordered the federal government to grant permanent commission and command positions to female officers in the army on par with men.
(SFC, 2/18/20, p.A4)
2020 Feb 18, It was reported that India has hastily built a half-km (1,640-foot) brick wall in Gujarat state ahead of a visit by US President Donald Trump, with critics saying it was built to block the view of a slum area inhabited by more than 2,000 people.
(AP, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 20, In southern India a bus collided with a truck killing at least 19 people near Avanashi, Tamil Nadu state.
(SFC, 2/21/20, p.A2)
2020 Feb 22, India, the world's second-biggest gold consumer, said it has discovered gold fields with reserves of over 3,000 tons in northern Uttar Pradesh's Sonbhadra district.
(Reuters, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 23, In India police used tear gas to disperse large crowds in New Delhi in the latest eruption of violence at protests over a new citizenship law. The protest comes just a day before US President Donald Trump begins a two-day visit to India.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 24, US Pres. Donald Trump began a two-day visit to India today, attending a rally of more than 100,000 people at a cricket stadium in the western city of Ahmedabad. More than 100,000 people packed the world's largest cricket stadium to welcome Trump. In New Delhi at least seven were killed, including a police officer, and nearly 100 others reportedly injured in clashes between hundreds of supporters and opponents of the new Indian citizenship.
(NY Times, 2/24/20)(AP, 2/24/20)(AP, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 25, US President Donald Trump, speaking in India, said the US stock market will crash if he loses the election this year.
(Reuters, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 26, Indian authorities said at least 24 people were killed and 189 injured in three days of clashes in New Delhi that coincided with President Donald Trump's first state visit to India, with the death toll expected to rise as hospitals continue to take in the wounded. The 72-hour clash between Hindus and Muslims left at least 40 dead and hundreds injured.
(AP, 2/26/20)(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 27, Top supplier Godrej Agrovet Ltd said a false rumour that the coronavirus can be spread by chickens has slashed Indian poultry sales by almost 50%.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb, India signed a $3.5 billion arms deal with the US.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.30)
2020 Feb, The India-based Adani conglomerate completed a $450 million sale of 25% of its Mumbai power operations to Qatar's government. It also received a $900 million investment in a 37% stake in its gas operations by Total, a French oil giant.
(Econ., 7/4/20, p.55)
2020 Mar 2, Indian lawmakers pushed and shoved each other in parliament after opposition parties demanded the resignation of interior minister Amit Shah over the handling of deadly riots triggered by a citizenship law that excludes Muslims. Officials said the death toll in the capital from riots last week between Hindus and Muslims rose to 46, a day after false rumors of new violence led to panicked calls to police in many parts of the city.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, India reported three new cases of coronavirus, including an Italian national in the western Indian state of Rajasthan.
(AP, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, said it has restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the medicines made from them, including paracetamol, as the coronavirus outbreak plays havoc with supply chains. The government said it had detected "high viral load" in six people who had been in contact with a patient who contracted the coronavirus in the capital New Delhi. 24 people who had come in contact with the Italian tourist have been moved to a separate facility for testing. They included 21 Italians and three Indians.
(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 4, India lifted some restrictions on internet access in Kashmir, including allowing access to social media websites for the first time since the restive Himalayan region was locked down and its autonomy revoked in August.
(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 6, India braced for a potential explosion of coronavirus cases as authorities rushed to trace, test and quarantine contacts of 31 people confirmed to have the disease.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 8, In India Rana Kapoor, CEO and co-founder of Yes Bank, was arrested and formally charge with money laundering and corruption.
(Econ, 3/14/20, p.60)
2020 Mar 10, In India Hindus threw colored powder and sprayed water in massive celebrations of the festival of Holi, but the enthusiasm was subdued compared to previous years because of fears of the new virus. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country rose to 47.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 11, India suspended most visas in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 13, Indian authorities ordered the release of Kashmir's most prominent politician, Farooq Abdullah, one of dozens of leaders held since August, when the federal government withdrew the troubled region's autonomy.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Two Indian states ordered the closure of public buildings, malls, cinemas and bars in several major cities, with Mumbai and Bengaluru subject to differing restrictions, after the country reported its first death from the coronavirus. India had 74 confirmed cases of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 15, India reported that the number of coronavirus infections had risen to 107, an increase of 23 from the day before.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 17, Indian authorities expanded the population eligible for testing to health care workers with symptoms who are treating patients with severe respiratory illnesses. Authorities have confirmed 126 cases linked to foreign travel or direct contact with someone who caught the disease abroad. Indian authorities said that they would not widely expand testing for the virus, despite mounting criticism from some experts that the limited tests could mask the true toll of the disease in the world's second most populous country.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 19, Indian PM Narendra Modi appealed to citizens to observe a self-curfew on March 22 as part of a trial-run to test social isolation to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 20, In India four men sentenced to death for the gruesome gang rape and murder of a woman on a New Delhi bus in 2012 were hanged. The case exposed the scope of sexual violence in India and prompted horrified Indians to demand swift justice.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, India expanded the criteria for people who should be tested for coronavirus, as the world’s second-most populous nation aims to limit the outbreak locally.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In India thousands of poor city migrants whose livelihoods have collapsed due to India's coronavirus measures headed back to their villages, raising fears that the exodus could carry the virus to the countryside. About one fifth of India's 271 confirmed coronavirus cases has been reported in the western state of Maharashtra. So far, India has registered four deaths due to the virus.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In eastern India 17 policemen were killed and 14 others injured in an attack by Maoist rebels in Bihar state.
(SFC, 3/23/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 22, India suspended passenger train services across the country until March 31 as the government sought to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Freight services will continue. coronavirus cases rose to 341, while the country confirmed its fifth death from the virus.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 23, Ford Motor Co it has decided to temporarily halt vehicle and engine production at its factories in India, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam in response to the growing impact of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 24, India's PM Narendra Modi decreed that the country of 1.3 billion will go on lockdown for 21 days.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 25, India began a 21-day lockdown. PM Narendra Modi warned that if he didn't act now, the coronavirus could set the world's largest democracy back decades. Everything but essential services like supermarkets were closed. India has reported only about 512 cases because of limited testing. At least 9 deaths have been reported.
(AP, 3/24/20)(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, India said it had banned the export of hydroxychloroquine and formulations of the malaria drug while experts test its efficacy in helping treat patients infected with coronavirus.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 26, In India the Jimme Foundation, an LGBT+ rights group, launched a fundraising appeal for Mumbai sex workers whose income has been hit by coronavirus, saying it wanted to help other Indians who faced prejudice.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 27, It was reported that India's coronavirus lockdown is disrupting e-commerce companies including Amazon and Flipkart, despite government assurances it would not.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 28, India has confirmed 775 cases of coronavirus and 19 deaths.
(SSFC, 3/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 29, Indian PM Narendra Modi asked the nation's poor for forgiveness as the economic and human toll from his 21-day nationwide lockdown deepens and criticism mounts about a lack of adequate planning ahead of the decision.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 30, Indian health workers caused outrage by spraying a group of migrants with disinfectant, amid fears that a large scale movement of people from cities to the countryside risked spreading the coronavirus. India has registered more than a thousand cases of the new coronavirus, of whom 29 have died.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Apr 4, India banned exports of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that US President Donald Trump has touted as a “game changer" in the fight against Covid-19.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Indian soldiers killed five suspected militants in the Keran sector of Kashmir. Three Indian soldiers were also killed. Another clash a day earlier in Kulgam town killed 4 rebels.
(SFC, 4/6/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 7, India said it will allow limited exports of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, that US President Donald Trump has touted as a potential weapon in the fight against the virus.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 8, India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, sealed off 15 of its districts worst affected by infections. The state has so far recorded 326 infections and three deaths. India has had total infections of 5,360 and 164 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Officials in India said at least three private hospitals in Mumbai have shut their doors to new patients on concerns of health workers getting exposed to the coronavirus. India has so far recorded 5,865 cases of coronavirus, including 169 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Pakistan's military said its troop have shot down a small Indian spy drone after it violated the country's airspace along the Line of Control in Kashmir.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 11, Delhi state's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that Indian PM Narendra Modi has decided to extend a nationwide lockdown to tackle the spread of the coronavirus, without saying how long the extension would be for. The number of cases rose to 7,471.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 12, In Kashmir three civilians were reportedly killed when shells fired by the Pakistani army hit homes at two locations along the Line of Control in the Kupwara area of Indian controlled Kashmir.
(SFC, 4/14/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 13, Pakistan summoned an Indian official to protest over cross-border shelling from its neighbor that it said had killed a child and wounded four civilians in Kashmir.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 14, India extended a lockdown for its 1.3 billion people until at least May 3. It was reported that state-owned banks have barred employees from posting pictures, video clips or messages on social media on issues such as overcrowding at bank branches during the coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 18, India reported 991 new cases and 42 new deaths from the virus, taking the total number of reported cases to 14,378 and deaths to 480.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, In Kashmir rebels fighting Indian rule attacked a paramilitary post killing three soldiers and wounding two others in the northwestern Sopore area.
(SFC, 4/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 19, India recorded its largest daily spike in coronavirus cases, adding 1,400 new infections to its tally of more than 16,000 amid a nationwide lockdown that’s about to enter its fourth week. Confirmed infections were up 78% to 16,365, from 9,200 on April 12.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 20, India recorded 1,553 cases of the coronavirus, its biggest single-day spike. At least 543 people have died. The government has eased one of the world’s strictest lockdowns to allow some manufacturing and agricultural activity to resume. India's government said farms and factories could resume activity in the hinterland, which has been less hard-hit by COVID-19.
(AP, 4/20/20)(Reuters, 4/21/20)(SFC, 4/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 21, Indian authorities said they have arrested 29 people who participated in an Islamic missionary meeting last month in New Delhi that resulted in a large cluster of coronavirus cases. India has 18,601 confirmed cases of the virus. More than 4,200 cases were linked to the meeting.
(SFC, 4/22/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 21, Indian government forces killed four rebels late today in a gun battle in the southern Shopian district of disputed Kashmir.
(SFC, 4/23/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 22, India ordered a pause in testing for antibodies to the coronavirus because of concern over the accuracy. India has detected 19,983 cases of the coronavirus. There have been 640 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Facebook agreed to buy a 9.9% stake of Jio, the telecoms arm of India-based conglomerate Reliance Industries, as it looked to roll out services for India's grocers and small businesses.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)(Econ, 4/25/20, p.56)
2020 Apr 23, India froze inflation-linked increases in salaries and pensions for more than 11 million federal employees and pensioners to generate nearly $10 billion to help combat the COVID-19 outbreak.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, In India a man (21) raped and severely damaged the eyes of a six-year-old girl from his village. Police arrested the man the next day in the Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh state. Federal data has shown that rape occurs every 20 minutes, on average, in the country of 1.3 billion people.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 23, An Indian woman was allegedly gang raped in a school in the desert state of Rajasthan where she had been quarantined for a night by the police amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown. Three local men were soon arrested.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 23, Amazon said its Indian arm will soon add small local shops as sellers on its platform as a way to provide them broader online exposure and offer consumers a greater selection of merchandise.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 24, India announced the relaxation of some aspects of its strict coronavirus pandemic lockdown measures.
(The Week, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, The Indian government allowed a limited reopening of shops in neighborhoods and residential areas, more than a month after the nation went into a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 26, Indian PM Narendra Modi appealed to citizens to strictly comply with a nationwide lockdown and maintain social distancing norms, as cases of coronavirus mounted steadily despite over a month-long curfew.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, In India at least ten villagers in Bihar state were killed by lightning strikes in the village of Khalpura.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 27, India's federal medical research agency asked state government to stop using testing equipment from China because of conflicting results.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 28, In India the number of people infected with the coronavirus stood at 29,434, a rise of 1,543 over the previous day. So far 934 people have died.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, India-based Serum, the world's largest maker of vaccines by volume, said it is mass-producing the vaccine candidate developed by the University of Oxford, which started testing it on humans last week. Trials of the Oxford vaccine are due to finish in about September.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 29, India has recorded its 1,000th novel coronavirus death, but the head of a government think-tank said that its 1.3 billion people, strained from weeks of lockdown, were not experiencing the feared exponential surge in infections. India has now reported 31,331 cases, including 1,007 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Indian artillery fire in the disputed Kashmir region hit Pakistani army posts and villages killing a soldier, a woman and a girl (16). India said Pakistani troops had attacked Inidan positions with small arms and mortar shells in at least four places.
(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 30, It was reported that India has shipped 50 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine to the United States. This followed a request by President Donald Trump for New Delhi to release supplies of the drug as a possible treatment for the respiratory disease. US regulators have warned the anti-malarial drug may have harmful side effects in the treatment of COVID-19.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr, India imposed new rules requiring the central government to vet all direct investments by Chinese firms.
(Econ., 7/4/20, p.31)
2020 May 1, India's PM Narendra Modi extended the coronavirus lockdown for two weeks, but some restrictions were relaxed.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that India has mandated that all public and private sector employees use a government-backed Bluetooth tracing app and maintain social distancing in offices as New Delhi begins easing some of its lockdown measures in lower-risk areas.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Indian troops in Kashmir entered a house in the Handwara area late today and successfully extricated a number of hostages held by militants. Five Indian troops and two militants were killed in the fighting.
(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A2)
2020 May 3, India recorded its largest single-day jump of 2,600 coronavirus infections. 83 new deaths raised the death toll to 1,301. Total confirmed cases neared 40,000.
(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A4)
2020 May 5, Chinese troops took issue with an Indian patrol on the north bank of Pangong Lake in Ladakh, a region administered by India as a union territory. Soldiers from both nations engaged in fistfights and stone-pelting along the Line of Actual Control. Another clash had taken place on May 10. Both countries had signed agreements in 1996 and 2003 establishing protocols to deal with such incidents, including promises n ot to use weapons. China occupied a total of forty square km at Pangong Tso and twenty square km at Galwan River, with smaller incursions at Hot Springs and Demchok.
(Econ., 5/16/20, p.30)(The Telegraph, 6/11/20)
2020 May 6, In India health authorities scrambled to contain an outbreak at a huge fruit and vegetable market in Chennai. Hundreds of Indian police tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days, raising alarm as it attempts to enforce the world's largest lockdown.
(AP, 5/6/20)(Reuters, 5/6/20)(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A6)
2020 May 6, Indian southern state of Karnataka halted trains taking stranded migrant laborers home so that work on construction sites could restart, a move widely condemned as amounting to forced labor.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Indian forces killed Riyaz Naikoo (35), a top commander of the Hizbul Mujahedeen rebel group, along with his aide in the disputed Kashmir region.
(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A2)
2020 May 7, Coronavirus cases in India rose past 50,000, with the pace of new infections showing no signs of abating despite a strict weeks-long lockdown.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, In eastern India 12 people died and hundreds were rushed to hospitals after a cloud of toxic styrene gas escaped from a polymer factory owned by the South Korean company LG Corp. and located near the city of Visakhapatnam. Charges of culpable homicide were soon filed against LG Polymers India.
(SFC, 5/8/20, p.A2)(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A2)(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A2)
2020 May 8, An Indian train killed 16 migrant workers who had fallen asleep on the track while heading back to their home village after losing their jobs during the lockdown.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, In Kashmir anti-India protests and clasehs continued for a third day following the killing of a top rebel leader by government forces. At least one man has been killed and 50 others injured in the three days of clashes.
(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A2)
2020 May 9, In India hundreds of migrant workers in India's western state of Gujarat clashed for a second day with authorities, hurling stones at police trying to enforce a coronavirus lockdown.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, In India about 70 people fled a quarantine center in Bihar state's Nawada district, alleging poor facilities and lack of food. A district magistrate said some fled after one of the occupants tested positive for COVID-19.
(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A6)
2020 May 10, Police in the Pakistan-ruled part of Kashmir said Indian troops across the disputed border opened fire with automatic rifles, shooting a women dead. Shauzia Akhtar was reportedly shot in the head as she prepared breakfast in her home along the border.
(AP, 5/10/20)(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A2)
2020 May 12, India's PM Narendra Modi pledged 20 lakh crore rupees, about $265 billion, to reignite growth.
(Econ., 5/23/20, p.26)
2020 May 13, Indian soldiers fatally shot a young man at a checkpoint in Kashmir, triggering anti-India protests and clashes in the disputed region.
(SFC, 5/14/20, p.A2)
2020 May 13, Germany prosecutors said they have charged an Indian man (Balvir S.) with spying on the Sikh community and Kashmir activists for his country's intelligence service for more than two years.
(SFC, 5/14/20, p.A2)
2020 May 16, India's total novel coronavirus cases rose to 85,940 with 2,752 fatalities.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, In northern India a truck crammed with migrant laborers trying to reach their distant homes amid a nationwide lockdown crashed, killing at least 23 and injuring 35.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 17, India's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) requested that a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus be extended to May 31. The Health Ministry reported a record jump of nearly 5,000 cases in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)(SFC, 5/18/20, p.A5)
2020 May 18, It was reported that Chinese smartphone maker OPPO has suspended operations at a recently re-opened plant in India after workers tested positive for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020 May 19, India's government said it will run more special trains and buses to allow millions of distressed migrant workers to leave big cities. Coronavirus cases in India reached 100,000, matching its number of intensive care beds, and the rate of increase of new infections showed little sign of slowing.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, Nepal's PM Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli asserted that a new Indian-built road passes through its territory. The 50-mile road cuts through the Lipu Lekh Himalayan pass to connect India to Kailash-Mansarovar, a sacred area in Tibet.
(SFC, 5/22/20, p.A2)
2020 May 20, Cyclone Amphan slammed ashore along the coastline of Bangladesh and India, where more than 2.6 million people fled to shelters in a frantic evacuation made all the more challenging by the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 5/20/20)
2020 May 21, Cyclone Amphan, the most powerful storm to hit the region in more than a decade, killed 77 people in West Bengal, India, and cut a path of destruction that is still being assessed. By May 27 the death toll rose to 100 in India and just over 20 in Bangladesh.
(AP, 5/21/20)(AP, 5/22/20)(Econ., 5/30/20, p.52)
2020 May 21, Indian pharmaceutical company Strides Pharma Science Ltd received regulatory approval in India to start clinical trials of antiviral drug favipiravir, which has been touted as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Favipiravir is manufactured under the brand name Avigan by a unit of Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp and was approved for use as an anti-flu drug in the country in 2014. Kyodo News has reported that so far there has been no clear evidence of efficacy for Avigan in treating the novel coronavirus in some clinical trials.
(Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020 May 22, India reported 6,088 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, its biggest single-day spike. This brought total cases to 118, 447. The death toll rose to 3,583.
(SFC, 5/23/20, p.A5)
2020 May 23, India reported 6,654 new coronavirus cases bringing the nationwide total to 125,102, including 3,720 deaths.
(SSFC, 5/24/20, p.A9)
2020 May 23, India-based Reliance Industries Ltd said it has launched an online grocery service, JioMart, in a move aimed at rivalling Amazon.com's local unit and Walmart Inc's Flipkart in the huge Indian market.
(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, India reported 6,767 new coronavirus infections, the country’s biggest one-day increase. India has confirmed 125,102 coronavirus cases, including 3,867 deaths.
(The Telegraph, 5/24/20)(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 25, A resident of the Kathua district of Indian-administered Kashmir, reported a bird - painted pink and carrying a coded ring tagged to its foot - flew into her home late today. The Indian Border Security Force passed the pigeon on to the police, who launched an investigation and logged the animal as a ‘Pak Suspected Spy.’
(The Telegraph, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, India's Ministry of Health reported that there had been a daily increase of 6,535 coronavirus cases, bringing the toll up to 145,380 cases. In total, there have been 4,167 officially recorded coronavirus deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, India-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it would begin a clinical trial in India to test a combination of two anti-viral drugs, favipiravir and umifenovir, as a potential COVID-19 treatment.
(Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020 May 27, India reported 6,387 new coronavirus infections, a new single-day record. A total of 151,767 cases have been confirmed including 4,337 deaths.
(SFC, 5/28/20, p.A5)
2020 May 27, Novavax Inc said it is buying Praha Vaccines, a Czech-based manufacturing plant, from privately held Serum Institute of India, the world's largest maker of vaccines by volume. The US company aims to produce 1 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate next year.
(Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020 May 28, India’s top court ordered state authorities to provide free train rides and proper food and water to hundreds of thousands of migrant workers returning to their villages in the blazing heat after being thrown out of work. India reported another record single-day jump of 6,566 coronavirus cases, pushing up the total to 158,333 confirmed cases and 4,531 deaths.
(AP, 5/28/20)(Good Morning America, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, It was reported that swarms of desert locusts have devastated crops in India’s heartland, threatening an already vulnerable region that is struggling with the economic cost of the lockdown.
(AP, 5/28/20)
2020 May 29, India-based drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd said it has received Indian regulatory approval to start clinical trials of a pancreatitis drug in COVID-19 patients.
(Reuters, 5/29/20)
2020 May 30, India registered another record jump with 7,964 coronavirus cases and 265 deaths. Total cases now stand at 173,763 with 4,971 deaths.
(SSFC, 5/31/20, p.A7)
2020 May 31, India reported more than 8,000 new coses of the coronavirus. Confirmed infections have now reached 182,143, with 5,164 fatalities.
(SFC, 6/1/20, p.A5)
2020 May, India police and soldiers were filmed ransacking a village in northern Kashmir, where they beat men and women, looted stores and burned goods on the street.
(Econ., 9/12/20, p.31)
2020 Jun 1, India registered 230 coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing that total to 5,394.
(SFC, 6/2/20, p.A3)
2020 Jun 2, Authorities in India said three mudslides triggered by overnight rains in Assam state killed 20 people.
(SFC, 6/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 3, In India a pregnant elephant died in agony in a river in Silent Valley National Park in Kerala's Palakkad district after eating a firecracker-stuffed pineapple. Her death caused outrage in the country. Farmers in the area are known for using explosives in fruit to protect their land from wild animals.
(https://tinyurl.com/y9t66rxj)
2020 Jun 4, India registered 9,304 new cases of the coronavirus raising its totals to 216,919 cases and 6,075 deaths.
(SFC, 6/5/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 6, India reported 9,887 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the total to 236,657.
(SSFC, 6/7/20, p.A8)
2020 Jun 7, India reported 9,971 new cases of the coronavirus taking its total to 246,628 with 6,929 fatalities.
(SFC, 6/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Jun 9, In Canada CitizenLab, a part of the Munk School of Government at the Univ. of Toronto, said that it had unearthed one of the biggest known mercenary hackers, which it has dubbed "Dark Basin." CitizenLab pointed to BellTrox InfoTech Services, a company based in New Delhi, India.
(Econ., 6/13/20, p.51)
2020 Jun 10, Indian authorities brought back diamonds, pearls and silver jewelry worth $180 million as part of an investigation of Nirav Modi, a fugitive diamond merchant who is being held in London. The valuables were being held in a logistics company's warehouse in Hong Kong after being taken there from Dubai in 2018.
(https://tinyurl.com/ybz2kwuf)(SFC, 6/12/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 11, In India coronavirus cases shot up, rising by a record of nearly 10,000, raising questions about whether authorities have done enough to avert catastrophe. The total count of infections reached 286,579, the fifth highest in the world, with 8,102 deaths.
(AP, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 12, India’s nationwide caseload overtook Britain to became the fourth highest in the world with 297,535 confirmed coronavirus cases and 8,498 deaths. The number of cases had increased by 10,956 from the previous day.
(AP, 6/12/20)(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Indian drugmaker Zydus Cadila said it signed a non-exclusive licensing pact with Gilead Sciences Inc to manufacture and market antiviral drug remdesivir, the first treatment to show improvement in COVID-19 trials.
(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, An Indian citizen was killed by Nepalese border guards, amid a border row between the two countries.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.30)
2020 Jun 13, India reported its biggest single-day jump in coronavirus cases, adding 11,458 confirmed infections and taking its total count to more than 300,000. India has 145,779 active cases, and has recorded 8,884 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 14, In India Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput (34), was found dead at his home in Mumbai. Police termed this an "accidental death." Rajput had won acclaim for his role in the 2016 biopic of then Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Local media reported that the actor had been found hanging from the ceiling of his home. In August the government of Bihar, Rajput's home state, turned the inquiry over to the federal investigation agency (CBI).
(Reuters, 6/14/20)(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Jun 14, An Indian soldier was killed by Pakistani shellfire in Kashmir.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.30)
2020 Jun 15, India's Health Ministry reported a jump of more than 11,000 infections nationwide for a third straight day.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, An Indian Army officer and two soldiers were killed by Chinese troops late today in Galwan Valley in the Ladakh region along the countries’ disputed border. China's PLA grabbed some 40-60 square km of territory that India considers to be its own. Preliminary reports indicated that the soldiers had not been shot, but had been killed in a brawl involving rocks and wooden clubs. The Indian Army soon raised its death toll to 20 soldiers.
(NY Times, 6/16/20)(AP, 6/16/20)(SFC, 6/17/20, p.A3)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.29)
2020 Jun 15, Two Indian officials in Pakistan were allegedly abducted and tortured by "Pakistani agencies".
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.30)
2020 Jun 17, China and India accused each other of instigating deadly border clashes between their forces along the disputed Himalayan frontier, pledging to safeguard their territory but also to try to end a standoff that has dramatically raised the stakes between the nuclear-armed giants.
(AP, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 18, India reported its highest one-day increase of 12,281 coronavirus cases. Deaths rose by 334 to 12,237.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 19, Mumbai-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it has received Indian regulatory approval to make and sell oral antiviral drug favipiravir for treating mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infections in the country.
(AP, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, China said the Galwan Valley high up in the Himalayan border region where Chinese and Indian troops engaged in a deadly brawl this week falls entirely within China, boldly renewing claims on the disputed area as the Asian giants continued using military and diplomatic channels to try to reduce tensions.
(AP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 19, US prosecutors said that Tahawwur Rana, a former Chicago businessman imprisoned for aiding terrorist groups, has been arrested in Los Angeles to face murder charges in India for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed more than 160 people. Rana was convicted in Chicago in 2011 of providing material support to the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which planned the 2008 India attack.
(The Telegraph, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 20, Indian troops backed by artillery fired on villages along the Pakistani-administered side of Kashmir killing a girl (13) and wounding her mother and brother.
(SFC, 6/22/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 21, It was reported that poaching in India has become increasingly common amid the coronavirus pandemic, as people left jobless turn to wildlife to make money and feed their families. The problem extended into Nepal, southeast Asia and parts of Africa.
(AP, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 21, Indian drugmaker Cipla Ltd. and privately held Hetero Labs gained approval to sell generic versions of Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir in India.
(Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 21, The World Health Organization reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases by its count, at more than 183,000 new cases in the latest 24 hours. The WHO said Brazil led the way with 54,771 cases tallied and the US next at 36,617. Over 15,400 came in in India.
(NBC News, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 22, India reported a record number of new coronavirus cases and a death toll of more than 400 people in the past 24 hours as foreign embassies warned their citizens in the country that hospitals might not have beds for them. 14,821 new cases brought India's total to more than 425,000. Nearly 14,000 people in India have now died from the disease caused by the virus since the country reported its first case in January.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)(SFC, 6/23/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 22, Global cases of the novel coronavirus surpassed 9 million, as Brazil and India grappled with a surge in infections, and the United States, China and other hard-hit countries reported new outbreaks.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 23, Indian drugmaker Cipla Ltd said it will price its generic version of Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir for use in COVID-19 patients at less than 5,000 rupees ($66).
(AP, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, In southern India a father and son died while in police custody. The father had been arrested three days earlier for flouting coronavirus rules by keeping his mobile phone shop open past curfew. The son went to check on him and both were severly beaten. Ten police officers were later arrested following a feceral investigation and charged with murder.
(SFC, 8/18/20, p.A3)
2020 Jun 24, Indian authorities launched a massive coronavirus survey taking down health details from New Delhi's entire population of 29 million, and testing everyone with symptoms by July 6. In the past 24 hours, 3,788 new cases were confirmed in Delhi, compared to 1,118 in Mumbai.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, India said it will carry out a survey for the coronavirus targeting the 29 million population of New Delhi, to be completed by July 6. India registered another record high of 16,922 cases, taking the total to 473,105.
(AP, 6/25/20)(SFC, 6/26/20, p.A9)
2020 Jun 25, Maharashtra, India's richest state, banned a "spurious" coronavirus treatment manufactured by a company founded by popular yoga guru, which he says has a 100% record in curing patients. Baba Ramdev, co-founder of Patanjali and a household name in India, launched Coronil to much fanfare on June 23, but hit a roadblock when New Delhi and some state governments expressed skepticism.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, In eastern India lightning killed 23 people and injured 10 others during thunderstorms and heavy rain in Bihar state.
(SFC, 6/26/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 26, India confirmed 17,296 new coronavirus infections bringing its total to 490,401. Another 407 deaths brought that total to 15,301.
(SFC, 6/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 27, India confirmed cases of the coronavirus jumped 18,552 raising its total to over half a million. 384 new deaths raised that total to 15,685.
(SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A10)
2020 Jun 27, US-based Carlyle Group Inc said it has agreed to buy a 20% stake in the pharmaceutical unit of Indian conglomerate Piramal Enterprises Ltd for about $490 million.
(Reuters, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 28, India reported an additional 19,906 confirmed cases of the coronavirus taking its total to 528,859 with 16,095 deaths.
(SFC, 6/29/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 29, New Delhi said late today that TikTok was among the 59 apps which it believed posed a "threat to sovereignty and integrity," following its recent border clash with China. Some 200 million users soon lost access to the app. Roposo, a local rival, got 2.2 million sign-ups in 48 hours.
(Reuters, 6/30/20)(Econ., 7/25/20, p.50)
2020 Jun 29, India reported nearly 20,000 new coronavirus infections. The country has confirmed 548,318 cases with the death toll at 16,475.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 1, India reported 18,653 new cases of the coronavirus and 507 deaths over the last 24 hours. Total cases reached 585,493.
(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 2, In India the number of coronavirus infections surpassed 600,000, resulting in 17,834 deaths as authorities battled to contain the pandemic while easing lockdown rules.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, India reported another single-day record high of new coronavirus cases. The new 20,903 cases took the national total to 625,544. Another 379 deaths took that total to 18,213.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 3, Zydus, part of Cadila Healthcare Ltd, said it has received approval from Indian regulators to begin human studies for its COVID-19 vaccine contender, as the novel coronavirus infections continue to surge in the world's fourth worst-hit nation.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 4, India reported its highest single-day spike, with 22,771 new confirmed cases for a total of more than 648,000, including 18,655 deaths.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 6, India reported 24,248 new cases of the coronavirus and has now confirmed over 697,000 cases including 19,693 deaths.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 7, In India 467 people have died from the coronavirus in the last day, bringing the nation's death toll to 20,160. Authorities reported a one-day increase of 22,252, bringing India's total number of coronavirus cases to 719,665.
(Good Morning America, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 9, India's Health Ministry said that India was doing “relatively well" managing COVID-19, pointing to 13 deaths per 1 million people, compared to about 400 in the United States and 320 in Brazil. India has tallied 793,802 infections and more than 21,600 deaths, with cases doubling every three weeks.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, India reported 25,506 coronavirus cases, and another 475 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the total fatality toll to 21,604.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 11, India reported a new daily high of 27,114, its biggest daily spike as the total number of coronavirus cases passed 820,916. The death toll rose by 519 for a total of 22,123.
(AP, 7/11/20)(SSFC, 7/12/20, p.A11)
2020 Jul 12, Indian drugmaker Lupin Ltd shut one of its manufacturing plants in Gujarat state after at least 17 employees at the site tested positive for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, India reported 906,752 cases of the coronavirus with 28,498 new infections, the third highest total in the world behind Brazil and the United States.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Indian pharmaceutical company Zydus said it had started human studies for its potential COVID-19 vaccine, as infections continue to surge in the world's third worst-hit nation.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Indian officials reported six more deaths in Assam state due to floods and mudslides. This brought the total death toll to 77 from more than two weeks of heavy rains.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 16, Indian officials reported 16 more deaths in Assam state due to floods and mudslides. This brought the total death toll to 93 from more than two weeks of heavy rains.
(SFC, 7/17/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 17, India became the third country to record one million coronavirus cases, joining Brazil and the United States. A surge of 34,956 cases in the last 24 hours took the confirmed total to 1,003,832. A record 687 deaths took that total to 25,602.
(AFP, 7/17/20)(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 19, India, which has now confirmed more than 1 million coronavirus infections, reported a 24-hour record of 38,902 new cases.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that Indian police have arrested 14 people on suspicion of selling locally made doses of Gilead Sciences Inc's remdesivir at five times the maximum retail price as a surge of novel coronavirus cases boosts demand for the antiviral drug. India's tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 1.11 million with more than 27,000 deaths.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, India reported more than 40,000 new cases of coronavirus, a record daily high, raising the country's total to 1,118,043 including 27,497 deaths.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 22, India's Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said its version of anti-flu drug favipiravir showed promise in a late-stage study of 150 patients with mild to moderate coronavirus infection.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 24, India-based Cipla Ltd said it has received Indian regulatory approval to sell anti-viral drug favipiravir to treat COVID-19. India reported over 49,310 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus with 740 new deaths, marking the biggest daily surge in cases. Total cases now numbered 1,287,945, the 3rd highest in the world behind the US and Brazil.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)(SFC, 7/25/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 25, India recorded nearly 49,000 new coronavirus cases, raising its total to more than 1.3 million. 757 deaths in the last 24 hours riased that total to 31,358.
(SSFC, 7/26/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 27, India's chemicals minister outlined plans to boost local manufacturing in the bulk drugs and medical device industries to reduce India's reliance on imports, particularly from China.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 31, Indian police said that at least 21 people have died in Punjab state over the last three days after drinking tainted alcohol. The death toll was later raised to at least 69. Local media put the number at 86. Police soon arrested more than two dozen people on suspicion of selling tainted alcohol.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A2)(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 31, In India monsoon floods have swamped large parts of densely populated Bihar state and displaced more than 300,000 people, exacerbating the risk of the coronavirus and stymieing the state's response to the pandemic. The floods have killed at least 24 people in the state. Bihar has so far recorded 48,197 coronavirus cases including 282 deaths.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, India recorded 55,079 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours taking its total to 1,638,871. The death toll rose by 779 taking that total to 35,747.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 1, India recorded its steepest spike of 57,118 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking its coronavirus caseload close to 1.7 million.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, In India a huge crane collapsed during load testing at the Hindustan Shipyard in Andhra Pradesh state, killing at least 11 workers.
(SSFC, 8/2/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 2, India reported 54,735 new coronavirus cases, down from the previous day's record 57,118. The country's total rose to 1.75 million.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 3, India reported 52,972 new infections in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 1.8 million - the third highest in the world. With 771 new deaths, the COVID-19 disease has now killed 38,135 people.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Indian drugmaker Wockhardt Ltd said it will supply millions of doses of multiple COVID-19 vaccines, including that being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, under a deal with the UK government.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 5, India's PM Narendra Modi set the ceremonial cornerstone for a new Hindu temple at the site of a destroyed mosque in Ayodhya. Hindu devotees had destroyed the mosque in 1992.
(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A3)
2020 Aug 6, India recorded is biggest single-day death toll of 904 as new infections surged by 56,282 to nearly 2 million.
(SFC, 8/7/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 9, India recorded nearly 64,000 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, raising its total to 2,153,010. The Indian Medical Association said 196 doctors have died of COVID-19.
(SFC, 8/10/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 11, India reported 53,601 new cases of the coronavirus as its total neared 2.3 million. 871 new deaths were reported raising total fatalities to 45,257.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 11, South Korea's Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co Ltd said it received Indian regulatory approval to test its anti-parasitic niclosamide drug to treat COVID-19 patients in an early-stage human trial.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 12, In southern India at least three people were killed in Bengaluru when police clashed with hundreds of Muslims during a protest over a Facebook post considered offensive to Islam. The person responsible for the post was arrested and a law prohibiting gatherings was imposed on the city.
(SFC, 8/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 14, Florida reported more than 6,200 new coronavirus cases and 200 deaths.
(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 14, India reported 1,007 coronavirus deaths bringing tis total to 48,040. Confirmed cases rose by 64,553.
(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 15, The prime ministers of India and Nepal spoke over the phone to try to ease bilateral tensions that have existed since a border dispute erupted between the two countries in May.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 16, India reported 944 new coronavirus deaths pushing total fatalities to near 50,000.
(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 19, India's health ministry recorded 1,092 additional coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide toll to 52,889. More than 2.7 million people in India have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
(Good Morning America, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 20, India reported 69,652 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, its highest daily increase yet. There were also an additional 977 coronavirus-related fatalities recorded within the last day, bringing the national total to 53,866.
(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 20, In southern India a large fire at a government-run hydroelectric plant killed 9 workers in Telangana state.
(SFC, 8/22/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 23, India’s coronavirus caseload topped 3 million, with the country leading the world in new infections as the disease marched through impoverished rural areas in the north and the wealthier but older populations of the south. Health authorities reported 69,239 new cases and 912 deaths, bringing the total to 3,044,940.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 25, India's anti-terrorism agency named a Pakistan-based militant leader as the prime mastermind of a 2019 car bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers and brought the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of war. A charge sheet named Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and 19 others among the accused.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 27, India recorded its highest single-day increase with 75,760 new coronavirus cases. The Health Ministry also reported 1,023 deaths over the last 24 hours, raising that total to 60,472.
(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 28, Indian lawmaker H. Vasanthakumar, from the country's main opposition party Congress, became the latest high profile figure to die from COVID-19, the infection caused by the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, India reported 76,472 new coronavirus cases, slightly lower than the record breaking numbers of the past couple of days, but extending a run that has made the country's outbreak currently the world's worst. The death toll rose by 1,021 to 62,550. India has reported a total of 3.46 million cases during the pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, India-based Reliance said it would pay 3.4 billion for most of the Future Group, founded by Kishore Biyani (b.1961).
(Econ., 9/5/20, p.55)
2020 Aug 30, India registered 78,761 new coronavirus cases, the biggest single-day spike in the world since the pandemic began, just as the government began easing restrictions to help the battered economy. So far, more than 63,000 Indians have died from the disease.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 31, In India Pranab Mukherjee (b.1935), former president (2012-2017), died in New Delhi of COVID-19. He had been on a ventilator for the last three weeks.
(Econ., 9/5/20, p.32)
2020 Aug 31, India reported 78,512 novel coronavirus infections, more than any other country but fewer than the previous day when it posted the world's biggest, single-day tally, as authorities looked to open more sectors of the economy. Coronavirus deaths went up by 971 in the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 64,469.
(Reuters, 8/31/20)
2020 Sep 1, Many Indian states eased coronavirus lockdown restrictions allowing more businesses and public areas to reopen as confirmed cases neared 3.7 million.
(SFC, 9/2/20, p.A8)
2020 Sep 4, India reported a daily jump of 83,341 coronavirus infections, taking its tally to 3.94 million. 1,096 people died from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 68,472.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 5, India’s coronavirus caseload surpassed 4 million, deepening misery in the country's vast hinterlands, where surges have crippled the underfunded health care system. The 86,432 cases added in the past 24 hours pushed India’s total to 4,023,179. The health ministry also reported 1,089 deaths for a total of 69,561.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 7, Chinese and Indian troops exchanged fire along the southern coast of Pangong Lake in an area known in China as Shenpaoshan and in India as Chushul. The following day both sides accused each other of making provocative military moves and firing warning shots along their disputed border.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 7, India's coronavirus cases rose by 90,802 new cases in the last 24 hours raising its total to 4,204,614, now the 2nd highest in the world after the US. The death toll rose to 71,642 with 1,016 new deaths.
(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 9, India reported 89,706 new coronavirus cases and 1,115 deaths over the last 24 hours taking total fatalities up to 73,890. Total caseload reached 4.37 million.
(SFC, 9/10/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 10, The Chinese and Indian foreign ministers agreed that their troops should disengage from a tense border standoff, maintain proper distance and ease tensions in the Ladakh region where the two countries in June had their deadliest clash in decades.
(AP, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, India reported another record spike of 95,735 coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours as well as 1,172 deaths. Total infections reached 4,465,863 with 75,062 fatalities.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 11, Swami Agnivesh (Vepa Shyam Rao), champion of India's indentured laborers, died in new Delhi at age 80.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnivesh)(Econ., 10/10/20, p.82)
2020 Sep 12, India reported a record rise in new coronavirus infections for the second consecutive day after registering 97,570 new cases. The world's second most populous country now has 4.65 million confirmed cases.
(The Week, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 14, In India a woman (19), who belonged to the Dalit community, was raped by four men in the heartland state of Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district. Her family found her naked, bleeding and paralyzed with a split tongue and a broken spine in a field outside their home. She died on Sept. 28. Four men, all from an upper caste, were arrested.
(AP, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 15, India's coronavirus death toll crossed 80,000, swelled by 1,054 in the last 24 hours. The country reported 83,809 new coronavirus infections for its lowest daily jump in a week. At least 17 members of the Indian parliament have tested positive for the coronavirus. Total cases numbered 4.93 million.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 17, India reported another record jump in daily coronavirus infections with 97,894 cases in the last 24 hours. 1,132 people died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking total fatalities from the disease to 83,198.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 18, India recorded 96,424 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, taking its tally to 5.2 million. 1,174 people died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking total mortalities from the disease to 84,372.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 21, India reopened its famed monument to love, the Taj Mahal, with the first visitors trickling in as authorities reported 86,961 new coronavirus infections, with no signs of a peak yet.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, In India a residential building due for repairs collapsed in a suburb of Mumbai killing at least 10 people. As many as 25 people were feared trapped.
(SFC, 9/22/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 25, Pakistani PM Imran Khan assailed India’s Hindu nationalist government and its moves to cement control of Muslim-majority Kashmir, calling India a state sponsor of hatred and prejudice against Islam.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 26, The Indian health ministry reported more than 85,000 cases in the last 24 hours. Total COVID-19 infections hit 5.9 million countrywide. India said it was capping the price of liquid oxygen used to treat victims of novel coronavirus and other respiratory diseases after complaints of hoarding and shortages.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 28, India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reached 6 million, keeping the country second to the United States in number of reported cases. The Health Ministry reported 82,170 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the overall total to 6,074,703. At least 1,039 deaths were recorded in the same period, taking total fatalities up to 95,542.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 29, Human rights watchdog Amnesty International said that it is halting its operation in India, citing reprisals by the government and the freezing of its bank accounts by Indian authorities.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 30, An Indian court acquitted all 32 people accused of crimes in the 1992 attack and demolition of a 16th century mosque.
(SFC, 10/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 30, It was reported that a large new study in India found that children of all ages can spread the coronavirus. The study is not the last word in the debate, but it adds to the evidence that school openings are likely to lead to new outbreaks.
(NY Times, 10/1/20)
2020 Oct 2, In India hundreds of protesters demanded the dismissal of the government of northern Uttar Pradesh state where a woman (19) was raped and died last month.
(SFC, 10/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 3, India's coronavirus death toll passed 100,000, only the third country in the world to reach that milestone, after the US and Brazil, and its epidemic shows no sign of abating.
(Reuters, 10/3/20)
2020 Oct 5, In India authorities in New Delhi began an anti-pollution campaign in an attempt to curb air pollution levels ahead of winter, when the capital is regularly covered in toxic haze.
(SFC, 10/6/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 8, India's total coronavirus cases rose by 78,524 in the last 24 hours to 6.84 million. Deaths from COVID-19 infections rose by 971 to 105,526.
(Reuters, 10/8/20)
2020 Oct 9, India's Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said its clinical trial testing a combination of the antiviral drugs umifenovir and favipiravir in moderate hospitalized COVID-19 patients did not show any significant benefit. Total coronavirus cases in India rose to 6.91 million.
(Reuters, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 11, India’s confirmed coronavirus toll crossed 7 million with a number of new cases dipping in recent weeks, even as health experts warn of mask and distancing fatigue setting in. The Health Ministry registered another 74,383 infections in the past 24 hours and 918 additional deaths, taking total fatalities to 108,334.
(AP, 10/11/20)
2020 Oct 15, Movie theatres in some parts of India opened for the first time in eight months, but with no major Bollywood releases likely any time soon.
(Reuters, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 17, It was reported that the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd have received renewed approval to conduct late-stage clinical trials in India of Sputnik V, the Russian COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reuters, 10/17/20)
2020 Oct 18, India's health minister said Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are expected to pursue late stage clinical trials of intranasal COVID-19 vaccines in the coming months once they receive regulatory approval.
(Reuters, 10/18/20)
2020 Oct 20, The UN human rights chief urged India’s government to do more to protect human rights defenders, who have come under mounting pressure in recent months in the world’s largest democracy.
(AP, 10/20/20)
2020 Oct 22, Indian PM Narendra Modi's party promised free doses of any future COVID-19 vaccine for the residents of eastern Bihar state if it wins local elections there, drawing accusations of playing politics with the pandemic.
(Reuters, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 22, Indian drugmaker Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd said it had isolated all its data center services as a preventive measure following a cyberattack.
(Reuters, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 27, India's government announced a set of new measures for Jammu and Kashmir, unilaterally revoking a dozen local laws and modifying another 26.
(Econ., 10/31/20, p.35)
2020 Oct 29, India's confirmed coronavirus caseload surpassed 8 million. The Health Ministry reported another 49,881 coronavirus infections and 517 fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 120,527.
(AP, 10/29/20)
2020 Nov 1, India's Bharat Biotech said it is planning to launch its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the second quarter of 2021 if it gets approval from Indian regulatory authorities.
(Reuters, 11/1/20)
2020 Nov 1, In Kashmir Indian forces killed Saifullah Mir, a top commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, during a gunbattle in Srinagar.
(SFC, 11/2/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 5, India's New Delhi, the capital city with the worst air quality worldwide, suffered its most toxic day in a year, recording the concentration of poisonous PM2.5 particles at 14 times over the World Health Organization safe limit.
(Reuters, 11/5/20)
2020 Nov 6, India recorded 47,638 new cases of the novel coronavirus, taking its total to 8.41 million. Deaths rose by 670 in the last 24 hours, taking total mortalities to 124,985.
(Reuters, 11/6/20)
2020 Nov 8, India reported 45,674 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, with the capital coping with a sharp surge of nearly 7,000 cases a day this week. The Health Ministry reported 559 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total fatalities to 126,121.
(AP, 11/8/20)
2020 Nov 9, India's Tata Group launched a COVID-19 test kit that it says will process results more easily and faster than the RT-PCR method considered the gold standard for detection, at a time when cases are still rising in the country.
(Reuters, 11/9/20)
2020 Nov 10, India's stock market roared to a record high after news that a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was proving more effective than expected.
(Econ., 11/14/20, p.67)
2020 Nov 12, India reported 47, 905 new cases of the coronavirus with a record 8,593 in New Delhi as people crowd shopping areas ahead of the Diwali holiday.
(SFC, 11/13/20, p.A8)
2020 Nov 12, Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine producer, said it has made 40 million doses of AstraZeneca's potential COVID-19 vaccine, and would soon begin making Novavax's rival shot, as they both seek regulatory approval.
(Reuters, 11/12/20)
2020 Nov 16, New Delhi's top health official said the latest surge of coronavirus infections in the Indian capital, that has swamped its intensive care wards and killed hundreds of people, has passed its peak.
(Reuters, 11/16/20)
2020 Nov 19, India recorded 45,576 new cases of the coronavirus, taking total infections in the country to 8.96 million. Deaths rose by 585, with the total now at 131,578.
(Reuters, 11/19/20)
2020 Nov 19, In India-controlled Kashmir four suspected militants were killed and two Indian police officers were wounded in a gunfight on the outskirts of Jammu.
(SFC, 11/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 20, India crossed the grim milestone of 9 million coronavirus cases, with 45,882 new infections recorded in the last 24 hours. Deaths rose by 584, with the total now at 132,162.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 23, India said it plans to put off the winter session of parliament due to the rising number of coronavirus infections. India recorded 44,059 new cases of the novel coronavirus, taking its total to 9.14 million.
(Reuters, 11/23/20)
2020 Nov 25, India's ruling Hindu BJP nationalist party approved legislation in Uttar Pradesh state that lays out a prison term for anyone found guilty of using marriage to force someone to change religion. The party describes such marriages as "love jihad," an unproven conspiracy theory used by its leaders and Hindu hard-line groups to accuse Muslim men of converting Hindu women by marriage.
(SFC, 11/26/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 26, Rebels in India-controled Kashmir killed two soldiers in an attack on the outskirts of Srinagar.
(SFC, 11/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 27, In India thousands of angry farmers protesting new agricultural laws were allowed to enter New Delhi late today after they clashed with police who had blocked them at the outskirts of the city.
(SFC, 11/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 27, It was reported that Indian pharmaceutical company Hetero will manufacture over 100 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine per year under the terms of a deal unveiled today between it and Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund.
(Reuters, 11/27/20)
2020 Nov 29, In India protesting farmers rejected a government offer to hold talks if they end their blockade of key highways. The farmers have been protesting new agricultural laws they sau that could devastate crop prices.
(SFC, 1/30/19, p.A4)
2020 Dec 2, India's daily coronavirus cases continued to stay below the 50,000 mark for the 25th straight day, with 36,604 new infections reported.
(Reuters, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 3, A London ceremony announced that this year's Global Teacher Prize has been awarded to Ranjitsinh Disale (32) for his work helping girls, most of then from poor tribal communities, at a village school in western India. Disale immediately announced he would share the $1 million prize money with the nine other finalists.
(Reuters, 12/3/20)
2020 Dec 4, India's daily coronavirus cases rose by less than 40,000 for the fifth straight day, with 36,595 new infections reported in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 12/4/20)
2020 Dec 5, The Indian government and protesting farmers failed to break their deadlock in talks over new agricultural laws. Farmers continued to block key highways around New Delhi.
(SSFC, 12/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Dec 5, In India an unidentified infection began causing over 500 people to fall unconscious following seizures and nausea in Eluru Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 7, A senior Indian health department official said one person has died and more than 400 have been hospitalized in Andhra Pradesh state due to an unidentified infection that caused many to fall unconscious following seizures and nausea. Authorities were investigating water supplies at 20 locations within the city of Eluru where the outbreak was first reported.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 10, It was reported that top executives of Carlsberg, SABMiller and India's United Breweries (UB) exchanged commercially sensitive information and colluded to fix beer prices in India over 11 years.
(Reuters, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 11, In India around a million doctors went on a day-long strike amid the coronavirus pandemic to protest against a new federal government rule that allows practitioners of the traditional science of Ayurveda to perform minor surgeries.
(Reuters, 12/11/20)
2020 Dec 11, Pakistan's foreign minister called for the UN and the EU to investigate a recent report exposing a 15-year disinformation campaign that Islamabad alleges was designed to serve India's interests and discredit Pakistan. New Delhi denied the claims.
(AP, 12/11/20)
2020 Dec 13, Indian workers smashed windows, broke office furniture, and set fire to a sign at a Wistron Corp. factory that makes iPhones during a protest over wages and working hours. Police said that they had detained 100 people.
(The Week, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 14, Tens of thousands of protesting Indian farmers called for a national farmers' strike, the second in a week, to press for the quashing of three new laws on agricultural reform that they say will drive down crop prices and devastate their earnings.
(AP, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 14, Indian ride-hailing firm Ola, backed by Japan's SoftBank Group, said it planned to invest 24 billion rupees ($326 million) to set up a factory in the southern state of Tamil Nadu to produce electric scooters.
(Reuters, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 14, Codagenix Inc and India's Serum Institute said they have received regulatory approval in the United Kingdom to begin an early-stage trial of their single-dose, intranasal COVID-19 vaccine.
(AP, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 15, India reported 22,065 new coronavirus infections, taking its total to 9.9 million, making it the lowest daily rise since July 4. Deaths rose by 354, taking the total to 143,709.
(Reuters, 12/15/20)
2020 Dec 16, In India a Sikh priest (65) committed suicide at an agricultural protest site. Farmers have called for a 24-hour rotating hunger strike from Dec. 21 among protesters at home and abroad.
(AP, 12/20/20)
2020 Dec 18, India's health ministry reported 22,890 new coronavirus infections, taking its total to just shy of 10 million.
(Reuters, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 18, OneWeb, the satellite firm rescued by the British government and India's Bharti Group, resumed flights in its push to provide global broadband coverage as 36 of its satellites blasted off into orbit from Russia's Far East. The launch was the first fully commercial flight from Russia's new Vostochny cosmodrome.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 19, India reported 25,152 new infections and 347 deaths in the past 24 hours. The virus has so far killed 145,136 people in the country. India took 30 days to add the last million cases, the second slowest since the start of the pandemic.
(Reuters, 12/19/20)
2020 Dec 19, Apple Inc placed supplier Wistron Corp on probation, saying it would not award the Taiwanese contract manufacturer new business until it addressed the way workers were treated at its southern India plant.
(AP, 12/19/20)
2020 Dec 22, Drug developer Ocugen Inc said it had partnered with Bharat Biotech to co-develop Covaxin, the India-based company's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, for the US market.
(Reuters, 12/22/20)
2020 Dec 24, India-based Aurobindo Pharma Ltd said it would make and sell US-based COVAXX's COVID-19 vaccine candidate for supply in India and to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) under a licensing deal.
(Reuters, 12/24/20)
2020 Dec 25, India's PM Narendra Modi said that protests by farmers against three laws brought by his government were politically motivated, as he touted the success of an agricultural scheme launched last year.
(Reuters, 12/25/20)
2020 Dec 28, India's major grain-growing state of Punjab asked police to crack down on farmers and sympathizers vandalizing telecommunication masts as they intensify their weeks-long protests against farm deregulation.
(Reuters, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 28, Mahinder Watsa (96), Indian obstetrician-gynecologist and "sexpert" for the Mumbai Mirror, died.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahinder_Watsa)(Econ., 1/23/21, p.74)
2020 Dec 30, Representatives of the Indian government and tens of thousands of protesting farmers held talks after a hiatus of three weeks and reached agreement on two of the four issues that caused the farmers to blockade highways near the capital.
(AP, 12/30/20)
2021 Jan 1, Experts at India's drugs regulator recommended for emergency use two coronavirus vaccines, one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and the other backed by a state-run institute.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 3, India's drugs regulator granted emergency authorization for the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, but on the condition that Serum Institute doesn't export the shots to ensure that vulnerable populations in India are protected. Serum Institute of India has been contracted to make 1 billion doses of the vaccine for developing nations. COVAXIN, made by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, received emergency use approval from India's drugs regulator.
(AP, 1/3/21)(4, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 3, In India hundreds of Tibetans in exile voted in Dharmsala for their new political leader and parliament. A 2nd round will take place in April.
(SFC, 1/4/21, p.A6)
2021 Jan 4, Representatives of the Indian government and protesting farmers failed again to reach agreement on the farmers' demand that new agricultural reform laws be repealed.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 9, In western India a fire broke out in the intensive care unit of a government-run hospital in Bhandara, Maharashtra state. Ten infants were reported killed.
(SSFC, 1/10/21, p.A4)
2021 Jan 9, The Philippine government signed a deal to secure the supply of 30 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Covovax from Serum Institute of India (SII).
(Reuters, 1/10/21)
2021 Jan 9, Ved Mehta (86), a celebrated blind writer for The New Yorker, died in Manhattan. He was best known for exploring the history of modern India through 12 volumes of memoir.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ved_Mehta)(NY Times, 1/10/21)
2021 Jan 12, India's highest court halted the implementation of new laws that would reshape farming in the country. The laws had sparked huge protests outside New Delhi.
(SFC, 1/13/21, p.A3)
2021 Jan 12, India's Bharat Biotech said it has signed an agreement with a medicine distributor to supply its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin to Brazil, even as the shot's emergency use approval in its home country has faced criticism.
(Reuters, 1/12/20)
2021 Jan 14, A petition filed in an Indian court said that WhatsApp's updated privacy policy verges on user surveillance and threatens India's security, presenting another legal challenge for the Facebook Inc-owned messenger.
(Reuters, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 14, In India the 45-day Hindu bathing festival began in the northern city of Prayagraj, where devotees take a dip at Sangam, the sacred confluence of several rivers. The festival was set to end on Feb 27.
(AP, 2/25/21)
2021 Jan 14, Alphabet Inc's Google said it has removed some lending apps aimed at consumers in India from Play Store in an attempt to safeguard users.
(AP, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 15, Talks between the Indian government and representatives of tens of thousands of protesting farmers remained deadlocked, with the government refusing to scrap new agricultural reform laws which the farmers say will benefit large corporations.
(AP, 1/15/21)
2021 Jan 16, India began what is likely the world's largest coronavirus vaccination rollout when the country's first dose was administered to a sanitation worker at the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.
(AP, 1/16/21)
2021 Jan 20, India began supplying coronavirus vaccines to its neighboring countries.
(SFC, 1/21/21, p.A4)
2021 Jan 21, In India farmer leaders rejected an offer from the government to suspend contentious agricultural reform laws for 18 months and set up a committee to look into their concerns about the legislation that have triggered the biggest farmers’ protests in years.
(AP, 1/21/21)
2021 Jan 21, Government sources said India will give millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine to South Asian countries in the next few weeks, drawing praise from its neighbors and pushing back against China's dominating presence in the region.
(Reuters, 1/21/21)
2021 Jan 21, In India at least five people were killed in a fire that broke out at a building under construction at Serum Institute of India in southern Maharashtra state.
(SFC, 1/22/21, p.A5)
2021 Jan 22, PM Narendra Modi said India was completely self-reliant on coronavirus vaccine supplies as the world's second-most populous country inoculated more than one million people within a week of starting a massive campaign.
(Reuters, 1/22/21)
2021 Jan 22, Talks between leaders of protesting farmers and the Indian government ended abruptly in a stalemate when the Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said he had nothing more to offer than an 18-month suspension of contentious agricultural reform laws.
(AP, 1/22/21)
2021 Jan 22, Myanmar received 1.5 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine supplied by India to inoculate 750,000 people, the first vaccine batch delivered to the Southeast Asian country as it fights one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the region.
(Reuters, 1/22/21)
2021 Jan 25, Thousands of tractors lined up on the outskirts of New Delhi, ready to swarm the Indian capital in a protest against new agriculture reform laws that have triggered a growing farmer rebellion that has rattled the government.
(AP, 1/25/21)
2021 Jan 26, In India tens of thousands of farmers marched, rode horses and drove tractors into New Delhi, breaking through police barricades to storm the historic Red Fort — a deeply symbolic act that revealed the scale of their challenge to PM Narendra Modi’s government.
(AP, 1/26/21)
2021 Jan 26, In India an attack unfolded at the Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra Christian center in the city of Indore. Police soon arrived, but the officers did not touch the aggressors. Instead, they arrested and jailed the pastors and other church elders, who were still dizzy from getting punched in the head. The Christians were charged with breaking a newly enforced law that targets religious conversions.
(NY Times, 12/23/21)
2021 Jan 27, Indian drugmaker Dr. Reddy's Laboratories said it had terminated its clinical study of Fujifilm Holdings' COVID-19 treatment Avigan in patients with moderate to severe symptoms in Kuwait. Data showed that the difference in time taken by Avigan and placebo to resolve a sustained absence of oxygen in the tissues was not significant enough to continue the trial.
(Reuters, 1/27/21)
2021 Jan 27, It was reported that the COVAXIN vaccine, developed by India's Bharat Biotech and a government research institute, is likely to be effective against the UK strain of the coronavirus.
(AP, 1/27/21)
2021 Jan 27, China said that the Indian government's decision to keep a ban on 59 Chinese apps was a violation of the World Trade Organization's fair rules of business and would hurt Chinese firms. The ban dates from last year when political tension between the neighbors rose over their disputed border.
(Reuters, 1/27/21)
2021 Jan 28, India’s PM Narendra Modi invited foreign investors to take advantage of the country’s $26 billion incentive-linked program and help the country become a manufacturing hub.
(AP, 1/28/21)
2021 Jan 28, India's health minister declared its COVID-19 epidemic contained as, with most of the country's active patients concentrated in two states, a fifth of districts completed a week with no new cases.
(Reuters, 1/28/21)
2021 Jan 29, India's Haryana state blocked mobile internet across most of its districts, following clashes between protesting Indian farmers and groups of men shouting anti-farmer and pro-police slogans.
(Reuters, 1/29/21)
2021 Feb 2, Indian authorities heavily increased security at three main protest sites outside New Delhi’s border, adding iron spikes, steel barricades and hundreds of riot police in an attempt to stop tens of thousands of demonstrating farmers from entering the capital.
(AP, 2/2/21)
2021 Feb 2, An Indian court blocked Future Group's sale of a swathe of assets to rival Reliance Industries after Amazon raised objections to the $3.4 billion deal. Future has said it could face liquidation if the deal falls through.
(Reuters, 2/2/21)
2021 Feb 3, About 200 supporters of Indian farmers scuffled with police after being blocked from marching to an area for protests near the Parliament building in the Indian capital.
(AP, 2/3/21)
2021 Feb 3, It was reported that about one in four of India's 1.35 billion people may have been infected with the coronavirus, said a source with direct knowledge of a government serological survey, suggesting the country's real caseload was many times higher than reported.
(Reuters, 2/3/21)
2021 Feb 4, In India a government serological survey released today said more than a quarter of Indian children aged between 10 and 17 may have already contracted COVID-19, higher than the 21.5% of the overall population found to have been infected.
(Reuters, 2/4/21)
2021 Feb 6, India's government urged states and union territories to accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations after a review found "substantial" room for speeding up the program.
(Reuters, 2/6/21)
2021 Feb 6, Thousands of protesting Indian farmers blockaded highways across the country for several hours to press their demands for the repeal of new agricultural laws that have led to months of massive protests.
(AP, 2/6/21)
2021 Feb 7, India sent 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Afghanistan, the first to arrive in the war-ravaged country, which is still waiting for emergency approval from the World Health Organization to administer them.
(Reuters, 2/7/21)
2021 Feb 7, In India as many as 150 people were feared dead after a Himalayan glacier in the northern state of Uttarakhand broke apart before crashing into a dam. At least 19 people were killed, and at least 180 more remained missing. About 2,500 people in 13 villages were trapped by the floods. More than 200 people were killed when rock and ice broke loose due to glacial melt brought about by global warming.
(Reuters, 2/7/21)(The Week, 2/8/21)(SSFC, 5/2/21, p.A16)
2021 Feb 8, President Joe Biden spoke with Indian PM Narendra Modi, with the leaders of the world's two biggest democracies agreeing to strengthen their nations' partnership at a moment when both countries face strained relations with China. Biden and Modi did not discuss the massive farmer protests in India.
(AP, 2/8/21)
2021 Feb 9, It was reported that the Indian army is training dogs to find COVID-19 in its ranks by sniffing human sweat and urine.
(Reuters, 2/9/21)
2021 Feb 10, China and India began to disengage their troops at the southern and northern banks of Pangong Lake in the Ladakh region.
(SFC, 2/12/21, p.A4)
2021 Feb 15, In India dozens of people holding placards assembled in Bangalore to protest against the arrest a day earlier of Disha Ravi (22), a young climate activist. Delhi Police issued arrest warrants against two Mumbai-based activists for creating and circulating the so-called “toolkit" shared by Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg on Indian farmers’ protests.
(The Telegraph, 2/15/21)(SFC, 2/16/21, p.A2)
2021 Feb 15, It was reported that coronavirus infections in India began to plummet in September, and now the country is reporting about 11,000 new cases a day, compared to a peak of nearly 100,000, leaving experts perplexed.
(AP, 2/16/21)
2021 Feb 16, In India a bus drove off a bridge near Patna village, Madhya Pradesh state, killing at least 45 people.
(https://tinyurl.com/yax65cd6)
2021 Feb 17, It was reported that Amazon has for years given preferential treatment to a small group of sellers on its India platform, publicly misrepresented its ties with the sellers and used them to circumvent increasingly tough foreign investment rules that affect e-commerce.
(AP, 2/17/21)
2021 Feb 22, India confirmed over 14,000 cases of the coronavirus with nearly 7,000 coming from Maharashtra state over the last 24 hours. Lockdowns were reimposed in some parts of the state along with other virus restrictions.
(SFC, 2/23/21, p.A4)
2021 Feb 22, The Indian coastguard reached a drifting boat carrying 90 Rohingya refugees in the Andaman Sea and gave some food and water. Passengers said at least eight people had died onboard over the weekend.
(The Telegraph, 2/24/21)
2021 Feb 25, India and Pakistan reaffirmed their commitment to a ceasefire along their troubled border.
(SFC, 2/26/21, p.A2)
2021 Feb 27, It was reported that India's conglomerate Reliance Industries has partnered with Facebook Inc, Google and fintech player Infibeam to set up a national digital payment network.
(Reuters, 2/27/21)
2021 Feb, India announced the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, aimed at pushing Big Tech firms such as Facebook to comply with content takedown orders. However, it also extends to news websites.
(Reuters, 3/12/21)
2021 Mar 2, Transport minister Nitin Gadkari India is ready to offer incentives to ensure Tesla Inc's cost of production would be less than in China if the carmaker commits to making its electric vehicles in the south Asian country.
(Reuters, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 2, In India Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecoms company backed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani and tech giants Facebook and Google, won airwaves worth about $8 billion in a $10.6 billion spectrum auction that closed today.
(Reuters, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 2, Amazon.com Inc's Prime Video streaming service issued a rare apology to its Indian viewers for some scenes in its original political drama series "Tandav", which allegedly offended Hindu religious beliefs.
(Reuters, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 2, Sri Lanka's government said it will allow India and Japan to develop a new container terminal at the country's main port, several weeks after scrapping a deal with the two countries to develop one of the key terminals at the same port.
(AP, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 3, Indian police northern state of Uttar Pradesh arrested Sarvesh Kumar and accused him of decapitating his own teenage daughter in a rage over her relationship with another man he didn't like.
(CBS News, 3/4/21)
2021 Mar 3, The Indian drug company Bharat Biotech said that initial results from clinical trials showed its coronavirus vaccine to be safe and effective.
(NY Times, 3/4/21)
2021 Mar 5, Myanmar authorities asked India to return several police officers who sought refuge to avoid taking orders from a military junta that seized power in the Southeast Asian country last month.
(Reuters, 3/5/21)
2021 Mar 6, India's federal government asked local authorities to prioritize COVID-19 vaccinations in several districts of eight states including New Delhi that have seen a spike in coronavirus cases in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 3/6/21)
2021 Mar 6, In India thousands of farmers blocked a major expressway on the edges of New Delhi to mark the 100th day of protests against agricultural laws they say will devastate their income.
(SSFC, 3/7/21, p.A6)
2021 Mar 9, A peer-reviewed study showed that a COVID-19 vaccine developed by India's Bharat Biotech is safe and has shown high levels of antibody response in a mid-stage trial, but follow-on studies are needed to evaluate the shot for children and older people.
(Reuters, 3/9/21)
2021 Mar 12, India registered its worst single-day increase in coronavirus cases since last December. India has so far reported more than 11.3 million cases.
(SFC, 3/13/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 16, India reported 24,492 new cases, the sixth straight day of more than 20,000 infections, as curbs to try to stop the spread were expanded in parts of the country that have recorded a surge.
(Reuters, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 17, Indian health officials said about 6.5% of coronavirus vaccine doses in India are going to waste, urging states to manage their immunization drives better to optimize use of what one called "this elixir-like precious commodity".
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 18, India put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shot made by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest vaccine-maker, to meet domestic demand as infections rise.
(Reuters, 3/24/21)
2021 Mar 20, Meeting in New Delhi Top defense officials from India and the United States pledged to expand their military engagement.
(AP, 3/20/21)
2021 Mar 20, India reported 40,953 new coronavirus cases, the biggest daily jump in nearly four months, with its richest state and economic backbone Maharashtra accounting for more than half the infections. Deaths rose by 188 to 159,404.
(Reuters, 3/20/21)
2021 Mar 24, Health officials said a new and potentially troublesome variant of the coronavirus has been detected in India. The new variant found has two mutations in the spiky protein that the virus uses to fasten itself to cells.
(AP, 3/24/21)
2021 Mar 25, India said it has not imposed a ban on coronavirus vaccine exports and New Delhi will continue to supply vaccines in a phased manner.
(Reuters, 3/25/21)
2021 Mar 27, Voters in India's Assam and West Bengal cast their ballots in elections that will indicate how PM Narendra Modi's support is holding up after a year of the coronavirus pandemic and months of protests against his farm reforms.
(Reuters, 3/27/21)
2021 Mar 27, India gave 1.2 million free doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to Bangladesh. PM Narendra Modi made the offering at the end of a two-day tour of Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 3/27/21)
2021 Mar 29, India reported the highest daily increase in coronavirus cases in five months, with the second wave of the disease driven by surging infections in the country's richest state Maharashtra. 68,020 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours. Daily deaths rose by 291 and the virus has so far killed 161,843 people in India.
(Reuters, 3/29/21)
2021 Mar 30, Indian payments firm MobiKwik said it will get an independent forensic audit but assured customers their information was safe after allegations emerged of a breach that exposed the data of millions of its users.
(Reuters, 3/30/21)
2021 Mar 30, It was reported that India's drug regulator has allowed the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to be used for up to nine months from its manufacture date, as opposed to the prescribed six months.
(Reuters, 3/30/21)
2021 Apr 3, At least 22 members of Indian security forces were killed by Maoist fighters in the tribal-dominated Chhattisgarh state during an anti-insurgency operation. The death toll was the heaviest for Indian security forces battling the far-left guerrillas since 2017.
(Reuters, 4/4/21)
2021 Apr 4, India reported 93,249 new cases in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra state, which accounts for less than a tenth of India's population, accounted for a record 49,447 new cases. PM Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting to review the COVID-19 situation and vaccination program.
(Reuters, 4/4/21)
2021 Apr 5, India reported a record rise in COVID-19 infections, becoming the second country after the United States to post more than 100,000 new cases in a day, as politicians stage massive election rallies raising fears of further spreading the virus.
(Reuters, 4/5/21)
2021 Apr 5, India's Cadila Healthcare Ltd said it has sought approval from local regulators to use Pegylated Interferon alpha-2b, a Hepatitis C drug, as a treatment for COVID-19 following promising interim results from a late-stage trial.
(Reuters, 4/5/21)
2021 Apr 8, India’s PM Narendra Modi received his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as the country hit another peak with 126,789 new cases reported in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 4/8/21)
2021 Apr 11, India banned the export of anti-viral drug Remdesivir and its active pharmaceutical ingredients as demand rocketed due to a record surge in COVID-19 infections, leading to a crippling shortages in many parts.
(Reuters, 4/11/21)
2021 Apr 12, India reported 168,912 new infections, inching past Brazil, with a total of 13.53 million cases. India is now the second-most affected country after the United States that is grappling with 31.2 million cases. The western state of Maharashtra, home to India's financial capital Mumbai, has been the worst hit in the pandemic, accounting for about a quarter of the country's 13.5 million case load.
(Reuters, 4/12/21)
2021 Apr 15, India's two largest cities, New Delhi and Mumbai, imposed stringent restrictions on movement as new infections in the country shot past 200,000 amid a devastating surge that is straining a fragile health system.
(AP, 4/15/21)
2021 Apr 16, The CEO of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest maker of vaccines, asked President Biden to lift a US export embargo on raw materials for vaccines, saying it is hampering vaccine production in other parts of the world.
(AP, 4/16/21)
2021 Apr 17, India reported 234,692 new coronavirus cases. New Delhi went into a weekend lockdown. Capital Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said New Delhi has registered at least 24,000 fresh coronavirus cases in 24 hours and faces a "grim" battle against a new pandemic wave with shortages of oxygen and drugs.
(The Telegraph, 4/17/21)
2021 Apr 19, India reported 273,810 new infections, its highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic. It has now reported more than 15 million infections, second only to the US. India's Health Ministry also reported 1,619 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the toll over 178,769. New Delhi imposed a weekend lockdown to prevent the collapse of the capital's health system amid an explosive surge in coronavirus cases.
(AP, 4/19/21)(SFC, 4/20/21, p.A6)
2021 Apr 19, Britain imposed a travel ban on most visitors from India as PM Boris Johnson called off a trip to New Delhi. The UK has recorded 103 cases of a new virus variant, B.1.617, first identified in India.
(AP, 4/19/21)
2021 Apr 21, India’s Health Ministry reported 295,041 new cases with 2,023 deaths, taking total fatalities to 182,553. 22 COVID-19 patients on ventilators died in a hospital in Nashik, Maharashtra state, when their oxygen supply was interrupted by a leak in a supply line.
(AP, 4/21/21)
2021 Apr 22, India confirmed a record 314,835 new COVID-19 cases nationwide over the previous 24 hours, the highest one-day case count any country has seen during the coronavirus pandemic.
(BBC, 4/22/21)
2021 Apr 23, India set a global record in daily infections for a second straight day with 332,730. India has recorded 2,263 deaths in the past 24 hours for a total of 186,920. Thirteen people died when an oxygen-fed fire ripped through a coronavirus ward on the outskirts of Mumbai. India put oxygen tankers on special express trains as major hospitals in New Delhi begged on social media for more supplies to save COVID-19 patients.
(AP, 4/23/21)(SFC, 4/24/21, p.A4)
2021 Apr 23, India's Cadila Healthcare said it has started producing its potential COVID-19 vaccine for which it will seek emergency use authorisation in May or June, its managing director told Reuters, with an aim to make up to 240 million doses a year.
(Reuters, 4/23/21)
2021 Apr 24, Overwhelmed hospitals in India begged for oxygen supplies as the country's coronavirus infections soared again overnight in a "tsunami" of disease, setting a new world record for cases for the third consecutive day. The number of cases across the country rose overnight by 346,786, for a total of 16.6 million cases, including 189,544 deaths. COVID-19 deaths rose by 2,624 over the past 24 hours, the highest daily rate for the country so far.
(Reuters, 4/24/21)
2021 Apr 25, India set a 4th global daily record of new coronavirus infections, spurred by an insidious new variant that emerged here. The 349,691 confirmed infections over the past day brought India’s total to more than 16.9 million cases.
(AP, 4/25/21)
2021 Apr 26, India reported another 2,812 deaths, with roughly 117 Indians succumbing to the disease every hour, setting another record for new coronavirus infections for a fifth day in a row at more than 350,000. Officials said the city of Bengaluru, home to the technology operations of hundreds of global companies, will enter a two-week lockdown for 14 days.
(AP, 4/26/21)(Reuters, 4/26/21)
2021 Apr 26, Russian pharmaceutical firm Pharmasyntez said it was ready to ship up to 1 million packs of the remdesivir antiviral drug to India by end-May to help fight a surge in COVID-19 cases there, once it has received the approval of Russia's government.
(Reuters, 4/26/21)
2021 Apr 27, India reported 2,771 new coronavirus deaths. 323,144 new infections raised that total of more than 17.6 million.
(SFC, 4/28/21, p.A6)
2021 Apr 29, India's health ministry reported 379,257 new coronavirus infections, the latest in a series of global single-day records set during the country's devastating second wave of COVID-19. India also confirmed another 3,645 COVID-19 deaths, the most it has seen in a single day since the pandemic started.
(Reuters, 4/29/21)
2021 Apr 30, India reported 3,498 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 208,330. With 386,452 new cases, India now has reported more than 18.7 million since the pandemic began.
(AP, 4/30/21)
2021 Apr 30, Chinese leader Xi Jinping offered additional assistance to India in battling the coronavirus outbreak ravaging the country, putting aside a simmering rivalry and tensions along their disputed border.
(AP, 4/30/21)
2021 May 1, India set yet another daily global record with 401,993 new cases, taking its tally to more than 19.1 million. Another 3,523 people died in the past 24 hours, raising the overall deaths to 211,853. In western India a fire in a COVID-19 hospital ward killed 18 patients early today. India opened vaccinations to all adults.
(AP, 5/1/21)(SSFC, 5/2/21, p.A7)
2021 May 2, A New Delhi court said it would start punishing public officials for failing to deliver a steady supply of oxygen and other materials needed to save lives during India's devastating coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, In India prominent government critic Mamata Banerjee won a third term as the chief minister of West Bengal with a strong majority of 216 seats in the 294-seat assembly.
(The Guardian, 5/2/21)
2021 May 3, In India at least 10 people died over the last 24 hours after a hospital ran out of oxygen in Karnataka state.
(NY Times, 5/3/21)
2021 May 4, Britain and India signed an accord on migration and mobility, as they look to deepen economic, cultural and other ties following the UK's departure from the EU.
(Reuters, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, India's official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, India's government said 8 Asiatic lions at a zoo in Hyderabad have contracted the coronavirus, adding that there was no evidence that animals could transmit the disease to humans. The Nehru Zoological Park has now been closed.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, India said it will allow foreign mobile carriers to carry out 5G trials with equipment makers, but did not name China's Huawei among the participants.
(Reuters, 5/5/21)
2021 May 5, India gave emergency use authorization for a COVID-19 antibody drug cocktail developed by Roche and Regeneron, expanding its arsenal of drugs to battle a massive second wave of infections.
(Reuters, 5/5/21)
2021 May 5, China said it was concerned that India had not allowed Chinese companies to conduct 5G trials in the country.
(AP, 5/5/21)
2021 May 6, India's government agreed to provide more medical oxygen to hospitals in New Delhi under order by the Supreme Court.
(SFC, 5/7/21, p.A5)
2021 May 7, India reported another record daily rise in coronavirus cases, bringing total new cases for the week to 1.57 million, as its vaccination rate fell dramatically due to a lack of supplies and transport problems.
(Reuters, 5/7/21)
2021 May 8, India reported its highest ever single-day COVID-19 death toll, as cases continued to rise and states imposed stricter lockdowns. The health ministry reported 4,187 fatalities over the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll close to 240,000.
(Reuters, 5/8/21)
2021 May 9, India reported 403,738 confirmed cases, including 4,092 deaths. Overall, India has over 22 million confirmed infections and 240,000 deaths. Experts say both figures are undercounts. India said it will recruit hundreds of former army medics to support its overwhelmed healthcare system.
(AP, 5/9/21)(Reuters, 5/9/21)
2021 May 10, Egypt's Eva Pharma signed an agreement to provide India with 300,000 doses of remdesivir, used in the treatment of COVID-19. Eva Pharma, a generic drugmaker established in 1997, said in June 2020 it had received a license from Gilead Sciences Inc to make remdesivir in Egypt and distribute it in 127 countries.
(Reuters, 5/10/21)
2021 May 11, India confirmed nearly 390,000 new coronavirus cases including 3,876 deaths. Bodies have been retrieved floating in the Ganges River in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh states..
(SFC, 5/12/21, p.A7)
2021 May 13, India recorded more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths for a second day in a row, while infections stayed below 400,000 for a fourth day, though the virus has become rampant in rural areas where cases can go unreported due to a lack of testing.
(Reuters, 5/13/21)
2021 May 14, Indian drugmaker Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd said it expects to get 36 million doses of Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in the next couple of months under its contract with Russia's sovereign wealth fund.
(AP, 5/14/21)
2021 May 15, India reported its smallest daily increase in coronavirus infections in nearly three weeks, with deaths still near the 4,000-mark. Federal health officials said cases and fatalities are rapidly stabilizing in this wave of the pandemic.
(Reuters, 5/15/21)
2021 May 16, India's Health Ministry reported 311,170 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, down from 326,098 a day earlier. Some Indian states said they would extend COVID-19 lockdowns. The pandemic has killed more than 270,000 people in the country.
(AP, 5/16/21)(Reuters, 5/16/21)
2021 May 16, Cyclone Tauktae headed for southwestern India. Heavy rains and flooding have already killed at least six people.
(AP, 5/16/21)
2021 May 17, Indian authorities moved over 200,000 people from their homes in the state of Gujarat to safety and shut ports and major airports as the most powerful cyclone in more than two decades roared up the west coast. Cyclone Tauktae has already killed at least 16 people.
(Reuters, 5/17/21)
2021 May 17, Cyclone Tauktae, the most powerful storm to hit western India in more than two decades, packed sustained winds of up to 210 km (130 miles) per hour when it came ashore in Gujarat state. Six people were killed Maharashtra state.
(AP, 5/18/21)
2021 May 18, The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest maker of vaccines, announced that it expects to resume exporting coronavirus vaccines by the end of 2021.
(AP, 5/18/21)
2021 May 18, The Indian navy worked to rescue crew members from a sunken barge and a second cargo vessel that was adrift off the coast of Mumbai after a deadly cyclone struck the western coast. The navy said it has rescued 184 people. 55 people remained missing.
(AP, 5/18/21)(SFC, 5/20/21, p.A4)
2021 May 19, India reported more coronavirus deaths in a single day than any other country at any time during the pandemic. The Health Ministry reported a record 4,529 deaths in the past 24 hours, driving India's confirmed fatalities to 283,248. It also reported 267,334 new infections.
(AP, 5/19/21)
2021 May 20, Officials said India has ordered tighter surveillance of a rare fungal disease hitting COVID-19 patients, piling pressure on hospitals struggling with the world's highest number of daily infections of the novel coronavirus. Mucormycosis, or "black fungus" usually infects people whose immune system has been compromised.
(Reuters, 5/20/21)
2021 May 21, India-based Mylab Discovery Solutions said it has the capacity to ramp up production of its at-home COVID-19 test kits to 100 million units per week over the next few months based on demand.
(Reuters, 5/21/21)
2021 May 22, In India COVID-19 deaths rose by 4,194 and infections were spreading in rural areas where public health services are scarce and already overstretched. Government data showed 257,299 new cases.
(Reuters, 5/22/21)
2021 May 24, Indian government leaders appealed to farmers to call off a mass protest this week for fear it could prove a viral "super-spreader" event as the country's overall death toll from COVID-19 crossed 300,000. The Health Ministry reported 4,454 new deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing total fatalities to 303,720.
(Reuters, 5/24/21)(SFC, 5/25/21, p.A4)
2021 May 25, Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from low-lying areas of two Indian states and moved to shelters to escape Cyclone Yaas barreling toward the eastern coast.
(AP, 5/25/21)
2021 May 25, Russia shipped a generic version of the remdesivir antiviral drug called Remdeform to India as part of its humanitarian aid contributions to the South Asian country which is fighting a surge in COVID-19 cases.
(Reuters, 5/25/21)
2021 May 30, India reported its lowest daily rise in new coronavirus infections in 46 days at 165,553 cases during the previous 24 hours, while deaths rose by 3,460.
(Reuters, 5/30/21)
2021 May 31, It was reported that Eli Lilly and Co's antibody drug combination has received an emergency use approval in India for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19, bolstering the country's arsenal of medicines to tackle a devastating second wave of the pandemic.
(AP, 5/31/21)
2021 Jun 4, India reported another 1342,364 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours in a declining trend. The nation's total cases neared 28.6 million.
(SFC, 6/5/21, p.A4)
2021 Jun 5, Some of India's states began easing lockdown restrictions as coronavirus infections subside, with the world's second most-populous nation logging its lowest daily case count in nearly two months.
(Reuters, 6/5/21)
2021 Jun 6, India reported 114,460 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in two months, while the death toll increased by 2,677, as parts of the country prepared to ease movement restrictions.
(Reuters, 6/6/21)
2021 Jun 7, PM Narendra Modi said India will provide free COVID-19 vaccines to all adults, in an effort to rein in a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands and led to the world's second-highest tally of infections.
(Reuters, 6/7/21)
2021 Jun 11, India added 91,702 new coronavirus cases pushing its total to nearly 29.3 million. 3,403 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours. Bihar state increased its death toll to more than 9,429 from 5,424 after the discovery of thousands of unreported cases.
(SFC, 6/12/21, p.A4)
2021 Jun 13, Authorities in India reported 80,834 new COVID-19 infections over the previous 24 hours, the lowest daily tally in more than two months.
(AP, 6/13/21)
2021 Jun 13, In northeast India Ziona Chana (76), the head of a local Christian sect that allows polygamy, died in Mizoram state. He had 39 wives and 94 children and was said to be the head of the world's largest family.
(Reuters, 6/14/21)
2021 Jun 16, India's Health Ministry reported 62,224 new infections over the past 24 hours as well as 2,542 more deaths, raising total fatalities to 379, 573.
(SFC, 6/17/21, p.A3)
2021 Jun 19, India reported 60,753 new COVID-19 cases and 1,647 deaths over the past 24 hours. The central government urged states to be careful in reopening from COVID-19 lockdowns to prevent a resurgence of infections in the hard-hit country.
(Reuters, 6/19/21)
2021 Jun 21, India registered 53,256 new coronavirus infections and 1,422 deaths in the last 24 hours, its lowest numbers in nearly three months.
(SFC, 6/22/21, p.A4)
2021 Jun 21, Intel Corp said it will work with India's Reliance Jio to develop 5G networking technology.
(Reuters, 6/21/21)
2021 Jun 23, In Pakistan a car bombing in Lahore killed three people and wounded 25. Days later police had five suspects in custody in connection with the blast. Investigators found evidence of involvement of the Indian secret service in the attack.
(AP, 6/26/21)
2021 Jun 27, Indian officials said they suspected that explosive-laden drones were used to attack an air base in Kashmir. Anti-Indian rebels were suspected.
(SFC, 6/28/21, p.A3)
2021 Jul 2, India confirmed a total of over 400,000 COVID-19 deaths, half of them in the past two months. Less than 5% of the population was fully immunized.
(SFC, 7/3/21, p.A4)
2021 Jul 3, India-based Bharat Biotech said phase-III trials of its vaccine showed it was 93.4% effective against severe symptomatic COVID-19, a finding that could boost people's acceptance of Covaxin. Data demonstrated 65.2% protection against the Delta variant.
(Reuters, 7/3/21)
2021 Jul 4, In India more than a million people began planting 250 million saplings in northern Uttar Pradesh state in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the effects of global climate change.
(SFC, 7/5/21, p.A4)
2021 Jul 5, In India Father Stan Swamy (84), a Jesuit priest, died under judicial custody. He had been arrested in 2020 under the country's Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Swamy)(SFC, 8/17/21, p.A3)
2021 Jul 7, In India Bollywood star Dilip Kumar (98) died in a hospital in Mumbai. In 1998 the Pakistani government conferred on him its highest civilian honor, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz. Kumar authored his autobiography "The Substance and the Shadow" in 2014.
(SSFC, 7/11/21, p.F2)
2021 Jul 12, Officials in India said lighting has killed at least 38 people in Rajasthan and Uttar Predesh states over the last 24 hours.
(SFC, 7/13/21, p.A4)
2021 Jul 18, In India at least 20 people were killed in landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in the Indian city of Mumbai.
(AP, 7/18/21)
2021 Jul 19, India's capital New Delhi and the main financial center of Mumbai were drenched with heavy rain, a day after at least 35 people were killed across the country in landslides and house collapses triggered by downpours.
(Reuters, 7/19/21)
2021 Jul 19, Mumbai police arrested Raj Kundra in a case related to the production of pornographic films by his company. The businessman is married to popular Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty.
(Reuters, 7/23/21)
2021 Jul 20, India’s Parliament erupted in protests as opposition lawmakers accused PM Narendra Modi’s government of using military-grade spyware to monitor political opponents, journalists and activists.
(AP, 7/20/21)
2021 Jul 20, A new report said India's excess deaths during the pandemic could be a staggering 10 times the official COVID-19 toll, likely making it modern India’s worst human tragedy. New data showed that two-thirds of India's population have antibodies against the coronavirus from a survey of 29,000 people across the nation conducted in June and July.
(AP, 7/20/21)(Reuters, 7/20/21)
2021 Jul 23, Officials in India reported that landslides and flooding triggered by monsoon rains have killed more than 100 people over the last 24 hours in Maharashtra state.
(SFC, 7/24/21, p.A3)
2021 Jul 28, In New Delhi top diplomates of India and the US pledged to expand their multilateral security partnership underscoring concerns over China's growing influence in the region.
(SFC, 7/29/21, p.A2)
2021 Jul 28, India contested Cambodia's claims that Indian buffalo meat was infected with COVID-19, saying it exports the meat only after getting COVID-free certification. Cambodia earlier this week said three out of five containers of frozen buffalo meat imported from India tested positive for coronavirus.
(Reuters, 7/28/21)
2021 Jul 31, Indian police in Kashmir said Mohammad Ismail Alvi, the mastermind behind the Feb. 14, 2019, attack that killed 40 Indian paramilitary troops, has been killed in a shootout with security forces south of Srinagar.
(Reuters, 7/31/21)
2021 Jul 31, Officials said China and India have missed the July 30 United Nations deadline to submit fresh targets for cutting their greenhouse gas emissions.
(AP, 7/31/21)
2021 Aug 1, In India a girl (9), who has not been named by authorities and belonged to the Dalit community, one of Hinduism’s most oppressed castes, was found dead near a Delhi crematorium late today. Her whole body was burnt apart from her ankles and feet. Four men, including the crematorium's priest, were arrested the next day for the alleged rape and murder.
(AP, 8/4/21)
2021 Aug 5, In India angry villagers in New Delhi held a protest outside a crematorium where they say a 9-year-old girl was raped and killed on August 1.
(AP, 8/5/21)
2021 Aug 7, India's health minister said Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use.
(Reuters, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 13, India's ministry of science and technology said local vaccine maker Bharat Biotech's nasal COVID-19 vaccine candidate, BBV154, has received regulatory approval for mid- to late-stage trials.
(Reuters, 8/13/21)
2021 Aug 15, India's PM Narendra Modi delivered his Independence Day speech and announced a $1.35 trillion infrastructure plan to spur an economic rebound.
(SFC, 8/16/21, p.A5)
2021 Aug 20, It was reported that India's drug regulator has granted emergency use approval for Zydus Cadila's COVID-19 vaccine, the world's first DNA shot against the coronavirus, in adults and children aged 12 years and above. ZyCoV-D is administered in three doses.
(AP, 8/20/21)
2021 Aug 23, India reported 25,072 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, the lowest in 160 days.
(Reuters, 8/23/21)
2021 Aug 23, Indian police in Kashmir said the top commander of a militant group and his deputy, allegedly involved in dozens of target killings, have died in a shootout.
(Reuters, 8/23/21)
2021 Aug 24, India's government said it has approved further clinical trials for its first homegrown mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine developed by Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd, after the shot was found to be safe and effective in an early-stage study.
(Reuters, 8/24/21)
2021 Aug 25, India reported 37,593 new infections of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours. The health minister said India will supply millions of additional COVID-19 vaccine doses to its states to try to inoculate all school teachers by early next month.
(Reuters, 8/25/21)
2021 Aug 26, In India police accompanied by activists from a children’s rights group raided automobile repair shops on the edge of New Delhi and removed 17 children who were employed illegally.
(AP, 8/26/21)
2021 Aug 26, India reported 46,164 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/26/21)
2021 Aug 26, India's air safety regulator said it had cleared Boeing Co's (BA.N) 737 MAX aircraft to fly with immediate effect, ending its nearly two-and-a-half-years of regulatory grounding in a key travel market for the plane maker.
(Reuters, 8/26/21)
2021 Aug 27, India reported more than 40,000 new infections for a second consecutive day. India administered more than 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses today, a national record that PM Narendra Modi hailed as a "momentous feat" for the country ahead of fears of another surge in infections.
(Reuters, 8/27/21)
2021 Aug 28, India reported 46,759 new coronavirus infections, the most in nearly two months, as cases surged in the southern state of Kerala after a big festival.
(Reuters, 8/28/21)
2021 Aug 29, India reported 45,083 new coronavirus infections, driven by surging cases in the southern state of Kerala. The country's COVID-19 cases stood at about 32.7 million, with deaths rising by 460 to 437,830 in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/29/21)
2021 Aug 30, India reported 42,909 new COVID-19 cases for the past 24 hours, taking the total to 32.74 million. Deaths rose by 380 to 438,210.
(Reuters, 8/30/21)
2021 Aug 31, India's ambassador to Qatar held talks with a top Taliban leader, the first formal diplomatic engagement since the hardline Islamist group took over Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 8/31/21)
2021 Aug 31, India reported 30,941 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/31/21)
2021 Sep 1, India reported 41,965 new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 9/1/21)
2021 Sep 1, The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) said air pollution is likely to reduce the life expectancy of about 40% of Indians by more than nine years. New Delhi was the world's most polluted capital for the third straight year in 2020.
(Reuters, 9/1/21)
2021 Sep 1, Indian Kashmir veteran separatist politician Syed Ali Shah Geelani (91) died in Srinagar. Authorities blanketed the region with troops and clamped down on communications to prevent protests at his funeral the next day.
(Reuters, 9/2/21)
2021 Sep 2, India reported the biggest single-day rise in COVID-19 cases in two months, as the government worries about the virus spreading from the most-affected Kerala state, schools reopening, and the start of the festival season. Kerala accounted for nearly 70% of the 47,092 new infections and a third of deaths
(Reuters, 9/2/21)
2021 Sep 3, India tightened curbs on movement in Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, with scores of armed soldiers fanning out ahead of prayers, a day after a veteran secessionist leader was laid to rest in the disputed Himalayan region. Mobile services in Indian Kashmir were restored late today, two days after they were suspended. However, police said curbs on mobile internet and restrictions on the movement of people in the valley would continue.
(Reuters, 9/3/21)
2021 Sep 3, India reported 45,352 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, with 366 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/3/21)
2021 Sep 5, In India hundreds of thousands of farmers gathered in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh state, the biggest rally yet in a months-long series of demonstrations to press Narendra Modi's government to repeal three new agricultural laws.
(Reuters, 9/5/21)
2021 Sep 6, Indian drug developer Hetero said it has received emergency use approval from the country's health authorities to make a generic version of Roche Holding AG's COVID-19 drug.
(Reuters, 9/6/21)
2021 Sep 7, Thousands of Indian farmers gathered at a grain market outside New Delhi in protest against new agricultural laws they say threaten their livelihoods, condemning "brutal" actions by police during similar demonstrations last week.
(Reuters, 9/7/21)
2021 Sep 8, In India the government of PM Narendra Modi raised the price it will pay to buy new-season wheat from local farmers by 2% to 2,015 rupees ($27.39) per 100 kg. Farmers said the government's move to raise state-mandated price for new season wheat is not enough to cover the cost of cultivation.
(Reuters, 9/8/21)
2021 Sep 8, India's antitrust watchdog raided local offices of several vegetable seed companies including a unit of Germany's BASF in a case related to alleged price collusion.
(Reuters, 9/8/21)
2021 Sep 8, It was reported that India will give about $3.5 billion, down from an original plan to give about $8 billion in incentives, to auto companies over a five-year period under a revised scheme to boost the manufacturing and export of clean technology vehicles.
(Reuters, 9/8/21)
2021 Sep 8, In India a boat carrying dozens of passengers sank in the northeastern state of Assam after a collision with another vessel. At least one person died.
(Reuters, 9/8/21)
2021 Sep 9, Ford Motor Co said it will stop making cars in India and take a hit of about $2 billion because it does not see a path to profitability in the country, becoming the latest automaker to leave the major growth market dominated by Asian rivals.
(Reuters, 9/9/21)
2021 Sep 10, India cut base import taxes on palm oil, soy oil and sunflower oil, as the world's biggest vegetable oil buyer tries to cool near-record price rises.
(Reuters, 9/11/21)
2021 Sep 10, In India a woman (34) was raped and then tortured with an iron rod in a truck parked in suburban Mumbai early today. She died at a local hospital a day later. Protests soon followed. Mumbai police soon arrested a man (45) and charged him with rape and murder.
(AP, 9/13/21)
2021 Sep 11, Australia and India vowed to deepen their security cooperation, especially following the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, as the world marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
(Reuters, 9/11/21)
2021 Sep 13, It was reported that an outbreak of dengue fever is suspected of killing dozens of people in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh since the start of September. Authorities have launched a campaign to destroy mosquito breeding grounds.
(Reuters, 9/13/21)
2021 Sep 13, India reported 27,254 new coronavirus infections and 219 deaths in the past 24 hours. Total cases have now climbed to 33.26 million while deaths have risen to 442,874.
(Reuters, 9/13/21)
2021 Sep 14, A study of 614 fully vaccinated health workers in India found a "significant" drop in their COVID-fighting antibodies within four months of the first shot.
(Reuters, 9/14/21)
2021 Sep 15, In India authorities in Delhi ordered a ban on the storage, use and sale of firecrackers in the capital late today ahead of the Diwali festival to curb air pollution levels which cause thousands of deaths each year.
(Reuters, 9/16/21)
2021 Sep 15, India's cabinet approved an incentive scheme for the automobile sector aimed at boosting production of electric and hydrogen fuel-powered vehicles and promoting the manufacture of drones.
(Reuters, 9/15/21)
2021 Sep 15, India's federal cabinet approved a relief package for its cash-strapped telecoms sector including a four-year moratorium on airwaves payments due to the government.
(Reuters, 9/15/21)
2021 Sep 17, India broke its daily COVID-19 vaccination record by administering over 20 million doses of vaccines in a single day as states organized a special inoculation drive on the occasion of PM Narendra Modi's birthday.
(Reuters, 9/17/21)
2021 Sep 18, India's antitrust authority found in a report on its two-year probe that Google abused the dominant position of its Android operating system in India, using its "huge financial muscle" to illegally hurt competitors.
(Reuters, 9/18/21)
2021 Sep 18, The French foreign ministry said it has agreed with its Indian counterpart to work on a program to promote "a truly multilateral international order".
(Reuters, 9/18/21)
2021 Sep 19, India reported 30,773 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 33.4 million, as it seeks to reopen the country to overseas tourists. The death toll rose by 309 to 444,838.
(Reuters, 9/19/21)
2021 Sep 21, Indian officials said they had seized nearly three tons of heroin originating from Afghanistan worth an estimated 200 billion rupees ($2.72 billion) amid the chaos following last month's takeover of the country by the Taliban.
(Reuters, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 21, In India hundreds of workers at a Ford Motor Co factory in the western Gujarat state protested outside the automaker's plant, demanding that the factory's closure plan be scrapped or workers be provided other jobs.
(Reuters, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 21, India's Adani Group said it will invest $20 billion in renewable energy over the next 10 years and will aim to make its ports business a net-zero carbon emitter by 2025.
(Reuters, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 22, India and United Arab Emirates said they plan to conclude a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) by the end of the year with the aim to lift trade between the two countries by 70% in five years.
(Reuters, 9/22/21)
2021 Sep 22, India’s Supreme Court opened the door for women to pursue military careers at the highest levels.
(NY Times, 9/22/21)
2021 Sep 22, Industry officials said a proposed merger of India's Zee and a domestic unit of Japan's Sony Group Corp will create a television powerhouse to grab more advertising revenue, challenging top rival Walt Disney Co in a key growth market.
(Reuters, 9/23/21)
2021 Sep 24, India and Pakistan clashed at the UN as Pakistani PM Imran Khan accused the rival of a "reign of terror" on Muslims, drawing a stern rebuke. Khan's address was delivered by video due to Covid precautions.
(Reuters, 9/25/21)
2021 Sep 24, In India three people were killed in a suspected gangland shooting inside a Delhi courtroom, causing panic in the premises.
(Reuters, 9/24/21)
2021 Sep 24, India's antitrust watchdog imposed a penalty of $102 million on Heineken-controlled beer giant United Breweries and $16 million on the local unit of Denmark's Carlsberg in a case related to cartelization of beer prices in the country.
(Reuters, 9/24/21)
2021 Sep 24, Leaders of the United States, Japan, India and Australia vowed to pursue a free and open Indo-Pacific region "undaunted by coercion" at their first in-person summit, which presented a united front amid shared concerns about China.
(Reuters, 9/25/21)
2021 Sep 25, India reported 29,616 new COVID-19 cases for the last 24 hours. The country reported 290 deaths overnight, taking the overall tally to 446,658 fatalities.
(Reuters, 9/25/21)
2021 Sep 27, Indian farmers opposed to reforms they say threaten their livelihoods renewed their push against the changes with nationwide protests, a year after laws on the liberalization of the sector were introduced.
(Reuters, 9/27/21)
2021 Sep 28, India's PM Narendra Modi launched an array of new high-yielding crop varieties, including herbicide-tolerant rice that can be directly sown into the soil, cutting expenditure on water and farm workers.
(Reuters, 9/28/21)
2021 Sep 28, India's drug regulator allowed vaccine maker Serum Institute to enroll kids aged 7-11 years for its trial of US drugmaker Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine, as the country prepares to protect children from the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 9/28/21)
2021 Sep 28, India reported 179 COVID-19 deaths, the smallest rise since the middle of March, taking the total to 447,373.
(Reuters, 9/28/21)
2021 Sep 29, It was reported that some of India's private hospitals have cancelled orders for Russia's Sputnik V vaccine as they struggle to sell COVID-19 shots amid surging supplies of free doses of other vaccines offered by the government.
(Reuters, 9/29/21)
2021 Sep 29, Industry officials in India said heavy rains brought by cyclone Gulab damaged summer-sown crops such as soybeans, cotton, pulses and vegetables just before harvesting in key growing regions, which could reduce production and lift prices.
(Reuters, 9/29/21)
2021 Sep 30, India's chief economic adviser said rich nations need to commit much more than $100 billion to help poor countries fight climate change due to their high historical share of emissions, ahead of a UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).
(Reuters, 9/30/21)
2021 Oct 1, Indian utilities scrambled to secure coal supplies as inventories hit critical lows after a surge in power demand from industries and sluggish imports due to record global prices push power plants to the brink.
(Reuters, 10/1/21)
2021 Oct 1, UK nationals visiting India this month will have to undergo mandatory quarantine even if they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in retaliation for UK curbs on Indian citizens. The new rules, which take effect Oct. 4.
(Reuters, 10/1/21)
2021 Oct 2, India-based Reliance Industries said it had set up a wholly owned subsidiary in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for trading in crude oil, petroleum, petrochemical products and agricultural commodities.
(Reuters, 10/2/21)
2021 Oct 3, In India 6 people were reported killed when violence broke out in India's Uttar Pradesh state after a car linked to a federal minister ran over two farmers taking part in a protest against controversial farm laws. On Oct 9 Ashish Mishra, son of junior home minister Ajay Mishra Teni, was arrested on accusations he ran over and killed four protesting farmers.
(Reuters, 10/3/21)(Reuters, 10/10/21)
2021 Oct 4, India said it would investigate cases linked to the Pandora Papers leak of financial documents, though it added that the "names of only a few Indians have appeared so far in the media".
(Reuters, 10/4/21)
2021 Oct 4, Farmers in India vowed to intensify their months-long protest against laws aimed at liberalizing agriculture as tension flared a day after eight people were killed over the last 24 hours in clashes between growers and ruling party supporters.
(Reuters, 10/4/21)
2021 Oct 4, A Mumbai court sent the son (23) of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan to three days' custody, after he was arrested on Oct. 2 in a drugs investigation.
(Reuters, 10/4/21)
2021 Oct 5, It was reported that India's top court ordered state authorities to pay $672 (50,000 rupees) as compensation for each death caused by COVID-19, as a way to help families cope with the loss.
(Reuters, 10/5/21)
2021 Oct 6, The UN cultural agency said India's school closures and its children's lack of smartphone and internet facilities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic have worsened an educational divide.
(Reuters, 10/6/21)
2021 Oct 7, India-based Reliance Industries Ltd's retail arm said it would roll out 7-Eleven Inc convenience stores in India, days after Future Retail Ltd ended a similar deal with the US chain.
(Reuters, 10/7/21)
2021 Oct 8, India's government said Tata Sons will resume control of Air India after bidding $2.4 billion, including equity and debt, marking the end of years of struggle to privatize the financially troubled airline.
(Reuters, 10/8/21)
2021 Oct 8, It was reported that North Indian states have suffered electricity cuts and face further outages because of a lack of coal, contradicting government assurances there is enough power.
(Reuters, 10/8/21)
2021 Oct 10, Dream11, one of India's most popular gaming apps, said it has suspended operations in the southern state of Karnataka after a complaint was registered against its founders claiming it was in violation of a new state gambling law.
(Reuters, 10/10/21)
2021 Oct 11, India's largest port operator Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone said that its terminals would no longer handle export and import of container cargoes from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan from Nov. 15. The decision came weeks after Indian officials seized nearly three tons of heroin originating from Afghanistan worth an estimated 200 billion rupees ($2.65 billion) from two containers at western Gujarat's Mundra Port.
(Reuters, 10/11/21)
2021 Oct 11, In Kashmir at least five Indian soldiers and two militants were killed in a series of gun battles, where security forces have stepped up operations after several civilian killings last week.
(Reuters, 10/11/21)
2021 Oct 12, India recommended emergency use of Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 shot in the 2 to 18 age-group. India has so far fully vaccinated around 29% of about 944 million eligible adults.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Indian security forces killed at least five militants in Indian-ruled Kashmir as hundreds of Hindus fled the disputed Muslim-majority region after a wave of violence.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 13, Officials said India has resumed a small amount of exports of COVID-19 vaccines and will increase exports significantly in the next few months as domestic stocks build up and most of its own large population is inoculated.
(Reuters, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 14, India's annual wholesale price-based inflation, a proxy for producers' prices, loitered in the double digits for the sixth month in a row in September. Government data showed that India's merchandise trade deficit widened to a record $22.6 billion in September, the highest in at least about 14 years, as crude oil and gold imports surged.
(Reuters, 10/14/21)
2021 Oct 15, India reopened to fully vaccinated foreign tourists traveling on chartered flights in the latest easing of its coronavirus restrictions as infection numbers decline.
(AP, 10/15/21)
2021 Oct 15, In India a victim (35) was beaten to death by a group of men who had accused him of desecrating Sikh holy texts. One of the man's hands was hacked off. A member of a Sikh warrior sect called the Nihangs was soon taken into custody after the attack close to Singhu village, on the northwest border of New Delhi.
(Reuters, 10/16/21)
2021 Oct 18, In India leaders in the southern state of Kerala opened near-overflowing dams after at least 22 people died when heavy rains lashed the region over the weekend. The death toll soon rose to 28.
(Reuters, 10/18/21)(AP, 10/18/21)
2021 Oct 18, The Indian government said Dubai has signed an accord to build infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir.
(Reuters, 10/18/21)
2021 Oct 18, Indian authorities moved thousands of migrant workers in Kashmir to safer locations overnight, while hundreds have fled the Himalayan valley after a wave of targeted killings.
(Reuters, 10/18/21)
2021 Oct 19, In India, the world's biggest onion exporter, onion prices have risen after heavy rainfall in the country's key growing regions damaged the summer-sown crop and delayed winter crop planting. Onion price spikes have contributed to the fall of more than one state government in the past.
(Reuters, 10/19/21)
2021 Oct 20, Indian officials said floods unleashed by days of unseasonal heavy rain have wrecked crops, blocked roads and washed away bridges in northern India, killing at least 46 people, as they mounted rescue efforts for those stranded.
(Reuters, 10/20/21)
2021 Oct 21, India celebrated the milestone of administering 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses, with the government promoting the achievement in song and video even as a recent drop in inoculations worries healthcare providers.
(Reuters, 10/21/21)
2021 Oct 21, It was reported that more than 150 people have died in flooding across India and Nepal in recent days, as heavy late monsoon rains triggered flash floods, destroyed homes, crops and infrastructure and left thousands stranded. The death toll in Nepal passed 100. in India at least 88 died people were killed.
(Reuters, 10/21/21)(SFC, 10/23/21, p.A3)
2021 Oct 21, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan were among 11 countries singled out by US intelligence agencies as being "highly vulnerable" in terms of their ability to prepare for and respond to environmental and societal crises caused by climate change.
(Reuters, 10/21/21)
2021 Oct 22, In India movie theaters in Mumbai reopened after more than 18 months of closure. Entry required COVID-19 certificates or "safe status" on a state-run health app.
(SFC, 10/23/21, p.A4)
2021 Oct 24, Pakistan resoundingly beat India at the Twenty20 World Cup, for its first cricket win against its bigger neighbor in such a match, triggering celebrations at home and in Muslim-majority Kashmir. Three Kashmiri students were arrested on Oct. 27 for hailing the victory. Authorities said six people had been detained in adjoining Jammu, where social media posts showed more than two dozen people celebrating after India's loss.
(Reuters, 10/28/21)
2021 Oct 26, India's health minister said that a government panel of experts was looking into a Delta coronavirus subvariant, AY.4.2, that has been detected in the United Kingdom.
(Reuters, 10/26/21)
2021 Oct 27, India rejected calls to announce a net zero carbon emissions target and said it was more important for the world to lay out a pathway to reduce such emissions and avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures.
(Reuters, 10/27/21)
2021 Oct 27, India's antitrust watchdog raided the offices of Associated Alcohols & Breweries and Som Distilleries as part of an investigation into alleged price fixing in liquor products.
(Reuters, 10/27/21)
2021 Oct 29, India-based Reliance Industries said its low-cost 4G smartphone, jointly developed by the group's Jio telecoms venture and Alphabet's Google, will launch in stores from this festive season of Diwali for 6,499 rupees ($87).
(Reuters, 10/29/21)
2021 Oct 29, In India Puneeth Rajkumar (46), a dashing lead in films and a member of an illustrious movie family, died of a heart attack. Offices and shops in Bengaluru shut down and police were brought in to control swarming crowds of fans in anticipation of violence after the popular actor’s death.
(Reuters, 10/29/21)
2021 Nov 1, India's PM Narendra Modi used the COP26 climate talks to announce 2070 as the target for his country to reach net zero carbon emissions, two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts.
(Reuters, 11/1/21)
2021 Nov 1, Novavax Inc and partner Serum Institute of India said they received emergency use authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine in Indonesia, making it the first approval anywhere in the world for Novavax.
(Reuters, 11/1/21)
2021 Nov 3, India-based Bharat Biotech said its COVID-19 vaccine has been granted an extension of shelf life for up to 12 months from the date of manufacture by India's drug regulator. The World Health Organization (WHO) said it had approved Indian drugmaker Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, paving the way for the homegrown shot to be accepted as a valid vaccine in many poor countries.
(Reuters, 11/3/21)
2021 Nov 4, The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) said India, Indonesia and the Philippines will join South Africa as the first recipients of a multibillion dollar pilot program aimed at accelerating their transition from coal power to clean energy.
(Reuters, 11/4/21)
2021 Nov 5, In India residents of New Delhi woke up under a blanket of smog darkening the city, the most dangerous air pollution of the year after Diwali revelers defied - as usual - a fireworks ban during India's annual Hindu festival of lights.
(Reuters, 11/5/21)
2021 Nov 6, In India fire swept through the intensive care unit (ICU) of a government hospital in the western city of Ahmednagar, Maharashtra state, killing 11 people and injuring several.
(AP, 11/6/21)
2021 Nov 7, India's manufacturing capital Chennai came to a standstill with many areas flooded after the southern Indian coast was battered by heavy rainfall overnight, prompting authorities to issue warnings and evacuate people from low-lying areas.
(Reuters, 11/7/21)
2021 Nov 8, In India many students in New Delhi stayed at home rather than return to reopened schools as a toxic smog shrouded the city.
(Reuters, 11/8/21)
2021 Nov 8, In India the health department of Kampur said at least 89 people, including 17 children, have tested positive for the Zika virus in a surge of cases in city.
(Reuters, 11/8/21)
2021 Nov 8, Indian drugmaker Zydus Cadila said India has placed an order for 10 million doses of its DNA COVID-19 vaccine at a price of 265 rupees ($3.57) per dose.
(Reuters, 11/8/21)
2021 Nov 9, New Delhi pledged "game-changing" steps to clean its foul air, including intensive water sprinkling and a crackdown on the burning of garbage, as eye-stinging smog covered the Indian capital for a fifth straight day.
(Reuters, 11/9/21)
2021 Nov 10, In India diplomats and security analysts from Afghanistan's neighbors, with the notable exceptions of China and Pakistan, gathered in New Delhi to discuss how to engage with the country's Taliban rulers.
(Reuters, 11/10/21)
2021 Nov 11, Authorities said heavy rains across southern India and Sri Lanka have killed at least 41 people, 16 in Tamil Nadu and 25 in Sri Lanka.
(Reuters, 11/11/21)
2021 Nov 12, India's federal pollution control board ordered states and local bodies to be in "complete readiness" for emergency measures to tackle New Delhi's worsening smog conditions due to a drop in temperature and wind speeds.
(Reuters, 11/12/21)
2021 Nov 13, The Chief Justice of India asked the central government to come up with an emergency plan to tackle New Delhi's toxic air quality and dangerous smog conditions, calling the situation "very serious".
(Reuters, 11/13/21)
2021 Nov 13, Police in India's western state of Maharashtra killed at least 26 Maoist militants, including a top leader, in an ambush operation in dense forest. The Naxals, including six women were killed in Gadchiroli district along with Milind Teltumbde, a central committee member. Five soldiers and two civilians were killed in an ambush by suspected rebels in Manipur state.
(Reuters, 11/14/21)(SFC, 11/15/21, p.A24)
2021 Nov 14, Police in India's central Madhya Pradesh state arrested two men with 20 kg of marijuana and found they were using the Amazon India website to order and further smuggle the substance in the guise of stevia leaves, a natural sweetener, to other Indian states.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 14, Russia news reported that Russia has started supplying India with S-400 air defence missile systems.
(Reuters, 11/14/21)
2021 Nov 15, India's Supreme Court told authorities to shut offices in the capital and nearby cities, allowing millions to work from home as officials seek ways to reduce hazardous air pollution that led to the closure of schools.
(Reuters, 11/15/21)
2021 Nov 15, India began allowing fully vaccinated foreign tourists to enter the country on regular commercial flights, in the latest easing of coronavirus restrictions as infections fall and vaccinations rise.
(AP, 11/15/21)
2021 Nov 16, India's Akasa Air placed an order for 72 Boeing 737 MAX jets, valued at nearly $9 billion at list prices - a deal that could help the US plane maker regain lost ground in one of the world's most promising markets.
(Reuters, 11/16/21)
2021 Nov 17, In India more children were in hospital with breathing problems as pollution levels remained dangerously high in New Delhi. The government shut five power stations and extended school closures to try to contain the crisis.
(Reuters, 11/17/21)
2021 Nov 17, Indian budget airline SpiceJet said US plane maker Boeing had agreed to settle the outstanding claims related to the grounding of its 737 MAX aircraft.
(Reuters, 11/17/21)
2021 Nov 17, Indian troops in Kashmir killed five militants believed to belong to a group named The Resistance Front (TRF), which claimed recent killings of migrants in the disputed territory, in two gun battles south of Srinagar.
(Reuters, 11/17/21)
2021 Nov 19, Indian PM Narendra Modi said he would repeal agriculture laws that farmers have been protesting against for more than a year, sparking celebrations for what farmers called a hard-fought victory.
(Reuters, 11/19/21)
2021 Nov 19, In India at least 17 people died and dozens were reported missing in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh after days of heavy rains.
(AP, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Indian police said they had charged senior executives of Amazon.com's local unit under narcotics laws in a case of alleged marijuana smuggling via the online retailer.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 22, Indian farmers held a mass rally to demand minimum support prices be extended to all produce, not just rice and wheat.
(Reuters, 11/22/21)
2021 Nov 22, It was reported that India's salesmen face ruin as mom-and-pop stores are targeted by JioMart, an app rolled out by Reliance Industries billionaire Mukesh Ambani in his drive to revolutionize retail distribution in India.
(Reuters, 11/22/21)
2021 Nov 23, India said it will release 5 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves in coordination with other buyers including the United States, China, Japan and South Korea.
(Reuters, 11/23/21)
2021 Nov 23, India reported 7,579 new coronavirus infections, the smallest rise in one-and-a-half-years despite huge festival gatherings in recent weeks, thanks to rising vaccinations and antibodies from prior infections.
(Reuters, 11/23/21)
2021 Nov 23, The United States and India agreed to expand trade of some agricultural products, including US cherries, alfalfa and distiller dried grains as well as Indian mangoes, grapes, shrimp and water buffalo meat.
(Reuters, 11/23/21)
2021 Nov 24, It was reported that plans by the Indian government for a new bill that would bar most private cryptocurrencies has triggered heavy selling in the country's digital currency markets, as investors look to exit positions despite the losses.
(Reuters, 11/24/21)
2021 Nov 24, The US Trade Representative's office said that it is moving to terminate its trade retaliation case against India after Washington and New Delhi agreed on a global tax deal transition arrangement that will withdraw India's digital services tax.
(Reuters, 11/24/21)
2021 Nov 26, The Indian government advised people against subscribing to Starlink Internet Services, a division of billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX aerospace company, as it does not have a license to operate in the country.
(Reuters, 11/26/21)
2021 Nov 26, India said it will resume international passenger flights from mid-December with COVID-19 linked curbs for "at risk" countries, and ordered tightened screening at borders as fears over a new coronavirus variant spread globally.
(Reuters, 11/26/21)
2021 Nov 26, India restarted exports of COVID-19 shots to the global vaccine-sharing network COVAX for the first time since April, and producer Serum Institute of India (SII) forecast a substantial increase in supplies from early next year.
(Reuters, 11/26/21)
2021 Nov 27, Indian PM Narendra Modi told officials to review plans to ease travel restrictions as concerns rise over the new Omicron variant of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 11/27/21)
2021 Nov 29, India's parliament passed a bill to repeal three laws aiming at deregulating agricultural markets, bowing to pressure from farmers who have protested for over a year to demand that the laws be rolled back.
(Reuters, 11/29/21)
2021 Nov 30, India's health ministry said states should ramp up COVID-19 testing as the world battles the new coronavirus variant Omicron, while some cities delayed the reopening of schools as a precautionary measure.
(Reuters, 11/30/21)
2021 Dec 1, It was reported that India's northern Haryana and Punjab states have suffered electricity cuts after a directive to stop operating six of the 11 coal-fired power plants around national capital New Delhi in a bid to reduce pollution.
(Reuters, 12/1/21)
2021 Dec 2, India's capital New Delhi ordered the closure of schools and colleges until further notice from Dec. 3 after the Supreme Court criticized the city government for reopening educational institutions despite "very poor" air quality.
(Reuters, 12/2/21)
2021 Dec 2, India reported its first two cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant but the government said it had no immediate plan to authorize booster vaccine shots despite demands from lawmakers.
(Reuters, 12/2/21)
2021 Dec 3, It was reported that India has revoked a patent for a potato variety grown exclusively for PepsiCo Inc's popular Lay's potato chips.
(Reuters, 12/3/21)
2021 Dec 3, The United Nations Development Program said it aims to almost triple its plastic waste management to 100 cities in India by 2024. India generates about 3.4 million tons of plastic waste annually.
(Reuters, 12/3/21)
2021 Dec 4, India reported 8,603 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total to 34.62 million. Deaths rose by 415 to 470,530. India also reported its third case of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
(Reuters, 12/4/21)
2021 Dec 4, In India at least 14 civilians and one member of the security forces were killed in Nagaland state late today, after Indian forces mistook a group of laborers for militants and opened fire.
(Reuters, 12/5/21)
2021 Dec 5, In India protesters threw stones and set fire to areas around a camp belonging to Indian forces in the remote northeast, with one civilian shot dead in renewed violence. 14 civilians and a soldier were killed over the last 24 hours in a series of attacks in the northeastern state of Nagaland. Twelve of men, most of them coal miners, were from Oting village.
(Reuters, 12/5/21)(AP, 12/22/21)
2021 Dec 6, India and Russia signed 28 investment pacts, including deals on steel, shipbuilding, coal and energy. Moscow and New Delhi also signed a deal that will see India produce more than 600,000 AK-203 assault rifles.
(Reuters, 12/6/21)
2021 Dec 8, The head of India's armed forces, General Bipin Rawat, was among 13 people killed when the military helicopter they were traveling in crashed. A lone survivor succumbed to his injuries on Dec. 15.
(Reuters, 12/8/21)(Reuters, 12/15/21)
2021 Dec 9, Indian farmers called off a year-long protest after the government conceded a clutch of demands, including assurances to consider guaranteed prices for all produce, instead of just rice and wheat.
(Reuters, 12/9/21)
2021 Dec 13, India's PM Narendra Modi opened part of a large-scale development project in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh state, looking to garner support ahead of key state elections. The Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham mega project was first commissioned in 2019.
(SFC, 12/14/21, p.A2)
2021 Dec 13, India's western state of Gujarat has acknowledged more COVID-19 deaths than its official tally, according to a court document filed today, lending weight to fears that the country's actual toll was much higher than reported.
(Reuters, 12/13/21)
2021 Dec 14, Indian troops killed a suspected militant during a gunbattle in the federally-controlled Jammu and Kashmir region.
(Reuters, 12/14/21)
2021 Dec 14, Vaccine producer the Serum Institute of India (SII) and a government official said India is struggling to export its surplus of COVID-19 vaccines as logistical hurdles delay their use in many countries despite low levels of inoculation.
(Reuters, 12/14/21)
2021 Dec 14, A World Trade Organization panel ruled in favor of Brazil, Australia and Guatemala in their trade disputes with India over sugar subsidies and asked New Delhi to conform with global rules.
(Reuters, 12/14/21)
2021 Dec 15, It was reported that India has approved a $10 billion incentive plan to attract semiconductor and display manufacturers, as part of a deepening push to establish the country as a global electronics production hub.
(Reuters, 12/15/21)
2021 Dec 16, In India three people were killed and 10 injured in a fire at a plant owned by Indian chemicals maker Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd in the western state of Gujarat.
(Reuters, 12/16/21)
2021 Dec 17, India's health ministry said it has detected a total of 101 cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, adding some districts were showing a rise in overall infections relative to tests.
(Reuters, 12/17/21)
2021 Dec 17, India's antitrust agency suspended Amazon.com's 2019 deal with Future Group, potentially denting the US e-commerce giant's attempts to block the sale of Future's retail assets to an Indian market leader.
(Reuters, 12/17/21)
2021 Dec 17, The World Health Organization issued an emergency use listing to Serum Institute of India's version of US-based Novavax Inc's COVID-19 vaccine, paving the way for the two companies to ship their doses for the COVAX program. This was the 9th vaccine to be granted emergency use by the WHO
(Reuters, 12/17/21)(SFC, 12/18/21, p.A5)
2021 Dec 18, In India a Chennai district government said more than 150 employees at a Foxconn factory that makes iPhones for Apple Inc were hospitalized for food poisoning this week but almost all have now been discharged. Indian police detained scores of people for blocking highways in a protest against the food poisoning incident. Dozens of those detained were soon released.
(Reuters, 12/18/21)(Reuters, 12/19/21)(Reuters, 12/20/21)
2021 Dec 18, In India a man was beaten to death in the northern city of Amritsar after he allegedly attempted to commit a sacrilegious act inside the historic Golden Temple, one of Sikhs' most revered shrines.
(AP, 12/18/21)
2021 Dec 20, India's market regulator ordered a year-long suspension of futures trading in key farm commodities, as the world's biggest importer of vegetable oils, and a major producer of wheat and rice, struggles to tame food inflation.
(Reuters, 12/20/21)
2021 Dec 20, India allowed imports of refined palm oil until December 2022, as the world's biggest vegetable oil buyer tries to bring down edible oil prices.
(Reuters, 12/20/21)
2021 Dec 20, Indian vaccine maker Bharat Biotech said it has submitted an application to the country's drug regulator to conduct a late-stage trial for a booster dose of its intranasal COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reuters, 12/20/21)
2021 Dec 21, It was reported that Apple supplier Foxconn's plant near Chennai in southern India remained shut this week following protests sparked by a food poisoning incident.
(Reuters, 12/21/21)
2021 Dec 21, In eastern India a fire at Indian Oil Corp's Haldia refinery killed three people and injured 44.
(Reuters, 12/21/21)
2021 Dec 22, India's capital New Delhi banned Christmas and other celebrations ahead of New Year to contain a possible surge in the Omicron coronavirus variant, as the city reported the country's highest number of cases along with Maharashtra state.
(Reuters, 12/22/21)
2021 Dec 22, It was reported that Sony's India unit has finalized a deal with local rival Zee Entertainment to merge their television channels, film assets and streaming platforms, joining forces to take on the likes of Netflix and Disney in India.
(Reuters, 12/22/21)
2021 Dec 23, Indian PM Narendra Modi asked chiefs of states to ramp up oxygen supplies and strengthen health infrastructure to contain a possible surge of Omicron cases ahead of the festive season, as gatherings in public spaces and markets grow in size. India recorded 236 Omicron coronavirus cases across 16 states over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 12/23/21)
2021 Dec 24, In India police in Uttarakhand announced an investigation into a 3-day conference in Haridwar where hundreds of right-wing Hindu activists and monks took an oath to turn the country into a Hindu nation. Monks at the conference had called for other Hindus to arm themselves and kill Muslims.
(SFC, 12/27/21, p.A4)
2021 Dec 25, India's Bharat Biotech said its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin has gained approval for emergency use in children aged 12 to 18. PM Narendra Modi said in an address to the nation that 15-18 year olds would start receiving COVID-19 vaccinations from Jan. 3.
(Reuters, 12/25/21)
2021 Dec 27, The Indian government "refused" to renew a permission that is vital for Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity to be able to secure foreign funds, cutting off a key source the charity has depended on to run its programs for the impoverished.
(Reuters, 12/27/21)
2021 Dec 27, In India a Tamil Nadu state official said a Foxconn iPhone factory at the center of a mass food-poisoning incident will extend a week-long closure by an extra three days.
(Reuters, 12/27/21)
2021 Dec 28, India said it has approved Merck's COVID-19 pill and two more vaccines for emergency use as the world's second most populous country braces for a possible spike in coronavirus cases due to the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.
(Reuters, 12/28/21)
2021 Dec 29, It was reported that Indian tax officials have seized more than $30 million in cash and gold in raids on suspected tax evaders this week including a record haul of 1.94 billion rupees ($26 million) and 23 kg of gold ahead of assembly elections in five states.
(Reuters, 12/29/21)
2021 Dec 29, Apple said it had placed the southern Indian factory of iPhone assembler Foxconn on probation after both companies found that some worker dormitories and dining rooms did not meet required standards.
(Reuters, 12/29/21)
2021 Dec 30, Indian authorities started to impose stringent rules to prevent mass gatherings at new year's parties and public venues to combat a spike in COVID-19 infections, even as top leaders led large political rallies.
(Reuters, 12/30/21)
2021 Dec 30, Indian security forces shot dead six militants and lost one soldier in a series of operations in disputed Kashmir, as a crackdown against insurgent groups continues after a spate of civilian killings this year.
(Reuters, 12/30/21)
2021 Dec 31, India's competition watchdog ordered an investigation into Apple Inc's business practices in the country, saying it was of the initial view that the iPhone maker had violated certain antitrust laws.
(Reuters, 12/31/21)
2040 In 2006 it was projected that the total number of cars in India and China could rise from some 30 million to 750 million.
(Econ, 9/16/06, Survey p.20)
2044 The major rivers of India could be wiped out by this time based on 2004 estimates from receding Himalayan glaciers.
(ST, 4/30/04, p.A3)
2065 India’s population was expected to peak at about 1.64 billion.
(Econ, 5/23/15, SR p.4)
End of file
Return to home
Go to India_A thru 1991
Go to India_B 1992-2003
Go to India C 2004-2006
Go To India D 2007-2015
2016 Jan 1, In India more than a million private cars were banned from New Delhi's roads, as authorities began testing drastic new measures to cut smog in the world's most polluted capital. For the next 15 days private cars will only be allowed on the city's roads every other day to try to reduce pollutant levels.
(AFP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 2, In northern India 6 gunmen launched a deadly attack on an Air Force base in Pathankot, Punjab state, exchanging fire with Indian forces who, backed by tanks and helicopters, battled for over 15 hours before wresting back control of the compound. All the attackers and at least 7 Indian soldiers were killed. India blamed militants from Pakistan.
(Reuters, 1/2/16)(SSFC, 1/3/16, p.A6)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.34)
2016 Jan 3, Indian troops were still battling at least two gunmen at the Pathankot air force base near the border with Pakistan. At least 7 troops and 4 gunmen have been killed in the fighting so far.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 4, Indian security forces battled for the third day to clear out militants who attacked the Pathankot Air Force base in Punjab state and killed 7 soldiers.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, A powerful earthquake struck northeast India and Bangladesh, killing at least 11 people and injuring nearly 200, with efforts to reach remote areas where people may be trapped hampered by severed power lines and telecommunication links.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 5, India said defense forces have killed the last of the six militants who attacked the Pathankot Air Force base near the Pakistan border over the weekend.
(AP, 1/5/16)
2016 Jan 6, In northeastern India a bus fell into a pond in the remote northeast, killing 13 people in Tripura state.
(AP, 1/6/16)
2016 Jan 7, In India Mufti Mohammed Sayeed (79), a top elected pro-India leader of Kashmir, died in a New Delhi hospital of pneumonia. He tried to win over insurgent groups in the troubled region.
(AP, 1/7/16)
2016 Jan 11, An Indian court sentenced nearly three dozen crew members of an American-owned ship to five years in prison for illegally entering Indian waters while carrying weapons and ammunition. The Seaman Guard Ohio was intercepted in October 2013 by India's coast guard off the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
(AP, 1/12/16)(Econ, 1/23/16, p.41)
2016 Jan 11, In southeastern India short-finned pilot whales began washing up on beaches in the port town of Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu state. Records showed that the last time whales washed up on the beaches of Tuticorin in large numbers was in 1973.
(AP, 1/12/16)
2016 Jan 17, Rohith Chakravarti Vemula (b.1989, an Indian PhD student at the University of Hyderabad, committed suicide. The University had reportedly stopped paying him a fellowship of 25,000 rupees per month after he was found "raising issues under the banner of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA)." His suicide sparked protests and outrage from across India and gained widespread media attention as an alleged case of discrimination against Dalits and low status caste in India.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohith_Vemula)
2016 Jan 23, India's government started declassifying secret files to settle questions over the death of Subhash Chandra Bose (1897-1945), a Congress party leader who formed a national army to fight British colonial rulers with the help of the Japanese in the 1940s.
(AP, 1/23/16)(Econ, 1/30/16, p.33)
2016 Jan 24, French Pres. Hollande began a 3-day visit to India.
(SFC, 1/25/16, p.A2)
2016 Jan 25, India signed an inter-governmental pact to buy 36 French-built Rafale fighter planes, but the leaders of both countries said there was still work to do to finalize financial terms after months of talks.
(Reuters, 1/25/16)
2016 Jan 27, In eastern India suspected Maoist rebels detonated a land mine, killing seven policemen and injuring six others.
(AP, 1/28/16)
2016 Jan, It was reported some 25k to 50k people in greater New Delhi die prematurely every year because of air pollution. The WHO has ranked India’s capital as the world’s most polluted big city.
(Econ, 1/16/16, p.43)
2016 Feb 3, An avalanche hit the Siachen Glacier in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir early today, trapping 10 Indian army soldiers in the snow. On Feb 8 soldier Hanamanthappa Koppad was found conscious and disoriented as the bodies of 9 others were recovered. Koppad died of his injuries on Feb 11.
(AP, 2/3/16)(AP, 2/9/16)(Reuters, 2/11/16)
2016 Feb 5, In Nepal vehicles passed through Birgunj, the main border town between Nepal and India, after frustrated local residents forcefully removed barriers set up by ethnic protesters who blockaded the border to demand changes in the new constitution.
(AP, 2/5/16)
2016 Feb 10, In India millions of children began getting deworming treatment in a massive national campaign to prevent parasitic worms from infecting them and impairing their mental and physical development.
(AP, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 11, Indian authorities detained dozens of Kashmiri activists and placed separatist leaders under house arrest to prevent them from holding anti-India protests to mark the anniversary of a top separatist leader's hanging more than three decades ago.
(AP, 2/11/16)
2016 Feb 12, Coca-Cola said it has suspended bottling at three plants in India, including one in the parched northwest where farmers have been protesting the company's use of dwindling groundwater reserves.
(AP, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 15, In India massive protests paralyzed a top university after the president of the student union was arrested on charges of sedition. Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested Feb 12 over a demonstration days earlier at Jawaharlal Nehru University to mark the anniversary of the 2013 execution of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri man convicted of an attack on India's Parliament.
(AP, 2/15/16)
2016 Feb 16, In India students, journalists and teachers protested in New Delhi after a student union leader's arrest and subsequent violence by Hindu nationalists.
(AP, 2/16/16)
2016 Feb 17, In India dozens of lawyers, many with links to the ruling nationalist party, attacked protesters in New Delhi who have been demanding the release of a university student leader arrested under colonial-era sedition laws.
(AP, 2/17/16)
2016 Feb 17, Indian government officials said said they have halted potash imports for the year to end-March and delayed negotiations for next year's purchases until at least June, as droughts have dented demand in one of the world's biggest fertilizer consumers.
(Reuters, 2/17/16)
2016 Feb 18, In India a protest that rocked a New Delhi university this week spread across the country, with students and teachers in at least 10 cities demanding the release of student leader Kanhaiya Kumar arrested on sedition charges and accused of being anti-Indian.
(AP, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 20, India pledged $250 million for post-earthquake reconstruction in Nepal as the two countries try to heal strained ties following protests in Nepal over the country's new constitution.
(AP, 2/20/16)
2016 Feb 20, In northern India hundreds of army and paramilitary soldiers tried to quell protests by angry mobs demanding government benefits in Haryana state, with at least 10 people killed in clashes between security forces and protesters.
(AP, 2/20/16)(AFP, 2/21/16)
2016 Feb 21, India deployed thousands of troops in Haryana state to quell protests that have severely hit water supplies to Delhi, a city of more than 20 million people. Rioting and looting by the Jats, a rural caste, is symptomatic of increasingly fierce competition for government jobs and educational openings.
(Reuters, 2/21/16)
2016 Feb 22, Rural Indian protesters paralyzed northern Haryana state despite a deal giving them more government jobs, but there was relief for New Delhi's 20 million residents as the army retook control of their main water source. Days of riots killed at least 28 people.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)(AFP, 2/22/16)(Econ, 2/27/16, p.29)
2016 Feb 22, Indian security forces battled for a third day amid heavy gunfire to clear militants who stormed a government building in the disputed Kashmir region and killed six people.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 23, In India thousands of students and teachers marched through the heart of New Delhi to protest the recent death of a student who faced caste discrimination and the arrest of a student leader on sedition charges.
(AP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 28, In India Hasnain Warekar (35) stabbed 14 members of his own family to death, including seven children, before hanging himself in Thane.
(Reuters, 2/28/16)(SFC, 1/29/16, p.A2)
2016 Feb 29, India introduced an additional 'green' tax on car sales, aimed at helping fight high levels of air pollution and congestion but hitting car makers that fear this could stall a fragile recovery in the market for their products.
(Reuters, 2/29/16)
2016 Feb, Chandrasekhar Reddy’s film 'Fireflies in the Abyss' won the award for Best Film in the Mumbai International Film Festival. It focused on children working in coal mines in Meghalaya state, many of which are illegal.
(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Mar 1, In central India security forces killed 8 suspected Maoist militants, including five women, in a raid on a rebel training camp in Chhattisgarh state.
(Reuters, 3/1/16)
2016 Mar 2, An Indian court said a university student leader can be freed on bail more than two weeks after he was detained for alleged sedition in a case that has sparked nationwide protests and accusations of government intolerance of dissent. The court said Kanhaiya Kumar could be released if he pays about $148 bail, refrains from political activity and is supervised by a faculty member at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
(AP, 3/2/16)
2016 Mar 3, In India a Tibetan (16) died in a New Delhi hospital three days after he set himself on fire in a protest against Chinese rule. He set himself on fire on Feb 29 in the northern city of Dehradun and was brought to New Delhi for treatment.
(AP, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 4, The Geneva-based World Trade Organization said India has filed a complaint against the United States over its measures raising fees on some applicants for temporary work visas, mostly involving the tech sector.
(AP, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 7, In India thousands of dead fish washed up on the banks of the polluted Ulsoor Lake in the southern technology hub of Bangalore. Sewage has been flowing into the lake, depleting its oxygen, and has been choked with water hyacinth with no effort by authorities to clear it.
(AP, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 7, In India a 15-year-old girl was fighting for her life in a New Delhi hospital after being raped and set on fire on the rooftop terrace of her family's home in a village outside the city. Police soon arrested a 20-year-old man and charged him with raping and burning the girl. The girl died on March 9.
(AP, 3/8/16)(AP, 3/9/16)
2016 Mar 7, In the Netherlands the Marshall Islands began legal proceedings against India at the International Court of Justice, as part of cases against three of the world's nuclear powers aimed at breathing new life into disarmament negotiations.
(AP, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 9, The Indian arm of global consumer giant Unilever said it has reached a settlement with hundreds of former employees 15 years after its thermometer plant in southern India was shut following accusations of mercury contamination.
(AP, 3/10/16)
2016 Mar 11, In India a massive cultural festival opened on the banks of the Yamuna River in the Indian capital despite concerns the sprawling construction of roads, ramps and pontoon bridges would irreparably damage the river's floodplains. The festival celebrating the Art of Living Foundation's 35th anniversary is expected to draw some 3.5 million visitors.
(AP, 3/11/16)
2016 Mar 20, In eastern India three elephants killed 4 people. One elephant in the group, a male, was tranquilized and later died.
(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, In India the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile called for China to engage in dialogue on autonomy for his people's homeland, as tens of thousands of Tibetans around the world voted for new leaders of a government that Beijing does not recognize.
(AP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 21, In India one man was after he walked out of his home in a village in Burdwan district of West Bengal state. The man encountered five elephants, and was tossed in the air and trampled by one of them.
(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 24, Pakistan arrested an Indian intelligence officer for his involvement in "subversive activities" in southwestern Baluchistan province and lodged a protest with India's envoy over the case. Kulbhushan Jadhav of India was arrested by Pakistan after he allegedly entered the country from Iran. Pakistani officials say he has been linked to 1,345 deaths in acts of terrorism in Pakistan, making secret trips to the country from Iran. The alleged spy was later sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court.
(AP, 3/25/16)(AP, 2/18/19)
2016 Mar 30, In central India Maoist rebels killed at least 7 paramilitary soldiers by blowing up their armored vehicle in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 3/30/16)
2016 Mar 30, Indian giant Tata Steel put its British business up for sale, sparking calls for the government to intervene and safeguard thousands of jobs in the crisis-hit industry.
(AFP, 3/30/16)
2016 Mar 31, In India an overpass under construction in Kolkata collapsed on to vehicles and street vendors below, killing 23 people with more than 100 people injured.
(Reuters, 4/1/16)
2016 Apr 2, In western India around 25 female activists were prevented from entering the Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra state, traditionally open only to men, a day after a Mumbai court ruled that women have a fundamental right to enter and pray inside temples.
(AP, 4/2/16)
2016 Apr 5, The Indian state of Bihar completely banned the sale of alcohol in a surprise move, including liquor at bars and hotels.
(AP, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 10, In southern India 108 people were killed and nearly 400 injured when a massive fire swept through a Hindu temple during an unauthorized fireworks display in the Kerala state village of Paravoor. Five employees of a fireworks manufacturer who was given the contract for running the show were soon taken into custody.
(AP, 4/10/16)(Reuters, 4/11/16)
2016 Apr 11, India launched its Unified Payment Interface (UPI), an electronic payments network. It is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and works by instantly transferring funds between two bank accounts on a mobile platform.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Payments_Interface)(Econ., 5/9/20, p.59)
2016 Apr 11, In India 10 people were electrocuted by an overhead high-voltage wire that fell on them during a demonstration outside a police station in the northeastern state of Assam. Police bullets hit the overhead cable, which came crashing down on the demonstrators demanding that police hand them two suspects arrested for the murder of two members of their tea workers community last week.
(AP, 4/11/16)
2016 Apr 12, In Kashmir 2 young men were killed in firing by Indian government forces at rock-throwing protesters, who were demanding the arrest of an Indian soldier for assaulting a girl (16) in a restroom.
(AP, 4/12/16)(Econ, 4/16/16, p.33)
2016 Apr 13, Indian authorities imposed a curfew in parts of Kashmir to stop fresh anti-India demonstrations following the killings of four people by Indian troops and a general strike called by separatists.
(AP, 4/13/16)
2016 Apr 15, India said it had suspended the diplomatic passport of embattled tycoon and lawmaker Vijay Mallya, who left the country last March 2 amid pressure from lenders to repay about $1.4 billion in debt owed by his defunct Kingfisher Airlines. On April 18 a Mumbai court issued a warrant for his arrest. In July the airline said its books had vanished.
(Reuters, 4/15/16)(Econ, 4/23/16, p.56)(Econ, 7/9/16, p.55)
2016 Apr 15, New Delhi imposed driving restrictions that will take around a million cars off its roads for the second time this year, seeking to improve air quality in the world's most polluted capital.
(AFP, 4/15/16)
2016 Apr 16, Conservationists said representatives from 13 Asian countries, meeting in New Delhi this week, have agreed to do more to protect tiger habitats.
(SFC, 4/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Apr 17, In India statewide marches in Gujarat calling for the freeing of Hardik Patel (22), a community leader who has been in jail since last October on sedition charges, turned violent in the town of Mehsana. Across the state more than 400 protesters were detained. Patel emerged overnight last year as leader of a mass movement demanding more government jobs and college places for the Patel -- or Patidar – community.
(Reuters, 4/17/16)
2016 Apr 17, In India a bus carrying members of an opera troupe plunged into a gorge killing at least 25 people in Orissa state.
(SFC, 4/18/16, p.A2)
2016 Apr 18, It was reported that India's capital has banned chewing tobacco in an effort to lower the high incidence of mouth and throat cancers. The ban was welcomed by health activists and doctors after it was announced last week.
(AP, 4/18/16)
2016 Apr 19, Indian officials said weeks of sweltering temperatures have caused more than 160 deaths in southern and eastern India.
(AP, 4/20/16)
2016 Apr 22, In northeastern India torrential rains triggered a mudslide that buried a labor camp bordering China in Arunachal Pradesh state, killing 17 people.
(AP, 4/22/16)
2016 Apr 22, In eastern India a fire killed 12 people who were sleeping after they attended a wedding in a village in Bihar state.
(AP, 4/22/16)
2016 Apr 28, India’s eastern state of Bihar issued an advisory asking people not to cook or conduct religious ceremonies between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. after 10 children and five adults were killed in a fire sparked during a Hindu prayer ceremony in the Aurangabad district. Accidental fires exacerbated by dry, hot and windy weather had swept through shantytowns and thatched-roof houses in villages killing 79 people. At least 300 people have died of heat-related illness this month including 110 in Orissa state, 137 in Telangana state and another 45 in Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 4/30/16)(http://tinyurl.com/znslygz)(SFC, 4/30/16, p.A4)
2016 Apr 28, In southern India a female law student (30) was sexually penetrated by sharp objects before being murdered in her home in Perumbavoor, Kerala state. On May 3 police detained three men for questioning in the rape and murder.
(AP, 5/3/16)
2016 Apr, India's Maharashtra state became the first in the country to ban village councils from imposing "social boycotts" that ostracize individuals or families for defying tradition.
(Reuters, 5/13/16)
2016 Apr, In India an American tourist was drugged and raped in her hotel room. On Dec 26 police said they have arrested four suspects including a tour guide, his associate, a car driver and a hotel worker. The suspects denied the accusations.
(SFC, 12/27/16, p.A2)
2016 May 2, In northern India dozens of fires were spreading unpredictably in the states of Uttarakhand and neighboring Himachal Pradesh. Massive wildfires in the two states have killed at least seven people in recent weeks. The fires extended into Nepal where 11 people have died fighting fires across the country, the worst in six years.
(AP, 5/2/16)(Reuters, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, A UN arbitration court ruled that India should release Italian marine Salvatore Girone, who has been detained in Delhi for more than four years, and allow him to return home.
(Reuters, 5/2/16)
2016 May 4, India's highest court ordered cigarette manufacturers to comply with controversial new rules requiring bigger health warnings on packets that sparked weeks-long factory shutdowns.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, In central India a passenger bus fell into a dry river bed after crashing through the railing of a bridge, killing 16 people in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 5/5/16)
2016 May 5, In central India a heavy rainstorm collapsed tents and gates at a sprawling Hindu pilgrimage site, killing at least 6 people and injuring 30 in the town of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh state. The festival is held every 12 years in Ujjain.
(AP, 5/5/16)
2016 May 11, Indian officials announced plans to close a tax loophole that allows its citizens to channel income through the tropical island of Mauritius and avoid paying taxes.
(AP, 5/11/16)
2016 May 11, India's government said South Asian nations will set up a toll-free helpline and online platform to fight human trafficking, and trace the thousands of children who go missing in the region annually. Ministers from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Nepal came to the agreement after a conference on child protection held under the auspices of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
(Reuters, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, In India television journalist Akhilesh Pratap Singh was also shot dead by unknown assailants as he returned home on a motorbike in restive Jharkhand state.
(AFP, 5/14/16)
2016 May 12, The World Health Organization said air pollution causes more than 3 million premature deaths worldwide every year. The worst air pollution was recorded at Zabol in Iran. The WHO said India has four of the 10 cities in the world with the worst air pollution and Saudi Arabia had two.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)(SFC, 5/13/16, p.A2)
2016 May 13, In India Rajdeo Ranjan, the local bureau chief for Hindi-language daily Hindustan, was travelling on his motorcycle in Bihar state when a group of unknown assailants shot him five times.
(AFP, 5/14/16)
2016 May 14, In southern India a truck and an overcrowded motorized rickshaw collided in Telangana state killing 16 people, half of them from a single family.
(AP, 5/15/16)
2016 May 14, In India an overcrowded boat sank following a village fair in West Bengal state. Rescuers soon recovered 18 bodies from the Hooghly river.
(AP, 5/16/16)
2016 May 19, Indian PM Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won power for the first time in the northeastern state of Assam.
(Reuters, 5/19/16)
2016 May 19, In northern India Phalodi wilted as the mercury reached a new high of 51 degrees Celsius, equivalent to 123.8 Fahrenheit, beating a 60-year-old record.
(AFP, 5/20/16)
2016 May 20, In India Masunda Kitada Oliver, a Congolese graduate student who had lived in India for over six years, hailed an auto rickshaw in New Delhi when three men insisted they had hired the vehicle. The men beat him up and hit him on the head with a stone, and he died later that night. India on May 25 promised swift punishment.
(AP, 5/25/16)
2016 May 21, In India Apple CEO Tim Cook laid out his company's plans for the vast Indian market in a meeting with PM Narendra Modi, who in turn sought Apple's support for his "Digital India" initiative focusing on e-education, health and increasing farmers' incomes.
(AP, 5/21/16)
2016 May 22, In northeastern India heavily armed rebels ambushed and killed 6 Indian paramilitary soldiers, including one officer. The soldiers were on their way for rescue work after a rain-triggered mudslide hit Chandel district in Manipur state.
(AP, 5/22/16)
2016 May 23, India said it will invest up to $500 million in a deal to develop a strategic port in Iran and both countries planned a number of projects they say are worth hundreds of millions of dollars as Indian PM Narendra Modi visited Tehran.
(AP, 5/23/16)
2016 May 23, The Indian Space Research Organization launched a small space shuttle on a rocket in southern India and completed a successful 13-minute test flight.
(AP, 5/24/16)
2016 May 26, In India a powerful blast in a chemical factory located near a residential area in a Mumbai suburb killed five people and left 92 injured.
(Reuters, 5/26/16)
2016 May 27, In Dharmsala, India, Lobsang Sangay was sworn in for his second term as prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile and said he will make maximum efforts to achieve regional autonomy for Tibet during his five-year term, but will prepare a strategy for the next 50 years if it's unsuccessful.
(AP, 5/27/16)
2016 May 29, Indian police in New Delhi said that they have arrested five people who assaulted six Africans in the Indian capital last week, as African diplomatic missions urged India's government to ensure the safety of Africans living in the country.
(AP, 5/29/16)
2016 May 31, In western India a fire broke out at a major ammunition depot, killing at least 17 army personnel at the Pulgaon ammunitions depot, Maharashtra state.
(AP, 5/31/16)
2016 May 31, In London the Walk Free Foundation's Global Slavery Index said about 45.8 million people around the world are trapped in modern slavery. India reportedly had the largest number of modern slaves, 18.35 million, followed by China with 3.39 million and Pakistan with 2.13 million.
(AP, 5/31/16)
2016 May, India passed a new bankruptcy law. It will allow banks from next year onward to foreclose on insolvent firms.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.56)
2016 Jun 2, An Indian court convicted 24 Hindu men for their role in one of the many deadly religious riots that swept across the western state of Gujarat for three months in 2002, leaving more than 1,000 dead.
(AP, 6/2/16)
2016 Jun 3, Indian officials said overnight slashes between police and followers of a revolutionary sect have left at least 24 dead after an operation in Uttar Pradesh to evict thousands of people from parkland erupted into violence.
(AFP, 6/3/16)
2016 Jun 3, Rebels in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir ambushed a convoy of Indian paramilitary soldiers in a busy market, killing at least 3 and injuring three others.
(AP, 6/3/16)
2016 Jun 4, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian PM Narendra Modi inaugurated a multi-million-dollar dam in western Afghanistan that will bring power and irrigation to vast tracts of the war-torn country. The Afghan-India Friendship Dam in Herat province, which borders Iran, was built with Indian aid at a cost of $300 million and was under construction for about a decade.
(AP, 6/4/16)
2016 Jun 5, India's PM Narendra Modi and Qatar's ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who visited India in March 2015, signed seven agreements to strengthen ties. Modi had arrived June 4 and met with Indian laborers that evening.
(AP, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 5, In western India a speeding bus struck two cars on the Navi Mumbai highway in a crash that killed at least 17 people and injured 35 others.
(AP, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 7, The members of the Missile Technology Control Regime, a key anti-proliferation grouping, agreed to admit India as a deadline for members of the 34-nation group to object to India's admission expired a day earlier without any of them raising objections. Later today PM Narendra Modi met with US Pres. Obama in Washington.
(Reuters, 6/7/16)
2016 Jun 8, In southern India annual monsoon rains arrived at the Kerala coast, a day later than forecast, easing fears over farm and economic growth after two straight droughts hit rural income and agricultural output.
(Reuters, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 14, In northeastern India a passenger bus skidded off a mountain road and fell into a gorge in Meghalaya state, killing at least 25 people near Sonapur town.
(AP, 6/15/16)
2016 Jun 17, Indian PM Narendra Modi and Thailand’s PM Prayuth Chan-ocha agreed in New Delhi to increase cooperation in tackling terrorism, threats to cybersecurity, narcotics, transnational economic offenses and human trafficking.
(AP, 6/17/16)
2016 Jun 17, In India the film “Udta Punjab" was released. It dramatized the state’s struggle with drugs. A recent study found that 20% of the young men in Punjab use opioids. Injectable heroine appeared about five years ago and quickly became the drug of choice.
(Econ, 6/25/16, p.34)
2016 Jun 21, India's PM Narendra Modi joined a crowd of 30,000 schoolchildren and other residents of the northern city of Chandigarh for a mass yoga session as millions of people twisted their bodies in complex positions in celebration of International Yoga Day.
(AP, 6/21/16)
2016 Jun 22, Indian officials said lightning has killed 74 people, mostly farm laborers working in fields, across eastern and northern India over the past 24 hours.
(AP, 6/22/16)
2016 Jun 28, In India Isak Chishi Swu (87), a militant leader of the Naga tribal insurgency, died in New Delhi without being able to see his people reach a long-negotiated peace accord with the Indian government.
(AP, 6/28/16)
2016 Jul 1, In northern India torrential rains triggered heavy floods and landslides that poured down hills in Uttarakhand state, killing at least 18 people and destroying dozens of homes. At least 25 people were missing in seven villages in Pithoragarh.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 3, An Indian official said at least 40 people were feared dead following a weekend downpour that triggered flash floods and landslides in Uttarakhand state.
(Reuters, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 4, US intelligence group SITE said a regional branch of al Qaeda has urged Muslims in India to revolt and carry out lone wolf attacks.
(Reuters, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 8, Indian PM Narendra Modi took his Africa tour to South Africa, seeking to boost trade between two countries.
(AFP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Indian security services Jammu and Kashmir state shot dead Burhan Wani (22), a militant known for his calls to arms on social media and leader of Hizb-ul Mujahideen, one of a number of groups fighting Indian control of the Muslim-majority region.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, In India’s Jammu and Kashmir state at least 9 protesters died as crowds angered by the killing of a separatist militant clashed with armed police, torching buildings and blocking streets. Over 20,000 people had gathered for the funeral of Burhan Wani, killed a day earlier.
(AP, 7/9/16)(Econ, 7/16/16, p.33)
2016 Jul 10, The death toll in India's northern Jammu and Kashmir state rose to 20 as clashes between Indian troops and protesters killed 4 protesters and a police officer, despite a curfew imposed in the to suppress anti-India anger following the killing of a popular rebel commander.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Tanzania visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi and President John Pombe Magufuli signed five agreements, including one to provide credit $92 million to improve water accessibility on the island of Zanzibar.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 11, Indian authorities struggled to contain street protests by Kashmiris defying patrols and a stringent curfew after at least 25 people died in clashes that followed the killing of a top rebel leader.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Indian PM Narendra Modi Monday held talks with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi and agreed to further expand investment ties between the two countries and diversify trade.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 12, India's PM Narendra Modi called an emergency meeting over escalating anti-India protests in Kashmir, where at least 29 people have died in clashes and hospitals are struggling with hundreds of injured.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 15, In Kashmir widespread anti-India protests and clashes erupted in dozens of places, even as authorities prevented tens of thousands of people from offering prayers in big mosques with a lockdown in place for a seventh straight day.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, UNESCO put four new sites on its World Heritage List. The new sites, announced in Istanbul, include China's Zuojiang Huashan rock art cultural landscape, Iran's ancient aqueducts known as Qanat, and India's archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara. The World Heritage Committee also selected Micronesia's artificial islets of Nan Madol and simultaneously placed it on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 17, Police in India said at least 19 people died and six others were blinded after drinking toxic bootleg liquor. Another 50 people fell ill after consuming the home-brewed liquor on July 15 and were being treated in hospitals in Etah district in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 18, India's top environmental court ordered authorities to remove all diesel vehicles at least 10 years old off the capital city's streets in a bid to help clean New Delhi's polluted air.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, Police in eastern India said at least 8 paramilitary soldiers were killed in an attack by Maoist rebels.
(SFC, 7/19/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 19, India's top court ordered Rahul Gandhi, a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family, to express regret or face defamation charges for blaming the country's top Hindu nationalist organization for the 1948 assassination of independence leader Mohandas Gandhi.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, In India a police officer was killed during clashes in Una, 340 km (210 miles) from Gujarat's main city, Ahmedabad, where tannery workers were attacked by self-styled hardline Hindu cow protectors.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 19, Authorities lifted a three-day publication ban in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, but newspapers delayed print runs due to uncertainties about the media restrictions.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 20, In India protesters from the low-caste Dalit community blocked roads and attacked government buses in PM Narendra Modi's home state in a third day of demonstrations over the flogging of four men accused of skinning a cow. Opposition lawmakers disrupted parliament to protest against the floggings in Gujarat and demanded that PM Modi apologize to the victims.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Police in northern India said that they have arrested two men for raping a young woman for the second time in three years. The woman told police that she was gang-raped again on July 13 because she was unwilling to withdraw the case.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Government forces in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir removed dozens of black and Pakistani flags hoisted by residents observing a "black day" to protest the killing of a top rebel leader.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 22, The Indian air force lost contact with a transport plane carrying 29 people to islands in the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, Two more people died in Indian-controlled Kashmir, as anti-India protests and clashes with government forces persisted despite a strict curfew in place for a 14th straight day.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 24, In India an Israeli tourist (25) was raped after she accepted a car ride while traveling in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh. Police soon arrested two of six men and a search was on for the other four.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 26, In northeast India local authorities in Assam state said more than 1.2 million people have been hit by floods which have submerged hundreds of villages, inundated large swathes of farmland and damaged roads, bridges and telecommunications services. At least 7 people were reported killed.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)(AP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 27, India signed a contract to buy four maritime spy planes from Boeing Co for about $1 billion, aiming to bolster the navy as it tries to check China's presence in the Indian Ocean.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 28, In India a shopkeeper of the Brahmin caste axed to death a couple from the lower Dalit caste for not promptly paying a meager debt of 15 rupees (22 cents) for groceries in Mainpuri town, Uttar Pradesh state. The couple left behind five children. The shopkeeper fled but was soon arrested.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 28, India's upper house of parliament passed a bill late that would give state governments more than 60 billion rupees ($895 million) a year to conserve and protect forests and wildlife. Analysts and activists said the bill ignores the importance of indigenous people in conserving land and tramples on their rights.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, Indian police in Bihar state arrested Hindu nationalist leader Dayashankar Singh on charges alleging he insulted a senior female politician by describing her as "worse than a prostitute." Singh was expelled last week from PM Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party for making the remark against Mayawati, a leader representing millions of lower-caste Dalits.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, India’s government said persistent heavy rains have caused widespread disruption in major cities and severe floods in the rugged northeast have killed at least 12 people.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In India a portion of a 13-story building under construction in the western city of Pune collapsed, killing at least 8 workers.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In northern India a woman and her 14-year-old daughter were gang-raped off a busy highway near the town of Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh state, after their car was stopped by a gang of men. 15 suspects were soon detained.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 30, India's army said that two rebels and two soldiers were killed in an overnight gunbattle close to the cease-fire line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, as a curfew continued to be enforced in parts of Indian-held Kashmir.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, Indian authorities tried to rescue thousands of people stranded in flooded villages after a week of heavy rain killed at least 52 people and uprooted tens of thousands of others from their homes in the states of Assam in the remote northeast and Bihar in the east.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In India 32 people were killed by lightning in the eastern state of Odisha.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In India at least 9 people were killed when a three-storey building collapsed in heavy rains in a Mumbai suburb.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, India's foreign minister said the government is providing food aid to thousands of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia who are not able to buy food after losing their jobs in the kingdom.
(AP, 7/31/16)
2016 Aug 1, India's government said it plans to evacuate thousands of Indian workers who have lost their jobs in Saudi Arabia and cannot afford to pay for a flight home. The workers were mostly employed by Saudi construction companies and were laid off amid a slowdown in the industry caused by low global oil prices.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, An Indian bank issued the first ever offshore rupee-denominated bond in London, a landmark celebrated by officials keen to highlight Britain's international business prowess despite Brexit.
(AFP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, In India man walked into the house of a girl (17) in Villupuram, Tamil Nadu state, set himself on fire and hugged her, all the while saying that he would not let her live for spurning him. He had stalked her for over a year and she had said no repeatedly. The girl died three days later.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 2, Indian officials said the death toll in flooding from heavy monsoon rains has climbed to 96, with about a million people taking shelter in government-run relief camps. A century-old bridge over the Savitri River between Mumbai and Goa collapsed killing at least 20 people.
(AP, 8/2/16)(Econ, 10/15/16, p.75)
2016 Aug 5, In northeastern India 5-6 gunmen opened fire on a busy market in Balajan, Assam state, killing 12 people and wounding several others. Authorities blamed the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). One of the gunmen was killed.
(AFP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 10, In India a stream of cars, motorcycles and pedestrians passed by an injured man struck by a delivery truck on a New Delhi street, leaving him to die.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 11, An Indian government panel cleared commercial use for indigenously developed GM mustard seeds in what would be the country’s first genetically modified (GM) food crop. Politicians still needed to give final approvals amid wide-spread public opposition.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 13, Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir extended a strict curfew to most parts of the restive region as separatist leaders called for weekend protests against Indian rule.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 15, In Indian-controlled Kashmir at least one paramilitary soldier and four suspected rebels were killed in a series of gunbattles despite a security lockdown in the disputed region, as India celebrated the anniversary of its independence from British rule. Ten government troops were also wounded.
(AP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 17, Militants ambushed an Indian military convoy in Kashmir, killing three personnel, in an escalation of violence that officials have blamed on separatist protests that have tied down security forces for more than a month. Army soldiers and counterinsurgency police officers raided Khrew village late today and took Shabir Ahmed and around 30 other people into custody. The body of Ahmed, a young college teacher, was returned to his family early the next day.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)(AP, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 20, India’s PM Narendra Modi appointed Urjit Patel as head of the Reserve Bank of India.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.54)
2016 Aug 21, Indian army soldiers killed 3 suspected rebels near the heavily militarized line of control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
(AP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 22, Indian officials said at least 40 people have died and hundreds of thousands have been evacuated as floods hit vast swathes of central and eastern India in recent days.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 24, India said it is investigating the extent to which secrets about French Scorpene submarines being built in the country have been compromised, after a leak of documents relating to its combat capabilities. The leak contains more than 22,000 pages outlining the secret capabilities of six submarines that French builder DCNS has designed for the Indian Navy.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, An Indian official said heavy monsoon rains have ended two successive drought years with the Ganges River and its tributaries rising above the danger level, triggering evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from flooded homes in the north and east. Drowning, electrocution or injuries from collapsed houses have killed at least 175 people this season.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, Indian government forces fired shotguns and tear gas in India's portion of Kashmir to break up new protests demanding an end to Indian rule in the disputed region, killing a young man and wounding dozens of other people.
(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 25, Authorities in eastern India struggled to evacuate more than 100,000 people stranded in villages after floods intensified, killing more than 300 and driving hundreds of thousands from their homes.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 26, Police in India's portion of Kashmir arrested Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, one of the key separatist leaders spearheading protests against Indian rule. Farooq, already under house arrest, was locked up in a government facility in Srinagar. A young man was killed and dozens of civilians were wounded when Indian government forces fired bullets and shotguns to quell unrest in over a dozen places including Srinagar.
(AP, 8/27/16)(SFC, 8/27/16, p.A2)
2016 Aug 29, The United States and India signed an agreement governing the use of each other's land, air and naval bases for repair and resupply, a step toward building defense ties as they seek to counter the growing maritime assertiveness of China.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Sep 2, Indian PM Narendra Modi and visiting Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi agreed to boost cooperation in security and anti-terror efforts calling terrorism one of the gravest threats their countries face.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, In India millions of public sector workers across the country went on strike to protest economic reforms, saying the government's plan for raising the country's minimum wage for unskilled workers did not go far enough.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 12, India's technology hub of Bengaluru deployed riot police and banned public gatherings to rein in protests as a water dispute turned violent. The violence erupted after India's Supreme Court ordered Karnataka state, where Bengaluru is based, to release 12,000 cubic feet of water per second every day from the Cauvery river to neighboring Tamil Nadu until Sept. 20. Police gunfire killed one protester and injured another after rampaging mobs set fire to dozens of buses, trucks and cars and attacked shops and businesses in Bangalore and other parts of the state. Police arrested nearly 400 people for looting and vandalism after the curfew was imposed to quell violence.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)(AP, 9/13/16)(Econ, 9/17/16, p.40)
2016 Sep 14, In India PM Narendra Modi and Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghanicalled for an end to all sponsorship, support and sanctuaries to militants, including those who have committed violence in the two countries. India offered a fresh $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan for building capacity in education, health, agriculture, energy and infrastructure. They also signed an extradition treaty.
(AP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 18, In Kashmir a separatist attack on an army base in Uri near the disputed frontier killed 18 soldiers. 4 rebels were killed as the soldiers returned fire. India accused Pakistan of being behind the attack.
(Reuters, 9/18/16)(SFC, 919/16, p.A4)(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 20, Indian soldiers battled two groups of suspected militants along the highly militarized de facto border dividing the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, leaving one soldier dead. Indian soldiers killed 8 people trying to cross the disputed border.
(AP, 9/20/16)(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 24, India's PM Narendra Modi said he'll work to isolate Pakistan internationally, accusing India's archrival of trying to destabilize Asia by exporting terrorism.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 28, Officials said Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India have expressed their "inability" to attend the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) scheduled for November in Islamabad.
(AP, 9/28/16)
2016 Sep 29, Indian commandos carried out a series of lightning strikes along the de facto border with Pakistan in Kashmir, provoking furious charges of "naked aggression" from its nuclear-armed neighbor. Pakistan said two of its soldiers had been killed and nine more wounded in what it described as small arms fire. Pakistan said eight Indian soldiers died and that one was captured.
(AFP, 9/29/16)(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep, Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, launched Jio, a mobile telecoms network. Over the next six months it won 100 million customers.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.66)
2016 Oct 3, Indian and Pakistani troops fired at each other in disputed Kashmir, as Indian troops searched an army camp elsewhere in the region where suspected militants killed an Indian paramilitary soldier.
(AP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 6, Indian soldiers shot dead seven suspected militants who tried to attack two army bases in northern Kashmir, prompting anger from Pakistan as a crisis between the two neighbors over the disputed region grows.
(Reuters, 10/6/16)
2016 Oct 19, In Kashmir firing by Indian troops along the Line of Control, a ceasefire violation, killed one Pakistani and wounded 12.
(AP, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 20, In India the celebration of Bollywood and international film kicked off amid the sober announcement that at least one screening was canceled. The Pakistani classic "Jago Hua Savera," or "Awake, It's Dawn," was dropped from the Mumbai Film Festival schedule after a local organization claimed it would cause public outrage.
(AP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 23, In Kashmir shelling across the border between India and Pakistan killed two Pakistani civilians, an Indian soldier and a boy.
(Reuters, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 24, In eastern India police killed 24 rebels in a shoot-out near the border of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh states, one of the heaviest casualties inflicted in recent years on the Maoists who are waging a long-running insurgency.
(AFP, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 24, In India Ratan Tata orchestrated the firing of Cyrus Mistry from the Tata Holding Group holding company. Mistry continued to have support from some of the operating companies.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.12)
2016 Oct 28, In Kashmir soldiers from India and Pakistan continued to shell villages and border posts. An Indian paramilitary officer said a civilian and a soldier were killed by Pakistani firing.
(AP, 10/28/16)
2016 Oct 29, In Kashmir two Indian soldiers were killed in fighting with Pakistani soldiers and suspected militants along the volatile frontier.
(AP, 10/29/16)
2016 Nov 3, Pakistan named eight Indian diplomats it accuses of espionage and terrorism, as tension mounted between the nuclear-armed rivals following days of artillery duels and skirmishes on the border dividing the disputed Kashmir region.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 5, In Indian-controlled Kashmir at least 30 people were injured after government forces fired shotgun pellets and tear gas as a funeral procession for a teenager turned into a protest against Indian rule.
(AP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 6, In India the Delhi state government said that schools in the capital will be closed for the next three days, as the city struggles with one of the worst spells of air pollution in recent years.
(AFP, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, The Indian army said Pakistani shelling killed two of its soldiers at posts along the border of Indian-administered Kashmir. Five others including three civilians were injured.
(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 7, Pakistani officials said Indian troops have opened fire across the Line of Control in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing three civilians and wounding six others as Indian and Pakistani troops continue to trade heavy fire.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 8, Indian PM Narendra Modi announced that 500 and 1000 rupee banknotes would be withdrawn from the financial system at midnight, saying it was part of a crackdown on rampant corruption. He added that new 500 and 2,000 rupee denomination notes will be issued later. The discontinued tender represented 86% of all currency in circulation in India.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)(Econ, 11/12/16, p.68)
2016 Nov 8, Indian officials worked to restore the websites of seven Indian embassies in Europe and Africa that were hacked and had data dumped online. The security of the websites of Indian embassies in Italy, Switzerland, South Africa, Libya, Malawi, Mali and Romania was breached by hackers who identified themselves to the media as Kaputsky and Kasimierz L.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, Indian and Pakistani troops once again traded fire across the Line of Control in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing three civilians and wounding four others on the Pakistani side, and killing one Indian soldier.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, In India authorities in New Delhi began revoking licenses for thousands of older diesel vehicles and halted construction work on the underground rail network, as air pollution remained several times over the safety limit.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 9, In India the Maharashtra State Child Rights Protection Commission launched the Child Helpline for Information on Rights and Address Grievances (Chirag), a mobile app for people to report child abuse.
(Reuters, 11/10/16)
2016 Nov 14, Pakistan’s military said Indian troops fired on its soldiers in Kashmir killing seven and prompting return fire.
(SFC, 11/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 19, In northeastern India rebels ambushed two army vehicles and killed at least three soldiers and critically wounded four others in Assam state.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, Pakistan's military announced that it has shot down a small Indian drone after it allegedly trespassed into the country's part of Kashmir amid daylong cross-border firing that killed four villagers, including two sisters and their brother.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 20, In northern India at least 146 people were killed close to 200 injured when an express train derailed in Uttar Pradesh state. The death toll soon climbed to 148 after two more people died from their injuries.
(Reuters, 11/21/16)(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 21, Pakistan's military said Indian shelling has targeted several villages in Kashmir, killing four civilians and wounding 10.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 22, India's central bank relaxed rules on loans to farmers, asking the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development to disburse up to 230 billion rupees ($3.36 bln) to district cooperative banks for crop loans. The recent demonetization scheme has badly hit farmers, leaving them without cash just ahead of sowing winter crops.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Three Indian soldiers were killed along the highly militarized de facto border that divides the disputed region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 23, Police in India said eleven people have been arrested on suspicion of duping single women into selling their newborn babies and trafficking the infants inside biscuit containers to an adoption center to be sold on to childless couples. The Crime Investigation Department (CID) in West Bengal said more arrests were likely.
(Reuters, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, India’s Jharkhand state assembly approved changes to two laws that will allow the state to buy protected tribal land to lease to investors, and use agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. The approval sparked immediate protests.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 23, Indian troops fired on a Pakistani passenger bus in Kashmir, killing 10 civilians in one of the deadliest incidents in weeks of violence in the disputed region.
(AP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 24, In eastern India protests over land rights flared for a second day in the Jharkhand state, as activists and indigenous people took to the streets after the state assembly approved amendments to colonial-era land laws despite strong opposition.
(AP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 25, India's top court stopped firecracker sales in and around New Delhi as the worst season for air pollution began.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 25, Rebels fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir ambushed a police patrol, killing two officers. Two militants and an Indian soldier died in a separate gunfight in the disputed region.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 27, In India hundreds of gay rights activists marched in a parade in New Delhi, highlighting the continuing discrimination India's LGBT community faces and demanding the repeal of a law criminalizing homosexual acts.
(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 29, In northern India militants attacked an army base near the city of Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir state, killing at least seven security personnel and taking hostages in the boldest assault on a military base in the region in recent months. Three militants were also reported killed in the gunbattle. In another part of Kashmir Indian border forces exchanged fire with three suspected militants from Pakistan. All three were killed.
(Reuters, 11/29/16)(SFC, 11/30/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 30, Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir released prominent human rights activist Khurram Parvez (39) from prison after a court in the disputed region ruled that his 76-day detention under a controversial security law was illegal.
(AP, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov, India mandated that all moviegoers stand during the playing of the national anthem at all the country’s cinemas.
(SFC, 12/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 5, Jayaram Jayalalithaa (68), chief minister of India’s Tamil Nadu state, died in Chennai following a massive weekend cardiac arrest. The former movie star who enjoyed god-like status was buried the next day alongside her on-screen lover. V.K. Sasikala, Jayalithaa’s live-in assistant soon claimed the mantle of chief minister forcing out O. Paneerselvam (OPS). On Feb 7 OPS declared that he had been unfairly forced from office by Sasikala.
(AP, 12/6/16)(Econ, 2/11/17, p.33)
2016 Dec 8, In Kashmir at least one civilian was killed and dozens of others injured in protests against Indian rule that erupted following a gunbattle between rebels and government forces.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 11, In India a helicopter crashed and caught fire in Mumbai, killing the pilot and injuring three passengers. The Robinson R-44 helicopter belonged to Aman Aviation, a company that offers aerial viewing of the city.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, In India police arrested moviegoer S. Viji in Chennai for failing to stand during the playing of the national anthem.
(SFC, 12/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 12, A cyclone barreled into the southeast coast of India, killing at least four people and bringing down trees and power lines as authorities moved tens of thousands of people from low-lying areas.
(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 17, In Kashmir militants attacked an Indian army convoy, killing 3 soldiers.
(Reuters, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 19, In India five men were sentenced to death by an Indian court for their role in two deadly bombings in February 2013 in the city of Hyderabad. They included Yasin Bhatkal, the co-founder of the outlawed Indian Mujahideen Islamist group accused of involvement in a series of attacks.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, Human Rights Watch said nearly 600 people have died in Indian police custody from 2009-2015, many of them after being tortured.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, Pakistani movie theaters began screening Bollywood films again, ending an 11-week boycott in response to political and military tensions with India.
(Reuters, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 21, In India leading opposition figure Rahul Gandhi demanded an investigation into allegations that two Indian conglomerates paid millions of rupees as bribes to PM Narendra Modi in 2013-14 when he was governing a western state.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 23, In India an 18-month study, led by the My Choices Foundation in partnership with major anti-trafficking groups across India, found the average age of girls being trafficked had fallen to age 10 to 14 in recent years from 14 to 16 in the past.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 24, Indian PM Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for a massive memorial of a medieval warrior king that's expected to cost $530 million and has come under criticism from environmental activists and others. The memorial includes a proposed 192-meter (630-foot) -tall statue of Shivaji, a 16th century ruler from western India and will be built off the coast of Mumbai on land reclaimed from the Arabian Sea.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 25, Pakistani officials said 220 Indian fishermen have been released from a jail in Karachi and will be handed over to Indian authorities on Dec 26.
(AP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 29, In eastern India a coal mine collapse killed at least 10 workers and 13 others may be trapped by the mound of fallen earth at the Rajmahal Open Cast Mines in Jharkhand state. By Dec 31 the bodies of 16 of 23 trapped workers were recovered.
(AP, 12/30/16)(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 30, Indian PM Narendra Modi announced a slew of incentives to the poor, farmers, women and small businesses in a special New Year's address. He defended his shock decision to abolish high denomination bank notes as the window to exchange old notes closed.
(Reuters, 12/31/16)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.53)
2016 Dec 30, In western India six migrant workers, who had been locked inside a bakery by their employer, suffocated to death in a fire. This triggered calls for decades-old labor laws to be implemented to crack down on worker exploitation and abuse.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)
2016 Dec 31, In India several women were groped and assaulted by a mob in the Bangalore central business district as they celebrated New Year's Eve. The assaults spurred women's rights activists to demand that police investigate. On Dec 4 police detained six suspects in relation to the assaults.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)(SFC, 1/5/17, p.A3)
2016 Berenice Guyot-Richard, historian at London’s King’s College, authored “Shadow States: India, China and the Eastern Himalayas: 1910-1962."
(http://tinyurl.com/ybwfkqkb)(Econ 7/29/17, p.34)
2016 Nandian Nilekani a co-founder of IT giant Infosys, and Viral Shah authored “Rebooting India: Realising a Billion Aspirations."
(Econ, 3/12/16, p.79)
2016 Somini Sengupta authored “The End of Karma: Hope and Fury Among India’s Young."
(Econ, 3/19/16, p.89)
2016 Vinay Sitapati authored “Half-Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India."
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.71)
2016 India’s Muslim population numbered about 172 million.
(Econ, 10/29/16, p.32)
2017 Jan 2, India's top court prohibited politicians from using religion and caste to garner votes, a verdict that could force political parties to change their strategy in upcoming elections.
(Reuters, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 2, India and Sri Lanka agreed to release fishermen in each others' custody, a move that is likely to ease tensions between the countries which have held fishermen captive for crossing territorial waters.
(Reuters, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 4, Indian officials said police have rescued nearly 200 children, most of them under the age of 14, who had been found working in a brick kiln in the southern state of Telangana in one of the biggest operations in the region.
(Reuters, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, In India a 24-year-old housemaid died in hospital, two weeks after she was admitted with multiple fractures and injuries. She had said she was abused by her New Delhi employers after being lured to the city with the promise of a job.
(Reuters, 1/6/17)
2017 Jan 14, In eastern India at least 19 people drowned and others were missing after their overcrowded boat capsized in a river near Patna, Bihar state. The next day five more bodies were recovered from the Ganges river after as rescuers ended search operations.
(AP, 1/14/17)(Reuters, 1/15/17)
2017 Jan 14, In India Sunil Rastogi (38), a tailor, was arrested by police investigating sexual assaults on three girls aged between nine and ten in eastern Delhi in January and December. Rastogi confessed to abducting "hundreds" of girls since 2004 -- luring them with new clothes, and taking them to secluded places such as derelict buildings, where he would sexually assault and rape them.
(Reuters, 1/17/17)
2017 Jan 15, In eastern India at least six people were killed in a stampede during a Hindu religious festival.
(AP, 1/15/17)
2017 Jan 16, India's election commission backed Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, in his battle with his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, for control of their party, a feud PM Narendra Modi wants to exploit in a crucial election.
(Reuters, 1/16/17)
2017 Jan 16, In southern India police arrested an American man (42) in Hyderabad on suspicion of circulating child pornography on the internet.
(Reuters, 1/19/17)
2017 Jan 17, An Indian court sentenced 39 people to 10 years in prison each for buying and selling girls in Karnataka state, signaling a rare victory for prosecutors in a country where fewer than two in five trafficking cases ends in a conviction.
(Reuters, 1/18/17)
2017 Jan 19, In northern India a truck loaded with sand collided with a school bus early today, killing at least 24 young children in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 1/19/17)
2017 Jan 21, In India a train crash late today killed 39 passengers in Andhra Pradesh state.
(AFP, 1/22/17)
2017 Jan 22, In northeastern India rebels ambushed a patrol vehicle in Assam state, killing two paramilitary soldiers. An ongoing government counterattack has killed several rebels. Rebels participating in the attack included the United Liberation Front of Assam and groups from neighboring Manipur state.
(AP, 1/22/17)
2017 Jan 22, In India lawmakers in Tamil Nadu state passed an emergency order allowing bull-taming festivals (Jallikattu) to resume after a court ban on the traditional events led to mass protests. The Supreme Court had banned Jallikattu in 2014 and upheld the ban earlier this month.
(Reuters, 1/23/17)(Econ, 1/28/17, p.36)
2017 Jan 26, In Kashmir two separate avalanches buried a military post and swept away a patrol in Gurez, burying a total of 21 Indian soldiers. Seven soldiers were rescued. Over the next two days the remaining 14 bodies were recovered. Five of the rescued soldiers died on Jan 30.
(AP, 1/27/17)(SFC, 1/28/17, p.A2)(AP, 1/30/17)
2017 Jan 28, In India the BW Maple, with a total capacity of 82,000 cubic meters of liquefied petroleum gas, was half full when it collided near Chennai with the Indian ship Dawn Kanchipuram. Days later port authorities impounded the two ships and detained their crews after the collision caused an oil spill affecting marine life and local fishing.
(Reuters, 2/3/17)
2017 Jan 28, Bharati Mukherjee (76), Indian-American writer, died at NY Univ. Hospital. Her books included “The Tiger’s Daughter" (1972).
(SFC, 2/3/17, p.D3)
2017 Feb 1, In northern India a six-story tannery building under construction collapsed, killing at least five workers and possibly trapping up to 50 others in Kanpur city, Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 2/1/17)
2017 Feb 2, In northeastern India hundreds of protesters marched in the Nagaland state capital after setting ablaze half a dozen government buildings to protest a court decision. The protesters opposed a court ruling that would reserve 33 percent of seats for women in local municipal elections.
(AP, 2/2/17)
2017 Feb 6, In India Cyrus Mistry, the boss of Tata until last October, was finally booted out of the company. Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the boss of Tata Consultancy Services, took over as chairman on Feb 21. Mistry’s family held an 18% stake in Tata Sons, the main holding company.
(Econ, 2/11/17, p.54)
2017 Feb 11, Millions of voters in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, cast their ballots in a contest seen as a key test for Narendra Modi halfway through his first term as prime minister.
(AFP, 2/11/17)
2017 Feb 12, In Kashmir a protester was killed and dozens of others wounded as government forces fired at demonstrators demanding an end to Indian rule following a gunbattle that killed four suspected rebels, two soldiers and a civilian.
(AP, 2/12/17)
2017 Feb 14, India's top court upheld the corruption conviction of Sasikala Natarajan, the head of the ruling party in Tamil Nadu state, ending her chances of becoming the southern state's next chief minister.
(AP, 2/14/17)
2017 Feb 14, In northern Kashmir four Indian soldiers and four militants were killed in gunbattles in Bandipora district, in the second outbreak of violence between security forces and separatists in three days.
(Reuters, 2/14/17)
2017 Feb 15, The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, built by the Indian Space Research Organization, was launched with a record 104 satellites, 88 of which were made by Planet, a San Francisco-based company founded in 2010.
(Econ, 2/18/17, p.57)
2017 Feb 23, In the disputed region of Kashmir three Indian soldiers and a woman were killed when rebels ambushed soldiers in the southern Shopian area.
(AP, 2/23/17)
2017 Feb 26, In northeastern India at least 16 people were killed and 50 injured when a truck taking them to a church service overturned after hitting a concrete barricade on a highway in Meghalaya state.
(AP, 2/26/17)
2017 Mar 5, Anti-India protests erupted in Indian-controlled Kashmir following a fierce gunbattle in which two rebels and a counterinsurgency policeman were killed.
(AP, 3/5/17)
2017 Mar 7, An Indian court sentenced university professor G.N. Saibaba and four others to life imprisonment on charges of belonging to a banned communist rebel group and recruiting others to join them. Saibaba, arrested in 2014, is paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair. He has denied the charges.
(AP, 3/7/17)
2017 Mar 11, Narendra Modi's party won a landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, in a massive vote of confidence for the prime minister halfway into his first term. The BJP won 311 of the total 403 seats.
(AP, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 11, In eastern India Maoist rebels ambushed a paramilitary patrol in Chhattisgarh state, killing 11 policemen.
(Reuters, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 14, In India the body of an Irish woman (28) was found by a farmer on an isolated beach near Canacona village in the western beach state of Goa. She had been raped and strangled. A local criminal was arrested the next day and faced rape and murder charges.
(AP, 3/16/17)
2017 Mar 15, New Zealand approved a law that declared the Whanganui River to be a legal person, in the sense that it can own property, incur debts and petition the courts. Days later an Indian court declared the Ganges and Yamuna rivers to be people too.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.34)
2017 Mar 16, In India Farook Hameed (31) was murdered in Coimbatore, allegedly by members of a Muslim radical group, for having repudiated Islam and declaring himself an atheist. Six people were soon arrested in the case.
(http://tinyurl.com/n22lnau)(Econ 7/22/17, SR p.11)
2017 Mar 18, India’s PM Narendra Modi picked Hindu hardliner Yogi Adityanath to lead Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, after his party won a landslide victory last week. Adityanath has been accused of inciting violence against India's Muslim minority.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 19, In India Yogi Adityanath (44), hard-line Hindu religious leader, took the oath of office as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/19/17)
2017 Mar 20, British mobile phone giant Vodafone said it will merge its Indian unit with Idea Cellular to create India's largest telecoms operator, to help fend off the Mukesh Ambani-backed Reliance Jio, whose recent arrival has shaken up India's ultra-competitive mobile network market.
(AFP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 22, An Indian court sentenced two Hindu hard-liners to life in prison for triggering an explosion in Ajmer, a Muslim pilgrimage center in Rajasthan, that killed three people and injured more than a dozen in 2007.
(AP, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 25, In India one person was killed and about 14 injured when violence erupted following a scuffle between Muslim and Hindu school students in PM Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar, India slipped a new rule into the annual budget bill that frees taxmen to raid or seize any property at any time with no need to explain why.
(Econ, 4/8/17, p.34)
2017 Apr 1, In India a mob of Hindus stopped trucks carrying dairy cows in Behror town, Rajasthan state. Muslim men en route to Haryana state were pulled from the trucks and beaten with sticks and iron rods. Pehlu Kahn died of his wounds on April 4.
(SFC, 4/6/17, p.A4)
2017 Apr 2, Indian PM Narendra Modi inaugurated an 11-km (7-mile) tunnel through the Himalayan terrain to help ease travel on a highway linking the troubled Kashmir Valley with the rest of India. Separatist leaders fighting for the region's independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan shut businesses and public transport in the region and said the construction of tunnels and roads would not succeed in appeasing them.
(AP, 4/2/17)
2017 Apr 2, In southern India a German tourist was raped in the beach town of Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu state. Police searched for two men suspected in the rape.
(AP, 4/3/17)
2017 Apr 6, In northeastern India the Dalai Lama consecrated a Buddhist monastery in Arunachal Pradesh state, amid Chinese warnings that the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's visit to a disputed border region would damage bilateral relations with India.
(AP, 4/6/17)
2017 Apr 6, Retired Pakistani Lt. Col. Mohammad Habib went missing after arriving in Nepal. Pakistani officials later said he was seized by Indian intelligence and that the abduction was aimed at pressuring Pakistan to release Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian naval officer convicted of espionage who was sentenced to death on April 10.
(AP, 4/18/17)
2017 Apr 8, India offered a $4.5 billion line of credit to neighboring Bangladesh to help it implement projects in priority areas such as the energy sector, and a separate $500 million credit line to support defense related procurements.
(Reuters, 4/8/17)
2017 Apr 8, Indian police arrested Sagar Thakkar (24), aka Shaggy, the suspected mastermind behind a call center scam run out of a Mumbai suburb that targeted thousands of Americans and netted more than $300 million.
(Reuters, 4/8/17)
2017 Apr 9, In the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir six people were killed and more than 100 injured when police clashed with protesters during a by-election in Srinagar.
(Reuters, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 9, The navies of India and China carried out a joint operation to rescue the bulk carrier, OS 35, a merchant ship hijacked the previous evening by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates had fled overnight.
(AFP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 10, In Kashmir four suspected rebels were killed overnight in fighting with the Indian army, as businesses and schools shut in the disputed region in response to a separatists' call to protest the killing of eight civilians by government forces during a weekend by-election.
(AP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 10, Pakistan's military sentenced an Indian naval officer to death on charges of espionage and sabotage. Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested in March 2016, had been convicted by a military tribunal. Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan was never explained credibly.
(AP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 18, British police arrested Indian business tycoon Vijay Mallya in London on behalf of authorities in India, where he is wanted on charges of money laundering and bank demands that he pay back more than a billion dollars in loans extended to his now-defunct airline.
(AP, 4/18/17)
2017 Apr 19, In northern India a bus swerved off a mountain road and plunged into a deep ravine, killing at least 44 people in Himachal Pradesh state.
(AFP, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 20, India’s government blocked the Public Health Foundation of India from accepting money from foreign donors. Under PM Narendra Modi over 11,000 NGOs have lost their licenses to accept foreign financing.
(SFC, 4/21/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 21, In southern India at least 20 people were killed and several others seriously injured after a truck driver lost control and plowed into a group of protesting farmers. The farmers were gathered outside the main police station in the town of Yerpedu protesting against illegal sand mining in their area.
(AP, 4/21/17)
2017 Apr 24, In central India Maoist guerrillas ambushed a paramilitary patrol, killing at least 24 policemen and wounding six in Chhattisgarh state.
(Reuters, 4/24/17)
2017 Apr 24, Six people were awarded the annual Goldman Environmental Prize. They included Mark Lopez of southern California for work focusing on contamination from a battery recycling plant; Rodrigue Mugaruka Katembo of Congo DRC for efforts to protect the Virunga National Park from oil extraction; Prafulla Samantara of India for efforts to halt an open-pit bauxite mine in Odisha state; Uros Maceri of Slovenia for efforts to halt pollution by the Lafarge Cement Co.; Wendy Bowman of Australia for her efforts to halt coal mining and pollution in the Hunter Valley; and Rodrigo Tot of Guatemala for efforts to halt evictions and government corruption related to nickel mining in El Estor and Agua Caliente.
(SFC, 4/24/17, p.A10)
2017 Apr 26, Pakistan's military released a video in which Liaquat Ali, better known by his nom de guerre, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said Afghan and Indian intelligence agencies gave funds and other assistance to Pakistani Taliban militants to fight Islamabad. Ehsan, the group's former spokesman, surrendered last week.
(Reuters, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 30, In northeastern India two Muslim teenagers were beaten to death by a mob over allegations of cow theft in Assam state. This was the third cow-related death in the country in the past month.
(AP, 5/1/17)(SFC, 5/2/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr, India’s Supreme Court upheld an earlier decision to deny licenses to sell alcohol within 500 meters of a state or national highway and extended from retail outlets to embrace any place serving alcohol.
(Econ, 4/8/17, p.35)
2017 May 1, In Kashmir militants fighting Indian rule ambushed a van carrying cash for the state-run Jammu and Kashmir Bank, killing five policemen and two bank officials. India's army accused Pakistani troops of killing two of its soldiers paroling the de facto border in the disputed Kashmir region before mutilating their bodies, and vowed to exact revenge. Pakistan's military denied the allegations.
(Reuters, 5/1/17)
2017 May 2, In India Ghulam Mohammad, a Muslim man, was beaten to death in Uttar Pradesh state's Bulandshahar district for helping an interfaith couple elope. Police soon detained three members of Yuva Vahini, a Hindu militia, for suspected involvement in the killing.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 4, Thousands of Indian government forces cordoned off at least two dozen villages in southern Kashmir while they hunted for separatist militants believed to be hiding in the area, but called off the operation after about 10 hours without finding any.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 5, In France the Cartooning for Peace group, founded by French cartoonist Plantu, said cartoonists were increasingly becoming the victims of repressive crackdowns on free speech. Ten countries including Russia, Turkey and India were condemned for censoring, locking up or threatening cartoonists in a new report published by the group.
(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 5, The Norwegian central bank said Norway's wealth fund has excluded Bharat Heavy Electricals from its investment portfolio because of concerns over the environmental impact of a plant the Indian company is building. BHEL was building a coal-fired power plant close to the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, in Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)
2017 May 7, In India anti-corruption crusader Arvind Kejriwal's government in New Delhi plunged into a crisis as a minister he fired over the weekend accused him of accepting 20 million rupees ($300,000) in cash as a bribe. His Aam Admi Party spokesman, Kumar Viswas, rejected the allegation by party lawmaker Kapil Mishra, describing it as an attack by rivals.
(AP, 5/7/17)
2017 May 8, Japan and India affirmed plans to strengthen their military cooperation amid rising tension in the Asian region.
(AP, 5/8/17)
2017 May 9, Kashmiri militants kidnapped an Indian army officer (23) who was visiting home in the disputed Himalayan region. His bullet-riddled body was recovered the next morning.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 11, Indian PM Narendra Modi arrived in Sri Lanka o attend a UN celebration of Buddha's birth and hold talks with leaders of the island nation.
(AP, 5/11/17)
2017 May 11, In Kashmir two civilians were killed and three others injured when Indian and Pakistani soldiers traded gunfire and shelled each other's border posts in the disputed region.
(AP, 5/11/17)
2017 May 12, In India the Allahabad High Court ruled that the state should start re-issuing licenses to the abattoirs in Uttar Pradesh, allowing them to re-open. The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state had ordered the closure of unlicensed slaughter houses after he was appointed by PM Narendra Modi in March.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, The western Indian city of Ahmadabad, a city of more than 7 million people, launched its first air quality monitoring system that will be used to send out pollution alerts.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 13, In Kashmir Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire, killing two civilians and wounding six others.
(AP, 5/13/17)
2017 May 15, India reported three cases of Zika virus to the WHO. They were detected through routine blood surveillance in a hospital in Ahmadabad. Two cases were detected in February and November last year, while a third case was detected in January this year.
(AP, 5/28/17)
2017 May 16, An Indian court in New Delhi ruled that doctors were free to carry out an abortion on a girl (10) who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather.
(SFC, 5/17/17, p.A2)
2017 May 18, The UN International Court of Justice ordered Pakistan not to execute Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, convicted of espionage and terrorism, in a case that has further strained relations between the Asian neighbors.
(AP, 5/18/17)
2017 May 19, In southern India a woman (24) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala state, cut off the genitals of a Hindu holy man who tried to rape her and who she alleged has been sexually assaulting her for the past eight years. Gangeshananda Theerthapada (54) was reported to be in stable condition after reconstructive surgery.
(AP, 5/20/17)
2017 May 20, India finalized a policy that would allow local private companies to work with foreign players to make high-tech defense equipment, in a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bid to cut reliance on imports.
(Reuters, 5/20/17)
2017 May 23, India said it had attacked and damaged Pakistani army posts in Kashmir as it sought to prevent militants infiltrating from the Pakistani side of the disputed region, but Pakistan denied the assertion.
(Reuters, 5/23/17)
2017 May 23, India’s government issued notification regarding changes to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. The environment ministry said that animal markets will only be able to trade in cattle meant for agricultural purposes. Animals for slaughter will have to be bought from farmers directly, a big blow to the meat business run mainly by Muslims.
(AP, 5/27/17)
2017 May 25, Indian police arrested around 150 people protesting against a breakdown in law and order in the eastern city of Kolkata, after street battles broke out during a march to police headquarters and police cars were set ablaze. Regional and national leaders from PM Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged the march to protest against a perceived deterioration in security in the state of West Bengal, which is ruled by a rival left-wing party.
(Reuters, 5/25/17)
2017 May 26, In India rules took effect requiring that cattle traders pledge that any cows or buffalos sold are not intended for slaughter. At least one state government is planning a challenge in court.
(AP, 5/29/17)
2017 May 27, In Indian-controlled Kashmir one civilian was killed and dozens of others injured after massive anti-India protests and clashes erupted following the killing of a prominent rebel commander and his associate in a gunbattle with government forces. Rebel leader Sabzar Ahmed Bhat and a fellow militant were killed after troops cordoned off the southern Tral area overnight following a tip that rebels were hiding there.
(AP, 5/27/17)
2017 May 30, A court in southern India ordered a four-week stay on the federal government's decision to ban the sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter.
(AP, 5/30/17)
2017 May 31, The Trump administration cancelled preferential trading rules for India.
(Econ, 6/8/19, p.13)
2017 Jun 1, India's troops fired mortars and used small arms to target civilians in border towns in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing a villager. Another four civilians were wounded in the shelling, which the Pakistani military said was in violation of a cease-fire agreement. Pakistani troops returned fire.
(AP, 6/1/17)
2017 Jun 3, French President Emmanuel Macron and India’s PM Narendra Modi put forth a common front on the need to fight climate change, with the French leader saying he would travel to India before year's end for a summit on promoting solar energy.
(AP, 6/3/17)
2017 Jun 3, The Pakistani military said its troops had killed five Indian soldiers in retaliation to Indian firing along the Line of Control in disputed Kashmir. The Indian army said two of its soldiers were killed in an ambush by suspected insurgents.
(Reuters, 6/3/17)(AP, 6/3/17)
2017 Jun 5, India successfully launched its most powerful home-produced rocket, another milestone for its indigenous space program which one day hopes to put a human into orbit. The GSLV Mk III rocket carried a satellite weighing more than three tons into a high orbit above Earth.
(AFP, 6/5/17)
2017 Jun 6, In India five farmers were killed by gunshots at a rally in Madhya Pradesh. Farmers there have protested for several weeks demanding better prices for crops and waivers from the state government for repayment of farm loans.
(AP, 6/7/17)
2017 Jun 6, Arundhati Roy's eagerly-awaited second novel, "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness," went on sale, two decades after her prize-winning debut "The God of Small Things" propelled her to global fame and launched her career as an outspoken critic of injustice in her native India. Roy (55) became the first Indian woman to win the prestigious Booker Prize with her 1997 work, which sold around eight million copies and turned the young author into a star of the literary world.
(AFP, 6/6/17)
2017 Jun 9, In northeastern India S.S. Khaplang (77), head of a faction of the separatist National Socialist Council of Nagaland, died of renal failure in Taga region, his outfit's headquarters. Khaplang called off peace talks with India in 2015 after 14 years of futile negotiations and resumed his fight for an independent Naga homeland.
(AP, 6/10/17)
2017 Jun 10, The Indian army said it has foiled infiltration bids by suspected militants from the Pakistani side along a heavily militarized de facto border dividing Kashmir between the two countries and killed six intruders over the 24 hours.
(AP, 6/10/17)
2017 Jun 12, Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing two civilians and wounding three others on the Pakistani side.
(AP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 19, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the first Afghanistan-India air corridor during a ceremony at the Kabul International Airport — a direct route that bypasses Pakistan and is meant to improve commerce.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 20, The London-based group World Animal Protection said dried penises of endangered Bengal monitor lizards and yellow monitor lizards look similar to a rare plant root sought by people who believe it brings good luck. Wildlife authorities conducted raids in five Indian states last month and some raids were continuing.
(AP, 6/20/17)
2017 Jun 22, In Kashmir government forces killed three suspected rebels in fighting in the disputed region and fatally shot a rock-throwing protester during an ensuing rally demanding an end to Indian rule.
(AP, 6/22/17)
2017 Jun 23, In India a Muslim man was killed following a knife attack on a running train near New Delhi. An arrested man told reporters the next day that he was drunk when he attacked four men on the train after he was told by his friends that they were "beef-eaters."
(AP, 6/25/17)
2017 Jun 24, In Kashmir insurgents attacked a paramilitary patrol vehicle with gunfire on a key highway connecting the Kashmir Valley to the rest of India. They were killed in gunbattles that raged until late the next day.
(AP, 6/25/17)
2017 Jun 25, In Kashmir Indian security forces put an outskirt of Srinagar under security lockdown as they battled two rebels who took shelter in a school building after killing one paramilitary officer and wounding another soldier.
(AP, 6/25/17)
2017 Jun 26, In Washington, DC, US President Donald Trump met for the first time with India's PM Narendra Modi. The two countries pledged to work together to try to end global terrorism.
(AP, 6/26/17)(AP, 6/27/17)
2017 Jun 27, A Swiss government information technology agency said ransomware known as Petya seems to have re-emerged to affect computer systems across Europe, causing issues primarily in Ukraine, Russia, England and India. In 2018 Britain blamed the Russian government for the NotPetya cyber-attack.
(Reuters, 6/27/17)(Econ 7/1/17, p.72)(SFC, 2/16/18, p.A4)
2017 Jun 28, In India thousands of people gathered in several cities to protest recent violent attacks across the country targeting minority Muslims.
(AP, 6/28/17)
2017 Jun 29, Indian PM Narendra Modi condemned a rise in deadly mob attacks on cattle traders, beef eaters and dairy farmers, saying that killing people in the name of protecting cows is unacceptable.
(AP, 6/29/17)
2017 Jul 1, India launched its biggest ever fiscal reform with the government promising that a new nationwide tax would make the economy stronger and less corrupt. The new goods and services tax (GST) replaces more than a dozen levies imposed nationally and by the 29 states.
(AFP, 7/1/17)`
2017 Jul 1, Indian security forces shot dead Bashir Ahmad, alias Bashir Lashkari, a top Islamist militant during a seven-hour gun battle in Dialgam, in the disputed Kashmir region. He was accused of killing six police officers last month. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant Azad Malik was also killed as well as a woman caught in the crossfire. A young man was killed and several other people injured during anti-India protests that followed.
(Reuters, 7/1/17)
2017 Jul 4, India’s PM Narendra Modi arrived in Israel for the first ever visit by an Indian premier, amid growing ties between the two countries including billions of dollars in defence deals.
(AFP, 7/4/17)
2017 Jul 5, Indian authorities said heavy rains since the start of the monsoon season have triggered floods and landslides in parts of the remote northeastern region, causing at least 20 deaths in Assam state.
(AP, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 5, Israel and India signed several agreements on cooperation in the fields of technology, water and agriculture on the second day of a landmark visit by the Indian PM Narendra Modi to the Jewish state.
(AP, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 7, In India Tashi Bhutia (31), a supporter of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), was killed during a protest. Violence followed and two people were killed in the protests over Bhutia’s killing.
(Reuters, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 8, In Kashmir seven people were killed in cross-border shelling by both Pakistan and India as hundreds of militants and political activists took to the streets in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir to commemorate the 2016 death of Burhan Wani.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 9, Pakistan summoned India's deputy high commissioner in Islamabad after five civilians were killed by "unprovoked" Indian fire across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region. In a separate 'goodwill gesture' it also released scores of Indian fishermen held for illegal fishing in its territorial waters.
(AP, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 10, In Kashmir gunmen sprayed bullets on a passenger bus as it returned Hindu pilgrims from the Amarnath cave shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Seven Hindu pilgrims were killed and 19 wounded.
(AP, 7/12/17)(SFC, 7/12/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 11, India's Supreme Court suspended a government ban on the trade of cattle for slaughter, a boost for the multi-billion dollar beef and leather industries mostly run by members of the Muslim minority.
(Reuters, 7/11/17)
2017 Jul 11, In India at least 14 people were killed after a mudslide swept through a village Arunachal Pradesh. Since mid-June flooding in Assam state has left some 45 people dead.
(SFC, 7/14/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 16, In Indian Kashmir at least 16 Hindu pilgrims were killed and 27 injured after a bus they were traveling in skidded off a mountain road and fell into a gorge.
(Reuters, 7/16/17)
2017 Jul 17, Lawmakers voted to choose India's next president. Hindu nationalist Ram Nath Kovind (71), a little-known member of a political group closely allied to India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, was elected by the Parliament and state legislatures as the country’s new president, a largely ceremonial position.
(AP, 7/17/17)(AP, 7/20/17)
2017 Jul 17, In Kashmir four Pakistani soldiers, one Indian soldier and a child were killed as Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire across a cease-fire line dividing the troubled region between the two countries.
(AP, 7/17/17)
2017 Jul 21, Indian soldiers fired at worshippers outside a mosque in disputed Kashmir, killing one man and wounding another after some threw rocks. Residents said only a few rocks were thrown and none hit any soldier.
(AP, 7/22/17)
2017 Jul 25, In India Ram Nath Kovind (71) was sworn in as the country’s 14th president, becoming the first member of a powerful Hindu nationalist movement to assume the highest public office in the world's largest democracy. His elevation boosted the representation of his Dalit community, which ranks at the lower end of India's ancient caste hierarchy.
(Reuters, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 25, In India a five-story building came crashing down in Mumbai killing 17 people and injuring nine others. The next day police arrested the owner of several apartments in the four-storey building.
(AP, 7/25/17)(Reuters, 7/26/17)
2017 Jul 25, Indian officials said least 16 people have been killed this week in heavy monsoon rains that have lashed western India, including the desert state of Rajasthan, with more than 24,000 villagers evacuated to higher ground.
(AP, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 26, In India Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar state and once seen as a potential challenger to PM Narendra Modi, quit in a move that could shake up national politics.
(Reuters, 7/26/17)
2017 Jul 26, Indian officials said at least 48 people have been killed as large swaths of Gujarat and Rajasthan states were lashed by heavy monsoon rains and flooding over the last week.
(AP, 7/26/17)
2017 Jul 29, India's navy seized a ship carrying about 1,500 kg of heroin worth 35 billion rupees ($545 million) in what it said was its biggest ever drugs haul.
(Reuters, 7/30/17)(AP, 7/31/17)
2017 Aug 1, Indian forces killed Abu Dujana, a top militant commander in Kashmir, triggering clashes in which one protester was killed and dozens injured. Large anti-India protests and clashes spearheaded mostly by students erupted in disputed Kashmir after government forces killed two senior militants in a gunbattle and fatally shot a protester during an ensuing demonstration demanding an end to Indian rule.
(AFP, 8/1/17)(AP, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 1, India released data this week data showing that about one person has been killed every day for the past three years by roaming tigers or rampaging elephants.
(AP, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 2, In Kashmir a fresh strike called by anti-India separatists to protest the killings of two top rebels and a civilian shut down the disputed region while Akeel Ahmed Bhat, a teenage boy, died a day after he was wounded by government forces.
(AP, 8/2/17)
2017 Aug 3, China's Foreign Ministry said India has been building up troops and repairing roads along its side of the border amid an increasingly tense stand-off in a remote frontier region beside the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.
(Reuters, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 3, In Kashmir a pair of ambushes by Indian government forces and Kashmiri rebels killed two soldiers and two militants in the disputed Himalayan region.
(AP, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 5, In southern India four Spanish nationals and their Indian driver were killed in a collision between their bus and a trailer truck on a highway.
(AP, 8/5/17)
2017 Aug 5, In Kashmir a gunbattle between Indian troops and Kashmiri rebels killed three insurgents in the disputed Himalayan region and triggered a new round of anti-India protests and clashes.
(AP, 8/5/17)
2017 Aug 9, In India at least half a million protesters brought Mumbai to a standstill as they pressed their demands for reserved quotas in government jobs and college places amid a slumping rural economy.
(Reuters, 8/9/17)
2017 Aug 9, In Kashmir a teenage boy was killed during anti-India protests following a gunbattle that killed three rebels near Tral town.
(AP, 8/9/17)
2017 Aug 11, In India an elephant blamed for killing more than a dozen people in the eastern states of Jharkhand and Bihar was shot dead, after an elaborate hunt that involved dozens of forest officials and a sharpshooter.
(Reuters, 8/12/17)
2017 Aug 11, In Nepal seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal) agreed to conclude early a free trade accord, implement the Paris agreement on climate change and step up cooperation among their security agencies to combat terrorism.
(AP, 8/11/17)
2017 Aug 12, Indian officials said at least 64 children suffering from encephalitis have died over six days at the government run Baba Raghav Das Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh state, as it suffered oxygen shortages. State health minister Sidharth Nath Singh denied that any of the deaths were linked to the oxygen shortage.
(AFP, 8/12/17)(Econ, 3/21/20, p.34)
2017 Aug 13, In India two packed buses were swept into a gorge overnight by a landslide so powerful it destroyed an entire stretch of highway in Himachal Pradesh state. 17 bodies were recovered from the site, but dozens remained missing.
(AFP, 8/13/17)
2017 Aug 13, In south Kashmir two Indian soldiers and three militants were killed in a 12-hour overnight gunfight in the Shopian district.
(Reuters, 8/13/17)
2017 Aug 14, Officials said heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed at least 173 people in recent days and displaced millions more across Bangladesh, northern India and southern Nepal.
(AP, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 14, Officials said heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed at least 173 people in recent days and displaced millions more across Bangladesh, northern India and southern Nepal.
(AP, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 15, Officials said the death toll in flooding and landslides that devastated parts of Bangladesh, northern India and southern Nepal over the past few days has risen to 245, while millions of others have been displaced.
(AP, 8/15/17)
2017 Aug 17, In India a girl (10), raped by an uncle, gave birth to a 5-pound girl by cesarean section in Chandigarh. She had lost a legal battle to have an abortion.
(SFC, 8/18/17, p.A2)
2017 Aug 19, In northern India a crowded train went off the tracks, killing 23 people and injuring more than 80 others in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 8/20/17)
2017 Aug 19, In India park director Satyendra Singh said rising floodwaters have inundated large parts of Kaziranga National Park in Assam state, killing more than 225 animals and forcing hundreds of other animals to flee.
(AP, 8/19/17)
2017 Aug 19, Officials said the death toll in flooding and landslides that devastated parts of Bangladesh, northern India and southern Nepal over the last week has risen to 600, while millions of others have been displaced.
(AFP, 8/19/17)
2017 Aug 22, India's Supreme Court struck down “triple talaq" as unconstitutional. The Muslim practice allowed men to instantly divorce their wives by saying “I divorce you" three times. The judgement did not ban other forms of Muslim divorce that favor men.
(AP, 8/22/17)(Econ, 8/26/17, p.34)
2017 Aug 22, McDonald's India announced it will close nearly 170 McDonald's outlets in northern and eastern India after the American fast food giant decided to terminate a franchise agreement with its Indian partner.
(AP, 8/22/17)
2017 Aug 24, India's Supreme Court ruled that citizens have a constitutional right to privacy, a landmark decision that could jeopardize Aadhaar, a government program holding biometric data on over a billion people.
(AFP, 8/24/17)
2017 Aug 24, Officials said more than 950 people have been killed in floods triggered by seasonal monsoon rains in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
(SFC, 8/25/17, p.A4)
2017 Aug 25, In India violent protests erupted, leaving at least 38 people dead, after a court convicted self-styled "godman" Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insaan of raping two women, angering thousands of his supporters who said he was innocent. Singh, the head of a social welfare and spiritual group, was found guilty of raping two followers in a case dating back to 2002 at the headquarters of his Dera Sacha Sauda group in the northern town of Sirsa.
(Reuters, 8/25/17)(AP, 8/25/17)(AP, 8/26/17)(AP, 8/27/17)
2017 Aug 26, In Kashmir four police officials, four paramilitary soldiers and two suspected militants were killed after anti-India rebels stormed a heavily guarded police camp in the disputed Himalayan region, triggering daylong fighting.
(AP, 8/26/17)
2017 Aug 28, India's foreign ministry said India and China have agreed to an "expeditious disengagement" of troops in a disputed border area where their soldiers have been locked in a stand-off for more than two months.
(Reuters, 8/28/17)
2017 Aug 28, In India the popular and flamboyant Indian spiritual guru, who calls himself Dr. Saint Gurmeet Singh Ram Rahim Insan (Insaan), was sentenced by a judge to 20 years in prison on charges dating from 2002 of raping two female followers. His Dera Sacha Sauda sect claims to have about 50 million followers and campaigns for vegetarianism and against drug addiction. It also organizes blood-donation and tree-planting drives. 38 people died in riots after his conviction.
(AP, 8/28/17)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.33)
2017 Aug 29, In India heavy monsoon rains brought Mumbai, a city with a population of more than 20 million people, to a halt with authorities struggling to evacuate people with the scheduled high tide adding to the chaos.
(Reuters, 8/29/17)
2017 Aug 30, In India police said two toddlers were among 14 people killed in Mumbai after floods caused by heavy monsoon rains destroyed homes and disrupted traffic.
(Reuters, 8/30/17)
2017 Aug 31, In India torrential rains caused a five-story apartment building to collapse in Mumbai, killing at least 33 people and possibly burying more than a dozen others.
(Reuters, 8/31/17)(AP, 8/31/17)(AP, 9/1/17)
2017 Sep 1, In India at least two people were killed when part of a huge mountain of garbage came crashing down in a landfill on the eastern outskirts of New Delhi. Media reports said about 2,800 tons of garbage are dumped at the site every day. The garbage comes from east Delhi, home to more than 4 million of the capital's 21 million people.
(AP, 9/1/17)
2017 Aug, India barred state authorities from unilaterally cancelling or modifying solar power purchase agreements (PPAs) after six state governments in last two months pushed developers to lower tariffs, threatening to derail projects worth $7.5 billion.
(Reuters, 8/30/17)
2017 Aug, India’s federal finance ministry renewed the National Health Mission with $20 billion of funding between 2017-20, against the health ministry's estimated requirement of $25 billion.
{India, Medical}
(Reuters, 11/23/17)
2017 Sep 4, In India Murray Dennis Ward, a 54-year-old British man, was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing three blind students at a school in New Delhi.
(AP, 9/5/17)
2017 Sep 5, In India Gauri Lankesh (55), the editor and publisher of the Kannada-language “Gauri Lankesh Patrike" newspaper, was shot dead by unidentified assailants near her home in the southern city of Bengaluru. She had recently published an essay arguing the Lingayatism should be considered a distinct faith.
(Reuters, 9/6/17)(Econ, 9/23/17, p.34)
2017 Sep 6, Indian journalists and rights activists protested against the murder a day earlier of Gauri Lankesh, an outspoken publisher of a weekly tabloid, amid growing concerns about freedom of the press at a time of rising nationalism and intolerance of dissent.
(Reuters, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 6, India's top court allowed a 13-year-old rape survivor to have a late abortion after lawyers said carrying the baby to full term would cause her trauma and agony.
(AFP, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 6, The Vatican declared Mother Teresa a patron saint of the Archdiocese of Calcutta at a Mass in the city where she dedicated her life to the poorest of the poor.
(AP, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 10, In eastern India at least one person was killed and several others injured when an under-construction flyover bridge collapsed in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha state.
(Reuters, 9/10/17)
2017 Sep 14, The leaders of India and Japan met in Gujarat state and agreed to deepen defense ties and push for more cooperation with Australia and the United States, as they seek to counter growing Chinese influence across Asia. Abe flew to Gujarat to lay the foundation stone of a $17 billion bullet train project, India's first, that was made possible by a huge Japanese loan.
(Reuters, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 17, India’s PM Narendra Modi inaugurated India's biggest dam, the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river, ignoring warnings from environment groups that hundreds of thousands of people will lose their livelihoods. The foundation stone was laid by PM Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961. Construction of the project began in 1987.
(Reuters, 9/17/17)
2017 Sep 18, India's government said that it has evidence there are extremists who pose a threat to the country's security among the Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar and settled in many Indian cities.
(AP, 9/18/17)
2017 Sep 22, Indian officials said security along the largely porous eastern border with Bangladesh has been stepped up and that "chilli and stun grenades" were being used to block the entry of Rohingya Muslims fleeing from violence in Myanmar.
(Reuters, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 22, Pakistan's military said at least six Pakistani villagers were killed and 26 were wounded in an overnight attack by India in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, adding that hundreds of villagers were forced to move to safer places.
(AP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 23, Police in western India arrested popular spiritual guru Kaushlendra Prapannacharya Falahari Maharaja (70), the second in the past month, for allegedly raping a 21-year-old woman in Rajashtan state.
(AP, 9/23/17)
2017 Sep 23, Indian troops, according to Pakistan, fired across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region, killing a young girl and wounding two other people.
(AP, 9/24/17)
2017 Sep 27, Indian troops exchanged gunfire with separatist guerrillas in a remote northeastern region bordering Myanmar, killing or wounding several of the insurgents.
(Reuters, 9/27/17)
2017 Sep 27, Pakistan's army said Indian troops have fired across the frontier in the disputed region of Kashmir, killing a young man and wounding four people.
(AP, 9/27/17)
2017 Sep 29, In India a stampede broke out on a crowded pedestrian bridge connecting two railway stations in Mumbai during the morning rush, killing at least 22 people and injuring 32 others.
(AP, 9/29/17)
2017 Sep 29, Indian troops with heavy weapons reportedly targeted civilians from across the frontier in the disputed region of Kashmir, killing two villagers and a Pakistani soldier.
(AP, 9/30/17)
2017 Oct 2, In Kashmir Indian and Pakistani troops fired at each other, killing a boy (10) and a girl (15) and injuring 12 other civilians on the Indian side.
(AP, 10/2/17)
2017 Oct 3, In Kashmir Indian police killed three suspected militants in army uniforms after they infiltrated a security camp beside the main airport in the disputed region. One Indian security official was killed and three wounded in a gun fight that followed. Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammad took responsibility for the attack.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)
2017 Oct 6, The European Union and India agreed to step up cooperation in countering violent extremism and radicalization, particularly online, and in enhancing maritime security in the Indian Ocean and beyond in a joint declaration issued at the end of the 14th EU-India Summit.
(AP, 10/6/17)
2017 Oct 9, Indian officials said twenty farmers have died since August and hundreds of others are in hospital after inhaling poisonous pesticides while spraying crops. The farmers in the western state of Maharashtra died after using the dangerous pesticides without wearing protective gear.
(AFP, 10/9/17)
2017 Oct 11, India’s Supreme Court ruled that having sexual intercourse with a wife younger than 18 is rape. A 2011 government census indicated that the percentage of below-18 marriages in India was as high as 47%.
(SFC, 10/13/17, p.A3)
2017 Oct 11, In Kashmir two Indian air force commandos and two rebels were killed in a fierce gunbattle following an anti-militant operation in northern Hajin town.
(AP, 10/11/17)
2017 Oct 14, In Kashmir a young man was killed during anti-India protests following a gunbattle that killed two rebels. Indian troops had cordoned off southern Litter village on a tip that militants were hiding in a civilian home. Later in the day a police officer was killed and another injured after rebels sprayed gunfire at two police vehicles passing through the southern Kulgam area. The next day Pakistan said Indian fire across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region had killed two children.
(AP, 10/14/17)(AP, 10/15/17)
2017 Oct 17, The Indian government ordered diesel generators and a power plant in Delhi to be shut down as air quality in the capital deteriorated ahead of the Hindu festival of lights, when a night of firecrackers sends pollution levels rocketing.
(Reuters, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 18, In eastern India flames swept through an illegal firecracker workshop in the state of Odisha, killing at least eight workers.
(AP, 10/18/17)(SFC, 10/19/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 21, India's central bank dismissed media reports that it was not necessary to link national identity card numbers, known as Aadhar numbers, to bank accounts. It said the requirement remained in force under anti-money laundering rules.
(Reuters, 10/21/17)
2017 Oct 24, India’s top court banned the use of petroleum coke, a dirtier alternative to coal, in and around New Delhi in a bid to clean the air in one of the world's most polluted cities. The court also ordered a ban on the sale and use of furnace oil, another dirty refinery by-product, in and around the capital and ordered implementation of strict emission norms by the end of December.
(Reuters, 10/24/17)
2017 Oct 29, India shipped its first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan by sea through Iran's strategic Chahbahar Port, launching a trade route bypassing longtime rival Pakistan.
(AP, 10/29/17)
2017 Oct 29, Pakistan released 68 Indian fishermen held for trespassing into its territorial waters. 380 Indian fishermen remained behind bars in the country.
(AFP, 10/29/17)
2017 Oct 30, The leaders of India and Italy held talks in New Delhi and signed a slew of agreements that mark a thaw in their relations following the fatal 2012 shootings of two Indian fishermen by Italian marines who mistook them for pirates.
(AP, 10/30/17)
2017 Nov 1, In India an explosion at a power plant in Uttar Pradesh state killed at least 16 workers and seriously burned dozens of others. Preliminary findings suggested that ash had collected in the furnace below the boiler, causing the explosion at the coal-fired plant run by the government-owned National Thermal Power Corporation.
(AFP, 11/1/17)
2017 Nov 4, In India participants from 20 countries took part in the three-day World Food India exhibition in New Delhi.
(AP, 11/4/17)
2017 Nov 4, India’s government said thousands of people have taken refuge in relief camps as torrential monsoon rains flooded parts of southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, killing at least 12 people this week.
(AP, 11/4/17)
2017 Nov 4, In India at least three people were killed and another six injured when a stampede broke out during a Hindu religious ritual on a crowded bank of the Ganges River in Begusarai, Bihar state.
(AP, 11/4/17)
2017 Nov 4, Officials said smog has enveloped much of Pakistan and neighboring India, causing highway accidents and respiratory problems, and forcing many residents to stay home.
(AP, 11/5/17)
2017 Nov 5, In India five boys aged 9-12 and one woman, all from a single extended family, drowned in the Ganges River while on a picnic near Patna. Three other people drowned when their boat capsized in the Sarswati River in the state's Samastipur district.
(AP, 11/5/17)
2017 Nov 7, Pollution in the Indian capital hit a dangerous level, putting residents at risk, forcing the closure of schools, and bringing calls from doctors for the city's half marathon to be canceled.
(Reuters, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 7, In disputed Kashmir three militants and an Indian army soldier were killed in a gunbattle in southern Aglar village following a tip that militants were hiding there.
(AP, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 8, In India Delhi's government ordered schools shut for the rest of the week as air pollution worsened and criticism mounted over the failure of authorities to tackle the public health crisis.
(Reuters, 11/8/17)
2017 Nov 10, Officials said India plans to spray water over its capital, New Delhi, to combat toxic smog that has triggered a pollution emergency, with conditions expected to worsen over the weekend.
(Reuters, 11/10/17)
2017 Nov 12, In India hundreds of gay rights activists and supporters, marched through New Delhi in celebration but also defiance in a nation that continues to outlaw homosexual acts. This was New Delhi's 10th annual Queer Pride march.
(AP, 11/12/17)
2017 Nov 12, In India at least 11 people died when a tourist boat capsized in the Krishna River in southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
(Reuters, 11/12/17)
2017 Nov 18, In China an Indian medical student was crowned Miss World at a glitzy event Hainan Island, making her country the joint-most successful in the beauty pageant's history. Her win brings India level with Venezuela as the countries with most victories in the history of the pageant, now in its 67th edition.
(AFP, 11/18/17)
2017 Nov 18, In disputed Kashmir at least five suspected militants and an Indian air force commando were killed in a fierce gunbattle in northern Hajin village. Thousands of residents in Srinagar participated in the funeral of a local militant who police said was killed overnight in a shootout with troops.
(AP, 11/18/17)
2017 Nov 19, A member of India's Hindu nationalist ruling party offered a 100 million rupee ($1.5 million) reward to anyone who beheads lead actress Deepika Padukone and filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali of the yet-to-be released Bollywood film "Padmavati" over its alleged handling of the relationship between a Hindu queen and a Muslim ruler. The film is based on a 16th century Sufi epic poem, "Padmavat," a fictional account of a brave and beautiful Rajput queen who chose to kill herself rather than be captured by the Muslim sultan of Delhi, Allaudin Khilji.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 19, In northeastern India two endangered Asian elephants were hit and killed by a passenger train near the city of Gauhati.
(AP, 11/19/17)
2017 Nov 27, An Indian appeals court acquitted 35 crewmembers and security guards of the private US ship MV Seaman Guard Ohio, including six former British soldiers and 10 Indians, who were sentenced last year to five years in prison on charges of illegally transporting weapons and ammunition in Indian waters in October, 2013.
(AP, 11/27/17)
2017 Nov 27, In India police in Assam state used elephants and tear gas in an attempt to evict hundreds of people living illegally in the Amchang forest, an elephant habitat threatened by unauthorized settlements.
(SFC, 11/28/17, p.A2)
2017 Nov 28, In India Ivanka Trump described the hurdles faced by women during a speech at a business conference in Hyderabad. The city had cleared away beggars and filled potholes ahead of her visit.
(AP, 11/28/17)
2017 Nov 30, Officials in Indian-administered Kashmir said five suspected rebels were shot dead by government forces.
(AFP, 11/30/17)
2017 Dec 1, In India former President Barack Obama spoke to a leadership forum in New Delhi at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, as part of a three-country tour Obama is undertaking in one of his first global outings as a private citizen.
(AP, 12/1/17)
2017 Dec 1, An Associated Press investigation found that US oil refineries that are unable to sell a dirty fuel waste product at home are exporting vast quantities of it to India instead.
(AP, 12/1/17)
2017 Dec 2, In southern India a strong cyclone over the southeast Arabian Sea triggered heavy rains and strong winds, damaging hundreds of huts, power lines and trees and killing at least 12 people.
(AP, 12/2/17)
2017 Dec 4, In India Shashi Kapoor (79), a leading Bollywood actor and producer from the 1970s and '80s, died after a long illness. Kapoor acted in more than 100 Hindi films and was also a key theater personality.
(AP, 12/4/17)
2017 Dec 4, In London Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya (61) insisted he was innocent of money-laundering accusations after the evacuation of a London court building forced him to face a swarm of journalists he had sought to avoid.
(AP, 12/4/17)
2017 Dec 9, Indian PM Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat went to the polls, in a key electoral test of his popularity after a series of controversial economic reforms.
(AFP, 12/9/17)
2017 Dec 11, India's main opposition Congress party named Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the country's Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, as party president.
(AP, 12/11/17)
2017 Dec 15, Indian police arrested a Christian priest and were questioning members of a seminary after a hardline Hindu group accused them of trying to convert villagers to Christianity by distributing Bibles and singing carols.
(Reuters, 12/16/17)
2017 Dec 16, In India Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India's most famous political dynasty, took over as president of the main opposition Congress party while facing a stiff challenge from PM Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalists.
(AP, 12/16/17)
2017 Dec 20, India’s Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar held talks with Myanmar leaders and signed a memorandum of understanding to support development of Rakhine and help create jobs. India will provide Myanmar with $25 million for development projects including prefabricated houses in troubled Rakhine state to enable the return of Rohingya Muslims who have fled the area.
(Reuters, 12/21/17)
2017 Dec 22, India and China discussed ways to prevent a repeat of a recent face-off between their armed forces at a Himalayan plateau where their borders meet and agreed that resolving their boundary disagreements served the interests of both countries.
(AP, 12/22/17)
2017 Dec 23, An Indian court convicted Laloo Prasad Yadav, former Bihar state chief minister, a second time for embezzling state government funds as a top elected official two decades ago. In 2013, another court sentenced him to five years in prison for fraudulently withdrawing 378 million rupees ($5.8 million) from the Bihar state government treasury for fictitious medicines and fodder for cattle over a period of 20 years.
(AP, 12/23/17)
2017 Dec 23, In western India at least 33 people were killed after a passenger bus veered off a bridge and plunged into the Banas river in Rajasthan state.
(AP, 12/23/17)
2017 Dec 23, India officials said least four Indian soldiers were killed in Pakistani firing along the highly militarized de facto border that divides the disputed region of Kashmir between the nuclear-armed rivals.
(AP, 12/23/17)
2017 Dec 25, India's capital launched a metro train with driverless technology, though officials said it would operate with a driver for at least a year or two.
(AP, 12/25/17)
2017 Dec 28, India's lower house of parliament passed a bill aimed at prosecuting Muslim men who divorce their wives through the "triple talaq", or instant divorce. The bill moved to the upper house of parliament, where it was likely to be approved.
(Reuters, 12/28/17)
2017 Dec 29, In India a fire engulfed an upscale rooftop restaurant in Mumbai, killing 15 people and sending others fleeing for their lives.
(AP, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 29, A Pakistani official said 145 Indian fishermen have been handed over to Indian authorities at a border crossing near the eastern city of Lahore.
(AP, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 31, India’s movie superstar Rajinikanth said he is entering politics in Tamil Nadu state with a plan to launch his own party, calling it his duty.
(AP, 12/31/17)
2017 Dec 31, Five Indian soldiers and three suspected militants were killed after rebels stormed a paramilitary camp in disputed Kashmir, triggering a daylong battle. Separately, Indian and Pakistani soldiers traded gunfire along the highly militarized line dividing Kashmir between the two rivals, killing an Indian soldier.
(AP, 12/31/17)
2017 The Indian film “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion" became the first Indian film to break through the $156 million mark for worldwide box office takings.
(Econ 5/20/17, p.59)
2017 India spent about 2.7% of its GDP on education.
(Econ 6/10/17, p.18)
2018 Jan 1, In India celebrations by Dalits in Pune, 150 km (95 miles) from Mumbai, of the 200th anniversary of a battle they won, fighting alongside British colonial forces, against an upper caste ruler, were marred by clashes with right-wing Hindu groups. The clashes resulted in the death of one man (28).
(Reuters, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 1, In India Rona Wilson and a group of activists were arrested after intercommunal violence broke out at the Bhima-Koregaon war memorial. In 2021 it was reported that key 'evidence' against the group of activists, accused of trying to overthrow the Indian government, was planted on a laptop before it was seized by police.
(The Telegraph, 2/10/21)
2018 Jan 2, India’s defense ministry announced it is to buy 131 surface-to-air missiles from Israel in a $70 million deal, ahead of a visit by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. An Israeli arms company said India has cancelled a $500 million deal ahead of a visit by pm Benjamin Netanyahu. Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. said in a statement the Indian Defense Ministry cancelled the Spike missile deal.
(AFP, 1/2/18)(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 2, In India thousands of Dalits, who rank at the lower end of the country’s ancient caste hierarchy, disrupted traffic and threw stones at buses in Mumbai as they protested against violence in Pune in which one man was killed.
(Reuters, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 2, In India some 200,000 Hindu pilgrims arrived at Allahabad, where the Yamuna river meets the Ganges as well as the mythical Saraswati river, on the first major bathing day of a 45-day annual ritual known as the Magh Mela.
(AP, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 3, In India demonstrators from the lowest caste blocked roads and railways across Mumbai in protest against violence involving Hindu nationalist groups at an event commemorating a 200-year-old battle.
(AFP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 4, India began investigating a report that access to its database of the identity details of more than 1 billion citizens was being sold for just $8 on social media, in what could be one of the giant program's biggest security breaches.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, A New Delhi court declared India's flamboyant tycoon Vijay Mallya a "proclaimed offender" for failing to appear to answer allegations of money laundering by flouting foreign currency laws. The order paved the way for the government to take over Mallya's businesses and real estate holdings.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 6, An Indian court sentenced a powerful regional politician to 3 1/2 years in prison on a second conviction of embezzling state government funds as a top elected official two decades ago. The court found Laloo Prasad Yadav and 15 others guilty of conspiracy to defraud the Bihar state government of 8.45 million rupees ($130,000).
(AP, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 8, In India a fire in a restaurant early today killed five workers who were sleeping inside the building in the southern city of Bangalore.
(AP, 1/8/18)
2018 Jan 8, Pakistan released 147 Indians, detained for fishing illegally, from prison and handed over to Indian authorities.
(AP, 1/8/18)
2018 Jan 13, In India a helicopter carrying employees of the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Commission to an off-shore rig in the Arabian Sea crashed, killing five people and leaving another two missing.
(AP, 1/13/18)
2018 Jan 13, In India a ferry boat carrying mostly teenage schoolchildren sank in the Arabian Sea off the western coast, killing three students.
(AP, 1/13/18)
2018 Jan 14, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu arrived for his first visit to India to expand defense, trade and energy ties. During his six-day stay the two countries are expected to sign agreements on cybersecurity, energy and space cooperation and film production.
(AP, 1/14/18)
2018 Jan 15, In Kashmir four Pakistani soldiers were reported killed in shelling by Indian forces in the disputed region. Pakistan said its forces responded, killing three Indian soldiers and wounding several others. India's military said that Pakistani forces fired first and no casualties were recorded on the Indian side. India said its forces killed five members of a pro-Pakistan militant group trying to slip into Indian Kashmir.
(Reuters, 1/15/18)
2018 Jan 18, India's Supreme Court cleared the way for the release of the film "Padmaavat," a controversial Bollywood movie based on an epic poem about a 14th-century queen, a day after its producers went to court to fight bans by several states.
(Reuters, 1/18/18)
2018 Jan 18, India successfully test-fired a long-range nuclear-capable missile from an island in the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 1/18/18)
2018 Jan 19, India's environment ministry placed restrictions on the use of imported petroleum coke in the capital Delhi and its surrounding region, in the latest effort to curb rising air pollution.
(Reuters, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 19, In India nearly five thousand troops battled for hours a huge fire emanating from the highly polluted Bellandur Lake., causing panic among thousands of people in the southern city of Bangalore.
(AP, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 19, In Kashmir tensions soared along the volatile frontier between India and Pakistan, as rival troops shelled villages and border posts for a third day. Officials in the two countries said 3 civilians and 2 soldiers were killed on both sides in the latest clash.
(AP, 1/19/18)
2018 Jan 20, Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire along their volatile frontier in Kashmir, killing at least five civilians and a soldier in the latest escalation of violence in the disputed region.
(AP, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 20, In India 17 people died after a fire broke out at a warehouse in an industrial area on the outskirts of New Delhi.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, France called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over Syria following a Turkish incursion into northern Syria's Afrin province.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 22, Indian and Pakistani soldiers again targeted each other's posts and villages along their volatile frontier in disputed Kashmir after a day's lull, killing at least one civilian and wounding three others. The recent flare-up has left 13 civilians and nine soldiers dead and dozens injured on the two sides.
(AP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 23, India's Supreme Court rejected bids by two states to re-instate a ban on the release of controversial Bollywood film "Padmaavat", saying it stood by its previous ruling clearing the way for the movie to be shown in theaters.
(Reuters, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 24, In India right-wing Hindu groups stepped up protests against the release of a controversial Bollywood film, as several states boosted police patrols a day after the Supreme Court refused to allow bans on the movie.
(AP, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 26, In northern India two groups shot guns and attacked each other with rocks in Kasganj, a small town in Uttar Pradesh state. The clash between Hindu and Muslim groups left one person dead and three others injured during India's National Day celebrations.
(AP, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 27, The leaders of India and Cambodia agreed in New Delhi to work toward a bilateral investment treaty that could see tens of millions of dollars pour into the Southeast Asian nation.
(AP, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 27, Indian soldiers opened fire on protesters in the disputed region of Kashmir, killing two young men and wounding several others in southern Shopian.
(AP, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 27, India and the Seychelles amended a 2015 pact to build a military base on Assumption Island. The government of the Seychelles said the base will help coastguards to patrol its 1.3 million square km (500,000 square mile) exclusive economic zone for illegal fishing, drug trafficking and piracy.
(AFP, 3/3/18)
2018 Jan 29, India’s annual economic survey was released with statistics indicating that India has 63 million fewer women than it should have, a "missing" population explained by sex-selective abortions and a range of other issues.
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 29, In India bus plunged nine meters (30 feet) into the canal in Murshidabad district in West Bengal state. At least 43 people were killed and 4 remained missing.
(AP, 1/31/18)
2018 Jan, The oil tanker MT Barret went missing off the coast of Benin. Pirates released the crew of 22, mostly Indians, within days after a ransom was paid.
(SFC, 2/6/18, p.A2)
2018 Feb 1, India's finance minister Arun Jaitley announced a federal budget with a string of populist giveaways, from affordable housing to a health plan for millions of the poor, in an attempt to woo voters ahead of national elections next year. Jaitley also announced a 10 percent tax on some long-term capital gains.
(AP, 2/1/18)
2018 Feb 5, In India survivors of female genital mutilation (FGM) called on the government to ban female genital mutilation, an age-old ritual practiced by the small Dawoodi Bohra Muslim sect in the country.
(AFP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 6, It was reported that India is seeking the help of the navies of Benin and Nigeria to find the Marine Express oil tanker that has gone missing in the Gulf of Guinea with 22 Indian crew members.
(SFC, 2/6/18, p.A2)
2018 Feb 10, In Indian-controlled Kashmir two soldiers were killed and three others wounded as soldiers traded fire with armed militants who were holed up inside an army camp on the outskirts of the city of Jammu. Two militants were also killed.
(AP, 2/10/18)(Reuters, 2/10/18)
2018 Feb 10, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi that he is counting on India's support for a multi-country sponsorship of any future Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
(AP, 2/10/18)
2018 Feb 11, In Abu Dhabi Indian PM Narendra Modi started the second day of his visit to the United Arab Emirates by unveiling a model of the first Hindu temple that will be built in the UAE capital.
(AP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 12, India's defense minister said gunmen belonging to the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed were behind a weekend attack on an army camp in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
(AP, 2/12/18)
2018 Feb 12, In Indian-controlled Kashmir at least one paramilitary soldier was killed when two gunmen opened fire near a camp in Srinagar.
(AP, 2/12/18)
2018 Feb 15, In southern India a five-story building under construction collapsed, killing at least three workers and trapping several others.
(AP, 2/15/18)
2018 Feb 15, An Indian air force helicopter crashed in the remote northeast, killing both crewmembers on board.
(AP, 2/15/18)
2018 Feb 15, Pakistan's army accused neighboring Indian soldiers of targeting a school van from across the frontier in Kashmir, killing the driver, leaving the students "severely traumatized" and forcing local residents to flee to safety.
(AP, 2/15/18)
2018 Feb 16, India said it had suspended the passports of a billionaire jeweler and a diamond merchant accused of defrauding a state-run bank after reports they had left the country. India's financial crimes agency is investigating allegations that Nirav Modi and his business partner Mehul Choksi were involved in defrauding the Punjab National Bank (PNB) of almost $1.8 billion.
(AFP, 2/16/18)
2018 Feb 16, Indian investigators arrested three people who allegedly helped billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi obtain fake documents for overseas loans in one of the country's biggest bank scams.
(AFP, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 16, In southern India seven workers died of suffocation while cleaning an underground drainage pit at a poultry farm in Morem village, Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 2/16/18)
2018 Feb 17, India and Iran said that they would step up cooperation in combatting extremism, terrorism and drug trafficking in Afghanistan in an effort to restore peace and stability to the war-wracked country. India and Iran also signed agreements including Tehran leasing to New Delhi operational control of part of the Iranian east coast port of Chabahar for 18 months.
(AP, 2/17/18)(Reuters, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 17, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau arrived in India for a weeklong visit aimed at enhancing business ties between the two countries.
(AP, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 21, India handed Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau a list of nine people in Canada who are suspected of trying to revive a Sikh separatist movement in the Indian state of Punjab.
(Reuters, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 22, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Indian troops have opened fire in the disputed Kashmir region, killing a laborer on the Pakistani side of the boundary.
(AP, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 23, In India Donald Trump Jr., the US president's eldest son, heaped praise on the local media, and accused American journalists of unfair criticism, as he neared the end of a whirlwind trip across India promoting Trump-brand luxury real estate.
(AP, 2/23/18)
2018 Feb 24, In eastern India a speeding jeep plowed through a group of schoolchildren crossing a road, killing nine and injuring 10 of them on the outskirts of Muzzafarpur, Bihar state. The jeep driver sped away after the accident.
(AP, 2/24/18)
2018 Feb 24, Sridevi (54), Bollywood's leading lady of the 1980s and '90s, died in Dubai. She had redefined stardom for actresses in India. Her famous roles included "Mr. India," in which she played a reporter, and "Lamhe," or "Moments," a 1991 film in which she played dual roles of mother and teenage daughter.
(AP, 2/25/18)
2018 Feb 24, India and Pakistan exchanged artillery fire in the disputed Kashmir region forcing hundreds of people to flee in the Uri area.
(AP, 2/25/18)
2018 Mar 1, Pakistan said an "unprovoked" Indian attack killed two soldiers and a 70-year-old villager in the disputed Kashmir region.
(AP, 3/1/18)
2018 Mar 3, Indian PM Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party ended the 25-year uninterrupted rule of a communist party in a northeastern state and consolidated its position in two other states in key provincial elections.
(AP, 3/3/18)
2018 Mar 5, In Kashmir tens of thousands of angry protesters poured into the streets of Shopian more than a dozen times, hurling rocks and shouting anti-India slogans after soldiers killed four civilians and two suspected militants. Government forces responded with tear gas.
(AP, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 7, India said it has imposed new restrictions on trade with North Korea, in line with UN Security Council sanctions slapped on the reclusive country for its nuclear and missile programs.
(Reuters, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 7, Air India said Saudi Arabia has given it permission to fly between New Delhi and Tel Aviv over Saudi airspace, ending a 70-year ban and marking a diplomatic shift.
(Reuters, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 7, Tom Pritzker of the Chicago-based Hyatt Foundation announced that architect and educator Balkrishna Doshi has been awarded the 2018 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the first Indian to win architecture’s highest honor in its 40-year history.
(AP, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 7, Pakistan’s said it has approved India’s proposals for exchanges of civilian detainees, in a statement believed to also cover some of those held over the Kashmir conflict.
(AP, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 9, India's Supreme Court said individuals have a right to die with dignity, in a landmark verdict that permits the removal of life-support systems for the terminally ill or those in incurable comas. Passive euthanasia, as it is called, will apply only to a terminally ill person with no hope of recovery.
(Reuters, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 10, Indian PM Narendra Modi met with French President Emmanuel Macron in New Delhi. They pledged to work together to ensure freedom of navigation in the Indian Ocean and signed an agreement to expedite construction of a major nuclear power plant in India by a French company. Modi highlighted a solar alliance and cooperation between the two countries in defense, security, technology, space and counterterrorism.
(AP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 11, In India French President Emmanuel Macron said his country will commit 700 million euros to the International Solar Alliance (ISA) at the founding conference of the organization, reiterating the European country's commitment to the alliance and clean energy. The treaty-based organization, launched by India's PM Narendra Modi in 2015, aims to promote solar energy in 121 countries.
(Reuters, 3/11/18)
2018 Mar 12, In India tens of thousands of protesting farmers from Maharashtra state marched into the state capital of Mumbai to demand government support to address hardship in a sector that employs the majority of the country's workforce.
(Reuters, 3/12/18)
2018 Mar 12, In Kashmir a gunbattle between Indian troops and rebels killed three insurgents and triggered more anti-India protests and clashes.
(AP, 3/12/18)
2018 Mar 16, In Kashmir Indian government forces killed two militants overnight who tried to snatch a guard's rifle. Protests against Indian rule and clashes erupted as word of the killings spread.
(AP, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 17, It was reported that more than half of Bangalore's estimated 10 million inhabitants have to rely on borewells and tankers for their water because there isn't enough mains supply to go round. An ecologist with the Indian Institute of Science has predicted the Karnataka state capital could be the first Indian city to follow Cape Town in running out of water.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In eastern India a speeding bus plunged into a dry river bed, killing at least 12 people and injuring 35 in Bihar state.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 18, In Kashmir five members of an Indian family were killed and two injured by shelling from Pakistani troops in the Poonch region along the Line of Control, the de facto border between India and Pakistan.
(Reuters, 3/18/18)(SFC, 3/19/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 20, India and China agreed to consult each other on regional and international issues, the Indian side said after a phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian PM Narendra Modi.
(Reuters, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 20, Iraqi and Indian authorities said they have confirmed that a mass grave outside the village of Badush contained the bodies of 38 Indian construction workers abducted when Islamic State militants overran the northern city of Mosul in 2014.
(AP, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 21, In Kashmir five Indian soldiers and five suspected militants were killed in a gun battle near the de facto border between India and Pakistan.
(Reuters, 3/21/18)
2018 Mar 22, India's health minister said $1.54 billion has been allocated for an ambitious health program aimed at providing insurance cover for about half the population, labeling it the largest such scheme in the world.
(Reuters, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 22, In Kashmir officials said government forces have ended a two-day operation against rebels fighting against Indian rule in which 10 combatants died.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 23, India set a March 31 deadline for London-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica to respond to a query on whether it was engaged to improperly harvest Facebook data on Indian citizens.
(Reuters, 3/24/18)
2018 Mar 24, Business technology news website ZDNet reported that India's biometric ID program, Aadhaar, has been hit by another major security lapse, allowing access to private information.
(Reuters, 3/24/18)
2018 Mar 24, Powerful Indian politician Lalu Prasad Yadav was sentenced to 14 years in prison for embezzling 37 million rupees ($570,000) from Bihar state government's treasury while he was the state's top elected official (1990-1997).
(AP, 3/24/18)
2018 Mar 26, Clashes in India between supporters of PM Narendra Modi's party and those of an opposition party snowballed into Hindu-Muslim rioting, with three people killed and dozens injured over two days of violence.
(Reuters, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, In India reporter Sandeep Sharma was killed in Madhya Pradesh state's Bhind district. He had been investigating illegal sand mining in the region for a television station.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 30, Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, in a filing to the Shenzhen stock exchange, agreed to launch a $930 million Indian joint solar energy venture with Chinese firm GCL System Integration Technology Co as part of its India solar investment roadmap.
(Reuters, 4/2/18)
2018 Mar 31, In northern India Lobsang Sangay, the prime minister of the self-declared Tibetan government-in-exile, urged his compatriots to strengthen efforts to make the return of the Dalai Lama to his native land a reality.
(AP, 3/31/18)
2018 Mar 31, In central India a four-story rickety hotel building collapsed in Indore, Madhya Pradesh state, killing at least 10 people and injuring three. A driver lost control of his vehicle and struck a pillar holding up the near 100-year-old structure.
(AP, 4/1/18)(AFP, 4/1/18)
2018 Apr 1, In Kashmir at least four civilians were killed and dozens injured after massive anti-India protests erupted in several parts of the Indian-controlled territory amid fierce fighting between rebels and government forces that left at least 12 militants and three army soldiers dead.
(AP, 4/1/18)
2018 Apr 2, In India low-caste Dalits fought street battles with police that left at least six dead as protests against a Supreme Court rights ruling swept across large swathes of the country.
(AFP, 4/2/18)
2018 Apr 2, A security clampdown and a strike sponsored by separatists fighting against Indian rule shut down most of Indian-administered Kashmir.
(AP, 4/2/18)
2018 Apr 3, India withdrew rules to control "fake news" less than 24 hours after announcing them, following an outcry that the regulations could be used by the government to curb press freedom.
(Reuters, 4/3/18)
2018 Apr 5, In India Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was convicted of poaching rare deer in a wildlife preserve two decades ago and sentenced to five years in prison.
(AP, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 5, In India Subhabrata Majumdar (46) was arrested after his mother's body was found in the large freezer during a police raid on their home in the city of Kolkata. He allegedly kept his mother's body in the freezer for almost three years while collecting her monthly pension payments, about $460.
(AP, 4/6/18)
2018 Apr 5, In India a girl (11) was sexually assaulted and murdered in the western Gujarat city of Surat. Her body was found the next day. The case was made public on April 15.
(Reuters, 4/15/18)
2018 Apr 5, Students protesting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir clashed with government forces after authorities reopened schools following the killings of 13 rebels and five civilians. Government forces fired tear gas to stop students from marching at several colleges in Indian-controlled Kashmir's main city of Srinagar.
(AP, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 7, India agreed to construct a rail link to Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, and to open up inland waterways in the landlocked Himalayan nation. Analysts said the latest Indian move was spurred by China's expansive infrastructure projects in Nepal as both Asian giants jostle for influence.
(Reuters, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 7, In India a court in Jodhpur granted bail to Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, who will be allowed to remain free while he appeals his conviction on charges of poaching rare deer in a wildlife preserve two decades ago.
(AP, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 7, A Pakistani government official says Indian troops have fired across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region, killing a woman and wounding six others.
(AP, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 9, In India at least 27 children were killed when their school bus skidded off a mountain road into a gorge in Himachal Pradesh state in the foothills of the Himalayas.
(AP, 4/9/18)
2018 Apr 11, In Kashmir at least four men were killed when government forces fired on anti-India protesters who thronged Khudwani village where soldiers battled a group of militants. One soldier was also killed.
(AP, 4/11/18)
2018 Apr 11, Saudi Aramco announced a $44-billion deal to build a giant refinery complex in India with three Indian firms that will become a crucial new outlet for the world's biggest supplier.
(AFP, 4/11/18)
2018 Apr 13, In India lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar from the ruling Hindu nationalist party was arrested after being accused of abducting and raping a teenage girl last year. Sengar was arrested after being questioned by authorities in Lucknow, the capital of northern Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 4/14/18)
2018 Apr 15, In India thousands of people protested across the country to seek an end to sexual violence against women.
(AP, 4/15/18)
2018 Apr 18, In London Indian PM Narendra Modi signed 1 billion pound ($1.42 billion, 1.14 billion euros) of investment deals with Britain during a visit, where he was met by hundreds of religious protesters. Modi also confirmed the new India-UK Trade Partnership, to improve the accessibility of trade for businesses in both countries.
(AFP, 4/18/18)
2018 Apr 17, In Sweden Indian PM Narendra Modi and Swedish PM Stefan Lofven held talks that focused on trade, growth, global security and climate. Later in the day Modi met with the five Nordic prime ministers for the first India-Nordic Summit.
(AP, 4/17/18)
2018 Apr 20, In India Leaders of the opposition Congress party and six other parties presented a notice to the chairman of Parliament's upper house seeking an inquiry into Chief Justice Deepak Misra's conduct, to be followed by a vote on impeachment. They also accused Misra of providing false information when he bought land before becoming chief justice.
(AP, 4/20/18)
2018 Apr 20, A Indian court overturned the conviction of Maya Kodnani, a former state minister from PM Narendra Modi's party, for involvement in riots in Gujarat state 16 years ago, citing lack of consistency in witness testimonies.
(Reuters, 4/20/18)
2018 Apr 21, India's government prescribed the death penalty for people convicted of raping children under 12 to help combat an increase in violent crime against women. The ordinance will require the approval of Parliament within six months in order to become law. In the meantime, suspects can be prosecuted using the ordinance.
(AP, 4/21/18)
2018 Apr 22, In western India government forces killed at least 14 Maoist rebels during a raid on their hideout in a forested area of Gadchilori district, Maharashtra state.
(AP, 4/22/18)
2018 Apr 23, India's VP M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected a move by a group of opposition parties to impeach the country's top judge on grounds of misusing his office and bowing to government pressure.
(AP, 4/23/18)
2018 Apr 24, Police in western India said at least 37 Maoist rebels were killed in two gunbattles between troops and insurgents over the last three days.
(AP, 4/24/18)
2018 Apr 25, An Indian court jailed a self-styled religious preacher (77) for life for raping a teenage girl, the latest sexual abuse case against a so-called "godman." Asumal Harpalani, commonly known as Asaram Bapu, has been held since September 2013.
(Reuters, 4/25/18)
2018 Apr 26, In India thirteen children were killed when a train hit their school van at an unmanned crossing in Uttar Pradesh state.
(Reuters, 4/26/18)
2018 Apr 27, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for stepped-up cooperation with India during an informal summit with PM Narendra Modi, amid tensions along their contested border and a rivalry for influence with their smaller neighbors that could determine dominance in Asia.
(AP, 4/27/18)
2018 Apr 28, The leaders of China and India stressed the importance of close ties in talks, against the background of their rivalry for leadership in Asia and the potential for cooperation on economic and security matters.
(AP, 4/28/18)
2018 Apr 28, India's government electrified all of its villages 12 days ahead of a deadline set by PM Narendra Modi.
(Reuters, 4/29/18)
2018 Apr 29, In India bridegroom Sunil Verma (25) was hit in the chest late today as he performed Hindu wedding rituals. Indian police on May 1 arrested a man accused of killing Verma when he marked his friend's wedding with gunfire.
(AFP, 5/1/18)
2018 Apr 30, Police in India arrested four teenagers after a video of them allegedly tearing the clothes off a girl in the village of Bharthura, Bihar state, was shared widely on social media.
(AP, 4/30/18)
2018 Apr 30, In India a 16-year-old girl committed suicide after being raped a day earlier by eight men in the Nuh district of the northern state of Haryana.
(Reuters, 5/3/18)
2018 Apr 30, In Indian-controlled Kashmir a young man was killed and at least 14 others wounded when government forces fired at anti-India protesters who were trying to help rebels escape during a gunbattle. Two rebels were killed.
(AP, 4/30/18)
2018 May 1, In northern India a 19-year-old woman was raped by five men, including the driver of an autorickshaw she hailed in near Gurugram town, Haryana state.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, Residents of Kanpur reacted with dismay after the Indian city was found to have the worst air quality in a global World Health Organization survey that urged the nation to clean up its act. 14 Indian cities feature in the 15 cities with the dirtiest air in the WHO's global list.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh was hammered by more than 41,000 lightning strikes in a matter of hours. At least 14 people were killed.
(AFP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 3, In India a mob blocked highways and sat on railway tracks near Guntur, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, demanding public punishment for a rickshaw puller accused of raping a girl (9). The accused, said to be around 55, was found hanging in a wood the next day. Police said he had likely committed suicide.
(Reuters, 5/4/18)
2018 May 3, A powerful dust storm and rain swept parts of north and western India overnight, causing house collapses, toppling trees and leaving at least 134 people dead and more than 160 injured.
(AP, 5/3/18)(AFP, 5/3/18)(SFC, 5/15/18, p.A4)
2018 May 3, In eastern India a bus caught fire after falling into a ditch along a highway in Bihar state. The Press Trust of India news agency said 20 people were feared dead.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 4, In eastern India a girl (17) was raped, doused in kerosene and set alight. Police soon arrested a 19-year-old man who lives in the same neighbourhood as the girl struggled to survive. On the same day another girl (16) was raped and burned to death, both in the state of Jharkhand. Fifteen people were soon detained in the case of the 16-year-old, who was torched to death in the state's Chatra district.
(AFP, 5/7/18)
2018 May 5, Indian police arrested 14 people suspected of kidnapping, raping and burning to death a teenage girl. The girl was raped on May 3 while attending a wedding ceremony in Jharkhand state. Suspects beat up the girl's family members for complaining against them and burned her to death after finding her at home alone on May 4.
(AP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 5, Indian troops killed three suspected rebels during a gunbattle in Srinagar. Police blamed insurgents for killing three other men during a day of violence and protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
(AP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 6, Indian soldiers shot dead five Kashmir militants including a rebel university teacher in a gunfight that triggered violent protests in which five civilians were killed. A top commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, a key rebel group, was also among the dead.
(AFP, 5/6/18)
2018 May 7, India's Supreme Court ordered the trial of eight men accused of the January rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl to be moved from Kashmir to another state after her family and lawyer said they faced death threats.
(Reuters, 5/7/18)
2018 May 7, Indian officials said 12 children between the ages 5 and 12 have been killed in dog attacks in and around the northern town of Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh state, since November. Roaming packs of feral dogs killed six children in the area last week.
(AP, 5/7/18)
2018 May 8, In Kashmir an Indian tourist was killed overnight during a stone-throwing protest. A teenage boy who had been shot by Indian troops May 6 died in a hospital, triggering protests and clashes in his southern village.
(AP, 5/8/18)
2018 May 9, In northeastern India a homemade bomb exploded, killing two paramilitary soldiers and wounding two civilians in Manipur state.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In northern India a powerful dust and rain storm demolished homes and downed power lines late today, killing at least 14 people in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, It was reported that Walmart is breaking into India's massive and growing consumer market with its biggest acquisition yet, spending $16 billion for a controlling stake in the online retailer Flipkart, whose delivery drivers, with their motorcycles and oversized backpacks, have become ubiquitous across the nation of 1.3 billion people.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 14, Officials in India said powerful winds and rainstorms that have swept across a crowded swath of northern India left 43 people dead. 42 were killed in Uttar Pradesh state and at least one person in New Delhi.
(AP, 5/14/18)(SFC, 5/15/18, p.A4)
2018 May 15, In northern India a highway overpass being built collapsed in Varanasi. Disaster officials said at least 16 people were killed when an immense concrete slab slammed down onto the road below. More people were feared trapped beneath the slab.
(AP, 5/15/18)
2018 May 15, In southern India a ferry capsized on the Godavari River leaving at least 40 people missing in Andhra Pradesh state.. 20 people swam to safety.
(SFC, 5/16/18, p.A3)
2018 May 16, India announced that its troops will halt counterinsurgency operations in disputed Kashmir during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, its first such declaration in 18 years.
(AP, 5/16/18)
2018 May 17, In Kashmir an Indian paramilitary soldier was killed by a Pakistani sniper late today, leading to cross-border firing and shelling at several forward posts. Eight civilians, including an Indian husband and wife and four members of a Pakistani family, were killed when Indian and Pakistani soldiers fired at border posts and villages along the highly militarized frontier.
(AP, 5/18/18)
2018 May 19, In India B.S. Yeddyurappa, BJP leader of southern Karnataka state, quit after just two days in office, rather than face a confidence vote his minority Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was unlikely to win.
(AP, 5/19/18)
2018 May 20, In eastern India at least six police officials were killed and another was critically injured when Maoist rebels targeted their vehicle with a bomb in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 5/20/18)
2018 May 22, In southern India at least nine were killed after police fired at protesters calling for the closure of a Vedanta Resources-controlled copper smelter. Residents of the port city of Thootukudi in Tamil Nadu state and environmentalists have been demonstrating against one of India's biggest copper plants for more than three months, alleging it is a major source of pollution and a risk to fisheries. Autopsy reports later showed that 12 of the 13 protesters killed when police opened fire on a demonstration against Vedanta's copper smelter were hit by bullets in the head or chest, and half of those were shot from behind.
(Reuters, 5/22/18)(Reuters, 12/22/18)
2018 May 22, Indian health officials said at least 10 people have died of Nipah since an outbreak began earlier this month in Kerala. There is no vaccine for the virus, which can cause raging fevers, convulsions and vomiting, and kills up to 75 percent of people who come down with it.
(AP, 5/22/18)
2018 May 23, In southern India a protester was killed by a rubber bullet, a day after 10 were shot dead when police opened fire on a rally demanding the closure of a copper plant in the port city of Tuticorin.
(AP, 5/23/18)
2018 May 23, The Bosnian unit of Indian renewable energy developer Suzlon Energy won the right to build a 25.2 megawatt (MW) wind farm in Bosnia to help it cut greenhouse gas emissions and meet the EU renewable energy standards.
(Reuters, 5/23/18)
2018 May 23, In Kashmir Indian and Pakistani soldiers shelled dozens of villages and border posts for a sixth straight day. Officials said a total of six civilians and a soldier were killed on the two sides. The fighting followed days of confrontations that left four civilians on each side and two Indian soldiers dead.
(AP, 5/23/18)
2018 May 24, India's Tamil Nadu state said that it was seeking a permanent closure of a big copper smelter run by London-listed Vedanta Resources after 13 people died in protests demanding the closure of the plant on environmental grounds.
(Reuters, 5/24/18)
2018 May 26, In Kashmir at least four suspected militants were killed in a gunbattle with government troops after crossing into the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir from the Pakistani side of the disputed territory.
(AP, 5/26/18)
2018 May 27, Indian PM Narendra Modi said he expected around a 30 percent drop in the number of vehicles entering Delhi, as he opened two new expressways around the capital aimed at decongesting its streets and reducing deadly pollution.
(Reuters, 5/27/18)
2018 May 27, Indian authorities said another patient has died from the Nipah virus, taking the number of fatalities from an outbreak of the rare disease in Kerala state to 13. Nipah is named after the Malaysian village where it first appeared in 1998. The bat-borne pathogen ended up killing 21 out of 23 people infected. In 2019 the film "Virus," the true story of the struggle to contain the virus, won critical acclaim in Mollywood.
(AFP, 5/27/18)(Econ., 5/9/20, p.25)
2018 May 28, India's southern Tamil Nadu state ordered the permanent closure of a copper smelter run by London-listed Vedanta Resources after 13 people protesting to demand its shutdown on environmental concerns were killed last week.
(Reuters, 5/28/18)
2018 May 28, In Indian-administered Kashmir rebels attacked an Indian army camp and an armored vehicle overnight. A soldier and a civilian were killed and three soldiers were wounded.
(AP, 5/28/18)
2018 May 29, Indian disaster management officials in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand said 47 people had died in night-time storms that swept across the region.
(AP, 5/29/18)
2018 May 29, Pakistan's military said that local generals using a special hotline have reached an understanding to stop trading artillery fire in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
(AP, 5/30/18)
2018 May 31, Indian PM Narendra Modi held talks with new Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad in a brief visit aimed at bolstering bilateral ties.
(AP, 5/31/18)
2018 Jun 2, Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir fired shotgun pellets and tear gas at hundreds of mourners during a funeral march for a man killed when he was run over by a paramilitary vehicle during a protest.
(AP, 6/2/18)
2018 Jun 3, Indian officials said two paramilitary soldiers were killed and eight civilians wounded today when Pakistani soldiers attacked dozens of forward posts along the highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir.
(AP, 6/3/18)
2018 Jun 6, India's central bank raised its benchmark lending rate to 6.25 percent to tamp down rising inflation following an increase in oil prices.
(AP, 6/6/18)
2018 Jun 10, A group of militants sneaked into the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir from the Pakistani side of the disputed territory, sparking a gunbattle that left at least six suspected rebels dead.
(AP, 6/10/18)
2018 Jun 11, India requested an international arrest warrant for fugitive billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi, hours after reports claimed he had sought asylum in Britain.
(AFP, 6/11/18)
2018 Jun 13, Indian and Pakistani forces traded fire along the highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir after Pakistani firing killed at least four Indian paramilitary soldiers and injured three others on border patrol.
(AP, 6/13/18)
2018 Jun 15, In India New Delhi officials ordered a two-day halt to construction in an attempt to reduce choking pollution that has cloaked the city in smog and dust.
(AP, 6/15/18)
2018 Jun 17, In northeastern India insurgents attacked a passing security convoy with automatic weapons and hand grenades leaving four paramilitary soldiers dead. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) soon claimed responsibility.
(AP, 6/18/18)
2018 Jun 19, India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) quit the ruling coalition in Jammu and Kashmir state and called for federal control over the disputed Himalayan region, citing a deterioration in security that could herald a new crackdown.
(Reuters, 6/19/18)
2018 Jun 19, Indian officials said police in northern India have broken up a gang that promised professional test-takers and high-tech listening devices to help applicants pass a two-day test to become police constables.
(AP, 6/19/18)
2018 Jun 20, India's federal government took direct control of Kashmir state after the ruling Hindu nationalist party ended its long-troubled alliance there with a Kashmiri political party.
(AP, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 20, Vedanta Ltd said a sulphuric acid leak from a tank at its southern Indian copper smelter was severe and inaction could lead to serious environmental consequences. The Tamil Nadu state government ordered a permanent closure of the plant and disconnected the power supply last month following protests over alleged pollution.
(Reuters, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 21, Indian PM Narendra Modi traveled to the hill town of Dehradun for the fourth International Day of Yoga, and shortly after sunrise was doing yoga exercises with about 50,000 people.
(AP, 6/21/18)
2018 Jun 23, In India a new ban on single-use plastics in Mumbai went into effect. Over the next few days 132 premises were issued with penalties including outlets of Burger King, McDonald's and Starbucks.
(AFP, 6/26/18)
2018 Jun 26, In India a girl (7) was abducted and raped while waiting to be picked up from school by her parents in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh state. Two suspects were soon arrested on suspicion of raping the girl and trying to slit her throat with a knife.
(AP, 6/30/18)
2018 Jun 26, GE and French utility EDF said they have agreed to team to build six reactors for a nuclear power project in western India, which is due to be the world's biggest when finished.
(Reuters, 6/26/18)
2018 Jun 28, In northeastern India crazed mobs in Tripura beat three people to death in lynchings sparked by rumors spread on smartphones.
(AFP, 6/29/18)
2018 Jun 28, Industry sources said India, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil after China, will be forced to take action to protect its exposure to the US financial system. They said India's oil ministry has asked refiners to prepare for a 'drastic reduction or zero' imports of Iranian oil from November.
(Reuters, 6/28/18)
2018 Jun 28, In India a small chartered plane crashed in a busy area of Mumbai, killing at least six people including two on the ground.
(AP, 6/28/18)
2018 Jun 29, In India thousands of people held a street protest in northeastern Assam state against a decision by the government to grant citizenship mainly to Hindus who have fled neighboring Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, alleging persecution by the Muslim majority there. The protest was led by the All Assam Students Union, which demands deportation of thousands of illegal migrants, both Hindus and Muslims, from neighboring Bangladesh.
(AP, 6/29/18)
2018 Jun 29, Authorities in northeastern India cut internet access after crazed mobs, sparked by rumors spread on smartphones, beat three people to death in Tripura. More than 25 similar killings in recent months across India have been ignited by false information spread on messaging service WhatsApp.
(AFP, 6/29/18)
2018 Jun 29, In northeastern India five paramilitary soldiers were killed and another six injured as huge boulders rolled down on their bus following a mudslide triggered by monsoon rains in Arunachal Pradesh state.
(AP, 6/30/18)
2018 Jun 30, In central India hundreds of people blocked streets and shut down businesses to protest the June 26 rape of a 7-year-old girl in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh state. Protesters demanded the death penalty for two suspects arrested on suspicion of rape and trying to slit her throat.
(SSFC, 7/1/18, p.A4)
2018 Jun 30, India's Maharashtra state eased a ban against single-use plastic, imposed on June 23, following what sources said was intense lobbying by multinational companies and plastic industry bodies for softer rules and extensions. Maharashtra allowed e-commerce companies to use plastic packaging for three more months.
(Reuters, 7/3/18)
2018 Jul 1, Police in India's capital found 11 bodies at a home under mysterious circumstances, including 10 that were blindfolded and hanging. The victims were all from the same family and most had lived in the home in Burari village in the northern part of New Delhi.
(AP, 7/1/18)
2018 Jul 1, In India five men were bludgeoned to death in a remote, mountainous village in Maharashtra state. Villagers pounced on the men when one of them tried to speak to a child at a weekly market.
(AP, 7/2/18)
2018 Jul 1, In northern India at least 48 people were killed when an overcrowded bus plunged off a mountain road into a gorge in Uttarakhand state.
(AP, 7/1/18)
2018 Jul 2, Police in western India said that they have arrested 23 people who took part in the weekend lynching of five men suspected of being members of a gang of child kidnappers.
(AP, 7/2/18)
2018 Jul 4, India's government said it has asked WhatsApp to take "immediate action" to prevent the social media platform from being misused to spread rumors and irresponsible statements like those blamed for recent deadly mob attacks in the country.
(AP, 7/4/18)
2018 Jul 4, India's Supreme Court upheld the powers of Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, in a win for his Aam Aadmi Party, embroiled in a protracted fight with PM Narendra Modi's government that has compounded the capital city's problems.
(Reuters, 7/4/18)
2018 Jul 4, In eastern India a nun and another worker at a shelter for unwed mothers run by Mother Teresa's charity were over the last 24 hours for allegedly selling a baby.
(AP, 7/5/18)
2018 Jul 6, Police in eastern India arrested a school principal, two teachers and three students after a teenage girl blamed them and another 13 schoolmates for repeatedly raping her for the last seven months.
(AP, 7/7/18)
2018 Jul 7, Indian police charged five people, including the brother of a lawmaker from the ruling party, in relation to the death of the father of a teenage girl raped last year. The rape victim's father died in April while in the custody of police in northern Uttar Pradesh state. Police arrested Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a BJP member of the state legislature of Uttar Pradesh, in April in connection with the rape of the teenager.
(Reuters, 7/7/18)
2018 Jul 10, Indian police arrested seven people in Bihar state, including a school principal and a teacher, on suspicion of raping and blackmailing a teenage girl over several months. The girl (15) had told police she was raped by students in a school lavatory in December 2017 and that the abuse continued for seven months.
(Reuters, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 11, in northeastern India a mudslide triggered by monsoon rains demolished tin-roofed homes on a hillside, killing at least eight children and one woman while they were sleeping in Tamenglong village, Manipur state.
(AP, 7/11/18)
2018 Jul 11, In southern India a suspected carbon monoxide gas leak killed at least six workers at a steel mill in Padipari, Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 7/12/18)
2018 Jul 13, In southern India a mob armed with sticks and stones lynched Mohammed Azam (32), a call center employee, and wounded three men late today in Karnataka's Bidar district after rumors spread over WhatsApp that the victims were members of a gang of child kidnappers. Nearly three dozen people were soon arrested for participating in the attack.
(AP, 7/15/18)(Reuters, 7/15/18)
2018 Jul 14, In India a woman (35) was gang raped and burned alive in the northern city of Sambhal. A police case was soon filed against five men involved.
(Reuters, 7/15/18)
2018 Jul 15, In eastern India Maoist rebels ambushed a unit of government forces, leaving two soldiers dead and another wounded in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 7/15/18)
2018 Jul 16, India's government said it has ordered inspections of all centers run by Mother Teresa's charity following the arrest of a nun and a worker at one of its shelters for unwed mothers for allegedly selling a baby.
(AP, 7/17/18)
2018 Jul 17, India's highest court asked the federal government to consider enacting a law to deal with an increase in lynchings and mob violence fueled mostly by rumors that the victims either belonged to members of child kidnapping gangs or were beef eaters and cow slaughterers.
(AP, 7/17/18)
2018 Jul 17, In India a six-story building under construction collapsed onto an adjacent building east of New Delhi, killing at least three people and trapping several others under the debris.
(AP, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 19, In central India security forces killed eight Maoist insurgents, including four women, in an exchange of gunfire early today in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 7/19/18)
2018 Jul 19, India's lower house of parliament approved a bill that would allow authorities to seize assets of fugitives accused of crimes involving sums over 1 billion rupees ($14 million). The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill law will go to the upper house and the president in the coming days.
(Reuters, 7/19/18)
2018 Jul 21, In western India a Muslim man was beaten to death by a mob overnight over allegations of smuggling cows in Rajasthan state.
(AP, 7/21/18)
2018 Jul 21, In central India a woman was found dead after being lynched on rumors that she was part of a gang that kidnapped children. At least 14 people were arrested in Madhya Pradesh state's Singrauli district following the killing.
(AP, 7/23/18)
2018 Jul 22, India said people whose names are missing from a list of citizens to be issued by Assam state this month will not be detained, amid concerns that Muslims will be targeted under the guise of detecting illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 7/22/18)
2018 Jul 22, In Kashmir three rebels were killed in a gunbattle with Indian troops early today in southern Khudwani village.
(AP, 7/22/18)
2018 Jul 24, Indian police admitted they made a mistake in handling a deadly vigilante attack on a man suspected of cow smuggling by tending to his cows before taking him to hospital on July 21.
(Reuters, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 24, Indian PM Narendra Modi stopped in Rwanda, where he signed a number of bilateral agreements and visited a model farm to which he donated 200 cows.
(AP, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 24, Indian PM Narendra Modi arrived in Uganda for the second stop in his tour of Africa ahead of this week's summit of the BRICS emerging economies.
(AP, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 25, Speaking in Uganda Indian PM Narendra Modi pledged to "intensify and deepen" his country's engagement with Africa, saying his government will do more to support governments across the continent.
(AP, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 25, In South Africa leaders of the BRICS emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) began an annual three-day summit, with attention focused on the threat of a US-led global trade war. The meeting opened with a business forum.
(AFP, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 26, In the Philippines the six winners of this year's Ramon Magsaysay Awards, regarded as Asia's version of the Nobel Prize, were announced. The recipients included a Cambodian genocide survivor (Youk Chhang) who helped document the Khmer Rouge atrocities, an Indian psychiatrist (Bharat Vatwani ) who led the rescue of thousands of mentally ill street paupers to treat and reunite them with their families, a Filipino (Howard Dee ) who led peace talks with communist insurgents, a polio-stricken Vietnamese (Vo Thi Hoang Yen) who fought discrimination against the disabled, an East Timorese (Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz) who built care centers for the poor amid civil strife and an Indian (Sonam Wangchuk) who tutored village students to help them pass exams.
(AP, 7/26/18)
2018 Jul 26, In South Africa the leaders of the BRICS bloc of emerging economies, meeting in the wake of tariff threats by US President Donald Trump, signed a declaration supporting an open and inclusive multilateral trading system under World Trade Organization rules at their summit. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa agreed at the three-day meeting to fight unilateralism and protectionism.
(Reuters, 7/26/18)
2018 Jul 28, Indian officials said at least 58 people have been killed in the past two days as monsoon rains in the north triggered house collapses and flooded wide swaths of land.
(AP, 7/28/18)
2018 Jul 28, In western India 33 people were feared dead after a bus fell into a deep gorge in Maharashtra state.
(AP, 7/28/18)
2018 Jul 30, In India more than 4 million people were excluded from a draft list of citizens released by a census official for the northeastern border state of Assam, in a long-running campaign against immigrants. Thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims worried about being sent to detention centers or deported.
(Reuters, 7/30/18)
2018 Jul 30, In eastern India heavy rains flooded a hospital critical care unit in Bihar state, as annual monsoon rains destroyed homes in several parts of the country and forced others to flee to higher ground. More than 1,500 people have died so far this year across the country due to storms, floods and landslides.
(Reuters, 7/30/18)
2018 Aug 4, In Kashmir a young man was killed and two other people wounded when India's army fired at a funeral of a rebel in the suburbs of southern Shopian town.
(AP, 8/4/18)
2018 Aug 6, In northern India police rescued 24 girls and shut down a care home that had been operating illegally in Uttar Pradesh state, after a youngster living there fled and complained to officers about sexual exploitation.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, In India Muthuvel Karunanidhi (94), a highly popular scriptwriter-turned-politician in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, died after a prolonged illness. He became the state's chief minister in 1969 and held that position five times for a total of 19 years.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 8, In India a stampede among thousands of mourners at the funeral of a powerful southern Indian politician killed two people and injured 47.
(Reuters, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 9, Indian authorities arrested Neeraj Singhal, a former managing director of Bhushan Steel Ltd, over an alleged fraud, after a probe found billions of rupees had been siphoned off by the firm's founders from funds borrowed from state-run banks.
(Reuters, 8/9/18)
2018 Aug 9, In India torrential monsoon rains killed at least 26 people in flooding, landslides and house collapses in the southern state of Kerala in the last 24 hours with more than 15,500 people taking shelter in state-run relief camps.
(AP, 8/9/18)
2018 Aug 9, Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA opened its first store in India in the southern city of Hyderabad.
(AP, 8/9/18)
2018 Aug 11, In southern India more than half of the 14 districts in Kerala state were put on high alert, as the death toll from one of the worst floods in the state reached 34.
(Reuters, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 14, The Indian rupee fell to an all-time low against the US dollar amid worries that Turkey's growing financial crisis could spread to other developing-world economies.
(AP, 8/14/18)
2018 Aug 14, An explosion struck the MT Desh Vaibhav in the Gulf of Oman while it was en route to Fujairah on the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates. The explosion on the Shipping Corporation of India crude oil tanker caused "two casualties" and injured one sailor.
(AP, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 15, PM Narendra Modi said that India will send a manned flight into space by 2022. The announcement was made as part of India's independence day celebrations.
(AP, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 15, Indian officials said torrential monsoon rains have disrupted air and train services in the southern Indian state of Kerala, where flooding, landslides and bridge collapses have killed at least 67 people in the past week.
(AP, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 16, Former Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee (93) died after a prolonged illness. The Hindu nationalist had set off a nuclear arms race with rival Pakistan but later reached across the border to begin a groundbreaking peace process.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 17, Indian authorities said the death toll from floods that have triggered landslides and sent torrents sweeping through villages in Kerala state trebled to 324. Rescuers moved quickly to take those marooned by floods to 1,500 state-run camps.
(AFP, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 18, In India thousands of stranded people were waiting for rescue and officials pleaded for more help as relentless monsoon floods battered the southern state of Kerala, where more than 190 have died in a little over a week.
(AP, 8/18/18)
2018 Aug 19, Indian officials said some 800,000 people have been displaced and over 350 have died in the worst flooding in a century in southern Kerala state.
(AP, 8/19/18)
2018 Aug 20, In southern India floodwaters receded in Kerala state, leaving rescuers the grim task of retrieving bodies as the death toll from the worst monsoon rains in a century rose above 400.
(AFP, 8/20/18)
2018 Aug 21, Pakistan's newly installed PM Imran Khan offered to start a dialogue with archrival India to resolve conflicts between the two nuclear armed nations, including the long-standing dispute over the Kashmir region.
(AP, 8/21/18)
2018 Aug 22, In India a fire in the financial hub of Mumbai killed four people and injured 16, as the blaze spread quickly through a tall, residential building.
(Reuters, 8/22/18)
2018 Aug 23, In India the ruling party in Kerala state, run by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), protested the central government's refusal to accept $100 million in relief offered by foreign governments.
(AP, 8/23/18)
2018 Aug 28, In India police raided the homes of at least half a dozen activists, writers and lawyers across the country, known for supporting resistance movements and marginalized groups, or for speaking out against the government.
(SFC, 8/31/18, p.A4)
2018 Aug 29, India's Supreme Court ordered police to put five prominent rights campaigners suspected of links to Maoist guerrillas under house arrest as outrage grew over their detention a day earlier.
(Reuters, 8/29/18)
2018 Aug 29, Indian police arrested Bangladeshi monk Bhante Sangh Priya on suspicion of sexually abusing children at the Bodh Gaya Buddhist shelter and meditation center in Bihar state.
(AP, 8/30/18)
2018 Aug 30, India's main opposition Congress party lashed out at PM Narendra Modi after central bank data showed that his shock 2016 move to ban high-value notes failed to meet his key objective of flushing out money hidden from the tax man.
(Reuters, 8/30/18)
2018 Aug 30, In Nepal a two-day summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation began in Kathmandu. Leaders of seven South and Southeast Asian nations (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand) met to discuss regional trade, economic cooperation, security and peace.
(AP, 8/30/18)
2018 Aug 31, In Nepal an agreement to study the feasibility of a rail line linking India and Nepal was signed by officials during a meeting between Nepal's PM K.P. Sharma Oli and Indian premier Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a regional summit of seven South and East Asian countries.
(Reuters, 8/31/18)
2018 Sep 2, In India there were nearly 200 confirmed cases of what is locally called rat fever in Kerala state following the worst flooding in a century. The waterborne disease leptospirosis is transmitted via the urine of infected animals, with symptoms including muscle pain and fever.
(Reuters, 9/3/18)
2018 Sep 4, In India a highway overpass collapsed in the crowded city of Kolkata, and some injured people were being treated at a nearby hospital.
(AP, 9/4/18)
2018 Sep 5, In India thousands of farmers and laborers paralyzed central New Delhi in a protest against what they called the anti-people policies of PM Narendra Modi's government, as opposition parties step up pressure ahead of key elections.
(Reuters, 9/5/18)
2018 Sep 5, In India police searched for 22 people who were missing after a motorized boat capsized in the flooded Brahmaputra River in the remote northeast. Three bodies were recovered and 11 people were rescued.
(AP, 9/5/18)
2018 Sep 6, India and the United States signed an accord on secure military communications that both sides hailed as a breakthrough. The Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) had been stalled for years because of India's concerns that it would open up its communications network to the US military.
(Reuters, 9/6/18)
2018 Sep 6, India's top court scrapped Section 377, a colonial-era ban on gay sex, in a landmark judgment that sparked celebrations across India and elsewhere in South Asia, where activists hope to push for similar reform.
(Reuters, 9/6/18)
2018 Sep 7, In the Czech Rep. Indian President Ram Nath Kovind called on Czech defense firms to come to India to create joint venture companies after meeting his Czech counterpart Milos Zeman in Prague.
(AP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 9, In India five men asphyxiated by toxic fumes while cleaning a septic tank at a housing complex in New Delhi. Four men were declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital, and the fifth man died at the hospital the next day.
(AP, 9/10/18)
2018 Sep 11, In southern India a bus carrying pilgrims from a Hindu temple in the hills of Telangana state plunged off a road, killing at least 55 people including four children.
(AP, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 12, In northern India three men reportedly drugged, kidnapped and raped a teenage girl while she was on her way to a test-preparation course. The girl was able to name the suspects.
(AP, 9/15/18)
2018 Sep 13, In India a group of Indian Catholic nuns staged a rare street protest in the southern state of Kerala demanding justice after an alleged sexual assault of a nun by a bishop. The protest, now in its sixth day in Kochi, Kerala's financial hub, gathered momentum as the locals, activists, writers and politicians came out in support.
(Reuters, 9/13/18)
2018 Sep 13, Indian health authorities rushed medical supplies to northern towns and villages where at least 50 people have died from fever over the past two weeks in the Rohilkhand region of Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 9/13/18)
2018 Sep 14, An Indian court ruled there is enough evidence to send former UN climate chief Rajendra Pachauri to trial on sexual harassment charges in a case filed by a former female colleague in New Delhi. Police registered the case against Pachauri after the 29-year-old female colleague accused him three years ago of sexual harassment and criminal intimidation.
(AP, 9/15/18)
2018 Sep 16, In India four police officers were suspended, three days after a mob beat a Muslim business-school graduate to death near Imphal. A video showed armed policemen standing around the man as he lay on his side in a field.
(AP, 9/17/18)
2018 Sep 18, Bollywood actress and former porn star Sunny Leone (37) appeared in New Delhi for the unveiling of her wax likeness at the city's Madame Tussauds museum. She made a name for herself in the porn industry before breaking into Bollywood in 2012, starring in the sequel to the hit movie "Jism" (Hindi for body).
(AP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 19, India's government approved an ordinance to implement a top court ruling striking down the Muslim practice that allows men to instantly divorce.
(AP, 9/19/18)
2018 Sep 19, Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir fired tear gas and used batons to break up religious processions marking the Muslim month of Muharram.
(AP, 9/19/18)
2018 Sep 20, A Pakistani official said PM Imran Khan has written to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, seeking to resolve outstanding disputes between the two nuclear-armed nations, including the issue of the divided region of Kashmir.
(AP, 9/20/18)
2018 Sep 20, The Vatican accepted a request from a bishop in India to be temporarily relieved of his pastoral duties as police questioned him for a second day. A nun from the southern state of Kerala has accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, who heads the Diocese of Jalandhar, of raping her repeatedly over a period of two years.
(Reuters, 9/20/18)
2018 Sep 21, India called off a planned meeting between its foreign minister and her Pakistani counterpart on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York this month following the killing of an Indian border guard in Kashmir and Pakistan's glorification of insurgents fighting Indian rule in the Himalayan territory.
(AP, 9/21/18)
2018 Sep 22, Pakistani PM Imran Khan labeled India arrogant for cancelling what would have been the countries' first high-level talks in years.
(Reuters, 9/22/18)
2018 Sep 23, India's PM Narendra Modi launched the world's biggest health insurance scheme, dubbed "Modicare," promising free coverage for half a billion of India's poorest citizens ahead of national elections next year.
(AFP, 9/23/18)
2018 Sep 23, In India at least 40 Maoist rebels were involved in the fatal shooting of lawmaker Kidari Sarveshwara Rao, an Andhra Pradesh state assembly member from the ruling Telugu Desam party, while he visited with constituents of a tribal area about 700 km (435 miles) northeast of Hyderabad. His supporters attacked two police stations in anger over the killing, setting fire to one and vandalizing the other.
(AP, 9/23/18)
2018 Sep 24, India's army said five suspected militants and a soldier have been killed in two days of fighting near the highly militarized de facto frontier that divides the disputed region of Kashmir.
(AP, 9/24/18)
2018 Sep 25, In India the relatives of thousands of workers who died cleaning sewers protested in New Delhi, aiming to stop the practice of workers entering underground conduits to unclog drains and remove waste with their bare hands.
(Reuters, 9/25/18)
2018 Sep 26, India's top court upheld the government's policy of issuing a 12-digit identification number to every citizen, but said it can't be made mandatory for services such as bank accounts, cellphone connections and school admissions.
(AP, 9/26/18)
2018 Sep 27, India's Chief Justice Dipak Misra and the rest of the five-member court struck down a 158-year-old law that treated adultery in certain cases as a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison. The court called the law unconstitutional and noted that a "husband is not the master of woman." The law did not allow wives to prosecute adulterous husbands.
(AP, 9/27/18)
2018 Sep 27, Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in several places in disputed Kashmir after Indian troops killed a young shepherd who was tending his sheep. An Indian soldier and three rebels were killed in two separate gunbattles.
(AP, 9/27/18)
2018 Sep 28, India's Supreme Court lifted a temple's ban on women of menstruating age, holding that equality is supreme irrespective of age and gender. The historic Sabarimala temple had barred women age 10 to 50 from entering the temple, one of the largest Hindu pilgrimage centers in the world.
(AP, 9/28/18)
2018 Sep 29, In India Vivek Tiwari, a sales manager for Apple, was shot dead early today by a police constable in the Gomti Nagar neighborhood in Uttar Pradesh state. State police soon arrested two constables over the shooting.
(Reuters, 9/30/18)
2018 Oct 2, Indian police fired teargas and water cannons to halt and scatter a march by thousands of protesting farmers heading for the capital New Delhi to demand better prices for their produce.
(Reuters, 10/2/18)
2018 Oct 3, India raised state-mandated prices for winter crops such as wheat and rapeseed, as PM Narendra Modi tried to defuse discontent among farmers ahead of elections in 2019.
(Reuters, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 3, Indian police bussed seven Rohingya Muslims to the border to be deported to neighboring Myanmar for illegal entry. An estimated 40,000 Rohingya live in India after having fled violence and persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar's Rakhine state over the years.
(Reuters, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 4, India deported seven Rohingya Muslim men to Myanmar.
(Reuters, 10/4/18)
2018 Oct 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in India for a two-day visit during which India is expected to sign a $5 billion deal to buy Russian S-400 air defense systems despite a new US law ordering sanctions on any country trading with Russia's defense and intelligence sectors.
(AP, 10/4/18)
2018 Oct 5, Russia signed a $5 billion deal with India to supply five regiments of S-400 anti-aircraft missiles to India. The contract was signed during Pres. Vladimir Putin's trip to India.
(Reuters, 10/5/18)(SFC, 10/6/18, p.A3)
2018 Oct 6, In eastern India 34 schoolgirls aged between 12 and 16 were taken to hospital after being beaten with sticks by a group of boys, along with the boys' mothers and neighbors, who had harassed them earlier in the day in the village of Darpakha, Bihar state. Ten people, including four women, were arrested.
(Reuters, 10/8/18)
2018 Oct 9, In India it was reported that tens of thousands of workers have fled Gujarat state in recent days, and many of the small factories and businesses they work in have come to a standstill. This followed news of violence in Gujarat against migrant workers from the central states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The exodus began after the rape of a 14-month-old girl last month, allegedly by a man from the state of Bihar, sparked anger among locals.
(Reuters, 10/9/18)
2018 Oct 10, In northern India an express train partially derailed, killing five passengers and injuring dozens more in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 11, In eastern India Cyclone Titli (Butterfly) damaged homes and blew down trees and power poles, where nine people were killed and about 300,000 forced to move to higher ground.
(AP, 10/11/18)(SFC, 10/12/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 11, Manan Wani, a Kashmiri scholar-turned rebel leader, and his colleague were killed in a gunbattle with Indian troops.
(AP, 10/11/18)
2018 Oct 12, In eastern India 12 people were feared dead in a cyclone shelter swamped by a landslide caused by heavy rains from Cyclone Titli in Orissa state.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 14, India's junior external affairs minister, M.J. Akbar, denied any wrongdoing after more than a dozen women accused him of sexual misconduct when he was a newspaper editor.
(AP, 10/14/18)
2018 Oct 15, Indian government minister M.J. Akbar filed a defamation suit against one of at least 10 women who have accused him of sexual harassment, calling her allegations false and malicious.
(Reuters, 10/15/18)
2018 Oct 15, China and India launched a program to train Afghan diplomats and China's ambassador said it would likely be followed by joint programs in other fields to help war-torn Afghanistan. The joint training of 10 Afghan diplomats will take place at the Indian Foreign Service Institute.
(Reuters, 10/15/18)
2018 Oct 16, In India tensions rose at the Sabarimala hill temple in Kerala state before an expected face-off between women of menstrual age who can enter for the first time in centuries and conservative Hindu groups who want to stop them.
(Reuters, 10/16/18)
2018 Oct 17, In India conservative Hindu groups prevented women from entering an Indian hill temple, in defiance of India's top court which says a centuries-long ban at the holy site is illegal.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, Indian government junior minister M.J. Akbar resigned to fight accusations of sexual harassment from more than a dozen women during his previous career as a journalist.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in the main city in disputed Kashmir after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed at least two rebels.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 18, In India Hindu hardliners blocked intersections, threatened drivers, threw stones at buses and ordered a 12-hour strike to successfully bar women from the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala for a second day. India's ruling party and the main opposition both supported the protest blocking women from entering the pilgrimage site, in what political observers said is a bid to court voters in the country's south ahead of a general election due next year.
(AFP, 10/18/18)(AP, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 19, In India dozens of Hindu priests joined conservative protesters to block women of menstruating age from the Sabarimala temple, one of the world's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites, defying a ruling from India's top court to let them enter.
(AP, 10/19/18)
2018 Oct 19, In India a train ran over people in the northern state of Punjab. 59 people watching fireworks were killed on the outskirts of Amritsar with another 57 injured.
(Reuters, 10/19/18)(AP, 10/19/18)(Reuters, 10/20/18)
2018 Oct 20, An Indian court ordered the trial of sexual harassment charges against one of world's leading climate change experts, Rajendra K. Pachauri (78).
(Reuters, 10/20/18)
2018 Oct 21, In disputed Kashmir three local rebels were killed in a gunbattle with Indian government forces, and six civilians were killed in an explosion at the site after the fighting was over. 3 Indian army soldiers and two suspected militants were killed in a gunbattle along the militarized line of control dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The death toll of civilians climbed to seven as another injured young man died at a hospital the next day.
(AP, 10/21/18)(AP, 10/22/18)
2018 Oct 22, In India the body of Kuriakose Kattuthara, a Catholic priest who police said had spoken to them about Bishop Franco Mulakkal, was found in his room in a church in the northern state of Punjab. He was witness in a case involving the alleged rape of a nun by the Roman Catholic bishop. Mulakkal, bishop of the Diocese of Jalandhar in Punjab, was arrested in the southern state of Kerala last month on charges of raping the nun.
(Reuters, 10/22/18)
2018 Oct 22, The Press Trust of India news agency reported that the number of Zika virus cases has crossed 100 in the northern state of Rajasthan.
(AP, 10/22/18)
2018 Oct 24, In Kashmir government forces killed two rebels during a gunbattle on the outskirts of Srinagar, sparking violent anti-India protests by residents.
(AP, 10/24/18)
2018 Oct 26, Indian officials said police have rounded 2,061 people for stopping women from entering the Sabarimala temple complex, a flashpoint Hindu shrine, in defiance of a Supreme Court order.
(AFP, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 26, India's Central Pollution Control Board said New Delhi's air quality had plummeted to the worst possible category. The level of PM2.5, tiny particulate matter that can dangerously clog lungs, was 187, more than six times higher than the World Health Organization considers safe.
(AP, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 26, In northern India a powerful explosion at a fireworks factory in Uttar Pradesh state killed at least eight people and injured three others, as Hindus prepare to celebrate the highly popular Diwali festival early next month.
(AP, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 26, In Kashmir eight rebels and two Indian soldiers were killed in gunbattles in northwestern Sopore area that sparked violent anti-India protests by residents seeking an end to Indian rule in the region.
(AP, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 27, In southern India protesters set fire to a Hindu religious center in Kerala state for supporting a Supreme Court decision allowing women of menstruating age at one of the world's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites.
(AP, 10/27/18)
2018 Oct 27, In central India at least four Indian paramilitary soldiers were killed in a powerful land mine blast triggered by Maoist rebels in their stronghold in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 10/27/18)
2018 Oct 27, In eastern India seven elephants in search of food were electrocuted after coming in contact with loosely hanging electric wires in Orissa state.
(AP, 10/27/18)
2018 Oct 27, Pakistan's top court reinstated a ban on the broadcast of Indian TV content following a petition from local producers.
(AP, 10/28/18)
2018 Oct 28, In Japan visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi met with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe at a resort area near Mount Fuji reaffirming their ties amid growing worries about trade and regional stability.
(AP, 10/28/18)
2018 Oct 30, In central India Maoist rebels killed a cameraman working for a state-run television channel and two policemen in an ambush in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 10/30/18)
2018 Oct 31, India's PM Narendra Modi unveiled a towering bronze statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, a key independence leader being promoted as a national icon in the ruling party's campaign ahead of next year's general elections.
(AP, 10/31/18)
2018 Nov 1, India's environment minister blamed the Delhi government and its neighboring states for failing in their efforts to check air pollution which today was six times above the recommended limit, posing severe health risks.
(Reuters, 11/1/18)
2018 Nov 2, In India a man-eating tiger that stalked the hills of Maharashtra state was killed after an attempt to tranquilize her failed. She was suspected of killing at least 13 villagers.
(SSFC, 11/4/18, p.A6)
2018 Nov 4, Police in India said that they are investigating allegations that a 4-year-old girl was gang-raped the previous evening while being treated for a snake bite in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh state. One man was in custody and police were looking for others.
(AP, 11/4/18)
2018 Nov 4, In India villagers circled around the female tiger after it killed the farmer late today in Uttar Pradesh state. When the tiger tried to escape, the villagers crushed it under the wheels of a tractor. Villagers said the tiger injured another person in an attack about 10 days ago.
(AP, 11/5/18)
2018 Nov 6, In India the northern city of Ayodhya broke a Guinness World Record by lighting 300,150 earthen lamps and keeping them lit for at least 45 minutes as part of the annual celebration of Diwali.
(SFC, 11/7/18, p.A2)
2018 Nov 7, In India Yogi Adityanath, a robe-wearing Hindu priest who is the BJP chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, changed the name of Faizabad district to Ayodhya, the place where Hindus believe Lord Ram was born thousands of years ago. Before the change, Ayodhya was the name of a town in Faizabad. Last month PM Narendra Modi changed the name of Allahabad, where three rivers considered holy by Hindus meet, to the Hindu name Prayagraj.
(Reuters, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 8, In India Maoist rebels blew up a bus, killing four civilians and a paramilitary soldier in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 8, In India pollution levels in New Delhi that shot up to 681, as reported by the US Embassy from 200 a day earlier after tens of thousands of people set off a multitude of firecrackers to celebrate the major Hindu festival of Diwali.
(AP, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 10, As pollution in India's capital hit "severe" on the air quality scale, the New Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, came under fire following reports he had left the city for an overseas family trip to Dubai.
(Reuters, 11/10/18)
2018 Nov 11, In central India Maoist rebels triggered a blast and exchanged gunfire with government forces in Chhattisgarh state on the eve of legislative elections. One suspected rebel was killed.
(AP, 11/11/18)
2018 Nov 11, In disputed Kashmir two Indian soldiers were killed over the last 24 hours when Pakistani soldiers fired along the highly militarized de facto frontier.
(AP, 11/11/18)
2018 Nov 14, Police in India said a monkey has snatched a 12-day-old boy from his mother and killed him in Runkata town on the outskirts of Agra.
(Reuters, 11/14/18)
2018 Nov 16, In India thousands of protesters blocked all the exits at a southern airport for more than 14 hours, stopping rights activist Trupti Desai from heading to a Hindu temple to defy a centuries-old ban on most women entering. Desai has led a successful campaign to give women the right to enter the inner sanctums of three temples in the western state of Maharashtra under the slogan "Right to Pray".
(Reuters, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 16, Cyclone Gaya made landfall in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, killing at least 11 people, uprooting trees and knocking down electricity poles after more than 80,000 people were moved out of its path to safety.
(Reuters, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 18, Indian officials said Cyclone Gaya has killed at least 33 people in Tamil Nadu state, caused massive damage to homes and roads and drove tens of thousands of people into relief camps.
(AP, 11/18/18)
2018 Nov 18, In northern India three people were killed and over a dozen injured when two men on a motorbike targeted a prayer hall with a grenade on the outskirts of Amritsar, Punjab state.
(AP, 11/18/18)
2018 Nov 21, Indian police officer Vijay Singh said seven fishermen have been arrested for facilitating a visit by American John Allen Chau to North Sentinel Island, where he was apparently killed. North Sentinel is in the Andaman Islands, a group of islands at the juncture of the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. Chau had reached the vicinity of the island on Nov. 16, before transferring to a canoe. His body was spotted the following day by the fishermen on their return.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 22, India approved the building of a new border entry point and road connecting the northern state of Punjab to the border with arch rival Pakistan, making it quicker and easier for Sikh pilgrims to visit a holy site.
(Reuters, 11/22/18)
2018 Nov 23, Indian security forces killed six suspected insurgents in a fierce exchange of gunfire early today in the Indian portion of disputed Kashmir.
(AP, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 24, In southern India at least 25 people, many of them schoolchildren, were killed when a speeding bus fell into a canal in Karnataka state.
(AP, 11/24/18)
2018 Nov 24, In Ethiopia seven employees of Indian company Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) were taken hostage by local staff due to non-payment of salaries by the debt-laden firm. The Indian government took control of IL&FS in October after it defaulted on some of its debt. On Dec. 1 Two of the 7 employees were reported released.
(Reuters, 12/1/18)
2018 Nov 25, In northern India tens of thousands of Hindus gathered in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh state, and renewed calls to build a Hindu temple on a site where a 16th century mosque was attacked and demolished by Hindu hard-liners in 1992, sparking deadly Hindu-Muslim violence.
(AFP, 11/25/18)
2018 Nov 25, In Indian-controlled Kashmir six rebels and an army soldier were killed in a gunbattle, sparking violent protests by residents seeking an end to Indian rule over the disputed region and leaving a teenage boy dead and 20 people injured.
(AP, 11/25/18)
2018 Nov 29, Indian police said they have arrested nearly two dozen people on suspicion of defrauding people around the world by sending fake pop-up messages warning them that their computers were infected with a virus and offering to fix the problem at a price. Those arrested over the last two days posed as representatives of Microsoft and other companies and used their logos.
(AP, 11/29/18)
2018 Nov 30, In India thousands of farmers marched to the Parliament in New Delhi demanding higher prices for their produce and a government waiver on their farm loans to alleviate hardships.
(AP, 11/30/18)
2018 Dec 1, Controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik (53), wanted in his home country of India, said he has not broken any Indian law and was being targeted by the "enemies of Islam," in a rare public speech in Malaysia where he has sought refuge. Naik faced charges in India of money laundering and hate speech.
(Reuters, 12/2/18)
2018 Dec 3, In India a senior policeman and another man were killed in violent protests over a dead cow in Uttar Pradesh state.
(Reuters, 12/3/18)
2018 Dec 3, Indian authorities said two men accused of trying to molest a woman (20) in northern India set her on fire two days later after she lodged a complaint with police. Her suspected attackers have been arrested and three policemen suspended for dereliction of duties.
(Reuters, 12/3/18)
2018 Dec 4, Authorities in northern India said they have arrested four people for their alleged involvement in an attack on police over rumors of cow slaughter that left two people dead, including a police official, a day earlier. A case was filed against 28 people who allegedly set a police outpost on fire and killed a local police inspector.
(AP, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 5, An Indian court remanded to custody British businessman Christian Michel accused of paying bribes to Indian officials to win a helicopter deal for Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland, following a rare extradition.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 9, In India dozens of Hindu monks and tens of thousands of followers, gathered under the banner of groups linked to PM Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party, urged the Indian government to help build a temple on the ruins of a 16th-century mosque, torn down in 1992, in the northern town of Ayodhya.
(Reuters, 12/9/18)
2018 Dec 9, In Kashmir Indian troops killed three rebels on the outskirts of Srinagar, ending a nearly 18-hour-long gunbattle. Mudasir Rashid Parray (14) and Saqib Bilal Sheikh (17) were killed in the gunbattle.
(AP, 12/9/18)(AP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 9, Gerald Cotton (30), the CEO of Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, died of complications from Crohn's disease while traveling to an orphanage in India. He was the only person who knew the security keys and passwords needed to access at least $250 million in client accounts.
(SFC, 2/7/19, p.D2)
2018 Dec 10, Reserve Bank of India Gov. Urjit Patel resigned amid a growing split between the Indian government and the independent monetary policy authority. The government of PM Narendra Modi has disagreed with some of the central bank's decisions under Patel, including a move to restrict lending by debt-ridden banks.
(AP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 10, A British court handed charismatic Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya a substantial setback by ruling he should be extradited to India to face financial fraud allegations.
(AP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 10, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Indian Bishop Prasad Gallela (56) of Cuddapah who, according to news reports, was accused of misappropriating church funds to support a secret family.
(AP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 11, India's ruling party lost power in three key states, dealing PM Narendra Modi his biggest defeat since he took office in 2014 and boosting the opposition ahead of national polls next year. The opposition Congress party was a clear winner in Chhattisgarh state, and fell one seat short of a majority in both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
(Reuters, 12/11/18)(AP, 12/12/18)
2018 Dec 12, In India Isha Ambani, the Ivy League-educated daughter of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, thought to be India's richest man, married Anand Piramal, whose father is industrialist Ajay Piramal, thought to be worth $10 billion.
(AP, 12/12/18)
2018 Dec 13, In northeastern India at least 15 young miners went missing and were feared dead following the collapse of a shaft and flooding of a coal mine they were digging illegally in the state of Meghalaya. Three weeks later rescuers trying to reach the miners struggled to pump out water from the 370-foot-deep pit, further dimming their chances of survival. On Jan. 26 rescuers located a second body from the site of a "rat-hole" mining accident, two days after recovering the first body.
(AP, 12/14/18)(Reuters, 1/4/19)(Reuters, 1/26/19)
2018 Dec 15, In southern India police arrested three people after at least 11 died of suspected food poisoning following a ceremony to celebrate the construction of a new Hindu temple in Karnataka state. Laboratory tests later showed the presence of monocrotophos, a pesticide which attacks the nerves, in food and vomit samples.
(AP, 12/15/18)(AP, 12/18/18)
2018 Dec 15, In Kashmir seven civilians died and dozens were injured when Indian security forces opened fire at people protesting the killing of three militants in a gun battle in a village in Pulwama district. The gunfight also left three armed rebels and a soldier dead. The separatist group Hurriyat Conference called for a three-day strike and protests across Kashmir.
(Reuters, 12/15/18)(AFP, 12/15/18)
2018 Dec 16, In India a New Delhi security guard allegedly raped a three-year-old girl after luring her with sweets. The girl was hospitalized and her suspected attacker was soon arrested.
(Reuters, 12/17/18)
2018 Dec 17, PM Narendra Modi said India will give financial assistance of $1.4 billion to the Maldives, the biggest aid yet to the Indian Ocean island nation that is grappling with debt from a Chinese building spree.
(Reuters, 12/17/18)
2018 Dec 17, An Indian court jailed for life Sajjan Kumar, a leader of the main opposition Congress party, for his role in anti-Sikh riots that erupted after the 1984 murder of the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, and killed nearly 3,000 people.
(Reuters, 12/17/18)
2018 Dec 17, In India at least six people died and 129 others were injured in a fire that broke out in the five-story government-run ESIC Kamgar Hospital in the suburban Andheri area of Mumbai. The death toll soon rose to eight.
(AP, 12/17/18)(AP, 12/18/18)
2018 Dec 17, Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman, Mohammad Faisal, said that Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari is being repatriated to New Delhi after serving a three-year prison sentence for spying.
(AP, 12/17/18)
2018 Dec 19, In India Swaroop Raj (35), an assistant vice president at Genpact India, committed suicide following accusations of sexual misconduct.
(http://tinyurl.com/ya8cj4a2)(Reuters, 12/21/18)
2018 Dec 20, An Indian schoolgirl (15) died in a Delhi hospital of severe burns after two men set fire to her on a busy street earlier this week in the tourist city of Agra.
(Reuters, 12/21/18)
2018 Dec 21, Indian police arrested 126 people working for a allegedly fake call center making up to $50,000 a day by duping US citizens.
(AFP, 12/21/18)
2018 Dec 21, In India boulders crashed down on Indian workers who were widening a mountainous road leading to a Hindu temple in the Himalayas, killing seven of them in Uttarakhand state.
(AP, 12/21/18)
2018 Dec 21, Pakistan reportedly opened fire in the Keran sector of Kashmir, killing two Indian army officers.
(AP, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 22, In Kashmir a gunbattle between Indian troops and rebels early today left six militants dead and triggered a new round of anti-India protests in the disputed Himalayan region.
(AP, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 25, In India many Delhi residents were forced to spend Christmas indoors as air quality remained at "severe to emergency" levels for a fourth day, in the capital's worst smog crisis this year.
(Reuters, 12/25/18)
2018 Dec 25, In India a woman (42) attacked her alleged stalker (25) and cut off his genitals before rushing him to a Mumbai hospital to save his life. The woman and her two alleged acquaintances were taken into police custody as investigations continued.
(Reuters, 12/27/18)
2018 Dec 27, India's lower house of Parliament approved a bill to implement the Supreme Court's ruling that found the Muslim practice of instant divorce was unconstitutional.
(AP, 12/27/18)
2018 Dec 28, In India a top official at Purvanchal University urged his students to "murder" fellow students if confronted instead of complaining to him, amid a wave of violence being reported from across Uttar Pradesh where the school is based.
(Reuters, 12/30/18)
2018 Dec 28, It was reported that steep price drops in India in recent weeks for onions and potatoes have badly hit the rural economy in large states.
(Reuters, 12/28/18)
2018 Dec 29, In India a police officer was stoned to death during violent protests in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh state.
(Reuters, 12/30/18)
2018 Dec 29, In Kashmir anti-India protests and clashes erupted after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed four rebels in the Pulwama area.
(AP, 12/29/18)
2018 Dec 31, Indian troops fired at Pakistani forces across the two countries' line of control in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing a woman and wounding nine civilians.
(AP, 12/31/18)
2018 Dec, British businessman Christian Michel (57) was extradited to India from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where he was working over his role in a £500 million helicopter deal. Michel was extradited after India handed over Sheikha Latifa, a runaway Dubai princess, to the UAE following her capture by Indian coastguards when they boarded her yacht. Michel later alleged that he was tortured after refusing to sign a fake confession that he bribed Indian officials in order to secure the helicopter deal.
(The Telegraph, 1/30/21)
2018 India applied to the EU for "geographical indication" status for basmati rice. Pakistan, which also produced basmati rice, rejected the claim.
(SSFC, 11/29/20, p.A6)
2019 Jan 1, In southern India millions of women stood should to shoulder along highways in Kerala state creating a human wall 300 miles long standing fast against sexism and oppression.
(SFC, 1/3/19, p.A4)
2019 Jan 2, In India two women entered the Sabarimala temple in Kerala state, one of the country's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites that had been forbidden to females between the ages of 10 and 50, sparking protests across the state.
(AP, 1/2/19)
2019 Jan 2, In India Hindu nationalists linked to PM Narendra Modi’s ruling party urged him to push through laws to allow the building of a temple on the ruins of a 16th century mosque in Ayodhya.
(Reuters, 1/2/19)
2019 Jan 3, India deported a second small group of Rohingya Muslims, five members of a family, to Myanmar after ordering the expulsion of members of the Myanmar minority group and others who entered the country illegally.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, In southern India Hindu hard-liners shut shops and businesses and clashed with police in Kerala state to protest the entry of two women into the Sabarimala hill temple, one of India's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 4, In India the office of the chief minister of Kerala state said a woman (46) has become the third to enter the Sabarimala Hindu temple in defiance of an ancient ban on females of menstruating age. Temple management denied that the Sri Lankan woman had in fact entered. Only small protests were reported from across the state.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 5, In southern India twin arson and bomb attacks rocked Kerala state, continuing a violent backlash that followed the entry of two women into the Sabarimala Hindu temple that forbids female devotees.
(AFP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 5, An Indian court declared tycoon Vijay Mallya (62) a "fugitive economic offender," a ruling that empowers authorities to confiscate his properties and other assets. Mallya, who left India in 2016, is accused of money laundering and cheating Indian banks out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
(AP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 5, In northern India six schoolchildren and their bus driver were killed as the vehicle rolled down a gorge on a hilly road in Himachal Pradesh state.
(AP, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 7, In India a small regional party quit PM Narendra Modi's ruling coalition, protesting against his bid to give citizenship to hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims from neighboring countries such as Bangladesh. The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), based in the border state of Assam in the northeast, has become the fourth ally to quit the ruling National Democratic Alliance in the past year.
(Reuters, 1/7/19)
2019 Jan 8, India's lower house of Parliament approved a bill that would grant residency and citizenship rights to non-Muslims who entered India illegally, allegedly after fleeing persecution in several neighboring nations, despite protests against the legislation in the populous northeast that brought the region to a near standstill.
(AP, 1/8/19)
2019 Jan 8, India's Supreme Court cleared the way for Vedanta to reopen its south Indian copper smelter by refusing to stay an order from the country's environmental court.
(Reuters, 1/8/19)
2019 Jan 9, India's upper house of Parliament approved a bill providing a 10 percent quota in government jobs for the poor members of upper castes who have been excluded from existing quotas for low-ranking castes. The bill now only needs the approval of India's president, a formality, to become law.
(AP, 1/10/19)
2019 Jan 10, India's federal police chief was ousted by a panel led by PM Narendra Modi, drawing criticism from the main opposition Congress party. Alok Verma, chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), was suspended in October along with his deputy after they accused each other of bribery and interfering in investigations.
(Reuters, 1/10/19)
2019 Jan 11, In India leaders of two political rivals in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh said they will form an alliance in a bid to defeat PM Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in national election scheduled for May.
(Reuters, 1/11/19)
2019 Jan 12, In Kashmir rebel commander Zeenatul Islam was killed along with his associate late today in a gunbattle with Indian troops.
(AP, 1/13/19)
2019 Jan 13, In Kashmir massive anti-India protests and clashes erupted, leading to injuries to at least 16 people after a gunbattle between militants and government forces overnight killed two rebels.
(AP, 1/13/19)
2019 Jan 15, In India Kanaka Durga (39), one of two Indian women who entered an ancient Hindu Sabarimala temple hill temple earlier this month in defiance of a centuries-old ban on women of menstruating age, alleged she was beaten up by her mother-in-law.
(Reuters, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 17, An Indian court sentenced a popular and flamboyant spiritual guru and three followers to life in prison in the murder 16 years ago of a journalist who published a letter about the guru's alleged sexual exploitation of women. Dr. Saint Gurmeet Singh Ram Rahim Insan and his three followers were convicted on Jan. 11 on murder charges.
(AP, 1/17/19)
2019 Jan 18, Germany-based Volkswagen Group said that it will pay a fine of 1 billion rupees ($14.2 million) imposed by India for installing software on vehicles that allegedly cheated pollution testing devices, though it is still appealing the order.
(AP, 1/18/19)
2019 Jan 19, India's main opposition parties joined forces against PM Narendra Modi at a rally in Kolkata which attracted hundreds of thousands of people months ahead of elections.
(Reuters, 1/19/19)
2019 Jan 21, An Indian official said police in Kerala state are investigating a suspected attempt to illegally transport more than 100 Indians by boat to New Zealand. The boat had reportedly left Munambam harbor in Kerala on Jan. 12.
(AP, 1/21/19)(Reuters, 1/21/19)
2019 Jan 21, In southern India at least eight people drowned when their boat capsized in a river as they were returning home from a religious festival on a nearby island in Karnataka state.
(AP, 1/21/19)
2019 Jan 21, In India police arrested 30 Rohingya, including 12 children, who were found traveling on a bus to Gauhati, the capital of Assam state.
(AP, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 22, In northeastern India police arrested 31 Rohingya In Tripura state after they spent two days in the open in a no man's land along the border with Bangladesh.
(AP, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 24, In northern India at least six people were killed when a building collapsed as workers were adding an additional floor to it in Haryana state.
(AP, 1/24/19)
2019 Jan 24, Scientists prepared to embark on an unprecedented, years-long mission to explore the Indian Ocean and document changes taking place beneath the waves that could affect billions of people in the surrounding region over the coming decades.
(AP, 1/24/19)
2019 Jan 25, Indian PM Narendra Modi and visiting South African Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa announced they will boost ties in key areas such as defense, maritime security, information technology and trade under a 3-year strategic exchange program.
(AP, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 26, India held national day celebrations. Thousands of Indians converged on a ceremonial boulevard in New Delhi to watch a display of the country's military power and cultural diversity amid tight security.
(AP, 1/26/19)
2019 Feb 1, An Indian air force Mirage 2000 trainer aircraft crashed in Bangalore while taking off after being upgraded by a state aerospace company, killing the two pilots.
(AP, 2/1/19)
2019 Feb 3, India's PM Narendra Modi paid a daylong visit to disputed Kashmir to review development work as separatists fighting Indian rule called for a shutdown in the Himalayan region.
(AP, 2/3/19)
2019 Feb 3, Indian news reports said as many as 129 Indians were among those detained Jan. 30 by US immigration authorities in connection with enrollment at a fake university.
(AP, 2/3/19)
2019 Feb 3, In eastern India seven people were killed and 29 injured when nine coaches of a New Delhi-bound train derailed early today.
(AP, 2/3/19)
2019 Feb 4, A report by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development said that one-third of Himalayan glaciers will melt by the end of the century due to climate change, threatening water sources for 1.9 billion people, even if current efforts to reduce climate change succeed.
(AP, 2/5/19)
2019 Feb 4, A British official signed an order that paves the way for tycoon Vijay Mallya's extradition to India to face financial fraud allegations. Mallya has 14 days to appeal.
(AP, 2/5/19)
2019 Feb 6, India's Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that imports of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) grew 12.5 percent over the past five years to 12 million metric tons (13 million tons) in 2018-19, surpassing Japan and putting India in second place behind China.
(AP, 2/6/19)
2019 Feb 6, In southern India the board of the ancient Hindu Sabarimala hill temple said it now favored allowing female worshippers of menstruating age to enter, reversing its previous support for a centuries-old ban.
(Reuters, 2/6/19)
2019 Feb 8, An Indian court sentenced seven Muslim men to life in prison for the murder of two Hindu men on Aug. 27, 2013, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The incident had sparked religious riots killing about 65 people and displacing thousands.
(Reuters, 2/8/19)
2019 Feb 9, Indian officials said at least 39 people have died and another 27 fallen sick from drinking cheap spurious liquor containing toxic methanol in several villages in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand states.
(AP, 2/9/19)
2019 Feb 9, China's foreign ministry condemned Indian PM Narendra Modi's visit to the disputed northeastern border state of Arunachal Pradesh, saying it "resolutely opposes" activities by Indian leaders in the region.
(AP, 2/9/19)
2019 Feb 12, In India a fire engulfed the Arpit Palace Hotel, a shoddily built budget hotel in central New Delhi, killing 17 people and injuring at least four others. The general manager of the Arpit Palace Hotel, Rajender Singh, and manager, Vikar Kumar, were booked on suspicion of culpable homicide for the fire.
(AP, 2/12/19)(AP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 13, India's Supreme Court issued an order to remove forest dwellers in 21 states where about 1.3 million land claims, each potentially representing a household, were rejected.
(Reuters, 2/25/19)
2019 Feb 14, In Kashmir at least 41 soldiers were killed and more than two dozen others wounded in a car bomb attack on a paramilitary convoy along a key highway on the outskirts of Srinagar. Adil Ahmad Dar (20) from the village of Lethipora in Indian Kashmir, rammed a car full of explosives into the convoy. His parents said he had been beaten by Indian troops a few years back when he was returning from school. Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for the car bomb attack. India's PM Narendra Modi soon placed the blame for the bombing squarely on neighboring Pakistan.
(AP, 2/14/19)(AP, 2/15/19)(Reuters, 2/15/19)
2019 Feb 15, Indian activist S Mugilan, who released a video critical of the police shooting of protesters at Vedanta's south Indian copper smelter in May, killing 13 and injuring many others, went missing following a press conference in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state. He released an analysis of publicly available video footage that he said showed the police had escalated the situation, leading to unnecessary deaths.
(Reuters, 2/26/19)
2019 Feb 16, India's first locally built semi high-speed train broke down early today on its way back to New Delhi from Varanasi in northern Uttar Pradesh, a day after its inauguration by PM Narendra Modi. The railway ministry said the disruption was possibly due to cattle run over.
(Reuters, 2/16/19)
2019 Feb 17, Indian police said authorities have detained 23 men suspected of links to the Pakistan-based militant group that masterminded the Feb. 14 bombing of an Indian security convoy in Kashmir that killed 44 paramilitary police.
(Reuters, 2/17/19)
2019 Feb 17, Hundreds of Indian soldiers descended on the village of Pinglan, which is surrounded by south Kashmir's apple and apricot orchards, just before midnight. By the time they left 18 hours later, one civilian, three armed militants, and five members of the security forces were dead, a row of houses was reduced to rubble, an unexploded missile had been planted in a rice paddy, and more than 120 villagers had sought treatment for exposure to tear gas, alleged beatings, and in some cases mental trauma.
(Reuters, 4/30/19)
2019 Feb 18, Indian troops suffered new losses in a battle with Kashmir militants that left nine dead. Officials said four soldiers, a policeman, three militants and a civilian were killed in the latest clash. The suspected organizer of last week's suicide bombing was said to be among the dead.
(AP, 2/18/19)(Reuters, 2/18/19)
2019 Feb 19, Pakistan accused India of sponsoring terrorism and of using the United Nations' highest court for "political theater" as it urged judges to dismiss an Indian case seeking to save alleged spy Kulbhushan Jadhav from execution.
(AP, 2/19/19)
2019 Feb 19, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in India after visiting Pakistan.
(AP, 2/19/19)
2019 Feb 20, In India Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Indian leader Narendra Modi vowed to increase pressure on countries that fuel terrorism.
(AFP, 2/20/19)
2019 Feb 20, India's Supreme Court found Anil Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Communications, and two of his directors guilty of contempt of court and ordered them to pay 5.5 billion rupees ($77.29 million) owed to Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson.
(AP, 2/20/19)
2019 Feb 20, India's top court ordered more than a dozen states to evict nearly 1 million people from forest land as they have their failed to prove ownership claims. The court says the eviction must be carried out within five months.
(AP, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 20, Pakistani and Indian officials said that India has halted a key bus service with the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, cutting the only land route linking the divided Himalayan region.
(AP, 2/20/19)
2019 Feb 21, An Indian government minister said India has decided to stop the flow of water to Pakistan from its share in the rivers under the Indus Water Treaty regulating river flows between the two nations.
(Reuters, 2/21/19)
2019 Feb 21, Pakistan's PM Imran Khan authorized the armed forces to "respond decisively and comprehensively to any aggression or misadventure" by neighboring India.
(AP, 2/21/19)
2019 Feb 22, India's top court ordered state authorities to stop threats, assaults and social boycotts of thousands of Kashmiri students, traders and professionals in an apparent retaliation for the killing of 40 paramilitary soldiers in a suicide attack in the Indian portion of Kashmir last week.
(AP, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 22, An Indian government minister said at least 41 tea plantation workers have died from drinking toxic bootleg liquor after receiving their weekly wages, and 20 are critically ill in hospital after nearly 100 people drank the liquor a day earlier.
(AP, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 23, Indian authorities said least 93 people have died and about 200 people have been hospitalized after drinking tainted liquor in two separate incidents in Assam state.
(AP, 2/23/19)
2019 Feb 23, Indian authorities arrested dozens of Muslim leaders in raids across Kashmir and sent thousands of reinforcements to the troubled territory. Officials in Kashmir said police have arrested at least 200 activists seeking the end of Indian rule.
(AFP, 2/23/19)(AP, 2/23/19)
2019 Feb 23, In northern India 10 people died in an explosion at a house where firecrackers were being illegally manufactured in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 2/23/19)
2019 Feb 23, In India a fire at the Aero India airshow in Bengaluru, run by the country's defence ministry, destroyed three hundred cars.
(AP, 2/23/19)
2019 Feb 25, In eastern India hundreds of indigenous people waved flags and shouted slogans to protest against an order to evict more than one million indigenous families accused of encroaching on forest lands.
(Reuters, 2/25/19)
2019 Feb 26, India's air force carried out air strikes inside Pakistan killing hundreds of militants in a training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the militant group that claimed credit for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing attack that killed Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir. Pakistan said there had been no casualties at all. Following the air strike India and Pakistan troops exchanged gunfire across the border in the disputed region of Kashmir.
(Reuters, 2/26/19)
2019 Feb 27, Pakistani PM Imran Khan called for talks with India and hoped "better sense" would prevail to de-escalate the dispute with its nuclear-armed neighbor following air strikes by both sides.
(Reuters, 2/27/19)
2019 Feb 27, Pakistan's military said it shot down two Indian warplanes in the disputed region of Kashmir and captured a pilot, raising tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals to a level unseen in the last two decades. Mortar shells fired by Indian troops from across the frontier dividing the two sectors of Kashmir killed six civilians and wound several others. A helicopter crash in the region also killed six Indian air force officials and a civilian on the ground.
(AP, 2/27/19)
2019 Feb 28, Pakistan's PM Imran Khan pledged his country would release a captured Indian fighter pilot, a move that could help defuse the most serious confrontation in two decades between the nuclear-armed neighbors over the disputed region of Kashmir..
(AP, 2/28/19)
2019 Feb 28, India banned the largest political and religious group in Indian-controlled Kashmir in an ongoing crackdown on activists seeking the end of Indian rule. India's home ministry issued the five-year ban on Jama'at-e-Islami, or JeI, accusing the group of being an "unlawful association" and supporting militancy in the region.
(AP, 3/1/19)
2019 Mar 1, Pakistani officials handed over a captured Indian Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman at a border crossing with India in a "gesture of peace" promised by PM Imran Khan amid a dramatic escalation with the country's archrival over the disputed region of Kashmir. In a heavily edited video distributed by the Pakistani military just before his release, Varthaman praised the professionalism of the Pakistani army and criticized Indian media for creating war hysteria.
(AP, 3/1/19)(AFP, 3/2/19)
2019 Mar 2, Pakistan's military said two of its soldiers have been killed in an exchange of fire with Indian forces near the Line of Control that separates the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between the rivals. Over the last 24 hours a total of at least six civilians have been killed on both sides of Kashmir.
(AP, 3/2/19)
2019 Mar 4, A key train service with neighboring India resumed and schools in Pakistani Kashmir opened in another sign of easing tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals since a major escalation last week over the disputed Kashmir region.
(AP, 3/4/19)
2019 Mar 4, The Trump administration said Washington will scrap the preferential trade status of India and Turkey, as President Donald Trump ramped up his battle against what his administration views as unfair foreign trade practices.
(AFP, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 5, Two groups monitoring air pollution said New Delhi was the world's most polluted capital city in 2018 in a study of the amount of fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 in 61 capital cities around the world. It was followed by the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka and Kabul, capital of Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 5, It was reported that Nepal has chosen a railway-track gauge used by China for its network and not the main one India uses citing lower costs, a setback for India as it tries to limit Chinese involvement in the Himalayan country.
(Reuters, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 6, Indian and Pakistani soldiers shelled military outposts and villages along their highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir, in an outbreak of new violence despite stepped-up diplomatic efforts by the rival countries to ease tensions.
(AP, 3/6/19)
2019 Mar 9, India said that it was returning a key diplomat to Pakistan's capital amid an easing of tensions between the nuclear neighbors, but also demanded that its archrival take concrete steps against terrorists operating from its territory.
(AP, 3/9/19)
2019 Mar 10, In Kashmir Indian troops shelled the Pakistani-controlled sector, killing a 70-year-old man. India blamed Pakistani troops for the initiating fire.
(AP, 3/11/19)
2019 Mar 11, Police in India said they had recovered four videos from four arrested men, involving other victims in Tamil Nadu state. A woman (19) had said in a complaint filed with the police that she was traveling with the four men, two of whom she knew, in a car last month when she was forcibly disrobed and videotaped. She alleged the men then threatened to upload the video online if she did not meet them whenever summoned.
(Reuters, 3/12/19)
2019 Mar 14, India and Pakistan agreed to go forward with a new border crossing and route for Sikh pilgrims to visit a holy temple in Pakistan, a rare glimmer of cooperation after tension flared over the neighbors' decades-old Kashmir dispute.
(Reuters, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 14, In India part of a pedestrian bridge connecting a train station with road has collapsed in Mumbai, killing at least one person and injuring more than a dozen others.
(AP, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 18, An Indian police official said a protester and a policeman have died in clashes outside Vedanta Ltd's eastern Indian alumina refinery in Odisha state.
(Reuters, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 19, Hundreds of Indian traders in New Delhi burned Chinese goods and urged the government to raise import taxes on them to protest against China's trade and foreign policies. Chinese good were burned in similar protests in several other cities.
(Reuters, 3/19/19)
2019 Mar 20, An Indian court acquitted four Hindu men accused of bombing a train between India and Pakistan on Feb. 19, 2007, that killed 68 people, mostly Pakistanis, citing a lack of evidence.
(Reuters, 3/20/19)
2019 Mar 20, Diamond tycoon Nirav Modi, whose jewels once adorned stars from Bollywood to Hollywood, was ordered held without bail in London, more than a year after Indian authorities alleged he was involved in a $1.8 billion bank fraud.
(AP, 3/20/19)
2019 Mar 22, Indian security forces killed seven militants who they said belonged to Pakistan-based groups during four gunbattles in Kashmir - the highest number of clashes in a single day in recent years. Police said the militants belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).
(Reuters, 3/22/19)
2019 Mar 25, The board of India's private Jet Airways accepted the resignations of Chairman Naresh Goyal, his wife and a nominee of Gulf carrier Etihad Airways. Goyal quit amid mounting financial woes which have forced Jet Airways to suspend 14 international routes and ground more than 80 planes. The board approved the setting up of an interim management committee to oversee daily operations and cash flow of the company.
(AP, 3/25/19)
2019 Mar 27, India shot down one of its satellites in space with an anti-satellite missile. The government said the test was aimed at protecting India's assets in space against foreign attacks. The United States ran the first anti-satellite test in 1959, when satellites themselves were rare and new.
(Reuters, 3/27/19)
2019 Apr 1, Facebook said it has deleted 712 accounts and 390 pages in India and Pakistan for "inauthentic behavior," many of them linked to India's opposition Congress party days before a general election, and others related to Pakistan's military.
(Reuters, 4/1/19)
2019 Apr 2, In Kashmir Pakistan and India traded fire in the disputed Himalayan region, leaving seven people dead.
(AP, 4/2/19)
2019 Apr 3, India's PM Narendra Modi staged a massive rally in Kolkata, stepping up the battle with a local rival who could frustrate his party's return to power.
(AFP, 4/3/19)
2019 Apr 4, India's central bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 6%, moving to prop up economic growth ahead of a national election next week.
(AP, 4/4/19)
2019 Apr 4, In central India Maoist rebels ambushed and killed four Indian paramilitary soldiers and wounded another two in the Kanker district of Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 4/4/19)
2019 Apr 5, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said officials will release 360 Indian prisoners detained for fishing illegally in the country's territorial waters in the Arabian sea. The anglers will be freed in four batches starting April 15.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 7, Authorities in India's portion of disputed Kashmir began enforcing a ban on the movement of civilian vehicles on a key highway to keep it open exclusively for military and paramilitary convoys two days a week.
(AP, 4/7/19)
2019 Apr 9, In India at least seven people including a state legislator for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were killed in two separate attacks, days before India begins a general election.
(Reuters, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 10, British PM Theresa May expressed regret for a massacre by British troops in India in 1919 but stopped short of a full apology. The April 13, 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, in which British troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters, remains an enduring scar from British colonial rule in India.
(AFP, 4/10/19)
2019 Apr 11, In India at least 4 people were killed on the first day of polling in general elections, which are seen as a referendum on PM Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The mammoth vote ends May 19, and counting will he held on May 23.
(AP, 4/11/19)(AP, 4/12/19)
2019 Apr 15, India's election commission banned Yogi Adityanath, a member of PM Narendra Modi's ruling party and a Hindu state chief minister, from campaigning for three days after anti-Muslim comments in an election that will end next month.
(Reuters, 4/16/19)
2019 Apr 15, In India Jet Airways pilots demonstrated in Mumbai, saying they had not received a salary in four months.
(AP, 4/16/19)
2019 Apr 16, India's Supreme Court agreed to consider a petition from a Muslim couple to allow women into mosques, seeking to overturn a centuries-old practice that largely bars women from the places of worship.
(Reuters, 4/16/19)
2019 Apr 16, Indian airline Jet Airways' stock fell sharply after its former chairman reportedly withdrew plans to bid for a controlling stake in the company and news media said its flight operations might be temporarily halted. Naresh Goyal had founded Jet Airways in 1992. Etihad Aviation Group purchased a 24% stake in Jet Airways in 2013.
(AP, 4/16/19)
2019 Apr 16, In central and western India a powerful storm bringing dust, lightning and unseasonal rain has killed at least 47 people in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan states.
(AP, 4/17/19)
2019 Apr 17, In India Mukesh Ambani, who heads Reliance Industries, and Uday Kotak, managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, both endorsed Milind Deora, the Congress candidate for the South Mumbai constituency.
(Reuters, 4/18/19)
2019 Apr 17, India's debt-stricken Jet Airways halted all of its operations after failing to secure emergency funding from lenders, leaving it teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
(AFP, 4/17/19)
2019 Apr 18, Voting in the second phase of India's general election remained largely peaceful amid massive security and a lockdown in parts of the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Sporadic violence flared in the east and the insurgency-wracked state of Jammu and Kashmir.
(AP, 4/18/19)(Reuters, 4/18/19)
2019 Apr 19, In India Priyanka Chaturvedi, a spokeswoman for India's main opposition Congress party, quit and joined a group allied with PM Narendra Modi's ruling party, complaining that misbehavior toward her by male Congress members was ignored.
(Reuters, 4/19/19)
2019 Apr 23, In India one person was killed as people in the third phase of the country's general election. A man (52) was hacked to death with a cleaver as two groups clashed during voting in Murshidabad constituency in West Bengal state.
(AP, 4/23/19)
2019 Apr 24, An Indian state court moved to lift a ban on popular video app TikTok in the country, in a boost for its developer Beijing Bytedance Technology Co., reversing its April 3 decision pushing for the ban. The southern state of Tamil Nadu had ordered the federal government to prohibit TikTok downloads, saying the app was encouraging pornography and could expose children to sexual predators.
(Reuters, 4/24/19)
2019 Apr 29, The fourth phase of India's staggered national election was marred by multiple clashes that injured at least seven people and led to security forces firing warning shots outside one polling station.
(AP, 4/29/19)
2019 May 1, In western India Maoist rebels triggered a land mine blast on van carrying police commandos in the insurgents' stronghold in Maharashtra state and killed 15 officers and their driver.
(Reuters, 5/1/19)
2019 May 1, India began evacuating hundreds of thousands of villagers and shut down operations at two major ports on its east coast ahead of impending Cyclonic Storm Fani expected to make landfall on May 3.
(AP, 5/1/19)
2019 May 2, In India hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated along the eastern coast as authorities braced for Cyclone Fani moving through the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 3, Cyclone Fani tore through India's eastern coast as a grade 5 storm, lashing beaches with rain and winds gusting up to 205 km (127 miles) per hour and affecting weather as far away as Mount Everest as it approached the former imperial capital of Kolkata. At least three people died Cyclone Fani slammed into eastern India. Media reports put the death toll at up to six.
(AP, 5/3/19)(AP, 5/3/19)
2019 May 4, Tropical cyclone Fani, the strongest to hit India in five years, killed at least 12 people in eastern Odisha state before swinging north-eastwards into Bangladesh where five more people died and more than a million were moved to safety.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 5, Indian officials said hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless after a cyclone packing winds of about 200 km per hour slammed into eastern India. At least 33 people were killed after cyclone Fani struck the state of Odisha.
(Reuters, 5/05/19)
2019 May 6, Indian voters cast ballots in the crucial fifth phase of the country’s marathon elections.
(AP, 5/06/19)
2019 May 6, In India a panel of judges dismissed a sexual harassment complaint against chief justice Ranjan Gogoi. Protesters soon responded carrying placards demanding a new and impartial investigation.
(Reuters, 5/07/19)
2019 May 6, Officials said Cyclone Fani, that tore through parts of South Asia, has killed at least 34 people in India and 15 in neighboring Bangladesh and smashed thousands of thatched-roof huts.
(AP, 5/06/19)
2019 May 10, Islamic State (IS) claimed for the first time that it has established a "province" in India, after a clash between militants and security forces in the contested Kashmir region killed a militant with alleged ties to the group. An Indian police statement said that a militant called Ishfaq Ahmad Sofi was killed in an encounter in Shopian.
(Reuters, 5/11/19)
2019 May 12, Indians voted in the next-to-last round of a six-week-long national election marked by a highly acrimonious campaign that has seen PM Narendra Modi blame opposition party chief Rahul Gandhi's family for the country's ills.
(AP, 5/12/19)
2019 May 14, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif met with his Indian counterpart in New Delhi, days after India decided to follow US restrictions on buying Iranian oil. Zarif held discussions with Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on issues of mutual interest, including the evolving situation in Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/14/19)
2019 May 16, Indian troops and separatist militants clashed in Indian-controlled Kashmir and five people were killed including civilian Rayees Ahmad Dar (32). Three JeM militants, including a Pakistani commander, and an Indian soldier were killed in the gun battle in Dalipora, a village in south Kashmir, which began in the early hours.
(AP, 5/16/19)
2019 May 16, In Indian-controlled Kashmir a Muslim man was shot and killed and another injured by Hindu vigilantes over allegations of smuggling cows.
(AP, 5/16/19)
2019 May 19, Voting in India's mammoth national election ended with the seventh and final phase of a grueling poll that lasted more than five weeks. Exit polls predicted a victory for PM Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party and its allies. Violent clashes broke out in the eastern state of West Bengal.
(AP, 5/19/19)(Reuters, 5/19/19)
2019 May 20, The Jammu-Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society released a detailed report saying India is using torture as a "matter of policy" and "instrument of control" in Kashmir, where rebels have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989.
(AP, 5/20/19)
2019 May 21, An Indian lawmaker in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh was reported killed in an ambush by suspected rebels. Legislative Assembly member Tirong Aboh of the National People's Party and 10 relatives and party workers were attacked with automatic weapons as they traveled to Aboh's constituency.
(AP, 5/21/19)
2019 May 23, In India vote-counting trends showed PM Narendra Modi's ruling party winning 285 seats against just 53 for Congress. PM Modi (68) and his party declared victory.
(Reuters, 5/23/19)
2019 May 24, In India at least 19 students were killed in a fire that broke out in a four-story building in the western city of Surat. A youth died in hospital the next day, increasing the toll to 20. Police soon charged three owners of the tuition center at the Takshashila Arcade with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and attempted culpable homicide.
(AP, 5/24/19)(AP, 5/25/19)(SFC, 5/25/19, p.A2)
2019 May 25, In India Rahul Gandhi announced his resignation as leader of India's Congress Party after losing a second general election to PM Narendra Modi.
(Reuters, 7/2/19)
2019 May 26, India's Pres. Ram Nath Kovind appointed Narendra Modi as the prime minister, soon after newly elected lawmakers led by Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party chose him as their leader following a thunderous victory in national elections. Modi’s BJP party won 303 seats in the 542-member lower house of Parliament.
(AP, 5/26/19)(SFC, 5/31/19, p.A2)
2019 May 26, In India Surendra Singh was shot dead overnight in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh state. He was an aide to Smriti Irani, a former television actress and dogged minister in PM Narendra Modi's cabinet.
(Reuters, 5/26/19)
2019 May 26, Eight climbers failed to return after climbing on Nanda Devi East peak, India's second highest mountain. Officials later said they are all presumed dead. On June 23, paramilitary soldiers found the bodies of seven of the eight climbers at an altitude of more than 5,000 meters (16,400 feet).
(AFP, 6/1/19)(AP, 6/24/19)
2019 May 30, In India Narendra Modi was sworn in for a 2nd term as prime minister.
(SFC, 5/31/19, p.A2)
2019 Jun 3, Indian air force pilots spotted five bodies in the Himalayas near the border with China and Nepal while searching for eight climbers who went missing in an avalanche while attempting to chart a new route on India's second-highest mountain.
(AP, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 3, An Indian air force aircraft with 13 people on board went missing in remote northeastern mountains bordering China.
(Reuters, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 3, India issued heat wave warnings for some places in western Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh state following similar extreme weather a day earlier.
(Reuters, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 4, In India hospitals across the desert state of Rajasthan reported a surge in heatstroke cases as fierce temperatures kept up for a fourth day across northern India.
(AFP, 6/4/19)
2019 Jun 6, India's central bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 5.75% with immediate effect to fortify the economy as consumer spending and corporate investment falter.
(AP, 6/6/19)
2019 Jun 6, In India at least 24 people were killed in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh overnight as raging winds flattened homes, trees and electricity poles.
(AFP, 6/7/19)
2019 Jun 8, Indian PM Narendra Modi arrived in the Maldives on his first official overseas trip since being elected to a second term.
(AP, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 8, India's annual monsoon, which delivers about 70 percent of the country's rainfall, officially arrived on the coast of southern Kerala state, a week later than usual.
(Reuters, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 9, In Sri Lanka Indian PM Narendra Modi paid homage to the more than 250 people killed in the Easter suicide bombings, and agreed with Sri Lanka's leaders to step up cooperation to combat terrorism.
(AP, 6/9/19)
2019 Jun 10, India's top court ordered the release of journalist Prashant Kanojia (26), arrested for a social media post about a Hindu nationalist state chief minister, in a case that highlighted growing concerns over free speech and media freedom.
(Reuters, 6/11/19)
2019 Jun 10, In India a bomb killed two people in West Bengal, taking the death toll in post-election violence to 15.
(Reuters, 6/11/19)
2019 Jun 10, In India Girish Karnad (81), a top playwright, actor and director and a rights activist, died in Bangalore after a prolonged illness.
(AP, 6/10/19)
2019 Jun 11, The Indian air force spotted the wreckage of an AN-32 transport plane nine days after it went missing near the border with China. On June 13 authorities said there were no survivors.
(AP, 6/11/19)(AP, 6/13/19)
2019 Jun 11, In India four people, ages 69-81, returning from a Hindu pilgrimage died while traveling in a non-air-conditioned coach on a train during a summer heat wave.
(AP, 6/12/19)
2019 Jun 12, In India thousands of supporters of PM Narendra Modi clashed with police as they marched in Kolkata to protest against weeks of political violence that has claimed at least 12 lives.
(AFP, 6/12/19)
2019 Jun 12, Indian authorities raided the home of Mohammed Azarudeen in Tamil Nadu state. Police later said Azarudeen was friends on Facebook with Zahran Hashim, the alleged leader of the suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter that killed more than 250 people. Azarudeen was arrested for spreading Islamic State group ideology on social media to recruit young people to participate in a terrorist attack in southern India.
(AP, 6/14/19)
2019 Jun 12, In northern India two policemen were suspended for beating a TV journalist and damaging his equipment after he reported on unlicensed vendors at a railroad station. It was the third incident involving journalists in Uttar Pradesh state in the past week.
(AP, 6/12/19)
2019 Jun 12, Amnesty International said the Indian government is widely misusing a law allowing for detention without trial in the Indian part of the contested Kashmir region, and fuelling animosity with it.
(Reuters, 6/12/19)
2019 Jun 12, Indian health officials said at least 31 children have died in northern Bihar state in the last 10 days from a deadly brain disease believed linked to a toxic substance found in lychee fruit.
(AP, 6/12/19)
2019 Jun 13, Cyclone Vayu battered an Indian fishing hub with heavy wind, waves and rain and was forecast to bring dangerous weather conditions even as it veered away from the subcontinent's western coast.
(AP, 6/13/19)
2019 Jun 14, In India nearly 30,000 doctors went on a one-day strike, most in West Bengal, New Delhi and the western state of Maharashtra. The protests were launched in response to an attack at the NRS Medical College in Kolkata on June 10 that left three junior doctors seriously injured after a dispute with a family whose relative had died.
(AP, 6/14/19)
2019 Jun 16, It was reported that nearly 43% of the new members of India's lower house of Parliament, that convenes on June 17 for the first time since the election, won despite facing criminal charges. More than a quarter of those relate to rape, murder or attempted murder, according to a report by the civic group Association of Democratic Reforms.
(AP, 6/16/19)
2019 Jun 17, Tens of thousands of Indian doctors went on strike calling for more protection against violence by patients and their families, as parliament met for the first time since national elections.
(AFP, 6/17/19)
2019 Jun 17, Two Indian soldiers were killed late today after a car bombing targeted an armored vehicle in disputed Kashmir.
(AP, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 18, Indian authorities said more than 100 children have died in an encephalitis outbreak in the eastern state of Bihar.
(AP, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 19, Indian authorities said that 114 children have died in an encephalitis outbreak this month in eastern Bihar, one of the country's poorest states. There have been more than 500 cases of encephalitis registered since the outbreak began June 1.
(AP, 6/19/19)
2019 Jun 19, It was reported that millions of people are turning to water tank trucks in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu as house and hotel taps run dry because of an acute water shortage caused by drying lakes and depleted groundwater.
(AP, 6/19/19)
2019 Jun 20, India's government created a new ministry to respond to a growing water crisis, with more than 60% of the country's 1.3 billion people dependent on farming and favorable monsoon rains. The new Ministry of Water Power will tackle water conservation and management.
(AP, 6/20/19)
2019 Jun 20, An Indian court sentenced former police officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who alleged PM Narendra Modi's complicity in killings of Muslims in 2002, to life in prison over the 1990 death of a person in custody.
(AP, 6/20/19)
2019 Jun 20, In northern India a bus plunged down a 1,600-foot gorge killing at least 44 people in Himachal Pradesh state.
(http://tinyurl.com/yytbqrfc)
2019 Jun 21, India's PM Naredra Modi practiced various yoga asanas alongside an estimated 40,000 people in Jharkhand state on the 5th Int'l. Yoga Day. In 2014 Modi successfully lobbied the UN to designate June 21 as Int'l. Yoga Day.
(SFC, 6/22/19, p.A4)
2019 Jun 21, In southern India pumping stations began lifting Godavari River water toward parched land in Telangana state in what is said to be the world's largest such irrigation project.
(AP, 6/21/19)
2019 Jun 21, A US State Department report said some senior officials from India's PM Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) last year had made "inflammatory speeches" against religious minorities.
(Reuters, 6/23/19)
2019 Jun 22, In India Tabrez Ansari (24), a Muslim man suspected of stealing a motorcycle, died four days after he was beaten by a Hindu mob for some 12 hours and forced to chant prayers to Hindu gods in Jharkhand state. Videos of the attack had circulated widely.
(SFC, 6/26/19, p.A4)
2019 Jun 23, In India at least 14 people died and 50 others were wounded when the tent collapsed during a Hindu ceremony in Barmer, Rajasthan state.
(AP, 6/23/19)
2019 Jun 23, In eastern India a medical official said at least 129 children have now died of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in the town of Muzaffarpur, Bihar state, since an outbreak earlier this month.
(Reuters, 6/23/19)
2019 Jun 24, India's Supreme Court directed state and national authorities to file reports to the court on an encephalitis outbreak in the eastern state of Bihar this month in which 152 children have died.
(AP, 6/24/19)
2019 Jun 28, It was reported that India's government has cut off advertisements to at least three major newspaper groups in a move that executives and an opposition leader said was likely retaliation for unfavorable reports.
(Reuters, 6/28/19)
2019 Jun 28, In eastern India Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh state killed three paramilitary soldiers patrolling on motorbikes and a young girl who was riding in a passing bus.
(AP, 6/28/19)
2019 Jun 29, In northern India customs officials in Punjab seized narcotics worth $390 million that were smuggled from neighboring Pakistan, in the country's largest seizure of illegal drugs.
(AP, 7/1/19)
2019 Jun 29, In western India a 4.5-meter (15-foot) high wall collapsed on a cluster of tin-roofed huts housing migrant workers and their families following heavy rains, killing at least 16 people in Pune, Maharashtra state.
(AP, 6/29/19)
2019 Jun 30, Indian PM Narendra Modi pushed for greater grassroots water conservation efforts amid concerns weak monsoon rains would push millions of drought-hit people to the edge and hammer agricultural production.
(Reuters, 6/30/19)
2019 Jul 1, In India heavy rains flooded parts of Mumbai, as the country's four-month summer monsoon swung into full force.
(AFP, 7/1/19)
2019 Jul 1, Thousands of Hindu pilgrims began the arduous trek to an icy Himalayan cave in disputed Kashmir, with tens of thousands of Indian government forces guarding roads and mountain passes. Hindus worship a stalagmite at the Amarnath shrine as an incarnation of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration.
(AP, 7/1/19)
2019 Jul 2, In western India heavy monsoon rains caused at least four walls to collapse onto huts and city shanties overnight and into today, killing at least 31 people and injuring dozens of others. Two men died after they were trapped in a submerged car, raising the overall death toll in Maharashtra state to 33.
(AP, 7/2/19)
2019 Jul 3, In India Rahul Gandhi resigned as president of the opposition Congress Party, long led by his politically powerful family.
(SFC, 7/4/19, p.A2)
2019 Jul 13, Authorities in India said rain-triggered floods and mudslides have left a trail of destruction across the northeast killing at least a dozen people.
(SSFC, 7/14/19, p.A4)
2019 Jul 16, In India a four-story dilapidated residential building collapsed in Mumbai killing at least ten people.
(SFC, 7/17/19, p.A4)
2019 Jul 17, India's interior minister said India will identify and deport illegal immigrants from across the country, stepping up a campaign that critics say could stoke religious tension and further alienate minority Muslims.
(Reuters, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 17, Indian officials said millions of people are stranded by flooding in the northeast with concern growing about food and water supplies, and that water levels of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries were rising even further.
(Reuters, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 17, In India the Goa bench of the Bombay High court held Samson D’Souza (36) guilty on all five counts of drugging, raping and murdering 15-year old Scarlett Keeling on north Goa’s Anjuna beach, after she had attended a belated Valentine’s Day party over 11 years ago. A 2nd man was acquitted.
(The Telegraph, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 17, In India a village headman and his supporters allegedly shot at a group of tribal people who were working a piece of disputed agricultural land in the state of Uttar Pradesh. 10 tribal people were gunned down over the land dispute.
(Reuters, 7/19/19)
2019 Jul 20, Officials said the death toll from south Asian monsoon rains has hit 164 with 90 people dead in Nepal, 62 in India's Assam state and 12 in Bangladesh.
(SSFC, 7/21/19, p.A2)
2019 Jul 21, In northern India lightning killed at least 39 people in Uttar Pradesh state.
(SFC, 7/25/19, p.A2)
2019 Jul 22, India launched a rocket into space in an attempt to safely land a rover on the moon, its most ambitious mission yet in the effort to establish itself as a low-cost space power.
(Reuters, 7/22/19)
2019 Jul 23, In India a vote of no-confidence bought down the government of Karnataka state led by chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
(Econ, 7/27/19, p.33)
2019 Jul 23, In eastern India lightning killed at least 39 people in Bihar state, raising the number of deaths in the state to 123 from lightning and flooding since the monsoon season started in June.
(SFC, 7/25/19, p.A2)
2019 Jul 25, India's parliament passed an amendment to the right to information law despite protests from activists who say the changes would diminish the independence of the commissioners who administer it.
(Reuters, 7/25/19)
2019 Jul 28, In India a highway collision critically injured a woman who had accused Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a legislator of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of rape. The woman and her lawyer were in hospital battling for their lives after a truck hit a car in which they were travelling, killing the woman's two aunts, who were also in the car. One of the aunts was a witness in the rape case.
(Reuters, 7/29/19)
2019 Jul 30, Indian and Pakistani soldiers traded heavy gunfire across a cease fire line dividing Kashmir leaving one Indian soldier and one Pakistani civilian dead.
(SFC, 7/31/19, p.A2)
2019 Jul 31, In India the body of entrepreneur V.G. Siddhartha was fished out of the Netravati River. He was the head of Coffee Day Enterprises, a firm he had founded in 1996. His suicide note included the phrases “I have failed" and “I gave up".
(Econ, 8/3/19, p.55)
2019 Aug 1, Indian authorities questioning the former vice president of the Maldives, Ahmed Adeeb (37), for illegally entering the country after he arrived on a tugboat in the southern Indian port city of Thoothukudi.
(AP, 8/1/19)
2019 Aug 2, Indian security officials said they had found evidence of attacks planned by Pakistani military-backed militants on a major Hindu pilgrimage in Kashmir. Thousands of Indian tourists, pilgrims and workers soon started leaving the disputed region.
(Reuters, 8/2/19)(AP, 8/3/19)
2019 Aug 5, India scrapped a 1947 constitutional provision that gave the state of Jammu and Kashmir its own constitution and broad decision-making rights. The decision split the state into two territories (Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh). Pakistan's foreign ministry rejected India's revocation of a special status for the portion of disputed Kashmir that it controls saying the move violates a UN resolution. Music videos soon began appearing about Indians moving to the Muslim-majority region, buying land there and marrying Kashmiri women.
(AP, 8/5/19)(SFC, 8/23/19, p.A3)(Econ., 9/12/20, p.30)
2019 Aug 5, India announced a strict curfew and communications blackout, with the movement goods and people in and out of the region also strictly controlled. Panic buying last week, as rumors circulated of an imminent curfew, saw shelves stripped of food, ATM's emptied and prices rocket - leaving many of Kashmir's poorest without key supplies.
(AP, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 6, Pakistan’s foreign minister wrote to the United Nations, while its army pledged to go to “any extent’’ against India’s move to revoke the autonomous status of Kashmir, that’s claimed in full by the two South Asian nations.
(Bloomberg, 8/6/19)
2019 Aug 8, It was reported that as many as 500 people have been rounded up in the latest crackdown in Indian Kashmir, which has been on the edge since the right-wing government revoked its autonomy.
(The Telegraph, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 8, Pakistan halted its main train service to India and banned Indian films as it kept up the diplomatic pressure on New Delhi for revoking the special status of Kashmir, the region at the heart of 70 years of hostility between them.
(Reuters, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 9, Indian authorities said at least 22 people have died in the southern state of Kerala after torrential monsoon rains caused landslides and flooding that cut off some areas.
(Reuters, 8/9/19)
2019 Aug 10, India's main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi demanded a statement from PM Narendra Modi on the situation in Kashmir, saying there are reports of violence and people dying.
(AP, 8/10/19)
2019 Aug 10, Officials Indian figures said the death toll from floods in the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra rose to 95, as heavy rain and landslides forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate their homes.
(Reuters, 8/10/19)
2019 Aug 10, Pakistan said it had cancelled a bus linking Lahore with India's capital New Delhi, the last remaining public transport link between the neighbors divided by a dispute over the Kashmir region.
(Reuters, 8/10/19)
2019 Aug 11, Authorities enforcing a strict curfew in Indian-administered Kashmir promised easing of restrictions and essential supplies for an Islamic festival, as the divided Himalayan region remained in a lockdown after India's decision to strip it of its constitutional autonomy.
(AP, 8/11/19)
2019 Aug 12, Large parts of Kashmir remained cut off from the rest of the world as a communications blackout entered its eighth day. India said it would soon begin gradually easing restrictions.
(Bloomberg, 8/12/19)
2019 Aug 12, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil company, the world’s most profitable company, held an earnings call, its first interaction with public investors. India-based Reliance industries said Aramco would pay $15 billion or so for a 20% stake in its refining and petrochemicals business.
(Econ, 8/17/19, p.48)
2019 Aug 13, Pakistan called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, saying India's decision to strip its part of disputed Kashmir of autonomy poses "an imminent threat" to international peace and could lead to ethnic cleansing and genocide in the Muslim-majority region.
(AP, 8/13/19)
2019 Aug 14, Indian authorities said floods and landslides have killed more than 270 people this month, displaced one million and inundated thousands of homes across six states after two weeks of heavy monsoon rains.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 15, India's PM Narendra Modi delivered an Independence Day speech that spotlighted a decision to remove the special rights of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir among the bold moves of the first 10 weeks of his second term. Modi also urged people and government agencies to "take the first big step" on Oct. 2 towards freeing India of single-use plastic.
(Reuters, 8/15/19)(AP, 9/17/19)
2019 Aug 15, India under PM Narendra Modi launched its Jal Jeevan Mission, a program to provide clean tap water to all of its 192 million households by 2024.
(https://tinyurl.com/wf533mv)(SFC, 12/22/21, p.A2)
2019 Aug 15, Thousands of people, many waving Pakistani and Kashmiri flags, protested outside the Indian High Commission in London in support of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
(Reuters, 8/15/19)
2019 Aug 15, Pakistan said three of its soldiers and five Indian troops were killed in a cross-border exchange of fire in the contested Kashmir region, one of the deadliest clashes between the rival armies this year.
(Reuters, 8/15/19)
2019 Aug 16, In Indian-controlled Kashmir hundreds of people protested an unprecedented security crackdown and clashed with police, as India's government said it was constantly reviewing the situation in the disputed region and the restrictions there will be removed over the next few days.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 17, Indian authorities eased restrictions on movement and restored landline telephone links in some parts of Kashmir, the biggest relaxation in a crippling lockdown since New Delhi announced it was removing the region's special status on Aug. 5.
(Reuters, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 18, Indian authorities reimposed restrictions on movement in major parts of Kashmir's biggest city, Srinagar, after violent overnight clashes between residents and police in which dozens were injured.
(Reuters, 8/18/19)
2019 Aug 19, Schools reopened in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's main city, but most classrooms were empty as parents kept their children home, fearing unrest over the government's decision two weeks ago to revoke the region's autonomy.
(Reuters, 8/19/19)
2019 Aug 24, Indian PM Narendra Modi received the Order of Zayed, the United Arab Emirates' highest civilian honor, during a visit to the oil-rich Gulf nation, reinforcing ties between the countries even as he pursues stripping statehood from the disputed Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.
(AP, 8/24/19)
2019 Aug 24, Arun Jaitley (66), the former Indian finance minister and one of PM Narendra Modi’s closest associates, died in a New Delhi hospital, nearly two weeks after he was admitted following breathing difficulties.
(Reuters, 8/24/19)
2019 Aug 28, An Indian health official said Tamil Nadu state has banned sex assignment surgery on babies whose sex is not clear at birth, in a first to protect intersex children.
(Reuters, 8/28/19)
2019 Aug 31, Indian authorities updated the list of so-called “genuine citizens." About 1.9 million people risked losing their Indian citizenship as PM Narendra Modi’s government pushed its Hindu nationalist agenda to target so-called “illegal migrants" in the northeastern state of Assam.
(Bloomberg, 8/31/19)
2019 Aug 31, In India at least 12 people were killed and around 50 injured after a series of explosions at a chemical factory in the western state of Maharashtra.
(Reuters, 8/31/19)
2019 Sep 2, Pakistan granted rare consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian man facing the death penalty after being convicted of spying.
(AP, 9/2/19)
2019 Sep 4, India officially declared that the leaders of two Pakistan-based militant groups are terrorists under a new law. The Home Ministry named Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, as terrorists under the amended Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act.
(AP, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Indian PM Narendra Modi for talks in Vladivostok on boosting investment and trade, with a special emphasis on energy and arms deals.
(AFP, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 4, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates sent their top diplomats to Pakistan to help Islamabad defuse tensions with India over the disputed Kashmir region.
(AP, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 5, An Indian court cleared JSW Steel Ltd's takeover plan for debt-ridden Bhushan Power and Steel, bringing an end to a bankruptcy case that has dragged on over two years.
(Reuters, 9/5/19)
2019 Sep 7, India's national security adviser said more than 200 suspected militants are trying to cross into Indian Kashmir from Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of trying to stoke violence in the region.
(Reuters, 9/7/19)
2019 Sep 7, India's space agency lost contact with a spacecraft it was trying to land on the moon, in a setback for the nation's ambitious plans to become the first country to probe the unexplored lunar south pole. Communication was lost just as it was about to touch down.
(Reuters, 9/7/19)
2019 Sep 8, India imposed curfews in several parts of the contested Kashmir region, after clashes between security forces and Shi'ite Muslims taking part in a procession.
(AP, 9/8/19)
2019 Sep 13, In India at least 11 people drowned when their boat capsized on a lake in Bhopal. More than 30 Hindu worshippers were reported drowned in swollen rivers and lakes as thousands participated in religious ceremonies.
(SFC, 9/14/19, p.A2)
2019 Sep 15, In southern India a sightseeing boat capsized on the Godavari River in Andra Pradesh state, killing 12 people and leaving 25 others missing.
(SFC, 9/16/19, p.A2)
2019 Sep 18, The Indian government announced a ban on the production, manufacture, import, export, transport, sale, distribution and storage of e-cigarettes. India was the sixth country in the region to ban e-cigarettes after North Korea, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and East Timor.
(AP, 9/19/19)
2019 Sep 22, Tens of thousands of Indian-Americans packed into a Houston stadium for a rally with Indian PM Narendra Modi, joined by US President Donald Trump, in a rare mass show of support for a foreign leader on US soil.
(Reuters, 9/22/19)
2019 Sep 27, Pakistani PM Imran Khan has denounced India's crackdown in Kashmir and warned of a "bloodbath" in the disputed region. Indian PM Narendra Modi earlier denounced terrorism but avoided any mention of Kashmir.
(AP, 9/27/19)
2019 Sep 28, Indian officials said dozens of people were killed last week following flooding from monsoon rains in the north.
(SSFC, 9/29/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 1, India said it is holding off imposing a blanket ban on single-use plastics to combat pollution, a measure seen as too disruptive for industry at a time when it is coping with an economic slowdown and job losses.
(Reuters, 10/1/19)
2019 Oct 1, Ford Motor Co and Mahindra & Mahindra said they would form a joint venture in India, in a move aimed at reducing risks for the US automaker's local business and cutting the cost of developing and producing vehicles for emerging markets.
(Reuters, 10/1/19)
2019 Oct 2, India announced an ambitious campaign at eliminating single-use plastics within three years, but the environment ministry said the government would not impose a blanket nationwide ban.
(SFC, 10/3/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 11, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in India for meetings with PM Narendra Modi at a time of tensions over Beijing's support for Pakistan in opposing India's downgrading of Kashmir's semi-autonomy and continuing restrictions on the disputed region.
(AP, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 12, In India Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian PM Narendra Modi agreed to set up a new mechanism to discuss trade during two days of informal talks in southern India that were aimed at re-calibrating strained ties between the nations.
(Bloomberg, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 16, Indian and Pakistan troops traded fire in the disputed Kashmir region killing four civilians and wounding nearly a dozen others.
(SFC, 10/17/19, p.A2)
2019 Oct 20, India and Pakistan blamed one another for cross-border shelling in the disputed Kashmir region which killed and injured soldiers and civilians on both sides and made it one of the deadliest days since New Delhi revoked Kashmir's special status in August. India said shelling overnight by Pakistan killed two Indian soldiers and one civilian. Pakistan said one of its soldiers and three civilians had died and that India had violated the ceasefire.
(Reuters, 10/20/19)
2019 Oct 21, India's top vegetable oil trade body asked its members to stop buying palm oil from Malaysia, an unprecedented call aimed at helping New Delhi punish the country for criticising India over its policy towards Kashmir.
(Reuters, 10/21/19)
2019 Oct 22, India's No.2 software services exporter, Infosys Ltd, said it is probing whistleblower complaints that its top two executives engaged in "unethical practices" to boost short-term revenue and profit, sending its shares down 16%.
(AP, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 22, Indian forces in Kashmir killed Hamid Lelhari, a top militant commander, and his two associates in a counter-insurgency operation in the southern Awantipora area.
(SFC, 10/24/19, p.A2)
2019 Oct 29, Indian budget carrier IndiGo said it has placed an order for 300 Airbus A320neo-family jets worth at least $33 billion at recent catalog prices, handing the European plane maker what could be its biggest ever order from a single carrier.
(Reuters, 10/29/19)
2019 Oct 31, India formally implemented legislation approved by Parliament in August that removed Indian-controlled Kashmir's semi-autonomous status and begins direct federal rule of the disputed area.
(SFC, 11/1/19, p.A2)
2019 Oct 31, A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel ruled that Indian export subsidies are prohibited and should be removed, upholding a complaint brought by the United States.
(Reuters, 10/31/19)
2019 Nov 1, German Chancellor Angela Merkel got a toxic welcome to India as PM Narendra Modi welcomed her in air so polluted that authorities declared a public health emergency. The two sides signed a series of agreements in agriculture, maritime technology, "green urban mobility" and even yoga.
(AFP, 11/1/19)
2019 Nov 2, Indian officials said more than 100 migrant workers from Kashmir will be moved after a spate of killings by suspected separatist militants underlined the threat to outsiders in the restive region.
(Reuters, 11/2/19)
2019 Nov 3, India's main opposition Congress party said that its general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had been informed by messaging service WhatsApp that her phone was hacked during this year's election campaign by malware from Israeli surveillance firm NSO.
(Reuters, 11/3/19)
2019 Nov 4, Authorities in India's capital New Delhi banished from the roads cars with number plates ending in an odd number in a bid to cut hazardous air pollution shrouding the city.
(Reuters, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 4, China joined 14 ASEAN countries meeting in Thailand in agreeing terms for what could be the world's biggest trade pact. India pulled out at the last minute on the grounds that the deal would hurt its farmers, businesses, workers and consumers.
(Reuters, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 6, India's cabinet approved 100 billion rupees ($1.41 billion) for a fund to help clear stalled housing projects. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the State Bank of India (SBI) and state-run insurance company Life Corporation of India will contribute an additional 150 billion rupees, taking the total size of the fund to 250 billion.
(Reuters, 11/6/19)
2019 Nov 9, India's Supreme Court awarded a bitterly contested religious site to Hindus, dealing a defeat to Muslims who also claim the land that has sparked some of the country's bloodiest riots since independence. The ruling paves the way for the construction of a Hindu temple on the site in the northern town of Ayodhya. In 1992 a Hindu mob destroyed the 16th-century Babri Mosque on the site.
(Reuters, 11/9/19)
2019 Nov 10, Police in India detained dozens of people in Uttar Pradesh state on suspicion of publishing inflammatory social media posts and setting off celebratory firecrackers after the Supreme Court a day earlier awarded a bitterly contested site in the town of Ayodhya to Hindus.
(Reuters, 11/10/19)
2019 Nov 10, Officials said at least 13 people were killed in Bangladesh and India after cyclone Bulbul lashed coastal areas this weekend, though prompt evacuations saved many lives and the worst was over. At least seven people were killed in India's West Bengal state and another seven in Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 11/10/19)(SFC, 11/11/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 13, India's top court censured the federal government for its inaction in fighting pollution, as poisonous smog choked the streets of the capital New Delhi forcing schools to shut and half of vehicles to be banned from the streets.
(Reuters, 11/13/19)
2019 Nov 14, India's capital Delhi was shrouded in a deeper cover of toxic smoke, as data showed that PM Narendra Modi's pledge to stamp out the burning of crop stubble in neighboring states is not working. Schools in the Delhi area were ordered to close as the city's air quality index hit a dangerously high 474 on a scale of 500.
(Reuters, 11/14/19)
2019 Nov 19, Tata Steel, the Indian steel manufacturer, announced that it will be slashing 3,000 jobs across its operations in Europe, citing a global consumption slowdown and the uncertainty surrounding the UK general elections and Brexit that is scheduled to follow right after.
(Benzinga, 11/19/19)
2019 Nov 30, In India thousands of protesters gathered outside a police station on the outskirts of the city of Hyderabad demanding four men accused of raping and murdering a 27-year-old woman be handed over to them. The charred body of the woman, a veterinarian, was found in the town of Shadnagar, near Hyderabad, on Nov. 28.
(Reuters, 11/30/19)
2019 Dec 2, In India the state government of Tamil Nadu said at least 25 people have died in recent monsoon rains.
(SFC, 12/3/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 6, In southern India police fatally shot four men being held on suspicion of raping and killing a woman after investigators took them to the crime scene, drawing both praise and condemnation in a case that has sparked protests across the country. The suspects had reportedly seized some weapons from policemen who had taken them there and started firing.
(AP, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 6, In India a 23-year-old rape victim set on fire by a gang of men, which included her alleged rapists, died in a New Delhi hospital. A day earlier the woman was on her way to board a train in Unnao district of northern Uttar Pradesh state to attend a court hearing over her rape when she was doused with kerosene and set on fire. Her death prompted protests from opposition leaders who blamed the ruling party for failing to check incidents of violence against women.
(Reuters, 12/7/19)
2019 Dec 8, In India a fire believed to be caused by an electrical short circuit engulfed a building New Delhi, where handbags and other items were made by workers earning as little as 2 dollars per day. At least 43 people were killed.
(AP, 12/8/19)
2019 Dec 9, In India day laborers in one of New Delhi's most congested neighborhoods demonstrated against unsafe working conditions, a day after at least 43 people were killed in a devastating fire at an illegal factory there.
(AP, 12/9/19)
2019 Dec 11, India's ruling Hindu nationalist government won parliamentary approval for a far-reaching citizenship law that critics say undermines the country's secular constitution, as protests against the legislation intensified. India's Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 inserted religion as a criterion for citizenship.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenship_(Amendment)_Act,_2019)(AP, 12/11/19)
2019 Dec 12, In India violent mobs in the northeastern state of Assam torched buildings and clashed with police, leaving two dead and 11 with bullet wounds, as protests grew over a new citizenship law for non-Muslim minorities from some neighboring countries. Protesters in Assam, which shares a border with Bangladesh, say the measure would open the region to a flood of foreign migrants. Tens of thousands rioted in three northeastern states. Authorities in Assam state shut down the internet and imposed a curfew. Neighboring Meghalaya state banned groups of more than four people from assembling.
(Reuters, 12/12/19)(SFC, 12/13/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 16, India's PM Narendra Modi appealed for calm today as violent nationwide student-led protests against "anti-Muslim" citizenship legislation continued for a fifth day.
(AP, 12/16/19)
2019 Dec 16, It was reported that mass abuse of the opioid drug tramadol, originally made by Grumenthal of Germany, is now creating havoc spanning continents from India, to Africa to the Middle East. Most of the unregulated drug was coming from India.
(SFC, 12/16/19, p.A4)
2019 Dec 18, In India a student-led protest movement against a new law that grants citizenship on the basis of religion spread nationwide despite efforts by the government to contain it.
(AP, 12/18/19)
2019 Dec 18, The United States and India agreed to expand defense, science and technology cooperation following security talks at the US State Department.
(Defense News, 12/19/19)
2019 Dec 19, India's police detained several hundred protesters in some of the biggest cities as they defied bans on assembly that authorities imposed to stop widespread demonstrations against a new citizenship law that opponents say threatens the country's secular democracy.
(AP, 12/19/19)
2019 Dec 19, Pakistan's foreign minister said that he has written to the United Nations this month, warning the world body of what he says are actions by New Delhi to position missile launchers in the Indian-controlled Kashmir.
(AP, 12/19/19)
2019 Dec 20, India's police banned public gatherings in parts of New Delhi and other cities for a third day and cut internet services to try to stop growing protests against a new citizenship law that have left 11 people dead and more than 4,000 others detained.
(AP, 12/20/19)
2019 Dec 20, A court in India sentenced a regional politician to life imprisonment for raping a teenage girl (17). Kuldeep Singh Sengar had been jailed since last year on charges of having brutalized the young woman in 2017. The ruling came a few months after the teenager was critically injured in a car crash on a rural highway that killed two of her aunts.
(NY Times, 12/21/19)
2019 Dec 21, In northern India 9 people died during clashes between demonstrators and police, raising the nationwide death toll in protests against a new citizenship law to 23.
(AP, 12/21/19)
2019 Dec 21, The Times of India reported that Indian banks may ask depositors and customers to list their religion. Reserve Bank of India made changes to a banking law that allows selected non-residents to open bank accounts and own property. The amendments were made last year but went unnoticed.
(Bloomberg, 12/21/19)
2019 Dec 22, Protesters angered by India's new citizenship law that excludes Muslims defied a ban against demonstrations, as PM Narendra Modi used a rally for his Hindu nationalist party to defend the legislation, accusing the opposition of pushing the country into a “fear psychosis".
(AP, 12/22/19)
2019 Dec 22, Pakistani authorities said mortars fired by Indian troops into its portion of the Kashmir region killed three civilians and damaged nearly a dozen home in recent days.
(SFC, 12/23/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 23, India’s main opposition party staged a silent protest in the capital against a contentious new citizenship law. The protest was led by opposition Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi along with other senior leaders, including former PM Manmohan Singh.
(AP, 12/23/19)
2019 Dec 23, India and Iran agreed to accelerate the development of an important Iranian port. Chabahar port, being jointly developed by India, Iran and Afghanistan, is on the Indian Ocean about 100 km (62 miles) west of the Pakistan border.
(AFP, 12/23/19)
2019 Dec 25, India and Pakistan traded fire in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, with the latest exchanges killing two Pakistani troops, an Indian soldier and a civilian woman.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 25, In India more than a thousand students, artists and writers protested in New Delhi and northeastern Assam state against a new citizenship law introduced by the Hindu nationalist government that excludes Muslims.
(SFC, 12/26/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 27, In India a group of protesters in New Delhi was beaten and shoved into buses by police as they attempted to demonstrate against a new citizenship law that has triggered nationwide protests in recent weeks.
(AP, 12/27/19)
2020 Jan 3, In India more that 1,000 members of the LGBTQ community, rights groups and their supporters marched through New Delhi to protest a new citizenship law that excludes Muslims. Opposition parties say the Modi government is trying to consolidate its Hindu base.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 5, In India masked assailants beat students and teachers with sticks on the campus of a prestigious university in New Delhi, injuring more than 20 people in an attack opposition lawmakers are trying to link to the government.
(AP, 1/6/20)
2020 Jan 7, In India a death warrant was issued for the four men convicted of the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a New Delhi bus that galvanized protests and brought attention to the country's sexual violence epidemic.
(The Telegraph, 1/7/20)
2020 Jan 8, The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said India has reported an outbreak of the highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus on a poultry farm in the central state of Chhattisgarh.
(Reuters, 1/8/20)
2020 Jan 10, India's top court ordered the government to review all restrictions in Indian-controlled Kashmir, saying the measures amount to an abuse of power.
(SFC, 1/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jan 13, India's Supreme Court directed the government's crime fighting agency to seize local assets of JPMorgan in relation to some transactions the bank engaged in with a local real estate company in 2010.
(Reuters, 1/13/20)
2020 Jan 14, Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos arrived in India for a 3-day visit, as thousands of small traders across 300 cities planned protests, claiming the firm is distorting local retail market.
(Reuters, 1/14/20)
2020 Jan 25, In India a building that was being expanded in New Delhi collapsed killing five people, including four students. Eight other students were injured.
(SSFC, 1/26/20, p.A4)
2020 Jan 26, In India hundreds of thousands protested across the country against a citizenship bill that many fear is discriminatory against the minority Muslim community. The protests took place as India celebrated Republic Day, in commemoration of the day the Indian constitution came into effect.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 28, It was reported that most major railway stations in India will use facial recognition to fight crime by the end of 2020. Digital rights campaigners warned the move could breach people's privacy in the absence of stringent laws.
(Reuters, 1/28/20)
2020 Jan 31, An Indian diplomat said two Indian sailors were killed and two remain missing after the Zoya 1 oil tanker caught fire earlier this week off the UAE's sheikhdom of Sharjah.
(AP, 1/31/20)
2020 Feb 1, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled the budget for fiscal 2020/21, vowing to boost income of Indians and their purchasing power, in a bid to revive domestic economic growth. India raised taxes on imports of goods such as electronic items, toys and furniture, aiming to give impetus to domestic manufacturing.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 8, Voters in New Delhi began voting in a state election seen as a test of Indian PM Narendra Modi's popularity following months of deadly anti-government protests over a new citizenship law.
(Reuters, 2/8/20)
2020 Feb 8, In India seven people died as a fire swept through the Nandan Denim factory on the outskires of Ahmedabad, Gujarat state.
(SFC, 2/13/20, p.A4)
2020 Feb 9, In India the regional Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) party held a rally in Mumbai to support a citizenship law introduced by PM Narendra Modi last year that has triggered nationwide protests.
(Reuters, 2/9/20)
2020 Feb 13, Indian environmentalist Rajendra Kumar Pachauri (79) died after recent heart surgery. He led the Intergovernmental panel on Climate change from 2002-2015. Under his leadership a UN climate change panel shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
(AP, 2/14/20)(SSFC, 2/16/20, p.B10)
2020 Feb 17, India's top court ordered the federal government to grant permanent commission and command positions to female officers in the army on par with men.
(SFC, 2/18/20, p.A4)
2020 Feb 18, It was reported that India has hastily built a half-km (1,640-foot) brick wall in Gujarat state ahead of a visit by US President Donald Trump, with critics saying it was built to block the view of a slum area inhabited by more than 2,000 people.
(AP, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 20, In southern India a bus collided with a truck killing at least 19 people near Avanashi, Tamil Nadu state.
(SFC, 2/21/20, p.A2)
2020 Feb 22, India, the world's second-biggest gold consumer, said it has discovered gold fields with reserves of over 3,000 tons in northern Uttar Pradesh's Sonbhadra district.
(Reuters, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 23, In India police used tear gas to disperse large crowds in New Delhi in the latest eruption of violence at protests over a new citizenship law. The protest comes just a day before US President Donald Trump begins a two-day visit to India.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 24, US Pres. Donald Trump began a two-day visit to India today, attending a rally of more than 100,000 people at a cricket stadium in the western city of Ahmedabad. More than 100,000 people packed the world's largest cricket stadium to welcome Trump. In New Delhi at least seven were killed, including a police officer, and nearly 100 others reportedly injured in clashes between hundreds of supporters and opponents of the new Indian citizenship.
(NY Times, 2/24/20)(AP, 2/24/20)(AP, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 25, US President Donald Trump, speaking in India, said the US stock market will crash if he loses the election this year.
(Reuters, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 26, Indian authorities said at least 24 people were killed and 189 injured in three days of clashes in New Delhi that coincided with President Donald Trump's first state visit to India, with the death toll expected to rise as hospitals continue to take in the wounded. The 72-hour clash between Hindus and Muslims left at least 40 dead and hundreds injured.
(AP, 2/26/20)(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 27, Top supplier Godrej Agrovet Ltd said a false rumour that the coronavirus can be spread by chickens has slashed Indian poultry sales by almost 50%.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb, India signed a $3.5 billion arms deal with the US.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.30)
2020 Feb, The India-based Adani conglomerate completed a $450 million sale of 25% of its Mumbai power operations to Qatar's government. It also received a $900 million investment in a 37% stake in its gas operations by Total, a French oil giant.
(Econ., 7/4/20, p.55)
2020 Mar 2, Indian lawmakers pushed and shoved each other in parliament after opposition parties demanded the resignation of interior minister Amit Shah over the handling of deadly riots triggered by a citizenship law that excludes Muslims. Officials said the death toll in the capital from riots last week between Hindus and Muslims rose to 46, a day after false rumors of new violence led to panicked calls to police in many parts of the city.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, India reported three new cases of coronavirus, including an Italian national in the western Indian state of Rajasthan.
(AP, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, said it has restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the medicines made from them, including paracetamol, as the coronavirus outbreak plays havoc with supply chains. The government said it had detected "high viral load" in six people who had been in contact with a patient who contracted the coronavirus in the capital New Delhi. 24 people who had come in contact with the Italian tourist have been moved to a separate facility for testing. They included 21 Italians and three Indians.
(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 4, India lifted some restrictions on internet access in Kashmir, including allowing access to social media websites for the first time since the restive Himalayan region was locked down and its autonomy revoked in August.
(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 6, India braced for a potential explosion of coronavirus cases as authorities rushed to trace, test and quarantine contacts of 31 people confirmed to have the disease.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 8, In India Rana Kapoor, CEO and co-founder of Yes Bank, was arrested and formally charge with money laundering and corruption.
(Econ, 3/14/20, p.60)
2020 Mar 10, In India Hindus threw colored powder and sprayed water in massive celebrations of the festival of Holi, but the enthusiasm was subdued compared to previous years because of fears of the new virus. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country rose to 47.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 11, India suspended most visas in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 13, Indian authorities ordered the release of Kashmir's most prominent politician, Farooq Abdullah, one of dozens of leaders held since August, when the federal government withdrew the troubled region's autonomy.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Two Indian states ordered the closure of public buildings, malls, cinemas and bars in several major cities, with Mumbai and Bengaluru subject to differing restrictions, after the country reported its first death from the coronavirus. India had 74 confirmed cases of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 15, India reported that the number of coronavirus infections had risen to 107, an increase of 23 from the day before.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 17, Indian authorities expanded the population eligible for testing to health care workers with symptoms who are treating patients with severe respiratory illnesses. Authorities have confirmed 126 cases linked to foreign travel or direct contact with someone who caught the disease abroad. Indian authorities said that they would not widely expand testing for the virus, despite mounting criticism from some experts that the limited tests could mask the true toll of the disease in the world's second most populous country.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 19, Indian PM Narendra Modi appealed to citizens to observe a self-curfew on March 22 as part of a trial-run to test social isolation to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 20, In India four men sentenced to death for the gruesome gang rape and murder of a woman on a New Delhi bus in 2012 were hanged. The case exposed the scope of sexual violence in India and prompted horrified Indians to demand swift justice.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, India expanded the criteria for people who should be tested for coronavirus, as the world’s second-most populous nation aims to limit the outbreak locally.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In India thousands of poor city migrants whose livelihoods have collapsed due to India's coronavirus measures headed back to their villages, raising fears that the exodus could carry the virus to the countryside. About one fifth of India's 271 confirmed coronavirus cases has been reported in the western state of Maharashtra. So far, India has registered four deaths due to the virus.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In eastern India 17 policemen were killed and 14 others injured in an attack by Maoist rebels in Bihar state.
(SFC, 3/23/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 22, India suspended passenger train services across the country until March 31 as the government sought to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Freight services will continue. coronavirus cases rose to 341, while the country confirmed its fifth death from the virus.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 23, Ford Motor Co it has decided to temporarily halt vehicle and engine production at its factories in India, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam in response to the growing impact of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 24, India's PM Narendra Modi decreed that the country of 1.3 billion will go on lockdown for 21 days.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 25, India began a 21-day lockdown. PM Narendra Modi warned that if he didn't act now, the coronavirus could set the world's largest democracy back decades. Everything but essential services like supermarkets were closed. India has reported only about 512 cases because of limited testing. At least 9 deaths have been reported.
(AP, 3/24/20)(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, India said it had banned the export of hydroxychloroquine and formulations of the malaria drug while experts test its efficacy in helping treat patients infected with coronavirus.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 26, In India the Jimme Foundation, an LGBT+ rights group, launched a fundraising appeal for Mumbai sex workers whose income has been hit by coronavirus, saying it wanted to help other Indians who faced prejudice.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 27, It was reported that India's coronavirus lockdown is disrupting e-commerce companies including Amazon and Flipkart, despite government assurances it would not.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 28, India has confirmed 775 cases of coronavirus and 19 deaths.
(SSFC, 3/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 29, Indian PM Narendra Modi asked the nation's poor for forgiveness as the economic and human toll from his 21-day nationwide lockdown deepens and criticism mounts about a lack of adequate planning ahead of the decision.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 30, Indian health workers caused outrage by spraying a group of migrants with disinfectant, amid fears that a large scale movement of people from cities to the countryside risked spreading the coronavirus. India has registered more than a thousand cases of the new coronavirus, of whom 29 have died.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Apr 4, India banned exports of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that US President Donald Trump has touted as a “game changer" in the fight against Covid-19.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Indian soldiers killed five suspected militants in the Keran sector of Kashmir. Three Indian soldiers were also killed. Another clash a day earlier in Kulgam town killed 4 rebels.
(SFC, 4/6/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 7, India said it will allow limited exports of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, that US President Donald Trump has touted as a potential weapon in the fight against the virus.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 8, India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, sealed off 15 of its districts worst affected by infections. The state has so far recorded 326 infections and three deaths. India has had total infections of 5,360 and 164 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Officials in India said at least three private hospitals in Mumbai have shut their doors to new patients on concerns of health workers getting exposed to the coronavirus. India has so far recorded 5,865 cases of coronavirus, including 169 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Pakistan's military said its troop have shot down a small Indian spy drone after it violated the country's airspace along the Line of Control in Kashmir.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 11, Delhi state's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that Indian PM Narendra Modi has decided to extend a nationwide lockdown to tackle the spread of the coronavirus, without saying how long the extension would be for. The number of cases rose to 7,471.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 12, In Kashmir three civilians were reportedly killed when shells fired by the Pakistani army hit homes at two locations along the Line of Control in the Kupwara area of Indian controlled Kashmir.
(SFC, 4/14/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 13, Pakistan summoned an Indian official to protest over cross-border shelling from its neighbor that it said had killed a child and wounded four civilians in Kashmir.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 14, India extended a lockdown for its 1.3 billion people until at least May 3. It was reported that state-owned banks have barred employees from posting pictures, video clips or messages on social media on issues such as overcrowding at bank branches during the coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 18, India reported 991 new cases and 42 new deaths from the virus, taking the total number of reported cases to 14,378 and deaths to 480.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, In Kashmir rebels fighting Indian rule attacked a paramilitary post killing three soldiers and wounding two others in the northwestern Sopore area.
(SFC, 4/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 19, India recorded its largest daily spike in coronavirus cases, adding 1,400 new infections to its tally of more than 16,000 amid a nationwide lockdown that’s about to enter its fourth week. Confirmed infections were up 78% to 16,365, from 9,200 on April 12.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 20, India recorded 1,553 cases of the coronavirus, its biggest single-day spike. At least 543 people have died. The government has eased one of the world’s strictest lockdowns to allow some manufacturing and agricultural activity to resume. India's government said farms and factories could resume activity in the hinterland, which has been less hard-hit by COVID-19.
(AP, 4/20/20)(Reuters, 4/21/20)(SFC, 4/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 21, Indian authorities said they have arrested 29 people who participated in an Islamic missionary meeting last month in New Delhi that resulted in a large cluster of coronavirus cases. India has 18,601 confirmed cases of the virus. More than 4,200 cases were linked to the meeting.
(SFC, 4/22/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 21, Indian government forces killed four rebels late today in a gun battle in the southern Shopian district of disputed Kashmir.
(SFC, 4/23/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 22, India ordered a pause in testing for antibodies to the coronavirus because of concern over the accuracy. India has detected 19,983 cases of the coronavirus. There have been 640 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Facebook agreed to buy a 9.9% stake of Jio, the telecoms arm of India-based conglomerate Reliance Industries, as it looked to roll out services for India's grocers and small businesses.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)(Econ, 4/25/20, p.56)
2020 Apr 23, India froze inflation-linked increases in salaries and pensions for more than 11 million federal employees and pensioners to generate nearly $10 billion to help combat the COVID-19 outbreak.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, In India a man (21) raped and severely damaged the eyes of a six-year-old girl from his village. Police arrested the man the next day in the Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh state. Federal data has shown that rape occurs every 20 minutes, on average, in the country of 1.3 billion people.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 23, An Indian woman was allegedly gang raped in a school in the desert state of Rajasthan where she had been quarantined for a night by the police amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown. Three local men were soon arrested.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 23, Amazon said its Indian arm will soon add small local shops as sellers on its platform as a way to provide them broader online exposure and offer consumers a greater selection of merchandise.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 24, India announced the relaxation of some aspects of its strict coronavirus pandemic lockdown measures.
(The Week, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, The Indian government allowed a limited reopening of shops in neighborhoods and residential areas, more than a month after the nation went into a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 26, Indian PM Narendra Modi appealed to citizens to strictly comply with a nationwide lockdown and maintain social distancing norms, as cases of coronavirus mounted steadily despite over a month-long curfew.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, In India at least ten villagers in Bihar state were killed by lightning strikes in the village of Khalpura.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 27, India's federal medical research agency asked state government to stop using testing equipment from China because of conflicting results.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 28, In India the number of people infected with the coronavirus stood at 29,434, a rise of 1,543 over the previous day. So far 934 people have died.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, India-based Serum, the world's largest maker of vaccines by volume, said it is mass-producing the vaccine candidate developed by the University of Oxford, which started testing it on humans last week. Trials of the Oxford vaccine are due to finish in about September.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 29, India has recorded its 1,000th novel coronavirus death, but the head of a government think-tank said that its 1.3 billion people, strained from weeks of lockdown, were not experiencing the feared exponential surge in infections. India has now reported 31,331 cases, including 1,007 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Indian artillery fire in the disputed Kashmir region hit Pakistani army posts and villages killing a soldier, a woman and a girl (16). India said Pakistani troops had attacked Inidan positions with small arms and mortar shells in at least four places.
(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 30, It was reported that India has shipped 50 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine to the United States. This followed a request by President Donald Trump for New Delhi to release supplies of the drug as a possible treatment for the respiratory disease. US regulators have warned the anti-malarial drug may have harmful side effects in the treatment of COVID-19.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr, India imposed new rules requiring the central government to vet all direct investments by Chinese firms.
(Econ., 7/4/20, p.31)
2020 May 1, India's PM Narendra Modi extended the coronavirus lockdown for two weeks, but some restrictions were relaxed.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that India has mandated that all public and private sector employees use a government-backed Bluetooth tracing app and maintain social distancing in offices as New Delhi begins easing some of its lockdown measures in lower-risk areas.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Indian troops in Kashmir entered a house in the Handwara area late today and successfully extricated a number of hostages held by militants. Five Indian troops and two militants were killed in the fighting.
(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A2)
2020 May 3, India recorded its largest single-day jump of 2,600 coronavirus infections. 83 new deaths raised the death toll to 1,301. Total confirmed cases neared 40,000.
(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A4)
2020 May 5, Chinese troops took issue with an Indian patrol on the north bank of Pangong Lake in Ladakh, a region administered by India as a union territory. Soldiers from both nations engaged in fistfights and stone-pelting along the Line of Actual Control. Another clash had taken place on May 10. Both countries had signed agreements in 1996 and 2003 establishing protocols to deal with such incidents, including promises n ot to use weapons. China occupied a total of forty square km at Pangong Tso and twenty square km at Galwan River, with smaller incursions at Hot Springs and Demchok.
(Econ., 5/16/20, p.30)(The Telegraph, 6/11/20)
2020 May 6, In India health authorities scrambled to contain an outbreak at a huge fruit and vegetable market in Chennai. Hundreds of Indian police tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days, raising alarm as it attempts to enforce the world's largest lockdown.
(AP, 5/6/20)(Reuters, 5/6/20)(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A6)
2020 May 6, Indian southern state of Karnataka halted trains taking stranded migrant laborers home so that work on construction sites could restart, a move widely condemned as amounting to forced labor.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Indian forces killed Riyaz Naikoo (35), a top commander of the Hizbul Mujahedeen rebel group, along with his aide in the disputed Kashmir region.
(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A2)
2020 May 7, Coronavirus cases in India rose past 50,000, with the pace of new infections showing no signs of abating despite a strict weeks-long lockdown.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, In eastern India 12 people died and hundreds were rushed to hospitals after a cloud of toxic styrene gas escaped from a polymer factory owned by the South Korean company LG Corp. and located near the city of Visakhapatnam. Charges of culpable homicide were soon filed against LG Polymers India.
(SFC, 5/8/20, p.A2)(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A2)(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A2)
2020 May 8, An Indian train killed 16 migrant workers who had fallen asleep on the track while heading back to their home village after losing their jobs during the lockdown.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, In Kashmir anti-India protests and clasehs continued for a third day following the killing of a top rebel leader by government forces. At least one man has been killed and 50 others injured in the three days of clashes.
(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A2)
2020 May 9, In India hundreds of migrant workers in India's western state of Gujarat clashed for a second day with authorities, hurling stones at police trying to enforce a coronavirus lockdown.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, In India about 70 people fled a quarantine center in Bihar state's Nawada district, alleging poor facilities and lack of food. A district magistrate said some fled after one of the occupants tested positive for COVID-19.
(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A6)
2020 May 10, Police in the Pakistan-ruled part of Kashmir said Indian troops across the disputed border opened fire with automatic rifles, shooting a women dead. Shauzia Akhtar was reportedly shot in the head as she prepared breakfast in her home along the border.
(AP, 5/10/20)(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A2)
2020 May 12, India's PM Narendra Modi pledged 20 lakh crore rupees, about $265 billion, to reignite growth.
(Econ., 5/23/20, p.26)
2020 May 13, Indian soldiers fatally shot a young man at a checkpoint in Kashmir, triggering anti-India protests and clashes in the disputed region.
(SFC, 5/14/20, p.A2)
2020 May 13, Germany prosecutors said they have charged an Indian man (Balvir S.) with spying on the Sikh community and Kashmir activists for his country's intelligence service for more than two years.
(SFC, 5/14/20, p.A2)
2020 May 16, India's total novel coronavirus cases rose to 85,940 with 2,752 fatalities.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, In northern India a truck crammed with migrant laborers trying to reach their distant homes amid a nationwide lockdown crashed, killing at least 23 and injuring 35.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 17, India's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) requested that a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus be extended to May 31. The Health Ministry reported a record jump of nearly 5,000 cases in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)(SFC, 5/18/20, p.A5)
2020 May 18, It was reported that Chinese smartphone maker OPPO has suspended operations at a recently re-opened plant in India after workers tested positive for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020 May 19, India's government said it will run more special trains and buses to allow millions of distressed migrant workers to leave big cities. Coronavirus cases in India reached 100,000, matching its number of intensive care beds, and the rate of increase of new infections showed little sign of slowing.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, Nepal's PM Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli asserted that a new Indian-built road passes through its territory. The 50-mile road cuts through the Lipu Lekh Himalayan pass to connect India to Kailash-Mansarovar, a sacred area in Tibet.
(SFC, 5/22/20, p.A2)
2020 May 20, Cyclone Amphan slammed ashore along the coastline of Bangladesh and India, where more than 2.6 million people fled to shelters in a frantic evacuation made all the more challenging by the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 5/20/20)
2020 May 21, Cyclone Amphan, the most powerful storm to hit the region in more than a decade, killed 77 people in West Bengal, India, and cut a path of destruction that is still being assessed. By May 27 the death toll rose to 100 in India and just over 20 in Bangladesh.
(AP, 5/21/20)(AP, 5/22/20)(Econ., 5/30/20, p.52)
2020 May 21, Indian pharmaceutical company Strides Pharma Science Ltd received regulatory approval in India to start clinical trials of antiviral drug favipiravir, which has been touted as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Favipiravir is manufactured under the brand name Avigan by a unit of Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp and was approved for use as an anti-flu drug in the country in 2014. Kyodo News has reported that so far there has been no clear evidence of efficacy for Avigan in treating the novel coronavirus in some clinical trials.
(Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020 May 22, India reported 6,088 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, its biggest single-day spike. This brought total cases to 118, 447. The death toll rose to 3,583.
(SFC, 5/23/20, p.A5)
2020 May 23, India reported 6,654 new coronavirus cases bringing the nationwide total to 125,102, including 3,720 deaths.
(SSFC, 5/24/20, p.A9)
2020 May 23, India-based Reliance Industries Ltd said it has launched an online grocery service, JioMart, in a move aimed at rivalling Amazon.com's local unit and Walmart Inc's Flipkart in the huge Indian market.
(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, India reported 6,767 new coronavirus infections, the country’s biggest one-day increase. India has confirmed 125,102 coronavirus cases, including 3,867 deaths.
(The Telegraph, 5/24/20)(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 25, A resident of the Kathua district of Indian-administered Kashmir, reported a bird - painted pink and carrying a coded ring tagged to its foot - flew into her home late today. The Indian Border Security Force passed the pigeon on to the police, who launched an investigation and logged the animal as a ‘Pak Suspected Spy.’
(The Telegraph, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, India's Ministry of Health reported that there had been a daily increase of 6,535 coronavirus cases, bringing the toll up to 145,380 cases. In total, there have been 4,167 officially recorded coronavirus deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, India-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it would begin a clinical trial in India to test a combination of two anti-viral drugs, favipiravir and umifenovir, as a potential COVID-19 treatment.
(Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020 May 27, India reported 6,387 new coronavirus infections, a new single-day record. A total of 151,767 cases have been confirmed including 4,337 deaths.
(SFC, 5/28/20, p.A5)
2020 May 27, Novavax Inc said it is buying Praha Vaccines, a Czech-based manufacturing plant, from privately held Serum Institute of India, the world's largest maker of vaccines by volume. The US company aims to produce 1 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate next year.
(Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020 May 28, India’s top court ordered state authorities to provide free train rides and proper food and water to hundreds of thousands of migrant workers returning to their villages in the blazing heat after being thrown out of work. India reported another record single-day jump of 6,566 coronavirus cases, pushing up the total to 158,333 confirmed cases and 4,531 deaths.
(AP, 5/28/20)(Good Morning America, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, It was reported that swarms of desert locusts have devastated crops in India’s heartland, threatening an already vulnerable region that is struggling with the economic cost of the lockdown.
(AP, 5/28/20)
2020 May 29, India-based drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd said it has received Indian regulatory approval to start clinical trials of a pancreatitis drug in COVID-19 patients.
(Reuters, 5/29/20)
2020 May 30, India registered another record jump with 7,964 coronavirus cases and 265 deaths. Total cases now stand at 173,763 with 4,971 deaths.
(SSFC, 5/31/20, p.A7)
2020 May 31, India reported more than 8,000 new coses of the coronavirus. Confirmed infections have now reached 182,143, with 5,164 fatalities.
(SFC, 6/1/20, p.A5)
2020 May, India police and soldiers were filmed ransacking a village in northern Kashmir, where they beat men and women, looted stores and burned goods on the street.
(Econ., 9/12/20, p.31)
2020 Jun 1, India registered 230 coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing that total to 5,394.
(SFC, 6/2/20, p.A3)
2020 Jun 2, Authorities in India said three mudslides triggered by overnight rains in Assam state killed 20 people.
(SFC, 6/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 3, In India a pregnant elephant died in agony in a river in Silent Valley National Park in Kerala's Palakkad district after eating a firecracker-stuffed pineapple. Her death caused outrage in the country. Farmers in the area are known for using explosives in fruit to protect their land from wild animals.
(https://tinyurl.com/y9t66rxj)
2020 Jun 4, India registered 9,304 new cases of the coronavirus raising its totals to 216,919 cases and 6,075 deaths.
(SFC, 6/5/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 6, India reported 9,887 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the total to 236,657.
(SSFC, 6/7/20, p.A8)
2020 Jun 7, India reported 9,971 new cases of the coronavirus taking its total to 246,628 with 6,929 fatalities.
(SFC, 6/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Jun 9, In Canada CitizenLab, a part of the Munk School of Government at the Univ. of Toronto, said that it had unearthed one of the biggest known mercenary hackers, which it has dubbed "Dark Basin." CitizenLab pointed to BellTrox InfoTech Services, a company based in New Delhi, India.
(Econ., 6/13/20, p.51)
2020 Jun 10, Indian authorities brought back diamonds, pearls and silver jewelry worth $180 million as part of an investigation of Nirav Modi, a fugitive diamond merchant who is being held in London. The valuables were being held in a logistics company's warehouse in Hong Kong after being taken there from Dubai in 2018.
(https://tinyurl.com/ybz2kwuf)(SFC, 6/12/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 11, In India coronavirus cases shot up, rising by a record of nearly 10,000, raising questions about whether authorities have done enough to avert catastrophe. The total count of infections reached 286,579, the fifth highest in the world, with 8,102 deaths.
(AP, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 12, India’s nationwide caseload overtook Britain to became the fourth highest in the world with 297,535 confirmed coronavirus cases and 8,498 deaths. The number of cases had increased by 10,956 from the previous day.
(AP, 6/12/20)(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Indian drugmaker Zydus Cadila said it signed a non-exclusive licensing pact with Gilead Sciences Inc to manufacture and market antiviral drug remdesivir, the first treatment to show improvement in COVID-19 trials.
(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, An Indian citizen was killed by Nepalese border guards, amid a border row between the two countries.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.30)
2020 Jun 13, India reported its biggest single-day jump in coronavirus cases, adding 11,458 confirmed infections and taking its total count to more than 300,000. India has 145,779 active cases, and has recorded 8,884 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 14, In India Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput (34), was found dead at his home in Mumbai. Police termed this an "accidental death." Rajput had won acclaim for his role in the 2016 biopic of then Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Local media reported that the actor had been found hanging from the ceiling of his home. In August the government of Bihar, Rajput's home state, turned the inquiry over to the federal investigation agency (CBI).
(Reuters, 6/14/20)(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Jun 14, An Indian soldier was killed by Pakistani shellfire in Kashmir.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.30)
2020 Jun 15, India's Health Ministry reported a jump of more than 11,000 infections nationwide for a third straight day.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, An Indian Army officer and two soldiers were killed by Chinese troops late today in Galwan Valley in the Ladakh region along the countries’ disputed border. China's PLA grabbed some 40-60 square km of territory that India considers to be its own. Preliminary reports indicated that the soldiers had not been shot, but had been killed in a brawl involving rocks and wooden clubs. The Indian Army soon raised its death toll to 20 soldiers.
(NY Times, 6/16/20)(AP, 6/16/20)(SFC, 6/17/20, p.A3)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.29)
2020 Jun 15, Two Indian officials in Pakistan were allegedly abducted and tortured by "Pakistani agencies".
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.30)
2020 Jun 17, China and India accused each other of instigating deadly border clashes between their forces along the disputed Himalayan frontier, pledging to safeguard their territory but also to try to end a standoff that has dramatically raised the stakes between the nuclear-armed giants.
(AP, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 18, India reported its highest one-day increase of 12,281 coronavirus cases. Deaths rose by 334 to 12,237.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 19, Mumbai-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it has received Indian regulatory approval to make and sell oral antiviral drug favipiravir for treating mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infections in the country.
(AP, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, China said the Galwan Valley high up in the Himalayan border region where Chinese and Indian troops engaged in a deadly brawl this week falls entirely within China, boldly renewing claims on the disputed area as the Asian giants continued using military and diplomatic channels to try to reduce tensions.
(AP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 19, US prosecutors said that Tahawwur Rana, a former Chicago businessman imprisoned for aiding terrorist groups, has been arrested in Los Angeles to face murder charges in India for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed more than 160 people. Rana was convicted in Chicago in 2011 of providing material support to the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which planned the 2008 India attack.
(The Telegraph, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 20, Indian troops backed by artillery fired on villages along the Pakistani-administered side of Kashmir killing a girl (13) and wounding her mother and brother.
(SFC, 6/22/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 21, It was reported that poaching in India has become increasingly common amid the coronavirus pandemic, as people left jobless turn to wildlife to make money and feed their families. The problem extended into Nepal, southeast Asia and parts of Africa.
(AP, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 21, Indian drugmaker Cipla Ltd. and privately held Hetero Labs gained approval to sell generic versions of Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir in India.
(Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 21, The World Health Organization reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases by its count, at more than 183,000 new cases in the latest 24 hours. The WHO said Brazil led the way with 54,771 cases tallied and the US next at 36,617. Over 15,400 came in in India.
(NBC News, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 22, India reported a record number of new coronavirus cases and a death toll of more than 400 people in the past 24 hours as foreign embassies warned their citizens in the country that hospitals might not have beds for them. 14,821 new cases brought India's total to more than 425,000. Nearly 14,000 people in India have now died from the disease caused by the virus since the country reported its first case in January.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)(SFC, 6/23/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 22, Global cases of the novel coronavirus surpassed 9 million, as Brazil and India grappled with a surge in infections, and the United States, China and other hard-hit countries reported new outbreaks.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 23, Indian drugmaker Cipla Ltd said it will price its generic version of Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir for use in COVID-19 patients at less than 5,000 rupees ($66).
(AP, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, In southern India a father and son died while in police custody. The father had been arrested three days earlier for flouting coronavirus rules by keeping his mobile phone shop open past curfew. The son went to check on him and both were severly beaten. Ten police officers were later arrested following a feceral investigation and charged with murder.
(SFC, 8/18/20, p.A3)
2020 Jun 24, Indian authorities launched a massive coronavirus survey taking down health details from New Delhi's entire population of 29 million, and testing everyone with symptoms by July 6. In the past 24 hours, 3,788 new cases were confirmed in Delhi, compared to 1,118 in Mumbai.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, India said it will carry out a survey for the coronavirus targeting the 29 million population of New Delhi, to be completed by July 6. India registered another record high of 16,922 cases, taking the total to 473,105.
(AP, 6/25/20)(SFC, 6/26/20, p.A9)
2020 Jun 25, Maharashtra, India's richest state, banned a "spurious" coronavirus treatment manufactured by a company founded by popular yoga guru, which he says has a 100% record in curing patients. Baba Ramdev, co-founder of Patanjali and a household name in India, launched Coronil to much fanfare on June 23, but hit a roadblock when New Delhi and some state governments expressed skepticism.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, In eastern India lightning killed 23 people and injured 10 others during thunderstorms and heavy rain in Bihar state.
(SFC, 6/26/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 26, India confirmed 17,296 new coronavirus infections bringing its total to 490,401. Another 407 deaths brought that total to 15,301.
(SFC, 6/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 27, India confirmed cases of the coronavirus jumped 18,552 raising its total to over half a million. 384 new deaths raised that total to 15,685.
(SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A10)
2020 Jun 27, US-based Carlyle Group Inc said it has agreed to buy a 20% stake in the pharmaceutical unit of Indian conglomerate Piramal Enterprises Ltd for about $490 million.
(Reuters, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 28, India reported an additional 19,906 confirmed cases of the coronavirus taking its total to 528,859 with 16,095 deaths.
(SFC, 6/29/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 29, New Delhi said late today that TikTok was among the 59 apps which it believed posed a "threat to sovereignty and integrity," following its recent border clash with China. Some 200 million users soon lost access to the app. Roposo, a local rival, got 2.2 million sign-ups in 48 hours.
(Reuters, 6/30/20)(Econ., 7/25/20, p.50)
2020 Jun 29, India reported nearly 20,000 new coronavirus infections. The country has confirmed 548,318 cases with the death toll at 16,475.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 1, India reported 18,653 new cases of the coronavirus and 507 deaths over the last 24 hours. Total cases reached 585,493.
(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 2, In India the number of coronavirus infections surpassed 600,000, resulting in 17,834 deaths as authorities battled to contain the pandemic while easing lockdown rules.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, India reported another single-day record high of new coronavirus cases. The new 20,903 cases took the national total to 625,544. Another 379 deaths took that total to 18,213.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 3, Zydus, part of Cadila Healthcare Ltd, said it has received approval from Indian regulators to begin human studies for its COVID-19 vaccine contender, as the novel coronavirus infections continue to surge in the world's fourth worst-hit nation.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 4, India reported its highest single-day spike, with 22,771 new confirmed cases for a total of more than 648,000, including 18,655 deaths.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 6, India reported 24,248 new cases of the coronavirus and has now confirmed over 697,000 cases including 19,693 deaths.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 7, In India 467 people have died from the coronavirus in the last day, bringing the nation's death toll to 20,160. Authorities reported a one-day increase of 22,252, bringing India's total number of coronavirus cases to 719,665.
(Good Morning America, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 9, India's Health Ministry said that India was doing “relatively well" managing COVID-19, pointing to 13 deaths per 1 million people, compared to about 400 in the United States and 320 in Brazil. India has tallied 793,802 infections and more than 21,600 deaths, with cases doubling every three weeks.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, India reported 25,506 coronavirus cases, and another 475 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the total fatality toll to 21,604.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 11, India reported a new daily high of 27,114, its biggest daily spike as the total number of coronavirus cases passed 820,916. The death toll rose by 519 for a total of 22,123.
(AP, 7/11/20)(SSFC, 7/12/20, p.A11)
2020 Jul 12, Indian drugmaker Lupin Ltd shut one of its manufacturing plants in Gujarat state after at least 17 employees at the site tested positive for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, India reported 906,752 cases of the coronavirus with 28,498 new infections, the third highest total in the world behind Brazil and the United States.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Indian pharmaceutical company Zydus said it had started human studies for its potential COVID-19 vaccine, as infections continue to surge in the world's third worst-hit nation.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Indian officials reported six more deaths in Assam state due to floods and mudslides. This brought the total death toll to 77 from more than two weeks of heavy rains.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 16, Indian officials reported 16 more deaths in Assam state due to floods and mudslides. This brought the total death toll to 93 from more than two weeks of heavy rains.
(SFC, 7/17/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 17, India became the third country to record one million coronavirus cases, joining Brazil and the United States. A surge of 34,956 cases in the last 24 hours took the confirmed total to 1,003,832. A record 687 deaths took that total to 25,602.
(AFP, 7/17/20)(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 19, India, which has now confirmed more than 1 million coronavirus infections, reported a 24-hour record of 38,902 new cases.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that Indian police have arrested 14 people on suspicion of selling locally made doses of Gilead Sciences Inc's remdesivir at five times the maximum retail price as a surge of novel coronavirus cases boosts demand for the antiviral drug. India's tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 1.11 million with more than 27,000 deaths.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, India reported more than 40,000 new cases of coronavirus, a record daily high, raising the country's total to 1,118,043 including 27,497 deaths.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 22, India's Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said its version of anti-flu drug favipiravir showed promise in a late-stage study of 150 patients with mild to moderate coronavirus infection.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 24, India-based Cipla Ltd said it has received Indian regulatory approval to sell anti-viral drug favipiravir to treat COVID-19. India reported over 49,310 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus with 740 new deaths, marking the biggest daily surge in cases. Total cases now numbered 1,287,945, the 3rd highest in the world behind the US and Brazil.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)(SFC, 7/25/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 25, India recorded nearly 49,000 new coronavirus cases, raising its total to more than 1.3 million. 757 deaths in the last 24 hours riased that total to 31,358.
(SSFC, 7/26/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 27, India's chemicals minister outlined plans to boost local manufacturing in the bulk drugs and medical device industries to reduce India's reliance on imports, particularly from China.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 31, Indian police said that at least 21 people have died in Punjab state over the last three days after drinking tainted alcohol. The death toll was later raised to at least 69. Local media put the number at 86. Police soon arrested more than two dozen people on suspicion of selling tainted alcohol.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A2)(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 31, In India monsoon floods have swamped large parts of densely populated Bihar state and displaced more than 300,000 people, exacerbating the risk of the coronavirus and stymieing the state's response to the pandemic. The floods have killed at least 24 people in the state. Bihar has so far recorded 48,197 coronavirus cases including 282 deaths.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, India recorded 55,079 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours taking its total to 1,638,871. The death toll rose by 779 taking that total to 35,747.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 1, India recorded its steepest spike of 57,118 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking its coronavirus caseload close to 1.7 million.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, In India a huge crane collapsed during load testing at the Hindustan Shipyard in Andhra Pradesh state, killing at least 11 workers.
(SSFC, 8/2/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 2, India reported 54,735 new coronavirus cases, down from the previous day's record 57,118. The country's total rose to 1.75 million.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 3, India reported 52,972 new infections in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 1.8 million - the third highest in the world. With 771 new deaths, the COVID-19 disease has now killed 38,135 people.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Indian drugmaker Wockhardt Ltd said it will supply millions of doses of multiple COVID-19 vaccines, including that being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, under a deal with the UK government.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 5, India's PM Narendra Modi set the ceremonial cornerstone for a new Hindu temple at the site of a destroyed mosque in Ayodhya. Hindu devotees had destroyed the mosque in 1992.
(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A3)
2020 Aug 6, India recorded is biggest single-day death toll of 904 as new infections surged by 56,282 to nearly 2 million.
(SFC, 8/7/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 9, India recorded nearly 64,000 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, raising its total to 2,153,010. The Indian Medical Association said 196 doctors have died of COVID-19.
(SFC, 8/10/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 11, India reported 53,601 new cases of the coronavirus as its total neared 2.3 million. 871 new deaths were reported raising total fatalities to 45,257.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 11, South Korea's Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co Ltd said it received Indian regulatory approval to test its anti-parasitic niclosamide drug to treat COVID-19 patients in an early-stage human trial.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 12, In southern India at least three people were killed in Bengaluru when police clashed with hundreds of Muslims during a protest over a Facebook post considered offensive to Islam. The person responsible for the post was arrested and a law prohibiting gatherings was imposed on the city.
(SFC, 8/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 14, Florida reported more than 6,200 new coronavirus cases and 200 deaths.
(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 14, India reported 1,007 coronavirus deaths bringing tis total to 48,040. Confirmed cases rose by 64,553.
(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 15, The prime ministers of India and Nepal spoke over the phone to try to ease bilateral tensions that have existed since a border dispute erupted between the two countries in May.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 16, India reported 944 new coronavirus deaths pushing total fatalities to near 50,000.
(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 19, India's health ministry recorded 1,092 additional coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide toll to 52,889. More than 2.7 million people in India have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
(Good Morning America, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 20, India reported 69,652 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, its highest daily increase yet. There were also an additional 977 coronavirus-related fatalities recorded within the last day, bringing the national total to 53,866.
(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 20, In southern India a large fire at a government-run hydroelectric plant killed 9 workers in Telangana state.
(SFC, 8/22/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 23, India’s coronavirus caseload topped 3 million, with the country leading the world in new infections as the disease marched through impoverished rural areas in the north and the wealthier but older populations of the south. Health authorities reported 69,239 new cases and 912 deaths, bringing the total to 3,044,940.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 25, India's anti-terrorism agency named a Pakistan-based militant leader as the prime mastermind of a 2019 car bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers and brought the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of war. A charge sheet named Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and 19 others among the accused.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 27, India recorded its highest single-day increase with 75,760 new coronavirus cases. The Health Ministry also reported 1,023 deaths over the last 24 hours, raising that total to 60,472.
(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 28, Indian lawmaker H. Vasanthakumar, from the country's main opposition party Congress, became the latest high profile figure to die from COVID-19, the infection caused by the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, India reported 76,472 new coronavirus cases, slightly lower than the record breaking numbers of the past couple of days, but extending a run that has made the country's outbreak currently the world's worst. The death toll rose by 1,021 to 62,550. India has reported a total of 3.46 million cases during the pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, India-based Reliance said it would pay 3.4 billion for most of the Future Group, founded by Kishore Biyani (b.1961).
(Econ., 9/5/20, p.55)
2020 Aug 30, India registered 78,761 new coronavirus cases, the biggest single-day spike in the world since the pandemic began, just as the government began easing restrictions to help the battered economy. So far, more than 63,000 Indians have died from the disease.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 31, In India Pranab Mukherjee (b.1935), former president (2012-2017), died in New Delhi of COVID-19. He had been on a ventilator for the last three weeks.
(Econ., 9/5/20, p.32)
2020 Aug 31, India reported 78,512 novel coronavirus infections, more than any other country but fewer than the previous day when it posted the world's biggest, single-day tally, as authorities looked to open more sectors of the economy. Coronavirus deaths went up by 971 in the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 64,469.
(Reuters, 8/31/20)
2020 Sep 1, Many Indian states eased coronavirus lockdown restrictions allowing more businesses and public areas to reopen as confirmed cases neared 3.7 million.
(SFC, 9/2/20, p.A8)
2020 Sep 4, India reported a daily jump of 83,341 coronavirus infections, taking its tally to 3.94 million. 1,096 people died from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 68,472.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 5, India’s coronavirus caseload surpassed 4 million, deepening misery in the country's vast hinterlands, where surges have crippled the underfunded health care system. The 86,432 cases added in the past 24 hours pushed India’s total to 4,023,179. The health ministry also reported 1,089 deaths for a total of 69,561.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 7, Chinese and Indian troops exchanged fire along the southern coast of Pangong Lake in an area known in China as Shenpaoshan and in India as Chushul. The following day both sides accused each other of making provocative military moves and firing warning shots along their disputed border.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 7, India's coronavirus cases rose by 90,802 new cases in the last 24 hours raising its total to 4,204,614, now the 2nd highest in the world after the US. The death toll rose to 71,642 with 1,016 new deaths.
(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 9, India reported 89,706 new coronavirus cases and 1,115 deaths over the last 24 hours taking total fatalities up to 73,890. Total caseload reached 4.37 million.
(SFC, 9/10/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 10, The Chinese and Indian foreign ministers agreed that their troops should disengage from a tense border standoff, maintain proper distance and ease tensions in the Ladakh region where the two countries in June had their deadliest clash in decades.
(AP, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, India reported another record spike of 95,735 coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours as well as 1,172 deaths. Total infections reached 4,465,863 with 75,062 fatalities.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 11, Swami Agnivesh (Vepa Shyam Rao), champion of India's indentured laborers, died in new Delhi at age 80.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnivesh)(Econ., 10/10/20, p.82)
2020 Sep 12, India reported a record rise in new coronavirus infections for the second consecutive day after registering 97,570 new cases. The world's second most populous country now has 4.65 million confirmed cases.
(The Week, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 14, In India a woman (19), who belonged to the Dalit community, was raped by four men in the heartland state of Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district. Her family found her naked, bleeding and paralyzed with a split tongue and a broken spine in a field outside their home. She died on Sept. 28. Four men, all from an upper caste, were arrested.
(AP, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 15, India's coronavirus death toll crossed 80,000, swelled by 1,054 in the last 24 hours. The country reported 83,809 new coronavirus infections for its lowest daily jump in a week. At least 17 members of the Indian parliament have tested positive for the coronavirus. Total cases numbered 4.93 million.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 17, India reported another record jump in daily coronavirus infections with 97,894 cases in the last 24 hours. 1,132 people died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking total fatalities from the disease to 83,198.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 18, India recorded 96,424 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, taking its tally to 5.2 million. 1,174 people died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking total mortalities from the disease to 84,372.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 21, India reopened its famed monument to love, the Taj Mahal, with the first visitors trickling in as authorities reported 86,961 new coronavirus infections, with no signs of a peak yet.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, In India a residential building due for repairs collapsed in a suburb of Mumbai killing at least 10 people. As many as 25 people were feared trapped.
(SFC, 9/22/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 25, Pakistani PM Imran Khan assailed India’s Hindu nationalist government and its moves to cement control of Muslim-majority Kashmir, calling India a state sponsor of hatred and prejudice against Islam.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 26, The Indian health ministry reported more than 85,000 cases in the last 24 hours. Total COVID-19 infections hit 5.9 million countrywide. India said it was capping the price of liquid oxygen used to treat victims of novel coronavirus and other respiratory diseases after complaints of hoarding and shortages.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 28, India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reached 6 million, keeping the country second to the United States in number of reported cases. The Health Ministry reported 82,170 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the overall total to 6,074,703. At least 1,039 deaths were recorded in the same period, taking total fatalities up to 95,542.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 29, Human rights watchdog Amnesty International said that it is halting its operation in India, citing reprisals by the government and the freezing of its bank accounts by Indian authorities.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 30, An Indian court acquitted all 32 people accused of crimes in the 1992 attack and demolition of a 16th century mosque.
(SFC, 10/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 30, It was reported that a large new study in India found that children of all ages can spread the coronavirus. The study is not the last word in the debate, but it adds to the evidence that school openings are likely to lead to new outbreaks.
(NY Times, 10/1/20)
2020 Oct 2, In India hundreds of protesters demanded the dismissal of the government of northern Uttar Pradesh state where a woman (19) was raped and died last month.
(SFC, 10/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 3, India's coronavirus death toll passed 100,000, only the third country in the world to reach that milestone, after the US and Brazil, and its epidemic shows no sign of abating.
(Reuters, 10/3/20)
2020 Oct 5, In India authorities in New Delhi began an anti-pollution campaign in an attempt to curb air pollution levels ahead of winter, when the capital is regularly covered in toxic haze.
(SFC, 10/6/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 8, India's total coronavirus cases rose by 78,524 in the last 24 hours to 6.84 million. Deaths from COVID-19 infections rose by 971 to 105,526.
(Reuters, 10/8/20)
2020 Oct 9, India's Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said its clinical trial testing a combination of the antiviral drugs umifenovir and favipiravir in moderate hospitalized COVID-19 patients did not show any significant benefit. Total coronavirus cases in India rose to 6.91 million.
(Reuters, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 11, India’s confirmed coronavirus toll crossed 7 million with a number of new cases dipping in recent weeks, even as health experts warn of mask and distancing fatigue setting in. The Health Ministry registered another 74,383 infections in the past 24 hours and 918 additional deaths, taking total fatalities to 108,334.
(AP, 10/11/20)
2020 Oct 15, Movie theatres in some parts of India opened for the first time in eight months, but with no major Bollywood releases likely any time soon.
(Reuters, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 17, It was reported that the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd have received renewed approval to conduct late-stage clinical trials in India of Sputnik V, the Russian COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reuters, 10/17/20)
2020 Oct 18, India's health minister said Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are expected to pursue late stage clinical trials of intranasal COVID-19 vaccines in the coming months once they receive regulatory approval.
(Reuters, 10/18/20)
2020 Oct 20, The UN human rights chief urged India’s government to do more to protect human rights defenders, who have come under mounting pressure in recent months in the world’s largest democracy.
(AP, 10/20/20)
2020 Oct 22, Indian PM Narendra Modi's party promised free doses of any future COVID-19 vaccine for the residents of eastern Bihar state if it wins local elections there, drawing accusations of playing politics with the pandemic.
(Reuters, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 22, Indian drugmaker Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd said it had isolated all its data center services as a preventive measure following a cyberattack.
(Reuters, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 27, India's government announced a set of new measures for Jammu and Kashmir, unilaterally revoking a dozen local laws and modifying another 26.
(Econ., 10/31/20, p.35)
2020 Oct 29, India's confirmed coronavirus caseload surpassed 8 million. The Health Ministry reported another 49,881 coronavirus infections and 517 fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 120,527.
(AP, 10/29/20)
2020 Nov 1, India's Bharat Biotech said it is planning to launch its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the second quarter of 2021 if it gets approval from Indian regulatory authorities.
(Reuters, 11/1/20)
2020 Nov 1, In Kashmir Indian forces killed Saifullah Mir, a top commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, during a gunbattle in Srinagar.
(SFC, 11/2/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 5, India's New Delhi, the capital city with the worst air quality worldwide, suffered its most toxic day in a year, recording the concentration of poisonous PM2.5 particles at 14 times over the World Health Organization safe limit.
(Reuters, 11/5/20)
2020 Nov 6, India recorded 47,638 new cases of the novel coronavirus, taking its total to 8.41 million. Deaths rose by 670 in the last 24 hours, taking total mortalities to 124,985.
(Reuters, 11/6/20)
2020 Nov 8, India reported 45,674 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, with the capital coping with a sharp surge of nearly 7,000 cases a day this week. The Health Ministry reported 559 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total fatalities to 126,121.
(AP, 11/8/20)
2020 Nov 9, India's Tata Group launched a COVID-19 test kit that it says will process results more easily and faster than the RT-PCR method considered the gold standard for detection, at a time when cases are still rising in the country.
(Reuters, 11/9/20)
2020 Nov 10, India's stock market roared to a record high after news that a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was proving more effective than expected.
(Econ., 11/14/20, p.67)
2020 Nov 12, India reported 47, 905 new cases of the coronavirus with a record 8,593 in New Delhi as people crowd shopping areas ahead of the Diwali holiday.
(SFC, 11/13/20, p.A8)
2020 Nov 12, Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine producer, said it has made 40 million doses of AstraZeneca's potential COVID-19 vaccine, and would soon begin making Novavax's rival shot, as they both seek regulatory approval.
(Reuters, 11/12/20)
2020 Nov 16, New Delhi's top health official said the latest surge of coronavirus infections in the Indian capital, that has swamped its intensive care wards and killed hundreds of people, has passed its peak.
(Reuters, 11/16/20)
2020 Nov 19, India recorded 45,576 new cases of the coronavirus, taking total infections in the country to 8.96 million. Deaths rose by 585, with the total now at 131,578.
(Reuters, 11/19/20)
2020 Nov 19, In India-controlled Kashmir four suspected militants were killed and two Indian police officers were wounded in a gunfight on the outskirts of Jammu.
(SFC, 11/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 20, India crossed the grim milestone of 9 million coronavirus cases, with 45,882 new infections recorded in the last 24 hours. Deaths rose by 584, with the total now at 132,162.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 23, India said it plans to put off the winter session of parliament due to the rising number of coronavirus infections. India recorded 44,059 new cases of the novel coronavirus, taking its total to 9.14 million.
(Reuters, 11/23/20)
2020 Nov 25, India's ruling Hindu BJP nationalist party approved legislation in Uttar Pradesh state that lays out a prison term for anyone found guilty of using marriage to force someone to change religion. The party describes such marriages as "love jihad," an unproven conspiracy theory used by its leaders and Hindu hard-line groups to accuse Muslim men of converting Hindu women by marriage.
(SFC, 11/26/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 26, Rebels in India-controled Kashmir killed two soldiers in an attack on the outskirts of Srinagar.
(SFC, 11/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 27, In India thousands of angry farmers protesting new agricultural laws were allowed to enter New Delhi late today after they clashed with police who had blocked them at the outskirts of the city.
(SFC, 11/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 27, It was reported that Indian pharmaceutical company Hetero will manufacture over 100 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine per year under the terms of a deal unveiled today between it and Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund.
(Reuters, 11/27/20)
2020 Nov 29, In India protesting farmers rejected a government offer to hold talks if they end their blockade of key highways. The farmers have been protesting new agricultural laws they sau that could devastate crop prices.
(SFC, 1/30/19, p.A4)
2020 Dec 2, India's daily coronavirus cases continued to stay below the 50,000 mark for the 25th straight day, with 36,604 new infections reported.
(Reuters, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 3, A London ceremony announced that this year's Global Teacher Prize has been awarded to Ranjitsinh Disale (32) for his work helping girls, most of then from poor tribal communities, at a village school in western India. Disale immediately announced he would share the $1 million prize money with the nine other finalists.
(Reuters, 12/3/20)
2020 Dec 4, India's daily coronavirus cases rose by less than 40,000 for the fifth straight day, with 36,595 new infections reported in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 12/4/20)
2020 Dec 5, The Indian government and protesting farmers failed to break their deadlock in talks over new agricultural laws. Farmers continued to block key highways around New Delhi.
(SSFC, 12/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Dec 5, In India an unidentified infection began causing over 500 people to fall unconscious following seizures and nausea in Eluru Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 7, A senior Indian health department official said one person has died and more than 400 have been hospitalized in Andhra Pradesh state due to an unidentified infection that caused many to fall unconscious following seizures and nausea. Authorities were investigating water supplies at 20 locations within the city of Eluru where the outbreak was first reported.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 10, It was reported that top executives of Carlsberg, SABMiller and India's United Breweries (UB) exchanged commercially sensitive information and colluded to fix beer prices in India over 11 years.
(Reuters, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 11, In India around a million doctors went on a day-long strike amid the coronavirus pandemic to protest against a new federal government rule that allows practitioners of the traditional science of Ayurveda to perform minor surgeries.
(Reuters, 12/11/20)
2020 Dec 11, Pakistan's foreign minister called for the UN and the EU to investigate a recent report exposing a 15-year disinformation campaign that Islamabad alleges was designed to serve India's interests and discredit Pakistan. New Delhi denied the claims.
(AP, 12/11/20)
2020 Dec 13, Indian workers smashed windows, broke office furniture, and set fire to a sign at a Wistron Corp. factory that makes iPhones during a protest over wages and working hours. Police said that they had detained 100 people.
(The Week, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 14, Tens of thousands of protesting Indian farmers called for a national farmers' strike, the second in a week, to press for the quashing of three new laws on agricultural reform that they say will drive down crop prices and devastate their earnings.
(AP, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 14, Indian ride-hailing firm Ola, backed by Japan's SoftBank Group, said it planned to invest 24 billion rupees ($326 million) to set up a factory in the southern state of Tamil Nadu to produce electric scooters.
(Reuters, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 14, Codagenix Inc and India's Serum Institute said they have received regulatory approval in the United Kingdom to begin an early-stage trial of their single-dose, intranasal COVID-19 vaccine.
(AP, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 15, India reported 22,065 new coronavirus infections, taking its total to 9.9 million, making it the lowest daily rise since July 4. Deaths rose by 354, taking the total to 143,709.
(Reuters, 12/15/20)
2020 Dec 16, In India a Sikh priest (65) committed suicide at an agricultural protest site. Farmers have called for a 24-hour rotating hunger strike from Dec. 21 among protesters at home and abroad.
(AP, 12/20/20)
2020 Dec 18, India's health ministry reported 22,890 new coronavirus infections, taking its total to just shy of 10 million.
(Reuters, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 18, OneWeb, the satellite firm rescued by the British government and India's Bharti Group, resumed flights in its push to provide global broadband coverage as 36 of its satellites blasted off into orbit from Russia's Far East. The launch was the first fully commercial flight from Russia's new Vostochny cosmodrome.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 19, India reported 25,152 new infections and 347 deaths in the past 24 hours. The virus has so far killed 145,136 people in the country. India took 30 days to add the last million cases, the second slowest since the start of the pandemic.
(Reuters, 12/19/20)
2020 Dec 19, Apple Inc placed supplier Wistron Corp on probation, saying it would not award the Taiwanese contract manufacturer new business until it addressed the way workers were treated at its southern India plant.
(AP, 12/19/20)
2020 Dec 22, Drug developer Ocugen Inc said it had partnered with Bharat Biotech to co-develop Covaxin, the India-based company's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, for the US market.
(Reuters, 12/22/20)
2020 Dec 24, India-based Aurobindo Pharma Ltd said it would make and sell US-based COVAXX's COVID-19 vaccine candidate for supply in India and to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) under a licensing deal.
(Reuters, 12/24/20)
2020 Dec 25, India's PM Narendra Modi said that protests by farmers against three laws brought by his government were politically motivated, as he touted the success of an agricultural scheme launched last year.
(Reuters, 12/25/20)
2020 Dec 28, India's major grain-growing state of Punjab asked police to crack down on farmers and sympathizers vandalizing telecommunication masts as they intensify their weeks-long protests against farm deregulation.
(Reuters, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 28, Mahinder Watsa (96), Indian obstetrician-gynecologist and "sexpert" for the Mumbai Mirror, died.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahinder_Watsa)(Econ., 1/23/21, p.74)
2020 Dec 30, Representatives of the Indian government and tens of thousands of protesting farmers held talks after a hiatus of three weeks and reached agreement on two of the four issues that caused the farmers to blockade highways near the capital.
(AP, 12/30/20)
2021 Jan 1, Experts at India's drugs regulator recommended for emergency use two coronavirus vaccines, one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and the other backed by a state-run institute.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 3, India's drugs regulator granted emergency authorization for the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, but on the condition that Serum Institute doesn't export the shots to ensure that vulnerable populations in India are protected. Serum Institute of India has been contracted to make 1 billion doses of the vaccine for developing nations. COVAXIN, made by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, received emergency use approval from India's drugs regulator.
(AP, 1/3/21)(4, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 3, In India hundreds of Tibetans in exile voted in Dharmsala for their new political leader and parliament. A 2nd round will take place in April.
(SFC, 1/4/21, p.A6)
2021 Jan 4, Representatives of the Indian government and protesting farmers failed again to reach agreement on the farmers' demand that new agricultural reform laws be repealed.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 9, In western India a fire broke out in the intensive care unit of a government-run hospital in Bhandara, Maharashtra state. Ten infants were reported killed.
(SSFC, 1/10/21, p.A4)
2021 Jan 9, The Philippine government signed a deal to secure the supply of 30 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Covovax from Serum Institute of India (SII).
(Reuters, 1/10/21)
2021 Jan 9, Ved Mehta (86), a celebrated blind writer for The New Yorker, died in Manhattan. He was best known for exploring the history of modern India through 12 volumes of memoir.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ved_Mehta)(NY Times, 1/10/21)
2021 Jan 12, India's highest court halted the implementation of new laws that would reshape farming in the country. The laws had sparked huge protests outside New Delhi.
(SFC, 1/13/21, p.A3)
2021 Jan 12, India's Bharat Biotech said it has signed an agreement with a medicine distributor to supply its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin to Brazil, even as the shot's emergency use approval in its home country has faced criticism.
(Reuters, 1/12/20)
2021 Jan 14, A petition filed in an Indian court said that WhatsApp's updated privacy policy verges on user surveillance and threatens India's security, presenting another legal challenge for the Facebook Inc-owned messenger.
(Reuters, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 14, In India the 45-day Hindu bathing festival began in the northern city of Prayagraj, where devotees take a dip at Sangam, the sacred confluence of several rivers. The festival was set to end on Feb 27.
(AP, 2/25/21)
2021 Jan 14, Alphabet Inc's Google said it has removed some lending apps aimed at consumers in India from Play Store in an attempt to safeguard users.
(AP, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 15, Talks between the Indian government and representatives of tens of thousands of protesting farmers remained deadlocked, with the government refusing to scrap new agricultural reform laws which the farmers say will benefit large corporations.
(AP, 1/15/21)
2021 Jan 16, India began what is likely the world's largest coronavirus vaccination rollout when the country's first dose was administered to a sanitation worker at the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.
(AP, 1/16/21)
2021 Jan 20, India began supplying coronavirus vaccines to its neighboring countries.
(SFC, 1/21/21, p.A4)
2021 Jan 21, In India farmer leaders rejected an offer from the government to suspend contentious agricultural reform laws for 18 months and set up a committee to look into their concerns about the legislation that have triggered the biggest farmers’ protests in years.
(AP, 1/21/21)
2021 Jan 21, Government sources said India will give millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine to South Asian countries in the next few weeks, drawing praise from its neighbors and pushing back against China's dominating presence in the region.
(Reuters, 1/21/21)
2021 Jan 21, In India at least five people were killed in a fire that broke out at a building under construction at Serum Institute of India in southern Maharashtra state.
(SFC, 1/22/21, p.A5)
2021 Jan 22, PM Narendra Modi said India was completely self-reliant on coronavirus vaccine supplies as the world's second-most populous country inoculated more than one million people within a week of starting a massive campaign.
(Reuters, 1/22/21)
2021 Jan 22, Talks between leaders of protesting farmers and the Indian government ended abruptly in a stalemate when the Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said he had nothing more to offer than an 18-month suspension of contentious agricultural reform laws.
(AP, 1/22/21)
2021 Jan 22, Myanmar received 1.5 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine supplied by India to inoculate 750,000 people, the first vaccine batch delivered to the Southeast Asian country as it fights one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the region.
(Reuters, 1/22/21)
2021 Jan 25, Thousands of tractors lined up on the outskirts of New Delhi, ready to swarm the Indian capital in a protest against new agriculture reform laws that have triggered a growing farmer rebellion that has rattled the government.
(AP, 1/25/21)
2021 Jan 26, In India tens of thousands of farmers marched, rode horses and drove tractors into New Delhi, breaking through police barricades to storm the historic Red Fort — a deeply symbolic act that revealed the scale of their challenge to PM Narendra Modi’s government.
(AP, 1/26/21)
2021 Jan 26, In India an attack unfolded at the Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra Christian center in the city of Indore. Police soon arrived, but the officers did not touch the aggressors. Instead, they arrested and jailed the pastors and other church elders, who were still dizzy from getting punched in the head. The Christians were charged with breaking a newly enforced law that targets religious conversions.
(NY Times, 12/23/21)
2021 Jan 27, Indian drugmaker Dr. Reddy's Laboratories said it had terminated its clinical study of Fujifilm Holdings' COVID-19 treatment Avigan in patients with moderate to severe symptoms in Kuwait. Data showed that the difference in time taken by Avigan and placebo to resolve a sustained absence of oxygen in the tissues was not significant enough to continue the trial.
(Reuters, 1/27/21)
2021 Jan 27, It was reported that the COVAXIN vaccine, developed by India's Bharat Biotech and a government research institute, is likely to be effective against the UK strain of the coronavirus.
(AP, 1/27/21)
2021 Jan 27, China said that the Indian government's decision to keep a ban on 59 Chinese apps was a violation of the World Trade Organization's fair rules of business and would hurt Chinese firms. The ban dates from last year when political tension between the neighbors rose over their disputed border.
(Reuters, 1/27/21)
2021 Jan 28, India’s PM Narendra Modi invited foreign investors to take advantage of the country’s $26 billion incentive-linked program and help the country become a manufacturing hub.
(AP, 1/28/21)
2021 Jan 28, India's health minister declared its COVID-19 epidemic contained as, with most of the country's active patients concentrated in two states, a fifth of districts completed a week with no new cases.
(Reuters, 1/28/21)
2021 Jan 29, India's Haryana state blocked mobile internet across most of its districts, following clashes between protesting Indian farmers and groups of men shouting anti-farmer and pro-police slogans.
(Reuters, 1/29/21)
2021 Feb 2, Indian authorities heavily increased security at three main protest sites outside New Delhi’s border, adding iron spikes, steel barricades and hundreds of riot police in an attempt to stop tens of thousands of demonstrating farmers from entering the capital.
(AP, 2/2/21)
2021 Feb 2, An Indian court blocked Future Group's sale of a swathe of assets to rival Reliance Industries after Amazon raised objections to the $3.4 billion deal. Future has said it could face liquidation if the deal falls through.
(Reuters, 2/2/21)
2021 Feb 3, About 200 supporters of Indian farmers scuffled with police after being blocked from marching to an area for protests near the Parliament building in the Indian capital.
(AP, 2/3/21)
2021 Feb 3, It was reported that about one in four of India's 1.35 billion people may have been infected with the coronavirus, said a source with direct knowledge of a government serological survey, suggesting the country's real caseload was many times higher than reported.
(Reuters, 2/3/21)
2021 Feb 4, In India a government serological survey released today said more than a quarter of Indian children aged between 10 and 17 may have already contracted COVID-19, higher than the 21.5% of the overall population found to have been infected.
(Reuters, 2/4/21)
2021 Feb 6, India's government urged states and union territories to accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations after a review found "substantial" room for speeding up the program.
(Reuters, 2/6/21)
2021 Feb 6, Thousands of protesting Indian farmers blockaded highways across the country for several hours to press their demands for the repeal of new agricultural laws that have led to months of massive protests.
(AP, 2/6/21)
2021 Feb 7, India sent 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Afghanistan, the first to arrive in the war-ravaged country, which is still waiting for emergency approval from the World Health Organization to administer them.
(Reuters, 2/7/21)
2021 Feb 7, In India as many as 150 people were feared dead after a Himalayan glacier in the northern state of Uttarakhand broke apart before crashing into a dam. At least 19 people were killed, and at least 180 more remained missing. About 2,500 people in 13 villages were trapped by the floods. More than 200 people were killed when rock and ice broke loose due to glacial melt brought about by global warming.
(Reuters, 2/7/21)(The Week, 2/8/21)(SSFC, 5/2/21, p.A16)
2021 Feb 8, President Joe Biden spoke with Indian PM Narendra Modi, with the leaders of the world's two biggest democracies agreeing to strengthen their nations' partnership at a moment when both countries face strained relations with China. Biden and Modi did not discuss the massive farmer protests in India.
(AP, 2/8/21)
2021 Feb 9, It was reported that the Indian army is training dogs to find COVID-19 in its ranks by sniffing human sweat and urine.
(Reuters, 2/9/21)
2021 Feb 10, China and India began to disengage their troops at the southern and northern banks of Pangong Lake in the Ladakh region.
(SFC, 2/12/21, p.A4)
2021 Feb 15, In India dozens of people holding placards assembled in Bangalore to protest against the arrest a day earlier of Disha Ravi (22), a young climate activist. Delhi Police issued arrest warrants against two Mumbai-based activists for creating and circulating the so-called “toolkit" shared by Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg on Indian farmers’ protests.
(The Telegraph, 2/15/21)(SFC, 2/16/21, p.A2)
2021 Feb 15, It was reported that coronavirus infections in India began to plummet in September, and now the country is reporting about 11,000 new cases a day, compared to a peak of nearly 100,000, leaving experts perplexed.
(AP, 2/16/21)
2021 Feb 16, In India a bus drove off a bridge near Patna village, Madhya Pradesh state, killing at least 45 people.
(https://tinyurl.com/yax65cd6)
2021 Feb 17, It was reported that Amazon has for years given preferential treatment to a small group of sellers on its India platform, publicly misrepresented its ties with the sellers and used them to circumvent increasingly tough foreign investment rules that affect e-commerce.
(AP, 2/17/21)
2021 Feb 22, India confirmed over 14,000 cases of the coronavirus with nearly 7,000 coming from Maharashtra state over the last 24 hours. Lockdowns were reimposed in some parts of the state along with other virus restrictions.
(SFC, 2/23/21, p.A4)
2021 Feb 22, The Indian coastguard reached a drifting boat carrying 90 Rohingya refugees in the Andaman Sea and gave some food and water. Passengers said at least eight people had died onboard over the weekend.
(The Telegraph, 2/24/21)
2021 Feb 25, India and Pakistan reaffirmed their commitment to a ceasefire along their troubled border.
(SFC, 2/26/21, p.A2)
2021 Feb 27, It was reported that India's conglomerate Reliance Industries has partnered with Facebook Inc, Google and fintech player Infibeam to set up a national digital payment network.
(Reuters, 2/27/21)
2021 Feb, India announced the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, aimed at pushing Big Tech firms such as Facebook to comply with content takedown orders. However, it also extends to news websites.
(Reuters, 3/12/21)
2021 Mar 2, Transport minister Nitin Gadkari India is ready to offer incentives to ensure Tesla Inc's cost of production would be less than in China if the carmaker commits to making its electric vehicles in the south Asian country.
(Reuters, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 2, In India Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecoms company backed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani and tech giants Facebook and Google, won airwaves worth about $8 billion in a $10.6 billion spectrum auction that closed today.
(Reuters, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 2, Amazon.com Inc's Prime Video streaming service issued a rare apology to its Indian viewers for some scenes in its original political drama series "Tandav", which allegedly offended Hindu religious beliefs.
(Reuters, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 2, Sri Lanka's government said it will allow India and Japan to develop a new container terminal at the country's main port, several weeks after scrapping a deal with the two countries to develop one of the key terminals at the same port.
(AP, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 3, Indian police northern state of Uttar Pradesh arrested Sarvesh Kumar and accused him of decapitating his own teenage daughter in a rage over her relationship with another man he didn't like.
(CBS News, 3/4/21)
2021 Mar 3, The Indian drug company Bharat Biotech said that initial results from clinical trials showed its coronavirus vaccine to be safe and effective.
(NY Times, 3/4/21)
2021 Mar 5, Myanmar authorities asked India to return several police officers who sought refuge to avoid taking orders from a military junta that seized power in the Southeast Asian country last month.
(Reuters, 3/5/21)
2021 Mar 6, India's federal government asked local authorities to prioritize COVID-19 vaccinations in several districts of eight states including New Delhi that have seen a spike in coronavirus cases in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 3/6/21)
2021 Mar 6, In India thousands of farmers blocked a major expressway on the edges of New Delhi to mark the 100th day of protests against agricultural laws they say will devastate their income.
(SSFC, 3/7/21, p.A6)
2021 Mar 9, A peer-reviewed study showed that a COVID-19 vaccine developed by India's Bharat Biotech is safe and has shown high levels of antibody response in a mid-stage trial, but follow-on studies are needed to evaluate the shot for children and older people.
(Reuters, 3/9/21)
2021 Mar 12, India registered its worst single-day increase in coronavirus cases since last December. India has so far reported more than 11.3 million cases.
(SFC, 3/13/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 16, India reported 24,492 new cases, the sixth straight day of more than 20,000 infections, as curbs to try to stop the spread were expanded in parts of the country that have recorded a surge.
(Reuters, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 17, Indian health officials said about 6.5% of coronavirus vaccine doses in India are going to waste, urging states to manage their immunization drives better to optimize use of what one called "this elixir-like precious commodity".
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 18, India put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shot made by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest vaccine-maker, to meet domestic demand as infections rise.
(Reuters, 3/24/21)
2021 Mar 20, Meeting in New Delhi Top defense officials from India and the United States pledged to expand their military engagement.
(AP, 3/20/21)
2021 Mar 20, India reported 40,953 new coronavirus cases, the biggest daily jump in nearly four months, with its richest state and economic backbone Maharashtra accounting for more than half the infections. Deaths rose by 188 to 159,404.
(Reuters, 3/20/21)
2021 Mar 24, Health officials said a new and potentially troublesome variant of the coronavirus has been detected in India. The new variant found has two mutations in the spiky protein that the virus uses to fasten itself to cells.
(AP, 3/24/21)
2021 Mar 25, India said it has not imposed a ban on coronavirus vaccine exports and New Delhi will continue to supply vaccines in a phased manner.
(Reuters, 3/25/21)
2021 Mar 27, Voters in India's Assam and West Bengal cast their ballots in elections that will indicate how PM Narendra Modi's support is holding up after a year of the coronavirus pandemic and months of protests against his farm reforms.
(Reuters, 3/27/21)
2021 Mar 27, India gave 1.2 million free doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to Bangladesh. PM Narendra Modi made the offering at the end of a two-day tour of Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 3/27/21)
2021 Mar 29, India reported the highest daily increase in coronavirus cases in five months, with the second wave of the disease driven by surging infections in the country's richest state Maharashtra. 68,020 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours. Daily deaths rose by 291 and the virus has so far killed 161,843 people in India.
(Reuters, 3/29/21)
2021 Mar 30, Indian payments firm MobiKwik said it will get an independent forensic audit but assured customers their information was safe after allegations emerged of a breach that exposed the data of millions of its users.
(Reuters, 3/30/21)
2021 Mar 30, It was reported that India's drug regulator has allowed the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to be used for up to nine months from its manufacture date, as opposed to the prescribed six months.
(Reuters, 3/30/21)
2021 Apr 3, At least 22 members of Indian security forces were killed by Maoist fighters in the tribal-dominated Chhattisgarh state during an anti-insurgency operation. The death toll was the heaviest for Indian security forces battling the far-left guerrillas since 2017.
(Reuters, 4/4/21)
2021 Apr 4, India reported 93,249 new cases in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra state, which accounts for less than a tenth of India's population, accounted for a record 49,447 new cases. PM Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting to review the COVID-19 situation and vaccination program.
(Reuters, 4/4/21)
2021 Apr 5, India reported a record rise in COVID-19 infections, becoming the second country after the United States to post more than 100,000 new cases in a day, as politicians stage massive election rallies raising fears of further spreading the virus.
(Reuters, 4/5/21)
2021 Apr 5, India's Cadila Healthcare Ltd said it has sought approval from local regulators to use Pegylated Interferon alpha-2b, a Hepatitis C drug, as a treatment for COVID-19 following promising interim results from a late-stage trial.
(Reuters, 4/5/21)
2021 Apr 8, India’s PM Narendra Modi received his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as the country hit another peak with 126,789 new cases reported in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 4/8/21)
2021 Apr 11, India banned the export of anti-viral drug Remdesivir and its active pharmaceutical ingredients as demand rocketed due to a record surge in COVID-19 infections, leading to a crippling shortages in many parts.
(Reuters, 4/11/21)
2021 Apr 12, India reported 168,912 new infections, inching past Brazil, with a total of 13.53 million cases. India is now the second-most affected country after the United States that is grappling with 31.2 million cases. The western state of Maharashtra, home to India's financial capital Mumbai, has been the worst hit in the pandemic, accounting for about a quarter of the country's 13.5 million case load.
(Reuters, 4/12/21)
2021 Apr 15, India's two largest cities, New Delhi and Mumbai, imposed stringent restrictions on movement as new infections in the country shot past 200,000 amid a devastating surge that is straining a fragile health system.
(AP, 4/15/21)
2021 Apr 16, The CEO of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest maker of vaccines, asked President Biden to lift a US export embargo on raw materials for vaccines, saying it is hampering vaccine production in other parts of the world.
(AP, 4/16/21)
2021 Apr 17, India reported 234,692 new coronavirus cases. New Delhi went into a weekend lockdown. Capital Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said New Delhi has registered at least 24,000 fresh coronavirus cases in 24 hours and faces a "grim" battle against a new pandemic wave with shortages of oxygen and drugs.
(The Telegraph, 4/17/21)
2021 Apr 19, India reported 273,810 new infections, its highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic. It has now reported more than 15 million infections, second only to the US. India's Health Ministry also reported 1,619 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the toll over 178,769. New Delhi imposed a weekend lockdown to prevent the collapse of the capital's health system amid an explosive surge in coronavirus cases.
(AP, 4/19/21)(SFC, 4/20/21, p.A6)
2021 Apr 19, Britain imposed a travel ban on most visitors from India as PM Boris Johnson called off a trip to New Delhi. The UK has recorded 103 cases of a new virus variant, B.1.617, first identified in India.
(AP, 4/19/21)
2021 Apr 21, India’s Health Ministry reported 295,041 new cases with 2,023 deaths, taking total fatalities to 182,553. 22 COVID-19 patients on ventilators died in a hospital in Nashik, Maharashtra state, when their oxygen supply was interrupted by a leak in a supply line.
(AP, 4/21/21)
2021 Apr 22, India confirmed a record 314,835 new COVID-19 cases nationwide over the previous 24 hours, the highest one-day case count any country has seen during the coronavirus pandemic.
(BBC, 4/22/21)
2021 Apr 23, India set a global record in daily infections for a second straight day with 332,730. India has recorded 2,263 deaths in the past 24 hours for a total of 186,920. Thirteen people died when an oxygen-fed fire ripped through a coronavirus ward on the outskirts of Mumbai. India put oxygen tankers on special express trains as major hospitals in New Delhi begged on social media for more supplies to save COVID-19 patients.
(AP, 4/23/21)(SFC, 4/24/21, p.A4)
2021 Apr 23, India's Cadila Healthcare said it has started producing its potential COVID-19 vaccine for which it will seek emergency use authorisation in May or June, its managing director told Reuters, with an aim to make up to 240 million doses a year.
(Reuters, 4/23/21)
2021 Apr 24, Overwhelmed hospitals in India begged for oxygen supplies as the country's coronavirus infections soared again overnight in a "tsunami" of disease, setting a new world record for cases for the third consecutive day. The number of cases across the country rose overnight by 346,786, for a total of 16.6 million cases, including 189,544 deaths. COVID-19 deaths rose by 2,624 over the past 24 hours, the highest daily rate for the country so far.
(Reuters, 4/24/21)
2021 Apr 25, India set a 4th global daily record of new coronavirus infections, spurred by an insidious new variant that emerged here. The 349,691 confirmed infections over the past day brought India’s total to more than 16.9 million cases.
(AP, 4/25/21)
2021 Apr 26, India reported another 2,812 deaths, with roughly 117 Indians succumbing to the disease every hour, setting another record for new coronavirus infections for a fifth day in a row at more than 350,000. Officials said the city of Bengaluru, home to the technology operations of hundreds of global companies, will enter a two-week lockdown for 14 days.
(AP, 4/26/21)(Reuters, 4/26/21)
2021 Apr 26, Russian pharmaceutical firm Pharmasyntez said it was ready to ship up to 1 million packs of the remdesivir antiviral drug to India by end-May to help fight a surge in COVID-19 cases there, once it has received the approval of Russia's government.
(Reuters, 4/26/21)
2021 Apr 27, India reported 2,771 new coronavirus deaths. 323,144 new infections raised that total of more than 17.6 million.
(SFC, 4/28/21, p.A6)
2021 Apr 29, India's health ministry reported 379,257 new coronavirus infections, the latest in a series of global single-day records set during the country's devastating second wave of COVID-19. India also confirmed another 3,645 COVID-19 deaths, the most it has seen in a single day since the pandemic started.
(Reuters, 4/29/21)
2021 Apr 30, India reported 3,498 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 208,330. With 386,452 new cases, India now has reported more than 18.7 million since the pandemic began.
(AP, 4/30/21)
2021 Apr 30, Chinese leader Xi Jinping offered additional assistance to India in battling the coronavirus outbreak ravaging the country, putting aside a simmering rivalry and tensions along their disputed border.
(AP, 4/30/21)
2021 May 1, India set yet another daily global record with 401,993 new cases, taking its tally to more than 19.1 million. Another 3,523 people died in the past 24 hours, raising the overall deaths to 211,853. In western India a fire in a COVID-19 hospital ward killed 18 patients early today. India opened vaccinations to all adults.
(AP, 5/1/21)(SSFC, 5/2/21, p.A7)
2021 May 2, A New Delhi court said it would start punishing public officials for failing to deliver a steady supply of oxygen and other materials needed to save lives during India's devastating coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, In India prominent government critic Mamata Banerjee won a third term as the chief minister of West Bengal with a strong majority of 216 seats in the 294-seat assembly.
(The Guardian, 5/2/21)
2021 May 3, In India at least 10 people died over the last 24 hours after a hospital ran out of oxygen in Karnataka state.
(NY Times, 5/3/21)
2021 May 4, Britain and India signed an accord on migration and mobility, as they look to deepen economic, cultural and other ties following the UK's departure from the EU.
(Reuters, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, India's official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, India's government said 8 Asiatic lions at a zoo in Hyderabad have contracted the coronavirus, adding that there was no evidence that animals could transmit the disease to humans. The Nehru Zoological Park has now been closed.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, India said it will allow foreign mobile carriers to carry out 5G trials with equipment makers, but did not name China's Huawei among the participants.
(Reuters, 5/5/21)
2021 May 5, India gave emergency use authorization for a COVID-19 antibody drug cocktail developed by Roche and Regeneron, expanding its arsenal of drugs to battle a massive second wave of infections.
(Reuters, 5/5/21)
2021 May 5, China said it was concerned that India had not allowed Chinese companies to conduct 5G trials in the country.
(AP, 5/5/21)
2021 May 6, India's government agreed to provide more medical oxygen to hospitals in New Delhi under order by the Supreme Court.
(SFC, 5/7/21, p.A5)
2021 May 7, India reported another record daily rise in coronavirus cases, bringing total new cases for the week to 1.57 million, as its vaccination rate fell dramatically due to a lack of supplies and transport problems.
(Reuters, 5/7/21)
2021 May 8, India reported its highest ever single-day COVID-19 death toll, as cases continued to rise and states imposed stricter lockdowns. The health ministry reported 4,187 fatalities over the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll close to 240,000.
(Reuters, 5/8/21)
2021 May 9, India reported 403,738 confirmed cases, including 4,092 deaths. Overall, India has over 22 million confirmed infections and 240,000 deaths. Experts say both figures are undercounts. India said it will recruit hundreds of former army medics to support its overwhelmed healthcare system.
(AP, 5/9/21)(Reuters, 5/9/21)
2021 May 10, Egypt's Eva Pharma signed an agreement to provide India with 300,000 doses of remdesivir, used in the treatment of COVID-19. Eva Pharma, a generic drugmaker established in 1997, said in June 2020 it had received a license from Gilead Sciences Inc to make remdesivir in Egypt and distribute it in 127 countries.
(Reuters, 5/10/21)
2021 May 11, India confirmed nearly 390,000 new coronavirus cases including 3,876 deaths. Bodies have been retrieved floating in the Ganges River in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh states..
(SFC, 5/12/21, p.A7)
2021 May 13, India recorded more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths for a second day in a row, while infections stayed below 400,000 for a fourth day, though the virus has become rampant in rural areas where cases can go unreported due to a lack of testing.
(Reuters, 5/13/21)
2021 May 14, Indian drugmaker Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd said it expects to get 36 million doses of Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in the next couple of months under its contract with Russia's sovereign wealth fund.
(AP, 5/14/21)
2021 May 15, India reported its smallest daily increase in coronavirus infections in nearly three weeks, with deaths still near the 4,000-mark. Federal health officials said cases and fatalities are rapidly stabilizing in this wave of the pandemic.
(Reuters, 5/15/21)
2021 May 16, India's Health Ministry reported 311,170 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, down from 326,098 a day earlier. Some Indian states said they would extend COVID-19 lockdowns. The pandemic has killed more than 270,000 people in the country.
(AP, 5/16/21)(Reuters, 5/16/21)
2021 May 16, Cyclone Tauktae headed for southwestern India. Heavy rains and flooding have already killed at least six people.
(AP, 5/16/21)
2021 May 17, Indian authorities moved over 200,000 people from their homes in the state of Gujarat to safety and shut ports and major airports as the most powerful cyclone in more than two decades roared up the west coast. Cyclone Tauktae has already killed at least 16 people.
(Reuters, 5/17/21)
2021 May 17, Cyclone Tauktae, the most powerful storm to hit western India in more than two decades, packed sustained winds of up to 210 km (130 miles) per hour when it came ashore in Gujarat state. Six people were killed Maharashtra state.
(AP, 5/18/21)
2021 May 18, The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest maker of vaccines, announced that it expects to resume exporting coronavirus vaccines by the end of 2021.
(AP, 5/18/21)
2021 May 18, The Indian navy worked to rescue crew members from a sunken barge and a second cargo vessel that was adrift off the coast of Mumbai after a deadly cyclone struck the western coast. The navy said it has rescued 184 people. 55 people remained missing.
(AP, 5/18/21)(SFC, 5/20/21, p.A4)
2021 May 19, India reported more coronavirus deaths in a single day than any other country at any time during the pandemic. The Health Ministry reported a record 4,529 deaths in the past 24 hours, driving India's confirmed fatalities to 283,248. It also reported 267,334 new infections.
(AP, 5/19/21)
2021 May 20, Officials said India has ordered tighter surveillance of a rare fungal disease hitting COVID-19 patients, piling pressure on hospitals struggling with the world's highest number of daily infections of the novel coronavirus. Mucormycosis, or "black fungus" usually infects people whose immune system has been compromised.
(Reuters, 5/20/21)
2021 May 21, India-based Mylab Discovery Solutions said it has the capacity to ramp up production of its at-home COVID-19 test kits to 100 million units per week over the next few months based on demand.
(Reuters, 5/21/21)
2021 May 22, In India COVID-19 deaths rose by 4,194 and infections were spreading in rural areas where public health services are scarce and already overstretched. Government data showed 257,299 new cases.
(Reuters, 5/22/21)
2021 May 24, Indian government leaders appealed to farmers to call off a mass protest this week for fear it could prove a viral "super-spreader" event as the country's overall death toll from COVID-19 crossed 300,000. The Health Ministry reported 4,454 new deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing total fatalities to 303,720.
(Reuters, 5/24/21)(SFC, 5/25/21, p.A4)
2021 May 25, Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from low-lying areas of two Indian states and moved to shelters to escape Cyclone Yaas barreling toward the eastern coast.
(AP, 5/25/21)
2021 May 25, Russia shipped a generic version of the remdesivir antiviral drug called Remdeform to India as part of its humanitarian aid contributions to the South Asian country which is fighting a surge in COVID-19 cases.
(Reuters, 5/25/21)
2021 May 30, India reported its lowest daily rise in new coronavirus infections in 46 days at 165,553 cases during the previous 24 hours, while deaths rose by 3,460.
(Reuters, 5/30/21)
2021 May 31, It was reported that Eli Lilly and Co's antibody drug combination has received an emergency use approval in India for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19, bolstering the country's arsenal of medicines to tackle a devastating second wave of the pandemic.
(AP, 5/31/21)
2021 Jun 4, India reported another 1342,364 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours in a declining trend. The nation's total cases neared 28.6 million.
(SFC, 6/5/21, p.A4)
2021 Jun 5, Some of India's states began easing lockdown restrictions as coronavirus infections subside, with the world's second most-populous nation logging its lowest daily case count in nearly two months.
(Reuters, 6/5/21)
2021 Jun 6, India reported 114,460 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in two months, while the death toll increased by 2,677, as parts of the country prepared to ease movement restrictions.
(Reuters, 6/6/21)
2021 Jun 7, PM Narendra Modi said India will provide free COVID-19 vaccines to all adults, in an effort to rein in a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands and led to the world's second-highest tally of infections.
(Reuters, 6/7/21)
2021 Jun 11, India added 91,702 new coronavirus cases pushing its total to nearly 29.3 million. 3,403 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours. Bihar state increased its death toll to more than 9,429 from 5,424 after the discovery of thousands of unreported cases.
(SFC, 6/12/21, p.A4)
2021 Jun 13, Authorities in India reported 80,834 new COVID-19 infections over the previous 24 hours, the lowest daily tally in more than two months.
(AP, 6/13/21)
2021 Jun 13, In northeast India Ziona Chana (76), the head of a local Christian sect that allows polygamy, died in Mizoram state. He had 39 wives and 94 children and was said to be the head of the world's largest family.
(Reuters, 6/14/21)
2021 Jun 16, India's Health Ministry reported 62,224 new infections over the past 24 hours as well as 2,542 more deaths, raising total fatalities to 379, 573.
(SFC, 6/17/21, p.A3)
2021 Jun 19, India reported 60,753 new COVID-19 cases and 1,647 deaths over the past 24 hours. The central government urged states to be careful in reopening from COVID-19 lockdowns to prevent a resurgence of infections in the hard-hit country.
(Reuters, 6/19/21)
2021 Jun 21, India registered 53,256 new coronavirus infections and 1,422 deaths in the last 24 hours, its lowest numbers in nearly three months.
(SFC, 6/22/21, p.A4)
2021 Jun 21, Intel Corp said it will work with India's Reliance Jio to develop 5G networking technology.
(Reuters, 6/21/21)
2021 Jun 23, In Pakistan a car bombing in Lahore killed three people and wounded 25. Days later police had five suspects in custody in connection with the blast. Investigators found evidence of involvement of the Indian secret service in the attack.
(AP, 6/26/21)
2021 Jun 27, Indian officials said they suspected that explosive-laden drones were used to attack an air base in Kashmir. Anti-Indian rebels were suspected.
(SFC, 6/28/21, p.A3)
2021 Jul 2, India confirmed a total of over 400,000 COVID-19 deaths, half of them in the past two months. Less than 5% of the population was fully immunized.
(SFC, 7/3/21, p.A4)
2021 Jul 3, India-based Bharat Biotech said phase-III trials of its vaccine showed it was 93.4% effective against severe symptomatic COVID-19, a finding that could boost people's acceptance of Covaxin. Data demonstrated 65.2% protection against the Delta variant.
(Reuters, 7/3/21)
2021 Jul 4, In India more than a million people began planting 250 million saplings in northern Uttar Pradesh state in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the effects of global climate change.
(SFC, 7/5/21, p.A4)
2021 Jul 5, In India Father Stan Swamy (84), a Jesuit priest, died under judicial custody. He had been arrested in 2020 under the country's Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Swamy)(SFC, 8/17/21, p.A3)
2021 Jul 7, In India Bollywood star Dilip Kumar (98) died in a hospital in Mumbai. In 1998 the Pakistani government conferred on him its highest civilian honor, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz. Kumar authored his autobiography "The Substance and the Shadow" in 2014.
(SSFC, 7/11/21, p.F2)
2021 Jul 12, Officials in India said lighting has killed at least 38 people in Rajasthan and Uttar Predesh states over the last 24 hours.
(SFC, 7/13/21, p.A4)
2021 Jul 18, In India at least 20 people were killed in landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in the Indian city of Mumbai.
(AP, 7/18/21)
2021 Jul 19, India's capital New Delhi and the main financial center of Mumbai were drenched with heavy rain, a day after at least 35 people were killed across the country in landslides and house collapses triggered by downpours.
(Reuters, 7/19/21)
2021 Jul 19, Mumbai police arrested Raj Kundra in a case related to the production of pornographic films by his company. The businessman is married to popular Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty.
(Reuters, 7/23/21)
2021 Jul 20, India’s Parliament erupted in protests as opposition lawmakers accused PM Narendra Modi’s government of using military-grade spyware to monitor political opponents, journalists and activists.
(AP, 7/20/21)
2021 Jul 20, A new report said India's excess deaths during the pandemic could be a staggering 10 times the official COVID-19 toll, likely making it modern India’s worst human tragedy. New data showed that two-thirds of India's population have antibodies against the coronavirus from a survey of 29,000 people across the nation conducted in June and July.
(AP, 7/20/21)(Reuters, 7/20/21)
2021 Jul 23, Officials in India reported that landslides and flooding triggered by monsoon rains have killed more than 100 people over the last 24 hours in Maharashtra state.
(SFC, 7/24/21, p.A3)
2021 Jul 28, In New Delhi top diplomates of India and the US pledged to expand their multilateral security partnership underscoring concerns over China's growing influence in the region.
(SFC, 7/29/21, p.A2)
2021 Jul 28, India contested Cambodia's claims that Indian buffalo meat was infected with COVID-19, saying it exports the meat only after getting COVID-free certification. Cambodia earlier this week said three out of five containers of frozen buffalo meat imported from India tested positive for coronavirus.
(Reuters, 7/28/21)
2021 Jul 31, Indian police in Kashmir said Mohammad Ismail Alvi, the mastermind behind the Feb. 14, 2019, attack that killed 40 Indian paramilitary troops, has been killed in a shootout with security forces south of Srinagar.
(Reuters, 7/31/21)
2021 Jul 31, Officials said China and India have missed the July 30 United Nations deadline to submit fresh targets for cutting their greenhouse gas emissions.
(AP, 7/31/21)
2021 Aug 1, In India a girl (9), who has not been named by authorities and belonged to the Dalit community, one of Hinduism’s most oppressed castes, was found dead near a Delhi crematorium late today. Her whole body was burnt apart from her ankles and feet. Four men, including the crematorium's priest, were arrested the next day for the alleged rape and murder.
(AP, 8/4/21)
2021 Aug 5, In India angry villagers in New Delhi held a protest outside a crematorium where they say a 9-year-old girl was raped and killed on August 1.
(AP, 8/5/21)
2021 Aug 7, India's health minister said Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use.
(Reuters, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 13, India's ministry of science and technology said local vaccine maker Bharat Biotech's nasal COVID-19 vaccine candidate, BBV154, has received regulatory approval for mid- to late-stage trials.
(Reuters, 8/13/21)
2021 Aug 15, India's PM Narendra Modi delivered his Independence Day speech and announced a $1.35 trillion infrastructure plan to spur an economic rebound.
(SFC, 8/16/21, p.A5)
2021 Aug 20, It was reported that India's drug regulator has granted emergency use approval for Zydus Cadila's COVID-19 vaccine, the world's first DNA shot against the coronavirus, in adults and children aged 12 years and above. ZyCoV-D is administered in three doses.
(AP, 8/20/21)
2021 Aug 23, India reported 25,072 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, the lowest in 160 days.
(Reuters, 8/23/21)
2021 Aug 23, Indian police in Kashmir said the top commander of a militant group and his deputy, allegedly involved in dozens of target killings, have died in a shootout.
(Reuters, 8/23/21)
2021 Aug 24, India's government said it has approved further clinical trials for its first homegrown mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine developed by Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd, after the shot was found to be safe and effective in an early-stage study.
(Reuters, 8/24/21)
2021 Aug 25, India reported 37,593 new infections of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours. The health minister said India will supply millions of additional COVID-19 vaccine doses to its states to try to inoculate all school teachers by early next month.
(Reuters, 8/25/21)
2021 Aug 26, In India police accompanied by activists from a children’s rights group raided automobile repair shops on the edge of New Delhi and removed 17 children who were employed illegally.
(AP, 8/26/21)
2021 Aug 26, India reported 46,164 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/26/21)
2021 Aug 26, India's air safety regulator said it had cleared Boeing Co's (BA.N) 737 MAX aircraft to fly with immediate effect, ending its nearly two-and-a-half-years of regulatory grounding in a key travel market for the plane maker.
(Reuters, 8/26/21)
2021 Aug 27, India reported more than 40,000 new infections for a second consecutive day. India administered more than 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses today, a national record that PM Narendra Modi hailed as a "momentous feat" for the country ahead of fears of another surge in infections.
(Reuters, 8/27/21)
2021 Aug 28, India reported 46,759 new coronavirus infections, the most in nearly two months, as cases surged in the southern state of Kerala after a big festival.
(Reuters, 8/28/21)
2021 Aug 29, India reported 45,083 new coronavirus infections, driven by surging cases in the southern state of Kerala. The country's COVID-19 cases stood at about 32.7 million, with deaths rising by 460 to 437,830 in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/29/21)
2021 Aug 30, India reported 42,909 new COVID-19 cases for the past 24 hours, taking the total to 32.74 million. Deaths rose by 380 to 438,210.
(Reuters, 8/30/21)
2021 Aug 31, India's ambassador to Qatar held talks with a top Taliban leader, the first formal diplomatic engagement since the hardline Islamist group took over Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 8/31/21)
2021 Aug 31, India reported 30,941 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/31/21)
2021 Sep 1, India reported 41,965 new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 9/1/21)
2021 Sep 1, The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) said air pollution is likely to reduce the life expectancy of about 40% of Indians by more than nine years. New Delhi was the world's most polluted capital for the third straight year in 2020.
(Reuters, 9/1/21)
2021 Sep 1, Indian Kashmir veteran separatist politician Syed Ali Shah Geelani (91) died in Srinagar. Authorities blanketed the region with troops and clamped down on communications to prevent protests at his funeral the next day.
(Reuters, 9/2/21)
2021 Sep 2, India reported the biggest single-day rise in COVID-19 cases in two months, as the government worries about the virus spreading from the most-affected Kerala state, schools reopening, and the start of the festival season. Kerala accounted for nearly 70% of the 47,092 new infections and a third of deaths
(Reuters, 9/2/21)
2021 Sep 3, India tightened curbs on movement in Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, with scores of armed soldiers fanning out ahead of prayers, a day after a veteran secessionist leader was laid to rest in the disputed Himalayan region. Mobile services in Indian Kashmir were restored late today, two days after they were suspended. However, police said curbs on mobile internet and restrictions on the movement of people in the valley would continue.
(Reuters, 9/3/21)
2021 Sep 3, India reported 45,352 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, with 366 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/3/21)
2021 Sep 5, In India hundreds of thousands of farmers gathered in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh state, the biggest rally yet in a months-long series of demonstrations to press Narendra Modi's government to repeal three new agricultural laws.
(Reuters, 9/5/21)
2021 Sep 6, Indian drug developer Hetero said it has received emergency use approval from the country's health authorities to make a generic version of Roche Holding AG's COVID-19 drug.
(Reuters, 9/6/21)
2021 Sep 7, Thousands of Indian farmers gathered at a grain market outside New Delhi in protest against new agricultural laws they say threaten their livelihoods, condemning "brutal" actions by police during similar demonstrations last week.
(Reuters, 9/7/21)
2021 Sep 8, In India the government of PM Narendra Modi raised the price it will pay to buy new-season wheat from local farmers by 2% to 2,015 rupees ($27.39) per 100 kg. Farmers said the government's move to raise state-mandated price for new season wheat is not enough to cover the cost of cultivation.
(Reuters, 9/8/21)
2021 Sep 8, India's antitrust watchdog raided local offices of several vegetable seed companies including a unit of Germany's BASF in a case related to alleged price collusion.
(Reuters, 9/8/21)
2021 Sep 8, It was reported that India will give about $3.5 billion, down from an original plan to give about $8 billion in incentives, to auto companies over a five-year period under a revised scheme to boost the manufacturing and export of clean technology vehicles.
(Reuters, 9/8/21)
2021 Sep 8, In India a boat carrying dozens of passengers sank in the northeastern state of Assam after a collision with another vessel. At least one person died.
(Reuters, 9/8/21)
2021 Sep 9, Ford Motor Co said it will stop making cars in India and take a hit of about $2 billion because it does not see a path to profitability in the country, becoming the latest automaker to leave the major growth market dominated by Asian rivals.
(Reuters, 9/9/21)
2021 Sep 10, India cut base import taxes on palm oil, soy oil and sunflower oil, as the world's biggest vegetable oil buyer tries to cool near-record price rises.
(Reuters, 9/11/21)
2021 Sep 10, In India a woman (34) was raped and then tortured with an iron rod in a truck parked in suburban Mumbai early today. She died at a local hospital a day later. Protests soon followed. Mumbai police soon arrested a man (45) and charged him with rape and murder.
(AP, 9/13/21)
2021 Sep 11, Australia and India vowed to deepen their security cooperation, especially following the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, as the world marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
(Reuters, 9/11/21)
2021 Sep 13, It was reported that an outbreak of dengue fever is suspected of killing dozens of people in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh since the start of September. Authorities have launched a campaign to destroy mosquito breeding grounds.
(Reuters, 9/13/21)
2021 Sep 13, India reported 27,254 new coronavirus infections and 219 deaths in the past 24 hours. Total cases have now climbed to 33.26 million while deaths have risen to 442,874.
(Reuters, 9/13/21)
2021 Sep 14, A study of 614 fully vaccinated health workers in India found a "significant" drop in their COVID-fighting antibodies within four months of the first shot.
(Reuters, 9/14/21)
2021 Sep 15, In India authorities in Delhi ordered a ban on the storage, use and sale of firecrackers in the capital late today ahead of the Diwali festival to curb air pollution levels which cause thousands of deaths each year.
(Reuters, 9/16/21)
2021 Sep 15, India's cabinet approved an incentive scheme for the automobile sector aimed at boosting production of electric and hydrogen fuel-powered vehicles and promoting the manufacture of drones.
(Reuters, 9/15/21)
2021 Sep 15, India's federal cabinet approved a relief package for its cash-strapped telecoms sector including a four-year moratorium on airwaves payments due to the government.
(Reuters, 9/15/21)
2021 Sep 17, India broke its daily COVID-19 vaccination record by administering over 20 million doses of vaccines in a single day as states organized a special inoculation drive on the occasion of PM Narendra Modi's birthday.
(Reuters, 9/17/21)
2021 Sep 18, India's antitrust authority found in a report on its two-year probe that Google abused the dominant position of its Android operating system in India, using its "huge financial muscle" to illegally hurt competitors.
(Reuters, 9/18/21)
2021 Sep 18, The French foreign ministry said it has agreed with its Indian counterpart to work on a program to promote "a truly multilateral international order".
(Reuters, 9/18/21)
2021 Sep 19, India reported 30,773 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 33.4 million, as it seeks to reopen the country to overseas tourists. The death toll rose by 309 to 444,838.
(Reuters, 9/19/21)
2021 Sep 21, Indian officials said they had seized nearly three tons of heroin originating from Afghanistan worth an estimated 200 billion rupees ($2.72 billion) amid the chaos following last month's takeover of the country by the Taliban.
(Reuters, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 21, In India hundreds of workers at a Ford Motor Co factory in the western Gujarat state protested outside the automaker's plant, demanding that the factory's closure plan be scrapped or workers be provided other jobs.
(Reuters, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 21, India's Adani Group said it will invest $20 billion in renewable energy over the next 10 years and will aim to make its ports business a net-zero carbon emitter by 2025.
(Reuters, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 22, India and United Arab Emirates said they plan to conclude a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) by the end of the year with the aim to lift trade between the two countries by 70% in five years.
(Reuters, 9/22/21)
2021 Sep 22, India’s Supreme Court opened the door for women to pursue military careers at the highest levels.
(NY Times, 9/22/21)
2021 Sep 22, Industry officials said a proposed merger of India's Zee and a domestic unit of Japan's Sony Group Corp will create a television powerhouse to grab more advertising revenue, challenging top rival Walt Disney Co in a key growth market.
(Reuters, 9/23/21)
2021 Sep 24, India and Pakistan clashed at the UN as Pakistani PM Imran Khan accused the rival of a "reign of terror" on Muslims, drawing a stern rebuke. Khan's address was delivered by video due to Covid precautions.
(Reuters, 9/25/21)
2021 Sep 24, In India three people were killed in a suspected gangland shooting inside a Delhi courtroom, causing panic in the premises.
(Reuters, 9/24/21)
2021 Sep 24, India's antitrust watchdog imposed a penalty of $102 million on Heineken-controlled beer giant United Breweries and $16 million on the local unit of Denmark's Carlsberg in a case related to cartelization of beer prices in the country.
(Reuters, 9/24/21)
2021 Sep 24, Leaders of the United States, Japan, India and Australia vowed to pursue a free and open Indo-Pacific region "undaunted by coercion" at their first in-person summit, which presented a united front amid shared concerns about China.
(Reuters, 9/25/21)
2021 Sep 25, India reported 29,616 new COVID-19 cases for the last 24 hours. The country reported 290 deaths overnight, taking the overall tally to 446,658 fatalities.
(Reuters, 9/25/21)
2021 Sep 27, Indian farmers opposed to reforms they say threaten their livelihoods renewed their push against the changes with nationwide protests, a year after laws on the liberalization of the sector were introduced.
(Reuters, 9/27/21)
2021 Sep 28, India's PM Narendra Modi launched an array of new high-yielding crop varieties, including herbicide-tolerant rice that can be directly sown into the soil, cutting expenditure on water and farm workers.
(Reuters, 9/28/21)
2021 Sep 28, India's drug regulator allowed vaccine maker Serum Institute to enroll kids aged 7-11 years for its trial of US drugmaker Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine, as the country prepares to protect children from the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 9/28/21)
2021 Sep 28, India reported 179 COVID-19 deaths, the smallest rise since the middle of March, taking the total to 447,373.
(Reuters, 9/28/21)
2021 Sep 29, It was reported that some of India's private hospitals have cancelled orders for Russia's Sputnik V vaccine as they struggle to sell COVID-19 shots amid surging supplies of free doses of other vaccines offered by the government.
(Reuters, 9/29/21)
2021 Sep 29, Industry officials in India said heavy rains brought by cyclone Gulab damaged summer-sown crops such as soybeans, cotton, pulses and vegetables just before harvesting in key growing regions, which could reduce production and lift prices.
(Reuters, 9/29/21)
2021 Sep 30, India's chief economic adviser said rich nations need to commit much more than $100 billion to help poor countries fight climate change due to their high historical share of emissions, ahead of a UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).
(Reuters, 9/30/21)
2021 Oct 1, Indian utilities scrambled to secure coal supplies as inventories hit critical lows after a surge in power demand from industries and sluggish imports due to record global prices push power plants to the brink.
(Reuters, 10/1/21)
2021 Oct 1, UK nationals visiting India this month will have to undergo mandatory quarantine even if they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in retaliation for UK curbs on Indian citizens. The new rules, which take effect Oct. 4.
(Reuters, 10/1/21)
2021 Oct 2, India-based Reliance Industries said it had set up a wholly owned subsidiary in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for trading in crude oil, petroleum, petrochemical products and agricultural commodities.
(Reuters, 10/2/21)
2021 Oct 3, In India 6 people were reported killed when violence broke out in India's Uttar Pradesh state after a car linked to a federal minister ran over two farmers taking part in a protest against controversial farm laws. On Oct 9 Ashish Mishra, son of junior home minister Ajay Mishra Teni, was arrested on accusations he ran over and killed four protesting farmers.
(Reuters, 10/3/21)(Reuters, 10/10/21)
2021 Oct 4, India said it would investigate cases linked to the Pandora Papers leak of financial documents, though it added that the "names of only a few Indians have appeared so far in the media".
(Reuters, 10/4/21)
2021 Oct 4, Farmers in India vowed to intensify their months-long protest against laws aimed at liberalizing agriculture as tension flared a day after eight people were killed over the last 24 hours in clashes between growers and ruling party supporters.
(Reuters, 10/4/21)
2021 Oct 4, A Mumbai court sent the son (23) of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan to three days' custody, after he was arrested on Oct. 2 in a drugs investigation.
(Reuters, 10/4/21)
2021 Oct 5, It was reported that India's top court ordered state authorities to pay $672 (50,000 rupees) as compensation for each death caused by COVID-19, as a way to help families cope with the loss.
(Reuters, 10/5/21)
2021 Oct 6, The UN cultural agency said India's school closures and its children's lack of smartphone and internet facilities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic have worsened an educational divide.
(Reuters, 10/6/21)
2021 Oct 7, India-based Reliance Industries Ltd's retail arm said it would roll out 7-Eleven Inc convenience stores in India, days after Future Retail Ltd ended a similar deal with the US chain.
(Reuters, 10/7/21)
2021 Oct 8, India's government said Tata Sons will resume control of Air India after bidding $2.4 billion, including equity and debt, marking the end of years of struggle to privatize the financially troubled airline.
(Reuters, 10/8/21)
2021 Oct 8, It was reported that North Indian states have suffered electricity cuts and face further outages because of a lack of coal, contradicting government assurances there is enough power.
(Reuters, 10/8/21)
2021 Oct 10, Dream11, one of India's most popular gaming apps, said it has suspended operations in the southern state of Karnataka after a complaint was registered against its founders claiming it was in violation of a new state gambling law.
(Reuters, 10/10/21)
2021 Oct 11, India's largest port operator Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone said that its terminals would no longer handle export and import of container cargoes from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan from Nov. 15. The decision came weeks after Indian officials seized nearly three tons of heroin originating from Afghanistan worth an estimated 200 billion rupees ($2.65 billion) from two containers at western Gujarat's Mundra Port.
(Reuters, 10/11/21)
2021 Oct 11, In Kashmir at least five Indian soldiers and two militants were killed in a series of gun battles, where security forces have stepped up operations after several civilian killings last week.
(Reuters, 10/11/21)
2021 Oct 12, India recommended emergency use of Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 shot in the 2 to 18 age-group. India has so far fully vaccinated around 29% of about 944 million eligible adults.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Indian security forces killed at least five militants in Indian-ruled Kashmir as hundreds of Hindus fled the disputed Muslim-majority region after a wave of violence.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 13, Officials said India has resumed a small amount of exports of COVID-19 vaccines and will increase exports significantly in the next few months as domestic stocks build up and most of its own large population is inoculated.
(Reuters, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 14, India's annual wholesale price-based inflation, a proxy for producers' prices, loitered in the double digits for the sixth month in a row in September. Government data showed that India's merchandise trade deficit widened to a record $22.6 billion in September, the highest in at least about 14 years, as crude oil and gold imports surged.
(Reuters, 10/14/21)
2021 Oct 15, India reopened to fully vaccinated foreign tourists traveling on chartered flights in the latest easing of its coronavirus restrictions as infection numbers decline.
(AP, 10/15/21)
2021 Oct 15, In India a victim (35) was beaten to death by a group of men who had accused him of desecrating Sikh holy texts. One of the man's hands was hacked off. A member of a Sikh warrior sect called the Nihangs was soon taken into custody after the attack close to Singhu village, on the northwest border of New Delhi.
(Reuters, 10/16/21)
2021 Oct 18, In India leaders in the southern state of Kerala opened near-overflowing dams after at least 22 people died when heavy rains lashed the region over the weekend. The death toll soon rose to 28.
(Reuters, 10/18/21)(AP, 10/18/21)
2021 Oct 18, The Indian government said Dubai has signed an accord to build infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir.
(Reuters, 10/18/21)
2021 Oct 18, Indian authorities moved thousands of migrant workers in Kashmir to safer locations overnight, while hundreds have fled the Himalayan valley after a wave of targeted killings.
(Reuters, 10/18/21)
2021 Oct 19, In India, the world's biggest onion exporter, onion prices have risen after heavy rainfall in the country's key growing regions damaged the summer-sown crop and delayed winter crop planting. Onion price spikes have contributed to the fall of more than one state government in the past.
(Reuters, 10/19/21)
2021 Oct 20, Indian officials said floods unleashed by days of unseasonal heavy rain have wrecked crops, blocked roads and washed away bridges in northern India, killing at least 46 people, as they mounted rescue efforts for those stranded.
(Reuters, 10/20/21)
2021 Oct 21, India celebrated the milestone of administering 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses, with the government promoting the achievement in song and video even as a recent drop in inoculations worries healthcare providers.
(Reuters, 10/21/21)
2021 Oct 21, It was reported that more than 150 people have died in flooding across India and Nepal in recent days, as heavy late monsoon rains triggered flash floods, destroyed homes, crops and infrastructure and left thousands stranded. The death toll in Nepal passed 100. in India at least 88 died people were killed.
(Reuters, 10/21/21)(SFC, 10/23/21, p.A3)
2021 Oct 21, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan were among 11 countries singled out by US intelligence agencies as being "highly vulnerable" in terms of their ability to prepare for and respond to environmental and societal crises caused by climate change.
(Reuters, 10/21/21)
2021 Oct 22, In India movie theaters in Mumbai reopened after more than 18 months of closure. Entry required COVID-19 certificates or "safe status" on a state-run health app.
(SFC, 10/23/21, p.A4)
2021 Oct 24, Pakistan resoundingly beat India at the Twenty20 World Cup, for its first cricket win against its bigger neighbor in such a match, triggering celebrations at home and in Muslim-majority Kashmir. Three Kashmiri students were arrested on Oct. 27 for hailing the victory. Authorities said six people had been detained in adjoining Jammu, where social media posts showed more than two dozen people celebrating after India's loss.
(Reuters, 10/28/21)
2021 Oct 26, India's health minister said that a government panel of experts was looking into a Delta coronavirus subvariant, AY.4.2, that has been detected in the United Kingdom.
(Reuters, 10/26/21)
2021 Oct 27, India rejected calls to announce a net zero carbon emissions target and said it was more important for the world to lay out a pathway to reduce such emissions and avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures.
(Reuters, 10/27/21)
2021 Oct 27, India's antitrust watchdog raided the offices of Associated Alcohols & Breweries and Som Distilleries as part of an investigation into alleged price fixing in liquor products.
(Reuters, 10/27/21)
2021 Oct 29, India-based Reliance Industries said its low-cost 4G smartphone, jointly developed by the group's Jio telecoms venture and Alphabet's Google, will launch in stores from this festive season of Diwali for 6,499 rupees ($87).
(Reuters, 10/29/21)
2021 Oct 29, In India Puneeth Rajkumar (46), a dashing lead in films and a member of an illustrious movie family, died of a heart attack. Offices and shops in Bengaluru shut down and police were brought in to control swarming crowds of fans in anticipation of violence after the popular actor’s death.
(Reuters, 10/29/21)
2021 Nov 1, India's PM Narendra Modi used the COP26 climate talks to announce 2070 as the target for his country to reach net zero carbon emissions, two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts.
(Reuters, 11/1/21)
2021 Nov 1, Novavax Inc and partner Serum Institute of India said they received emergency use authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine in Indonesia, making it the first approval anywhere in the world for Novavax.
(Reuters, 11/1/21)
2021 Nov 3, India-based Bharat Biotech said its COVID-19 vaccine has been granted an extension of shelf life for up to 12 months from the date of manufacture by India's drug regulator. The World Health Organization (WHO) said it had approved Indian drugmaker Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, paving the way for the homegrown shot to be accepted as a valid vaccine in many poor countries.
(Reuters, 11/3/21)
2021 Nov 4, The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) said India, Indonesia and the Philippines will join South Africa as the first recipients of a multibillion dollar pilot program aimed at accelerating their transition from coal power to clean energy.
(Reuters, 11/4/21)
2021 Nov 5, In India residents of New Delhi woke up under a blanket of smog darkening the city, the most dangerous air pollution of the year after Diwali revelers defied - as usual - a fireworks ban during India's annual Hindu festival of lights.
(Reuters, 11/5/21)
2021 Nov 6, In India fire swept through the intensive care unit (ICU) of a government hospital in the western city of Ahmednagar, Maharashtra state, killing 11 people and injuring several.
(AP, 11/6/21)
2021 Nov 7, India's manufacturing capital Chennai came to a standstill with many areas flooded after the southern Indian coast was battered by heavy rainfall overnight, prompting authorities to issue warnings and evacuate people from low-lying areas.
(Reuters, 11/7/21)
2021 Nov 8, In India many students in New Delhi stayed at home rather than return to reopened schools as a toxic smog shrouded the city.
(Reuters, 11/8/21)
2021 Nov 8, In India the health department of Kampur said at least 89 people, including 17 children, have tested positive for the Zika virus in a surge of cases in city.
(Reuters, 11/8/21)
2021 Nov 8, Indian drugmaker Zydus Cadila said India has placed an order for 10 million doses of its DNA COVID-19 vaccine at a price of 265 rupees ($3.57) per dose.
(Reuters, 11/8/21)
2021 Nov 9, New Delhi pledged "game-changing" steps to clean its foul air, including intensive water sprinkling and a crackdown on the burning of garbage, as eye-stinging smog covered the Indian capital for a fifth straight day.
(Reuters, 11/9/21)
2021 Nov 10, In India diplomats and security analysts from Afghanistan's neighbors, with the notable exceptions of China and Pakistan, gathered in New Delhi to discuss how to engage with the country's Taliban rulers.
(Reuters, 11/10/21)
2021 Nov 11, Authorities said heavy rains across southern India and Sri Lanka have killed at least 41 people, 16 in Tamil Nadu and 25 in Sri Lanka.
(Reuters, 11/11/21)
2021 Nov 12, India's federal pollution control board ordered states and local bodies to be in "complete readiness" for emergency measures to tackle New Delhi's worsening smog conditions due to a drop in temperature and wind speeds.
(Reuters, 11/12/21)
2021 Nov 13, The Chief Justice of India asked the central government to come up with an emergency plan to tackle New Delhi's toxic air quality and dangerous smog conditions, calling the situation "very serious".
(Reuters, 11/13/21)
2021 Nov 13, Police in India's western state of Maharashtra killed at least 26 Maoist militants, including a top leader, in an ambush operation in dense forest. The Naxals, including six women were killed in Gadchiroli district along with Milind Teltumbde, a central committee member. Five soldiers and two civilians were killed in an ambush by suspected rebels in Manipur state.
(Reuters, 11/14/21)(SFC, 11/15/21, p.A24)
2021 Nov 14, Police in India's central Madhya Pradesh state arrested two men with 20 kg of marijuana and found they were using the Amazon India website to order and further smuggle the substance in the guise of stevia leaves, a natural sweetener, to other Indian states.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 14, Russia news reported that Russia has started supplying India with S-400 air defence missile systems.
(Reuters, 11/14/21)
2021 Nov 15, India's Supreme Court told authorities to shut offices in the capital and nearby cities, allowing millions to work from home as officials seek ways to reduce hazardous air pollution that led to the closure of schools.
(Reuters, 11/15/21)
2021 Nov 15, India began allowing fully vaccinated foreign tourists to enter the country on regular commercial flights, in the latest easing of coronavirus restrictions as infections fall and vaccinations rise.
(AP, 11/15/21)
2021 Nov 16, India's Akasa Air placed an order for 72 Boeing 737 MAX jets, valued at nearly $9 billion at list prices - a deal that could help the US plane maker regain lost ground in one of the world's most promising markets.
(Reuters, 11/16/21)
2021 Nov 17, In India more children were in hospital with breathing problems as pollution levels remained dangerously high in New Delhi. The government shut five power stations and extended school closures to try to contain the crisis.
(Reuters, 11/17/21)
2021 Nov 17, Indian budget airline SpiceJet said US plane maker Boeing had agreed to settle the outstanding claims related to the grounding of its 737 MAX aircraft.
(Reuters, 11/17/21)
2021 Nov 17, Indian troops in Kashmir killed five militants believed to belong to a group named The Resistance Front (TRF), which claimed recent killings of migrants in the disputed territory, in two gun battles south of Srinagar.
(Reuters, 11/17/21)
2021 Nov 19, Indian PM Narendra Modi said he would repeal agriculture laws that farmers have been protesting against for more than a year, sparking celebrations for what farmers called a hard-fought victory.
(Reuters, 11/19/21)
2021 Nov 19, In India at least 17 people died and dozens were reported missing in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh after days of heavy rains.
(AP, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Indian police said they had charged senior executives of Amazon.com's local unit under narcotics laws in a case of alleged marijuana smuggling via the online retailer.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 22, Indian farmers held a mass rally to demand minimum support prices be extended to all produce, not just rice and wheat.
(Reuters, 11/22/21)
2021 Nov 22, It was reported that India's salesmen face ruin as mom-and-pop stores are targeted by JioMart, an app rolled out by Reliance Industries billionaire Mukesh Ambani in his drive to revolutionize retail distribution in India.
(Reuters, 11/22/21)
2021 Nov 23, India said it will release 5 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves in coordination with other buyers including the United States, China, Japan and South Korea.
(Reuters, 11/23/21)
2021 Nov 23, India reported 7,579 new coronavirus infections, the smallest rise in one-and-a-half-years despite huge festival gatherings in recent weeks, thanks to rising vaccinations and antibodies from prior infections.
(Reuters, 11/23/21)
2021 Nov 23, The United States and India agreed to expand trade of some agricultural products, including US cherries, alfalfa and distiller dried grains as well as Indian mangoes, grapes, shrimp and water buffalo meat.
(Reuters, 11/23/21)
2021 Nov 24, It was reported that plans by the Indian government for a new bill that would bar most private cryptocurrencies has triggered heavy selling in the country's digital currency markets, as investors look to exit positions despite the losses.
(Reuters, 11/24/21)
2021 Nov 24, The US Trade Representative's office said that it is moving to terminate its trade retaliation case against India after Washington and New Delhi agreed on a global tax deal transition arrangement that will withdraw India's digital services tax.
(Reuters, 11/24/21)
2021 Nov 26, The Indian government advised people against subscribing to Starlink Internet Services, a division of billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX aerospace company, as it does not have a license to operate in the country.
(Reuters, 11/26/21)
2021 Nov 26, India said it will resume international passenger flights from mid-December with COVID-19 linked curbs for "at risk" countries, and ordered tightened screening at borders as fears over a new coronavirus variant spread globally.
(Reuters, 11/26/21)
2021 Nov 26, India restarted exports of COVID-19 shots to the global vaccine-sharing network COVAX for the first time since April, and producer Serum Institute of India (SII) forecast a substantial increase in supplies from early next year.
(Reuters, 11/26/21)
2021 Nov 27, Indian PM Narendra Modi told officials to review plans to ease travel restrictions as concerns rise over the new Omicron variant of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 11/27/21)
2021 Nov 29, India's parliament passed a bill to repeal three laws aiming at deregulating agricultural markets, bowing to pressure from farmers who have protested for over a year to demand that the laws be rolled back.
(Reuters, 11/29/21)
2021 Nov 30, India's health ministry said states should ramp up COVID-19 testing as the world battles the new coronavirus variant Omicron, while some cities delayed the reopening of schools as a precautionary measure.
(Reuters, 11/30/21)
2021 Dec 1, It was reported that India's northern Haryana and Punjab states have suffered electricity cuts after a directive to stop operating six of the 11 coal-fired power plants around national capital New Delhi in a bid to reduce pollution.
(Reuters, 12/1/21)
2021 Dec 2, India's capital New Delhi ordered the closure of schools and colleges until further notice from Dec. 3 after the Supreme Court criticized the city government for reopening educational institutions despite "very poor" air quality.
(Reuters, 12/2/21)
2021 Dec 2, India reported its first two cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant but the government said it had no immediate plan to authorize booster vaccine shots despite demands from lawmakers.
(Reuters, 12/2/21)
2021 Dec 3, It was reported that India has revoked a patent for a potato variety grown exclusively for PepsiCo Inc's popular Lay's potato chips.
(Reuters, 12/3/21)
2021 Dec 3, The United Nations Development Program said it aims to almost triple its plastic waste management to 100 cities in India by 2024. India generates about 3.4 million tons of plastic waste annually.
(Reuters, 12/3/21)
2021 Dec 4, India reported 8,603 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total to 34.62 million. Deaths rose by 415 to 470,530. India also reported its third case of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
(Reuters, 12/4/21)
2021 Dec 4, In India at least 14 civilians and one member of the security forces were killed in Nagaland state late today, after Indian forces mistook a group of laborers for militants and opened fire.
(Reuters, 12/5/21)
2021 Dec 5, In India protesters threw stones and set fire to areas around a camp belonging to Indian forces in the remote northeast, with one civilian shot dead in renewed violence. 14 civilians and a soldier were killed over the last 24 hours in a series of attacks in the northeastern state of Nagaland. Twelve of men, most of them coal miners, were from Oting village.
(Reuters, 12/5/21)(AP, 12/22/21)
2021 Dec 6, India and Russia signed 28 investment pacts, including deals on steel, shipbuilding, coal and energy. Moscow and New Delhi also signed a deal that will see India produce more than 600,000 AK-203 assault rifles.
(Reuters, 12/6/21)
2021 Dec 8, The head of India's armed forces, General Bipin Rawat, was among 13 people killed when the military helicopter they were traveling in crashed. A lone survivor succumbed to his injuries on Dec. 15.
(Reuters, 12/8/21)(Reuters, 12/15/21)
2021 Dec 9, Indian farmers called off a year-long protest after the government conceded a clutch of demands, including assurances to consider guaranteed prices for all produce, instead of just rice and wheat.
(Reuters, 12/9/21)
2021 Dec 13, India's PM Narendra Modi opened part of a large-scale development project in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh state, looking to garner support ahead of key state elections. The Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham mega project was first commissioned in 2019.
(SFC, 12/14/21, p.A2)
2021 Dec 13, India's western state of Gujarat has acknowledged more COVID-19 deaths than its official tally, according to a court document filed today, lending weight to fears that the country's actual toll was much higher than reported.
(Reuters, 12/13/21)
2021 Dec 14, Indian troops killed a suspected militant during a gunbattle in the federally-controlled Jammu and Kashmir region.
(Reuters, 12/14/21)
2021 Dec 14, Vaccine producer the Serum Institute of India (SII) and a government official said India is struggling to export its surplus of COVID-19 vaccines as logistical hurdles delay their use in many countries despite low levels of inoculation.
(Reuters, 12/14/21)
2021 Dec 14, A World Trade Organization panel ruled in favor of Brazil, Australia and Guatemala in their trade disputes with India over sugar subsidies and asked New Delhi to conform with global rules.
(Reuters, 12/14/21)
2021 Dec 15, It was reported that India has approved a $10 billion incentive plan to attract semiconductor and display manufacturers, as part of a deepening push to establish the country as a global electronics production hub.
(Reuters, 12/15/21)
2021 Dec 16, In India three people were killed and 10 injured in a fire at a plant owned by Indian chemicals maker Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd in the western state of Gujarat.
(Reuters, 12/16/21)
2021 Dec 17, India's health ministry said it has detected a total of 101 cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, adding some districts were showing a rise in overall infections relative to tests.
(Reuters, 12/17/21)
2021 Dec 17, India's antitrust agency suspended Amazon.com's 2019 deal with Future Group, potentially denting the US e-commerce giant's attempts to block the sale of Future's retail assets to an Indian market leader.
(Reuters, 12/17/21)
2021 Dec 17, The World Health Organization issued an emergency use listing to Serum Institute of India's version of US-based Novavax Inc's COVID-19 vaccine, paving the way for the two companies to ship their doses for the COVAX program. This was the 9th vaccine to be granted emergency use by the WHO
(Reuters, 12/17/21)(SFC, 12/18/21, p.A5)
2021 Dec 18, In India a Chennai district government said more than 150 employees at a Foxconn factory that makes iPhones for Apple Inc were hospitalized for food poisoning this week but almost all have now been discharged. Indian police detained scores of people for blocking highways in a protest against the food poisoning incident. Dozens of those detained were soon released.
(Reuters, 12/18/21)(Reuters, 12/19/21)(Reuters, 12/20/21)
2021 Dec 18, In India a man was beaten to death in the northern city of Amritsar after he allegedly attempted to commit a sacrilegious act inside the historic Golden Temple, one of Sikhs' most revered shrines.
(AP, 12/18/21)
2021 Dec 20, India's market regulator ordered a year-long suspension of futures trading in key farm commodities, as the world's biggest importer of vegetable oils, and a major producer of wheat and rice, struggles to tame food inflation.
(Reuters, 12/20/21)
2021 Dec 20, India allowed imports of refined palm oil until December 2022, as the world's biggest vegetable oil buyer tries to bring down edible oil prices.
(Reuters, 12/20/21)
2021 Dec 20, Indian vaccine maker Bharat Biotech said it has submitted an application to the country's drug regulator to conduct a late-stage trial for a booster dose of its intranasal COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reuters, 12/20/21)
2021 Dec 21, It was reported that Apple supplier Foxconn's plant near Chennai in southern India remained shut this week following protests sparked by a food poisoning incident.
(Reuters, 12/21/21)
2021 Dec 21, In eastern India a fire at Indian Oil Corp's Haldia refinery killed three people and injured 44.
(Reuters, 12/21/21)
2021 Dec 22, India's capital New Delhi banned Christmas and other celebrations ahead of New Year to contain a possible surge in the Omicron coronavirus variant, as the city reported the country's highest number of cases along with Maharashtra state.
(Reuters, 12/22/21)
2021 Dec 22, It was reported that Sony's India unit has finalized a deal with local rival Zee Entertainment to merge their television channels, film assets and streaming platforms, joining forces to take on the likes of Netflix and Disney in India.
(Reuters, 12/22/21)
2021 Dec 23, Indian PM Narendra Modi asked chiefs of states to ramp up oxygen supplies and strengthen health infrastructure to contain a possible surge of Omicron cases ahead of the festive season, as gatherings in public spaces and markets grow in size. India recorded 236 Omicron coronavirus cases across 16 states over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 12/23/21)
2021 Dec 24, In India police in Uttarakhand announced an investigation into a 3-day conference in Haridwar where hundreds of right-wing Hindu activists and monks took an oath to turn the country into a Hindu nation. Monks at the conference had called for other Hindus to arm themselves and kill Muslims.
(SFC, 12/27/21, p.A4)
2021 Dec 25, India's Bharat Biotech said its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin has gained approval for emergency use in children aged 12 to 18. PM Narendra Modi said in an address to the nation that 15-18 year olds would start receiving COVID-19 vaccinations from Jan. 3.
(Reuters, 12/25/21)
2021 Dec 27, The Indian government "refused" to renew a permission that is vital for Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity to be able to secure foreign funds, cutting off a key source the charity has depended on to run its programs for the impoverished.
(Reuters, 12/27/21)
2021 Dec 27, In India a Tamil Nadu state official said a Foxconn iPhone factory at the center of a mass food-poisoning incident will extend a week-long closure by an extra three days.
(Reuters, 12/27/21)
2021 Dec 28, India said it has approved Merck's COVID-19 pill and two more vaccines for emergency use as the world's second most populous country braces for a possible spike in coronavirus cases due to the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.
(Reuters, 12/28/21)
2021 Dec 29, It was reported that Indian tax officials have seized more than $30 million in cash and gold in raids on suspected tax evaders this week including a record haul of 1.94 billion rupees ($26 million) and 23 kg of gold ahead of assembly elections in five states.
(Reuters, 12/29/21)
2021 Dec 29, Apple said it had placed the southern Indian factory of iPhone assembler Foxconn on probation after both companies found that some worker dormitories and dining rooms did not meet required standards.
(Reuters, 12/29/21)
2021 Dec 30, Indian authorities started to impose stringent rules to prevent mass gatherings at new year's parties and public venues to combat a spike in COVID-19 infections, even as top leaders led large political rallies.
(Reuters, 12/30/21)
2021 Dec 30, Indian security forces shot dead six militants and lost one soldier in a series of operations in disputed Kashmir, as a crackdown against insurgent groups continues after a spate of civilian killings this year.
(Reuters, 12/30/21)
2021 Dec 31, India's competition watchdog ordered an investigation into Apple Inc's business practices in the country, saying it was of the initial view that the iPhone maker had violated certain antitrust laws.
(Reuters, 12/31/21)
2040 In 2006 it was projected that the total number of cars in India and China could rise from some 30 million to 750 million.
(Econ, 9/16/06, Survey p.20)
2044 The major rivers of India could be wiped out by this time based on 2004 estimates from receding Himalayan glaciers.
(ST, 4/30/04, p.A3)
2065 India’s population was expected to peak at about 1.64 billion.
(Econ, 5/23/15, SR p.4)
End of file
