India and China will resume border trade from August 1, marking another step in the normalization of bilateral ties between the Asian giants.

Border trade through the Nathu La Pass will resume on Saturday, six years after it was suspended following the Covid-19 pandemic. The reopening ceremony is expected to be attended by officials from both sides. The resumption of trade is expected to boost cross-border commerce, benefiting registered traders, transport operators and allied businesses. Nathu La sits on the Silk Road, an ancient network of trade routes connecting Asia with West Asia and Europe.

Border trade through Lipulekh, which began in 1992 and was suspended in 2020, is also set to resume, according to a report. The trading season officially began on June 1 but resumption of cross-border trade was delayed due to preparatory work being conducted by both sides. 

Foreign Secretary Shri Vikram Misri met with H.E. Hong Liang, Deputy Secretary General of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). They discussed ways to enhance bilateral exchanges at the political and people-to-people… pic.twitter.com/a5yzOywX2Y

— India in China (@EOIBeijing) July 27, 2026

India and China have been steadily building back economic and trade ties since a border skirmish in 2020 in eastern Ladakh left 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers dead. Bilateral ties have mostly returned to normal, with both sides initiating confidence-building measures, including the resumption of direct flights and updates to the visa regime, apart from steps to resume border trade. 

India set up a task force to suggest exam reforms a day after student protests over an exam paper leak led to the ouster of the federal education minister.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi constituted the panel, headed by technocrat and founder of Indian tech major Infosys, Nandan Nilekani.

Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan quit on Saturday after weeks of intense protests by young people demanding his resignation over an exam paper leak that allegedly drove dozens of students to suicide.

“The Government of India is continuously taking various measures for the future of students. Those who tampered with the students’ future are languishing in jail,” Modi said in an Instagram post on Sunday. 

Modi’s preferred platform for communication used to be X, but as the protests gathered pace he advised his ministers to engage with the youth on Instagram through reels and interactive sessions – an acknowledgement of the fact that Gen Z, who came out on the streets across the country, is more active on Instagram than WhatsApp or other platforms.

HIGH POWERED TASK FORCE on examination reforms under the leadership of Shri Nandan Nilekani constituted.@NandanNilekani pic.twitter.com/mMpmPdIEL5

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2026

As the world’s most populous country with 1.4 billion people, India also has the largest cohort of youth, with an average age of 29.

The panel’s chief, Nilekani, was the founding chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, which issues Aadhar identity cards. He was also involved in the roll out of the Unified Payments Interface, which revolutionized the digital payments ecosystem in the country.

The 6-member panel also includes the chief of India’s space agency S. Somnath and the director of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai, V. Kamakoti.

Modi said that fast-track courts had been established and legislation would be introduced to ensure strict punishment for malpractice. A reliable and transparent exam system tapping the potential of technology is needed, he added.

A key leader of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), India’s youth-led satirical movement that spearheaded the protests, claimed Monday that agitators were being harassed.

“Deeply concerned by multiple reports reaching us of students and other protestors being targeted, detained, or arrested by various state agencies, particularly in Assam, West Bengal, and Bihar,” Saurav Das, the spokesperson of the CJP, posted on X.

Meanwhile, a policeman in the northeastern state of Bihar was reportedly suspended after a video of him using an AK-47 rifle to fire at protesting students went viral.

India has summoned Ukraine’s envoy to protest an attack on a commercial vessel in the Black Sea near Russia that left one sailor dead.

Ukrainian Ambassador Oleksandr Polishchuk was called in to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in connection with the drone strike on the commercial vessel MV Omorfi.

“The Ministry conveyed its serious concern over the incident and condemned such attacks on commercial shipping in the strongest terms, underscoring their adverse impact on the safety of maritime navigation, freedom of navigation, and international commerce,” the Indian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

India conveyed its strong concerns over the targeting of commercial vessels, and reiterated that such actions, which endanger the lives of innocent civilian seafarers, are unacceptable and must be avoided.

On Sunday, the ministry issued an advisory to Indian sailors working on ships “in and around the Black Sea and adjoining maritime areas.”

“Indian nationals intending to undertake employment on commercial vessels operating in or transiting the conflict-affected region are advised to carefully assess the prevailing security risks before accepting such assignments,” it said. 

It advised those who accept these assignments to exercise caution, including obtaining comprehensive information from vessels. 

New Delhi published a similar advisory for the Strait of Hormuz on July 16, after attacks on two ships in the strategic waterway left two Indian crew members dead and eight others injured.

India has previously summoned the US, Iranian, and Russian envoys following attacks on commercial ships in international waterways.

Russia’s chargé d’affaires was summoned last week after an attack on the Ukrainian port of Odessa left four Indian sailors dead.  

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later told journalists: “We are continuing our contacts with our Indian partners and explaining our position.” 

“The main point is that our armed forces are striking and will continue to strike those vessels involved in transporting ammunition, weapons and so on for the Kiev regime,” he said.

Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh stressed the urgent need earlier this year to build a drone production ecosystem to ensure strategic autonomy, enhance defense preparedness, and make the country self-reliant. In view of the present geopolitical uncertainties, he called for a push to establish India as a global hub for indigenous drone manufacturing. Citing modern warfare lessons from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the US-Israeli war against Iran, he said drones and counter-drone systems are now decisive elements of national security.

He highlighted the need for component-level self-reliance. True self-reliance extends beyond final assembly. It requires domestic production of critical parts, including molds, software, engines, and batteries, to reduce import dependence. Building a robust domestic production ecosystem is vital for defense preparedness and strategic autonomy amid ongoing geopolitical uncertainties. India must emerge as a global hub for indigenous drone manufacturing, the defense minister said. Indian Defense Forces Vision 2047 calls for a space, cyber command, and drone force.

India’s adversary neighbors are already developing global-class drones. China produces the GJ-11 Sharp Sword and Wing Loong II, and Pakistan co-developed and is producing the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 and Baykar Akinci, as well as the Chinese Wing Loong II.

Meanwhile, Moscow has warned India that the drone threat cannot be viewed as someone else’s war. Ukraine’s saturation drone strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure are not a distant European problem. Pakistan has already rehearsed a version of the same tactic against India during a five-day conflict in May 2025, and Russia’s example shows what a campaign looks like when it is sustained.

Real-time test

Drones have fundamentally rewritten the rules of modern warfare, with recent conflicts showcasing devastating precision and major tactical shifts. The most striking successes include cost‑effective naval destruction, large‑scale disruption of logistics, and the rise of autonomous, low‑cost loitering munitions.

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) have become critical force multipliers, giving commanders real-time intelligence, precision targeting, and logistical support without exposing troops to direct danger. At the tactical level, small drones help frontline units scout terrain, clear buildings, and identify enemy positions, often guiding artillery and smart munitions with far greater accuracy and less collateral damage. Their low noise and radar signature also make them ideal for covert reconnaissance, perimeter security, and ambush detection.

Both Ukraine and Russia have been able to hit deep into the other’s territory, destroying strategic assets including naval vessels, aircraft, and energy sources. Both sides have targeted individual infantry, destroyed expensive armored vehicles, and conducted trench-clearing operations. This has expanded the concept of the frontline into a multi-mile-wide ‘kill zone’, requiring massive retrofitting of armored vehicles with defensive mesh and cages.

Iranian drone operations have inflicted millions of dollars in damage across US and Israeli facilities in West Asia, serving as a primary tool of attrition. While allied air defenses intercepted the majority, the sheer volume of Shahed and loitering drones successfully depleted defensive resources and struck critical infrastructure.     

Among the key operational successes, satellite imagery and analysis have confirmed damage to at least 20 US military sites across eight countries in the Middle East. Drone strikes have successfully targeted high-value assets, including refueling aircraft, radar arrays, and state-of-the-art air defense systems. Iran has utilized one-way attack drones to overwhelm joint US, Israeli, and Gulf partner air defenses. By compelling the deployment of costly interceptors against cheap drones, Iran has effectively tilted the economics of the conflict in its favor.

Alongside direct military targets, Iranian drone strikes have been effectively utilized to target oil fields and critical energy infrastructure. Drone attacks on US-linked energy and refining facilities in Gulf States have disrupted regional production and logistics. The dispersal and constant launch capabilities of Iranian systems have severely strained defensive counter-air patrols, making US and Israeli bases continuous targets despite extensive security measures.

The US Air Force has lost over 50 MQ-9 Reaper drones since late 2023, with severe attrition occurring during escalating conflicts in the Middle East, US officials have said. The US fleet has shrunk significantly, with losses costing over $1 billion. These costly, slow-moving aircraft have been repeatedly targeted and shot down by adversaries using surface-to-air missiles and advanced air defense systems.

The Yemeni Houthis have had a high success rate in the Red Sea region. Iranian air defenses have successfully intercepted and downed over two dozen Reapers. Around 10% to 20% of the US military’s pre-war inventory has been downed. While they have a significant peacetime role, analysts are questioning the efficacy of using expensive, slow-moving drones in a contested environment.

The key operational challenge for the drones emerges from evolving counter-UAS systems, especially electronic warfare, GPS spoofing, and limited battery endurance. Heavy jamming can sever control and video links, while manipulated satellite navigation can send drones off course or even into enemy hands. Micro-UAVs are also vulnerable to extreme weather, which affects stability and sensor performance, and their reliance on foreign-made chips and components complicates maintenance and rapid deployment.

India’s action plan

India’s action plan for the defense drone industry centers on achieving strategic autonomy and capturing a massive share of the projected global UAV market. The Defense Ministry is executing its largest indigenous drone acquisitions ever, with growing planned orders for domestically produced platforms, fast-track emergency procurements, and major contracts by splitting orders among leading Indian companies to rapidly build distinct production lines. Focus areas are for advanced surveillance, loitering munitions, kamikaze drones (such as the Nagastra-1), and deep-penetration unmanned combat vehicles (such as the Ghatak program).

India signed a $3.5 billion government-to-the-government agreement with the US to procure 31 high-altitude, multi-mission armed MQ-9B Sea Guardian/Sky Guardian drones in 2024.

The military is also executing its largest indigenous drone procurement program ever, planning to acquire 87 Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) drones worth another $3.6 billion.

Complementing this, New Delhi is finalizing a broader $2 billion order for tactical, surveillance, and weaponized drones from domestic manufacturers to bolster border and maritime security. These UAVs will require over 60% indigenous content and feature endurance of over 30 hours at 35,000 feet (above 10,000 meters).

New Delhi is fast-tracking the acquisition of smaller tactical, reconnaissance, and loitering munitions to be delivered over the next 18 to 24 months. This major shift highlights a strategic pivot toward indigenous defense tech and the manufacturing of autonomous disposable systems.

Under the Make in India initiative, major players such as HAL, Tata, L&T, and Adani Defense are deeply involved, as the government seeks to reduce dependence on foreign imports and build a comprehensive domestic drone ecosystem.

To reduce dependence on imported drone parts and hardware, the government is pushing for higher local content and focusing especially on key components such as motors and batteries. Future incentives are aimed less at final assembly and more at strengthening the supply chain from the ground up. Through the Production Linked Incentive scheme, which offers financial rewards based on incremental sales to boost domestic manufacturing, small and medium businesses and startups are receiving subsidies to scale up local manufacturing of components and systems. In addition, state-run banks such as SIDBI are offering low-cost working capital and R&D loans. At the same time, the government is simplifying regulations and creating dedicated test ranges to make development and certification easier.

Indian companies are also using lessons from real battlefield conditions to develop electronic-warfare-resistant systems for export to markets in Africa and the Middle East. With Chinese drone components flooding global markets, local manufacturers are being encouraged to diversify their sourcing.

From domestic to global

India’s quest to become a global drone hub by 2030, with the industry projected to reach $23 billion, is an ambitious but achievable target. India-US (INDUS-X) strategic collaboration focuses on joint R&D, knowledge transfer, and institutionalizing cybersecurity standards, such as those within the US Blue/Green UAS programs.

India is driving policy harmonization and market access for regional logistics deployment. Design-Linked Initiatives (DLI) reward domestic start-ups for producing indigenous intellectual property and hardware designs that global partners can integrate into their supply chains.

Indian-designed autonomous combat systems, like the AI-powered Kaal Bhairav, are not only built locally but are actively exploring manufacturing pipelines in international markets, including NATO nations. Global partners leverage India’s massive software engineering talent pool to overcome technology transfer constraints, aiming to integrate sovereign payloads into global commercial operations

Indian, Russian, and Iranian military officials regularly discuss modern warfare doctrines. The three countries could technically cooperate on Shahed-class drone technology, though any direct trilateral collaboration is highly constrained by current global geopolitics. While New Delhi maintains strong ties with the two nations, its focus on strategic autonomy and defense localization limits direct involvement in sanctioned foreign drone programs.

India values its strategic autonomy and is cautious about engaging in military-technical arrangements that could trigger Western sanctions or disrupt its relationships with the US and Israel. Yet New Delhi wants to continue to strengthen the historical defense relationship with Moscow, as it pursues self-reliance in military hardware and prefers indigenous defense production.

India is using the battlefield lessons from conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East to rapidly advance its own long-range strike drones. Sheshnag 150 long-range one-way attack drone is being developed by New Space Research Technologies in Bengaluru. It features a range exceeding 1,000 kilometers and is designed for adaptable real-world deployment. India is fast-tracking domestic low-cost strike drones conceptually similar to the Shahed.

New Delhi recognizes the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of these systems, but its long-term goal is to manufacture these capabilities domestically rather than relying on technology transfers from foreign partners. There is importance of collaboration across large Indian industries, MSMEs, start-ups, and innovators, supported by a clear and focused government policy framework aligned with national security needs to accelerate the drone industry transformation.

Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on Saturday after weeks of major protests in New Delhi and other cities across the country. The demonstrators, who are largely young people, had been demanding his resignation over an exam paper leak that allegedly drove dozens of students to suicide.

Pradhan announced his resignation on X, attaching a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the letter, written in Hindi, he described India’s youth as “the true strength of this country.” 

“I have always deeply respected the aspirations, dreams and expectations of the youth. They are not just the future of India, but also the carriers, builders and architects of a new and developed India,” he wrote.

Referring to the ongoing protests, he said he had decided to step down in order not to allow “anti-national forces” to “take advantage of the situation.”

pic.twitter.com/VSArqS98OJ

— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) July 25, 2026

The resignation came a day after representatives of the so-called Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) — an unofficial movement driving the protests — met government officials to discuss their main demands, including Pradhan’s resignation, as well as broader reforms in the education sector and examination system.

Following the resignation announcement, protest leaders initially said they would continue to press their two other key demands: compensation for the families of students who died by suicide and action against the police over the brutal suppression of the unrest on July 20. 

Few hours later, they have announced ending the protest “with immediate effect” and asked supporters toleave the Jantar Mantar protest cite and return home.

📹Cockroach Janata Party Calls Off 36-Day Jantar Mantar Protest After Pradhan Resignation

Protesters are being asked to peacefully leave the site after CJP spox Ashutosh Ranka announced the agitation was ending - RT India Correspondent Vinayak Dixit reports from Jantar Mantar. https://t.co/0cTOzExjJ2 pic.twitter.com/iP3qU7O4oN

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 25, 2026

The CJP was initially born as an online meme after India’s chief justice, Surya Kant, compared young people to cockroaches in open court. Since early June, however, it has evolved into a street protest movement and more recently spread across the country. The controversy over leaked question papers for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) – India’s nationwide entrance exam for undergraduate medical programs – quickly emerged as a central rallying point for the protesters.

Since Monday, the protests have turned violent, with law enforcement resorting to force. In New Delhi, police used batons, canes and tear gas on Monday to disperse crowds as protesters attempted to march toward Parliament. Delhi Police later said that nearly 180 people had been injured – including 118 security personnel and 60 protesters. Clashes with police were also reported in other cities across the country.

Ahead of Pradhan’s resignation, Modi made several appeals to students, promising action against those responsible for the exam paper leak. On Thursday, he released a selfie-style video address in which he pledged to introduce a new Anti-Paper Leak Bill in Parliament. On Friday, he followed it up with another video, thanking young followers for sharing their “insightful suggestions.”

New Delhi has been gripped by major unrest since Monday, with protesters repeatedly clashing with police and injuries reported among demonstrators, police, security personnel, and journalists.

Although government officials have reached out to protest leaders, central Delhi remains packed with young people carrying symbols of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) – a satirical movement that has evolved from an online meme into a political force in just three months – amid a heavy security presence.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made two public appeals on Thursday in an effort to calm the protests. In a post on X, he announced that the government would set up fast-track courts to ensure strict action against those responsible for leaking NEET examination papers.

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) is taken each year by more than 2 million Indian students competing for a limited number of medical college seats. It is the issue that set the current unrest in motion. The paper leak in May led to the cancelation of the exam and allegedly drove dozens of aspirants to suicide.

In a post on Thursday, Modi vowed to punish those responsible for the leak. “Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth. Those who try to harm the future of our youth will not be spared,” he wrote on X.

Later the same day, in a rare move, Modi released a selfie-style video address, promising to introduce a new Anti-Paper Leak Bill in parliament.

More strict actions against paper leaks to come in tomorrow’s Cabinet! pic.twitter.com/NRysBukk5U

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 23, 2026

He followed it up on Friday night with another video, this time on Instagram – a platform he has not frequently used in the past. In the clip, he thanked young followers for watching his first video address and sharing their “insightful suggestions.” Indian media reported that Modi gained around 1 million Instagram followers overnight after posting the video on Thursday.

On Saturday, education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced his resignation, meeting the protesters’ main demand.

In a letter posted on X, he said he made the decision with the ongoing protests in mind. “In view of the situation at Jantar Mantar and elsewhere in the country, my resolve is that anti-national forces must not be allowed to take advantage of the situation, national unity must remain intact, and not a single student of India should have their future entangled in legal proceedings. Our children should devote their time to their studies and focus on building their careers,” he wrote.

Following the resignation, the CPJ leaders called off the agitation “with immediate effect” and asked the protesters to return home.

A 26-day hunger strike

A few hours after the prime minister’s video address on Thursday, activist Sonam Wangchuk – who has become the face of the Cockroach protests – called off his 26-day hunger strike. His fast ended after midnight at Medanta Hospital in the presence of the minister of health and family welfare, JP Nadda, and the minister of state in the Department of Atomic Energy, Jitendra Singh, who are representing the government in the ongoing negotiations with CJP protesters.

“I ended the fast after 26 days upon getting assurance from the government and members of parliament of all political parties that the issue of accountability in the failing examination system will be discussed on the floors of the Indian Parliament,” Wangchuk said.

“The government also gave assurance that families of suicide victims in the recent NEET examination paper leak will be given adequate compensation and that there will be no cases registered against the peacefully protesting students and youths.”

Wangchuk had been forcibly moved from the protest site at Jantar Mantar in central Delhi to the hospital on July 18, following medical advice and directions from the Delhi High Court over concerns about his deteriorating health.

Some commentators supporting the protests were quick to criticize Wangchuk for ending the fast before key demands had been met. In an emotional video released on Friday night, the activist responded to the criticism, asking whether, after 26 days, he was now expected to produce a “character certificate.”

Wangchuk also described his ordeal after being moved to the hospital – much of which remained outside the public eye. He explained that his main reason for ending the fast was to prevent violence from spreading across the country and to avoid further harm to protesters. He added that for him, the key demand is not the resignation of the education minister – which he argued would not by itself change the system – but a firm assurance from the government that those who took part in the Jantar Mantar protests would not later be arrested.

Notably, two major public universities in the capital – Delhi University (DU) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) – issued official notices asking students and teachers not to take part in rallies near Jantar Mantar. They warned against joining “unlawful assemblies” or engaging in irresponsible social media activity that could create legal trouble for both the students and the universities, and damage future career prospects. DU also urged students to stay away from “fake and misleading information” circulating on social media that could further inflame the situation.

How the peaceful demonstration turned violent?

While the demonstration at Jantar Mantar – in the heart of New Delhi – began in June as a peaceful sit-down campaign, it spiraled into violence and chaos this week.

On Monday, the CJP organized a march to the parliament building, about one and a half kilometers from the protest site. Parliament was due to begin its monsoon session that day after the previous session’s recess. Young people from across India – many of them from New Delhi – took to the streets. But police, who did not grant permission for the march, tried to stop them using steel barricades.

Chaos broke out soon after the march began, as the situation quickly spun out of control. Police used batons, canes, and tear gas to disperse the crowd. Delhi Police later said that nearly 180 people were injured – 118 security personnel and 60 protesters. Footage showing brutal attacks on police officers has raised questions about whether the demonstrators were truly peaceful students or whether outside elements joined in, fueling suspicions of a wider conspiracy.

Several journalists from India’s mainstream news channels were also attacked during the unrest. Some were harassed while broadcasting live on air, and videos of the incidents were widely circulated online and condemned by users. CJP members said those involved in the violence were not part of the “peaceful protesters.”

CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke described the police response as cruel. Opposition parties demanded accountability for the crackdown.

The opposition has increasingly rallied behind the student protest. On July 21, 2026, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi staged a high-profile sit-in outside Modi’s residence after the large demonstrations led by the CJP. Backing the protesters, Gandhi said that “an attack on students is an attack on every Indian family” and argued that young people are protesting because their future – and the examination system itself – has been destroyed. Gandhi was detained by Delhi Police during the demonstration and released later that evening.

In the following days, further unrest broke out at the protest site – including stone-pelting and attacks on police officers – forcing the authorities to tighten security in the area. Mobile internet was switched off in central Delhi, and metro station gates near the protest site were closed.

Protests have also taken place in other major cities across the country, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Goa, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram, Jammu, Ahmedabad, Pune, Lucknow, and Nagpur.

There have also been scenes of unrest inside parliament. Some opposition Congress members tied zip ties around their wrists as a symbol of solidarity with arrested protesters. The following day, lawmakers from opposition parties demonstrated inside parliament. Regional parties such as the Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, and Shiv Sena (UBT) have publicly backed the CJP’s demands, even as the national Congress leadership has kept a more measured distance – wary of appearing to co-opt a movement that insists it has no electoral ambitions.

Dialogue with government

On Friday, JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh held a two-hour meeting with CJP activists, including chief spokesperson Saurav Das and national spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka. It was the second round of talks in two days, as both sides searched for a way out of the violent unrest that has disrupted life in the capital. They agreed to hold a third round of talks on Saturday.

According to the government, the CJP delegation presented three main demands along with five proposals for reforming the examination system. The movement’s core demands include the resignation or dismissal of  education minister over accountability for exam leaks, compensation of 10 million rupees ($100,000) for the families of NEET aspirants who died by suicide, and the withdrawal of police complaints and legal cases against student protesters, along with a guarantee that no further action will be taken against them. Their reform proposals include a systemic overhaul of national competitive exams, tighter regulation of coaching centers, and a review of entrance test patterns to improve fairness and accessibility.

Nadda said the government would hold internal consultations before responding to the issues raised by the delegation at the next meeting. The CJP insisted that its principal demand remains the resignation or removal of Pradhan.

The government has taken a series of steps in recent days to signal that it can act on its promises. According to sources quoted by ANI on Friday, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has removed 47 officials from service as part of a major overhaul following the paper leak controversy. Media reports also suggest that legal and criminal proceedings may follow against some officials.

The government has also transferred Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, while the Delhi High Court designated Judge Anu Grover Baliga as a special judge to hear cases arising from the paper leaks.

As of Friday night, however, the barricades were still up and the crowds of protesters showed no sign of thinning. Sixteen key metro stations — including Rajiv Chowk, one of the busiest in the city – remained closed, while mobile connectivity in the area was suspended, disrupting everyday life in the capital, from taxi services to deliveries and retail activity.

The question hanging in Delhi’s humid air is whether these developments will be enough to defuse the protest – and whether the young people in cockroach masks will finally leave the streets.

What do the young people want?

While the real force behind the protests, and the movement’s broader agenda, is being hotly debated across the country – on TV and across social media – the protesters RT spoke to on the ground were clear: They want the education system to change.

“For most students who are poor, it [education] is the only way out to uplift themselves and their family from poverty, but these dreams get dashed when the education system becomes corrupt, and papers get leaked. That is why the students demand an explanation,” said Aviyaan Chaudhary, 23, who was among the crowd of students – and their parents – at the protest site on Monday morning, before the march to Parliament turned violent.

Chaudhary, who is pursuing a master’s degree in psychology, traveled from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, more than 160 km away, with a friend to join the protest. He told RT that his parents did not approve of this, but he chose to take a stand anyway.

Shweta Naran, an undergraduate studying social sciences at a private university in Greater Noida, arrived at the protest site at 7:00 AM on July 20 with three friends, all of them students, after responding to the CJP’s call.

“We have been waiting to join the protest because the demands of students are genuine. This is a question about every young Indian’s future. It is not about politics,” she said, adding that she intends to keep protesting until the students who allegedly died by suicide after the NEET paper leak receive justice. She also stressed that the “genuine student concern” should not be used for “personal interests or interests of the opposition. It should not be leveraged by any party.”

Not everyone is convinced the movement can sustain its momentum. “Where will the Cockroach movement go?” political scientist Suhas Palshikar asked. “Perhaps nowhere – it will allow venting of frustration and taper off. Like the farmers’ protests, it may win some, but lose steam over time. The ideological and political character of the Cockroach movement is currently fluid, and various forces are bound to piggyback on it.”

“It will only depend on whether these talks will lead to a compromise or only add more fuel to the deadlock. But for those thousands of protesting youth who stay outside under the Sun in Jantar Mantar, any other outcome is impossible,” Hina Zain, 19, a university student who has been camping at the protest site, said.

The US has imposed 10% tariffs on imports from India, citing a forced-labor investigation, replacing the previous 150-day tariff that lapses on Friday.

The rate is lower than the 12.5% proposed earlier after New Delhi amended its Foreign Trade Policy on June 14. The latest tariffs put India on par with neighboring Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, along with several Latin American and Asian economies.

India is seeking to ensure a competitive advantage over what is being paid by countries in the same stage of development, Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said in June, naming ASEAN nations and neighboring countries, including Bangladesh.

The US imposed a temporary 150-day 10% tariff in February on all of its trade partners. In March, the office of the US Trade Representative launched two separate investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. ns

Indian industry bodies and government officials defended the country’s record on forced labor during the probe. India also amended its foreign trade policy earlier this month to prohibit importing goods made with forced labor, in a preemptive move aimed at lowering the proposed US tariff.

Though this is a relief for Indian exporters vis-à-vis regional competitors, additional concerns remain. Another probe into whether other countries are using excess manufacturing capacity to export to the US in a manner that is hurting the US economy is ongoing.

New Delhi is awaiting clarity on these issues before it finalizes a trade deal with the US. The deal is almost complete, the US State Department said on Wednesday after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar held wide-ranging talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Manila.

India’s pharmaceutical sector has also raised concerns regarding proposed US tariffs on generic drugs, which threaten their massive export revenues.

The EU has targeted Indian entities of two of Russia’s largest banks as part of its 21st sanctions package.

The latest round of sanctions targets the Indian entities of VTB and Sberbank, as well as two local firms, according to a statement by the EU Council published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The restrictions will come into force on August 13.

The Indian firms included in the latest sanctions package are Falcon Toolings, and Zepto Microwave and Chip Devices Assembly.

Responding to the development, SberIndia said that its operations continue in full compliance with Russian and Indian laws.

“Our clients’ financial transactions are processed as usual, without delays,” it said in response to a question by RT India. “The bank continues to act as the primary payment hub between the two countries, facilitating trade and mutual investment.”

VTB India said that its Indian entity is integrated into the national payment systems of both Russia and India, adding, “closed financial messaging channels are used for settlements.”

This ensures uninterrupted transactions in national currencies for both corporate clients and individuals, according to VTB.

The EU’s latest round of sanctions, aimed at Russia over its conflict with Ukraine, has 218 individual listings, the biggest number in the last four years. The list includes 94 banks and 33 Russian credit and financial institutions.

Greece, which has the world’s largest independent cross-trade LNG fleet by capacity, warned that banning EU shipping companies from transporting Russian LNG would harm Greek shipping interests.

A Baltic-backed proposal to ban Russians who served in the military after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict from entering the bloc was scaled back after France, Italy, and Greece fought against it.

Student protests in India calling for the resignation of the federal education minister continued on Friday even as a prominent activist ended his hunger strike on Thursday evening, taking some pressure off the Narendra Modi government.

The protests, spearheaded by India’s youth-led satirical Cockroach Janta Party movement, or CJP, got widespread backing across the country after police beat up students marching to Parliament on Monday.

The government held another round of talks on Friday with CJP representatives, who have refused to back down from their demand that federal Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resign over the leaks of the questions of a key national entrance examination.

The government has sought time till 2 pm on Saturday to respond to the demand for the minister’s resignation, CJP told the media after the talks.

Friday’s talks were held at the Constitution Club of India, not far from the protest site in Jantar Mantar and considered a “neutral” venue.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted a video message on his X handle at midnight, acknowledging that the leaks of the question paper for a national medical entrance exam, which triggered the wave of protests, are a serious issue.

“Friends, I know that paper leaks are not an ordinary matter… it is extremely painful… in the last two-and-a-half months since the paper leak incidents, several major steps have been taken,” Modi said.

More strict actions against paper leaks to come in tomorrow’s Cabinet! pic.twitter.com/NRysBukk5U

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 23, 2026

“The culprits have been caught; they are currently in jail,” he added.

The prime minister said a draft of legislation to set up fast-track courts to deal with such cases and to ensure stringent punishments could be moved in Parliament as early as Monday.

Earlier, in the evening, activist Sonam Wangchuk ended his 26-day hunger strike after two ministers from Modi’s government met him and handed over a letter that his concerns will be addressed.

The government reportedly assured Wangchuk that adequate compensation would be paid to the families of students who had taken their lives following the question paper leaks.

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for admission to undergraduate courses in medical colleges was attended by over 2.2 million students in May. A retest was held last month following the leaks.

Modi’s government also removed the top bureaucrat in the higher education department, as well as other officials responsible for administering the test.

Meanwhile, India’s Supreme Court has asked the government to file a detailed report on the leaks, adding the reforms have to be “institutionalized,” and not temporary fixes.

Former federal minister and popular TV actor Smriti Irani has said that India’s Prime Minister and the Russian President share a common trait: an immense emotional bond with the people of their countries.

In an exclusive chat with RT India for the ‘India, Russia and the World’ weekly podcast, Irani spoke of Narendra Modi and Vladimir Putin: “They’re both emotional about their countries.”

“And (they have) a sense of joy in sharing knowledge, in sharing achievements of each other’s countries.”

Irani, who held various important portfolios as a cabinet minister in Narendra Modi’s first two terms, from 2016 to 2024, recalled an incident from 2019 in the interview. Putin sent a video message during the inauguration of a AK-203 rifle factory in Amethi, her then-constituency in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Prime Minister Modi was also at the event.

“The whole imagery in itself was surreal,” she said. “That you’re in Amethi, which is one of the most hotly contested parliamentary constituencies in Indian politics. And never before in the history of Amethi, that had happened.

“The Indian Prime Minister sits on the dais and you have Mr. Putin on the screen. So as somebody who is a student of politics, possibly, surreal moment.”

She continued. “For me, it was a personal, big high. For the region, it was a matter of great pride… the decision was that there will be a production of close to 600,000 units.

“It’s a 5,000 crore ($517 million) investment that came to a defunct plant.”

On the West’s discomfort with India’s friendship with Russia, she said, “I think the best of friendships are those that need no explanation.”

“We don’t choose our friends depending on the likeness or the dislike of somebody else… Those are convenient relationships.”

Irani said that Modi “has respected everybody’s point of view but has firmly stood by our friendship with Russia.”

Smriti was the lead star in one of Indian TV’s most popular daily soap operas, ‘Kyuki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi,’ which translates as “because every mother-in-law was once a daughter-in-law.”

After leaving the Modi cabinet, she reprised her iconic role in the show’s reboot last year.

Irani listed focus on women, digitization, and steering the country through the Covid pandemic period as the major achievements of Prime Minister Modi.

“He is somebody I have seen who defers to not only competence, he’s somebody who also defers to people with knowledge,” she said.

India and Myanmar are seeking to boost cooperation in rare earths as New Delhi expands efforts to diversify supplies of the strategic minerals and cut dependence on China, which dominates their global supply.

Cooperation in the mining sector has gained significant momentum over the last two years, India’s envoy to Myanmar, Abhay Thakur, said at the opening Session of the India–Myanmar Forum on Mining and Minerals Cooperation this week.

These minerals are needed to make key components for renewable energy generation, electric vehicles, energy storage systems, advanced electronics, telecommunications, and other industries. About half of the world’s supply of heavy rare earths is extracted from mines in Myanmar’s Kachin state. They are shipped to China for processing into magnets.

“India and Myanmar are well-positioned to work together in this emerging landscape,” the envoy said. Two mining sector delegations on rare earths and critical minerals from India visited Myanmar in December 2024 and then again this past February.

State-backed miner IREL and private firm Midwest Advanced Materials are among those reportedly involved in discussions to explore the collection and transportation of samples from mines in Myanmar.

As part of a strategy to diversify supplies and cut dependence on critical minerals from China, which is the world’s largest producer of rare earths, New Delhi recently sought rare-earth samples from a Siberian deposit owned by Russian company Rosneft.

🇮🇳 Digs Deep In Rare Earth Race - Eyes New Myanmar Supply Chain

India is strengthening cooperation with Myanmar on rare earth minerals as it works to secure the resources needed for EVs, semiconductors, clean energy, and defence manufacturing.

Indian teams have already visited… pic.twitter.com/uYuNep63I1

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 23, 2026

IREL, which spearheads the South Asian nation’s outreach to secure rare-earth supplies, aims to study the mineral composition of a deposit in Tomtor, Siberia, acquired by Rosneft in 2025. It is also in talks with Japanese and South Korean companies to manufacture rare-earth magnets commercially.

India sits on the world’s third-largest rare-earth reserves of nearly 7.23 million metric tons, but does not produce rare-earth magnets domestically. Its consumption is expected to double by 2030.

In November 2025, New Delhi allocated $802 million for a program to manufacture rare-earth permanent magnets. India has also joined the US-led Pax Silica alliance, which aims to secure a supply chain for artificial intelligence, chips, and critical minerals.

India also announced specialized industrial zones called rare-earth corridors in the states of Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu for mining, processing, research, and manufacturing of rare earth permanent magnets.

One of the key outcomes of the recent visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Australia was an agreement for the supply of uranium to India. The joint statement issued during the visit says the agreement will “enable long-term Australian uranium exports to India for exclusively peaceful purposes and under IAEA safeguards.”

This agreement can be traced back to another document, the India-Australia Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, which was signed in September 2014 and entered into force in November 2015. The fact that the 2014 agreement was finally operationalized 12 years later highlights a strategic shift.

Australia exports uranium to more than 40 countries under established frameworks, but India, as a nuclear-armed state outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty, required a more complex set of safeguards. At the bilateral summit in Melbourne, Australia reiterated its strong support for Indian membership in the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group.

The timing of the decision by Australia to supply uranium to India is significant. It comes months after New Delhi passed the SHANTI Act (the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act), which modernizes India’s nuclear framework and opens the door to greater private sector participation in India’s nuclear energy sector, which has been lacking so far.

Since the landmark 2008 India-US nuclear agreement, India has signed nuclear deals with a host of countries, but operationalizing them has been difficult. It currently operates 24 nuclear power reactors across seven different sites with a total installed capacity of 8.78 GW. Ten more reactor units with a combined capacity of 8,000 MW are under construction, while pre-project activities for ten additional reactors are also underway. The country mainly uses natural uranium fuel to run pressurized heavy water reactors to produce nuclear energy. 

Australia’s decision to supply uranium to India will help ensure a steady supply for India’s existing nuclear reactors, and hence this agreement will have a long-term positive impact on India’s energy security. Here is why.

First, energy is central to India’s development and is a key pillar of its foreign policy. As a net energy importer, India felt this acutely during the recent US-Israeli war against Iran, which sent shockwaves throughout global energy markets.

Third, US-India relations have undergone a massive shift in the second term of US President Donald Trump. The relationship took a hit after the US imposed tariffs. Washington’s fondness for Islamabad on a host of issues is another factor.

Fourth, India once imported a significant amount of oil from Iran, but that has decreased to zero in the face of US requests to stop Iranian oil imports. India’s total generation of nuclear energy is around 8 GW, but New Delhi has ambitious plans to increase it to 100 GW by 2047.

India is facing a severe energy challenge as its population rapidly grows. Coal is the biggest source of energy generation in India, but this leads to issues with pollution. Fossil fuels constitute over 75% of India’s total energy supply and hence lead to significant levels of pollution. Hydroelectricity is another major source of energy, but due to growing environmental concerns, adding more hydropower to its installed capacity does not appear to be feasible.

India announced its intention to achieve net zero emissions by 2070 while trying to achieve energy security. For a developing country with a population of 1.48 billion, this is no easy task. Hence, nuclear energy will play a critical role in helping India reach these goals.

Australia’s interests

Australia’s known uranium resources are the world’s largest, which amount to one-third of the world’s total reserves. Canberra is the world’s fourth-largest producer of uranium and accounts for almost 8% of global uranium production. All of Australia’s uranium production is exported.

During Modi’s visit to Australia, the two countries also agreed to work together on critical minerals – an area in which China holds a clear advantage and has increasingly turned its leverage into a strategic tool. Although China is Australia’s largest export destination, accounting for around 32% of its total exports – mainly iron ore, LNG, and coal – this dependence also creates a significant security risk for Canberra.

Australia, like India, sees China as a challenge. Both countries are part of the Quad grouping (which also includes the US and Japan) which is widely viewed as a counterweight to China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Russia factor

As India diversifies its nuclear fuel sources, Russia remains a key partner and the only foreign country to be involved in building nuclear generation capacities.

Russia has been a dependable partner of India with regard to energy. India-Russia nuclear cooperation started during the time of the former Soviet Union and continued under its successor state. What is important to note here is that Russia-India cooperation did not stop even after India’s 1998 nuclear tests when many Western countries imposed sanctions on India.

The 23rd India-Russia summit in December 2025 deepened cooperation in this field, with an emphasis on modular reactors. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit coincided with the shipment of the first batch of nuclear fuel for unit 3 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. India is also seeking to finalize a site for a second Russian-built nuclear power plant, as indicated in a joint statement issued during Putin’s visit to India in December. Both sides also said future cooperation in the sector could include small modular reactors, floating power plants, and the localization of fuel supplies.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the setting up of fast-track courts to try those accused of leaking the question papers to a medical school entrance exam, in an effort to pacify young protesters who are demanding the resignation of the country’s education minister.

Protesters camping near Parliament in New Delhi have got widespread backing from across the nation, including from the opposition parties. 

Smaller protests have been taking place in other Indian cities, including the financial capital Mumbai, in solidarity with those agitating in Delhi. 

“Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth,” Modi said in an X post on Thursday – his first communication to the students.

“We have decided to set up fast-track courts to ensure swift and stringent punishment for those involved in paper leaks… This continues our series of steps for safeguarding the interests of students,” the prime minister added.

“Those who try to harm the future of our youth will not be spared,” he warned.

Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth!

We have decided to set up fast-track courts to ensure swift and stringent punishment for those involved in paper leaks. Have directed the concerned authorities and officials to take all necessary steps in this…

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 23, 2026

In response, the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement, which is leading the protests, reiterated its demand for the federal education minister’s resignation.

“Dharmendra Pradhan must resign,” it posted on X.

The opposition parties also demanded that the government meet the demands of the agitators.

The government has agreed to a debate in Parliament on the issue, but it accused the opposition of stalling the discussion by backing the education minister’s resignation as a pre-condition.

The protesters are calling for the resignation of the minister after the question papers to a national medical entrance exam in May were leaked, causing a re-test to be held last month. Students often spend years preparing for these tests in order to get into premier medical colleges in the country. Some 2.2 million students took the test, and media reports have said at least 20 have taken their lives in the aftermath.

The government also granted detention powers to the Delhi police under the National Security Act, which allows people to be detained without charges from 12 days to 12 months.

India’s chief justice, urged by lawyers’ bodies, has said he would intervene in the issue if the metro stations are not opened by lunch time.

The backing for protests has come from parents, teachers, and a wide section of social media users, apart from some celebrities.

Bollywood A-lister Salman Khan was the latest to laud the protests, saying it was the right way to express dissent.

“The students have done this peacefully. So courageous and brave. Driven and motivated towards education, this generation will make India proud,” Khan posted.

He also noted that the issue is between students and the educational system, and it should not be allowed to be hijacked by political parties.

Indian protesters demanding the resignation of the federal education minister received a boost from the country’s political opposition, which has questioned the use of brute force against the young people during Monday’s march to parliament.

The protests, spearheaded by India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement, have gained widespread support from various political parties and activists after mobile phone videos of police violence were circulated online.

However, Delhi police pointed out that some protesters had resorted to violence, injuring scores of officers and igniting the clashes.

The protesters and Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi have demanded that federal Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who they hold responsible for the leak of exam answers for a national medical entrance test, must resign before any talks can be held with the government regarding their other demands.

“At least 152 paper leaks have taken place in the last 10 years with zero accountability,” Gandhi said. He, too, was detained by the police after an impromptu sit-in protest near Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence on Tuesday evening. News reports said he was seen bleeding from the nose when the police forcibly took him away.

LoP Shri @RahulGandhi and @INCIndia continue to shamelessly exploit students as political tools to manufacture disruption during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

Shri @RahulGandhi and @INCIndia chose to stage a dharna outside the Hon'ble Prime Minister's residence , causing…

— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) July 21, 2026

Both houses of India’s Parliament were adjourned again on Wednesday over the issue.

Speaking at a press conference in the evening, federal Health Minister J.P. Nadda, who has tried to act as an interlocutor between the government and the protesters, said the nation’s leadership is ready for a discussion and that the opposition should not “change the goal post.”

“We should all work together to address this issue and move forward toward a lasting solution,” he said.

Modi’s party has called out the opposition, saying the question paper leak was addressed quickly by the government, the perpetrators were arrested, and a re-test was conducted successfully – all under Pradhan.

However, Abhijeet Dipke, founder and leader of the CJP, has vowed to continue the protest until the party’s demands are met.

Hundreds of young people were camped in the heart of Delhi on Wednesday around the protest site. Earlier in the day, CJP leaders refused to meet Nadda at his residence, instead demanding that the government’s representatives meet them at the protest site, or at a “neutral” venue.

Police blocked off several metro stations in central Delhi to prevent more people from converging at the site, and some reports said at least 2,000 more reserve police personnel were being flown into the capital to deal with the situation.

For a brief while, the CJP said, its Instagram account was blocked, apparently in response to a “legal request.”

At least 20 people are dead and five are missing after a gas explosion inside an under-construction tunnel at a hydropower project in India’s northeastern Himalayan state of Sikkim, officials said.

State-owned NHPC, which builds and operates mainly hydroelectric projects, said in a statement that the explosion at the site of the 500-megawatt Teesta hydroelectric project generated dense fumes and toxic gases.

The explosion occurred Monday afternoon in Namchi, about 40 kilometers from the state capital, Gangtok, when suspected methane gas trapped in the rocks was released during tunneling work.

“Of those 25 trapped inside the tunnel, 20 are confirmed dead,” Namchi Superintendent of Police Sonam D. Bhutia was cited by news reports as saying. Only 13 bodies have been recovered from the tunnel so far.

The search and rescue operation is being carried out by multiple agencies including teams from the national and state disaster response forces.

Survivors reportedly heard a loud explosion before debris came crashing through the tunnel, State Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang was reported as saying.

#Sikkim: Search and rescue operation is on for the third day today to evacuate people trapped inside the under-construction tunnel of NHPC Teesta Stage VI Hydroelectric Project at Samardung in Namchi district. pic.twitter.com/yoe34egas6

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) July 22, 2026

An official from the National Disaster Response Force at the site said toxic gases inside the tunnel had forced his team to use breathing equipment as they searched for survivors.

NHPC and the state government will together pay about $9,300 (Rs 900,000) to the families of each of the deceased. The company said its top management is at the accident site, coordinating and monitoring the rescue operations.

India has praised the normalization of bilateral ties with China and underlined the importance of maintaining peace between the world’s most populous nations as a vital requirement for a multi-polar world order.

Both countries believe that a stable and cooperative relationship can best be developed based on mutual respect, interest and sensitivity, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum Meetings in Manila.

Relations between the two fast-growing major economies plummeted following a 2020 border clash that left 20 Indian and at least four Chinese soldiers dead. Diplomatic engagements and flights between the two countries stopped and India heavily restricted Chinese investments, among other measures.

🇮🇳✌️🇨🇳 EAM Jaishankar Signals India-China Reset Is Gathering Pace

The 🇮🇳 External Affairs Minister met his 🇨🇳 counterpart Wang Yi in Manila, saying relations have been gradually normalising since the Modi-Xi meeting in 2024.

While welcoming progress on flights, visas and… pic.twitter.com/x8v5AI4eZ1

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 22, 2026

But relations have mostly returned to normal amid the economic pressures created by US President Donald Trump’s tariff wars, with New Delhi recently allowing some Chinese companies to invest in critical sectors of the economy.

Stressing that peace along the border remains a fundamental prerequisite for deeper bilateral cooperation, Jaishankar said, “such a relationship can make a valuable contribution to a multi-polar Asia and a multi-polar world.”

He reiterated that diplomatic efforts should support the understanding reached by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping that differences should not become disputes. It is diplomacy’s responsibility to manage these situations effectively, he said.

“Fair market access and a trade balance rank high in that regard,” Jaishankar stated, pointing to New Delhi’s concerns on trade and economic issues.

“There are also concerns about the predictability of supply chains. Facilitating both official and people-to-people exchanges merits our attention. We also need to agree on meetings of various mechanisms and platforms as per our mutual priorities.” 

In an unusually generous gesture by a Delhi court on Monday, a US mercenary detained for alleged anti-India activities has been allowed to receive food of his choice.

The court granted a plea filed by US national Matthew Aaron VanDyke on humanitarian and medical grounds, which will allow him to receive food of his choice and use special cooking utensils inside Tihar Jail. The American merc was arrested by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA), along with six Ukrainian mercenaries, in March.

VanDyke’s lawyers argued that Article 21 of the Indian Constitution protects an individual’s dignity, including while in judicial custody. To preserve that dignity, he should be allowed access to food that he was accustomed to eating, they said.

They pointed out that VanDyke’s health had deteriorated because he was unable to consume the “spicy, oily, deep-fried and greasy” food served to inmates in the prison, noting that he had lost already lost 14 kilograms.

VanDyke had requested a long list of items, including chicken, red meat, seafood, uncooked noodles, pasta, uncooked rice, potatoes, onions, beans, spices, vegetables, olive oil, toned milk, bread, butter, and bottled water. He had also requested a stove, pots, and a plastic chopper.

The court allowed VanDyke to receive the items he requested, with the exception of non-vegetarian ones. The jail authorities were directed to provide him with a cook to prepare his meals according to his preferences.

The diet for pre-trial detainees at Tihar jail follows a prescribed menu, and they are not entitled to demand food from the outside or have meals prepared according to their personal preferences. Exceptions are only made if a prison doctor certifies that an inmate requires a special diet due to a medical condition. In certain cases, under a court order, they are permitted to receive home-cooked food.

The American mercenary and his Ukrainian comrades were arrested for traveling to a restricted border area located in India’s northeastern region. From there they allegedly crossed into neighboring Myanmar without permits to give the ethnic military groups operating there drone training. The groups are also linked to armed insurgents in India’s northeast.

VanDyke is the founder of Sons of Liberty International, which provides military training in conflict zones, the Times of India reported. He has been involved in conflict zones in the past, including fighting with Libyan rebels in 2011, it said.

Thousands of farmers opposing a proposed trade deal with the US marched toward Delhi on Tuesday, presenting another challenge to the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is already facing a student protest in the capital.

The farmers’ unions say New Delhi’s proposed trade deal could hurt India’s agriculture sector by opening the door to cheaper American food and hurt domestic farmers, livestock and dairy producers, as well as small traders.

The trade deal is still not final despite months of negotiations. Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said last month that New Delhi “cannot enter into force a US deal” until the “framework for getting a competitive advantage is finalized.”

Farm organizations from the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are spearheading the protests. Farmers from Punjab were stopped by police in Shambhu, on the state’s border with Haryana. However, others have continued on to Delhi.

📹 ❗RT India LIVE: Delhi Police Detain Farmers At Rajghat

Our correspondent @KediaRiddhima is on the ground as police detain farmers protesting the proposed India-US trade deal after asking them to vacate the area under Section 163.

A heavy deployment of Police and Rapid… https://t.co/aWNNS4Ll0u pic.twitter.com/NQz2lfKUWi

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 21, 2026

On Monday, thousands of students clashed with police in the Indian capital, demanding the resignation of the federal education minister over leaks of question papers for a national medical entrance test.

They are continuing their protest in central Delhi, but have said they will not march on parliament again, and have accused the police of hurting students.

The US agricultural sector has lobbied the Trump administration, seeking wider access to Indian markets, lower tariffs, and the relaxation of curbs on dairy products, poultry, and fisheries.

India’s government claims the nation’s agricultural interests would be protected and that sensitive farm products have been kept out of the negotiations with the US.

However, a trade pact that opens up agriculture could impact 80 million rural families and send shockwaves through India’s agrarian economy, activists have warned. The farming sector employs about 46.1% of the workforce and supports close to 55% of India’s population of 1.4 billion.

Washington now has a 10% tariff in place on Indian goods, after the US Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s initial steep tariffs as illegal earlier this year. Those temporary tariffs are set to lapse on Friday.

However, the US announced 25% tariffs on Brazil earlier this month under a different law, raising the possibility that Washington is likely to slap similar duties on India, too, after the temporary ones lapse.

India has summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires after an attack in the Ukrainian port of Odessa left four Indian sailors dead.

Vladimir Ladanov was summoned to hear India’s grave concerns and unequivocal condemnation of the attack on the commercial vessel MV Golden Leo on July 19, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday.

The ministry said the attack resulted in the tragic loss of four Indian lives. “Such attacks undermine the safety, security, and stability of international maritime commerce,” it said.

The Russian official was asked to convey India’s strong concerns to Moscow “that the targeting of commercial shipping and the resulting loss of innocent civilian lives are unacceptable and must be avoided.”

Moscow is yet to comment on the summons of its diplomat by New Delhi.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement that “the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued strikes on Ukrainian ports being used in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

“Using precision air-launched weapons and loitering munitions, Russian forces struck fuel and lubricant storage tanks intended for the Ukrainian military at the Port of Odessa,” the statement said.

Thousands of protestors, mostly young people, marched to India’s parliament on Monday, calling for the resignation of the federal education minister over alleged leaks of the questions for the national university entrance test.

Clashes broke out with police in riot gear, who were out in force after the students were refused permission to hold the march. Television channels and social media showed visuals of police beating the protesters and firing tear gas shells into the crowd.

The demonstrators were not allowed to reach the parliament building, and both houses of India’s top lawmaking body were adjourned for the day. The monsoon session began Monday.

❗️Police Disperse & Push Back Activists As Tear Gas Thrown Back & Forth

RT India correspondent @vnayak1710 reports from Raisina Road in Delhi, where heavy deployments of security officials have pushed the people on the streets back. https://t.co/Z60sk6Dc1e pic.twitter.com/AwBXufster

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 20, 2026

Thousands of students had congregated on the roads around Jantar Mantar – a historic astronomical observatory – in New Delhi, drone videos showed. Some metro stations in central Delhi were closed down in the morning to prevent the protesters from reaching the staging area.

Internet services were shut down in some parts of central Delhi as part of crowd-control measures, which was condemned by the The Internet Freedom Foundation.

The protests are being spearheaded by India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party movement. Its leader Abhijit Dipke is on a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar, having taken over from activist Sonam Wangchuk who was moved to a hospital on Saturday by police after his health deteriorated. He is reportedly continuing his fast.

❗Thousands March To Parliament Over Education Demands

Drone visuals showed a sea of students and young protesters assembled at Delhi's Jantar Mantar before marching towards Parliament.

📹 CJP pic.twitter.com/mqlhL4P2U3

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 20, 2026

Two representatives of the protesters later held talks with the federal health minister, who urged them to disperse to assist law enforcement agencies.

One of them later wrote on X that they had demanded the immediate resignation of India’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan.

Among their other demands were the release of Wangchuk from the hospital and compensation of 10 million rupees ($103,700) each to about 20 students who media reports say took their lives after the cancellation of the national medical entrance exams following question paper leaks.

Nadda said the agitators later submitted a written petition listing their demands.

“I have requested all the protesters to end their sit-in and assist the administration in restoring normalcy,” he said.

But clashes with police continued and thousands of protesters were still in the Jantar Mantar area by evening. Several policemen have been reported injured, and some protesters detained.

An Indian startup has successfully launched its first rocket into low-Earth orbit, placing the country in an elite club that also includes the US and China.

Hyderabad-based space startup Skyroot Aerospace  launched the country’s first privately developed orbital rocket, Vikram-1 on Saturday, carrying several customer payloads and in-orbit experiments.

The rocket successfully injected its payload into a 450 km orbit after a flight lasting about 17 minutes. The mission’s goals include validating the rocket’s capabilities in-flight and collecting data for future commercial launches, Skyroot said.

“Mission Aagaman is a grand success,” the company said in a statement, using its own name for the project. “This is a test flight. We will be doing a few of these before we move into routine commercial flights,” it added.

The Vikram-1 is about 22 meters (72 feet) tall and designed to carry payloads of up to 350 kg into low-Earth orbit. The launch vehicle used a module powered by a 3D-printed engine, which was used for the first time in India.

Skyroot, founded in 2018, became the first space sector startup in the country to hit a $1 billion valuation earlier this year. It launched the Vikram-S mission in 2022, which became the first privately developed rocket to reach space from Indian soil on a suborbital flight.

Hello space, we have arrived! Vikram-1's Test Flight-1 has completed it's mission.

The first ever Indian private sector launch has been successfully completed. #Vikram1 #MissionAagaman #OpeningSpaceForAll

— Skyroot Aerospace (@SkyrootA) July 18, 2026

New Delhi’s successful private space mission comes amid ‌a flurry of activity ⁠in the global small satellite launch market.

The surge in commercial and defense demands has spurred nations across Europe and Asia to boost support for domestic companies to secure independent access to space missions.

India’s private space ecosystem has flourished since New Delhi opened up the space sector to private investment in 2020, with the number of startups increasing from the single digits in 2019 to over 400 by early 2026.

The sector was opened up to encourage startups to build rockets, satellites and launch services, as India aims to increase its share in the space economy to $44 billion by 2033, from about $8 billion currently.

India has up until now relied on space missions created by the state-backed Indian Space Research Organization. It launched 104 satellites into orbit on one rocket in 2017, a record at the time. It also became the fourth country to pull off a lunar landing, when Chandrayaan-3 touched down near the moon’s south pole in 2023.

Skyroot’s achievement is also expected to boost private investor backing for Indian space startups, which are promising to compete with heavily funded global incumbents, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Global market intelligence platform Tracxn estimates that funding for Indian space startups has increased five-fold since 2020, to $152 million in 2025.

The market is crowded with players in the US, Europe, and China. In June, when Elon Musk-backed SpaceX began trading on Nasdaq, it was valued at about $1.77 trillion.

India’s concerns on finalizing a trade deal with the US have been underscored by Washington’s move to slap 25% tariffs on Brazil.

The US announced the 25% tariffs on Thursday following a Section 301 investigation into Brazil’s trade practices. The tariffs are scheduled to take effect on July 22.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative cited Brazil’s preferential tariff arrangements with India and Mexico as one of the reasons for imposing the tariffs on certain Brazilian imports.

New Delhi has concerns that the US is likely to slap similar tariffs on India, which is also the subject of a probe along with China and other countries. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated last month that tariff rates could return to previous levels after US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer “concludes studies on Section 301 investigations.”

The US has been exploring ways to bring back the levies after the Supreme Court struck down the earlier tariffs imposed by the Trump administration under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act as illegal.

India and the US announced the broad contours of a trade pact in February after protracted negotiations. However, talks for a final deal lost momentum after the Supreme Court’s decision.

Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said last month that New Delhi “cannot enter into force a US deal” until the “framework for getting a competitive advantage is finalized.

India’s key export sectors, including textiles, could all face uncertainty depending on how the US proceeds with the Section 301 probes, academic Biswajit Dhar was cited by the Hindu Business Line as saying.

The majority of India’s crude import requirements this month are likely to be met by Russia, following a similar trend in June, as refiners scramble to stock up as fresh US sanctions loom.

Russia accounted for half of India’s June crude imports. In July, these will surpass 5 million barrels per day (mbd) with Russia accounting for around 2.6-2.7 mbd, The Hindu Business Line reported, quoting an unnamed senior executive of a refiner.

Last month’s rise came despite a sanctions waiver from the US ending halfway through the month as the world’s third-largest energy importer looks to keep its domestic market supplied. The reliance on Russian crude became more notable for India following the disruption to the passage of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, triggered by the US and Israel’s attack on Iran.

The trend will likely continue in August as the first-half supply contracts have already been made, the report said.

India has rolled out a hydrogen train service as a pilot project using fuel-cell technology, joining an elite four-nation group that operates these trains.

The pilot project is envisaged to test hydrogen technology, as the world’s most populous country embraces clean technologies for the travel needs of its 1.4 billion citizens. Only Germany, Japan, the US, and China have hydrogen-powered rail services.

The hydrogen train will run on an 89-km stretch in the northern state of Haryana between Jind and Sonipat. It will have a maximum operational speed of 75 kph and can go up to 110 kph.

The train, which can carry up to 2,600 passengers, has ten cars – two hydrogen-powered driving cars and eight passenger coaches – making it the largest train in the hydrogen category.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who attended the inaugural ceremony on Friday morning, called it “a major leap towards green mobility” for the country in an X post.

India takes a major leap towards green mobility!

In Jind, flagged off India’s first indigenous hydrogen-powered train between Jind and Sonipat.

This remarkable achievement reflects the ingenuity and dedication of the Indian Railways team. It is a proud symbol of Aatmanirbhar… pic.twitter.com/hVo89u5vvI

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 17, 2026

Hydrogen fuel-cells convert hydrogen to electricity using an electrochemical process to run the train. The byproducts are water vapor and heat, making it an attractive alternative to diesel, which emits carbon dioxide, soot, and other exhaust gases.

However, it is less energy efficient than direct-electric trains which draw power from an overhead wire or third rail.

Refueling is quicker compared to recharging large batteries. The pilot project includes hydrogen storage and refueling facilities.

Russia is offering India the joint production of the latest T-90MS tank, a representative of Rosoboronexport (ROE) told RT India.

According to Russia’s key state-owned defense exporter, which is part of the Rostec state corporation, co-production of the T-90MS could become the next stage of Russian-Indian cooperation in the tank sector. T-90MS is an export version of Russia’s latest T-90M tank series, designed and manufactured by Uralvagonzavod, also a part of Rostec.

The South Asian nation already operates a significant fleet of T-72 and T-90S tanks, which are being successfully upgraded by the country’s own defense industry.

According to ROE, the potential project for localization of the T-90MS could be implemented in several stages: first, the supply of technological kits for assembly at Indian facilities; and second, the localization of component manufacturing.

“The technical foundation created by the technologies already transferred significantly reduces both the cost and the time needed to establish production of the T-90MS and combat vehicles based on it at Indian enterprises,” the company representative said.

Earlier this year, Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov also praised the T-90MS’s combat performance, saying it stands “head and shoulders above” its NATO counterparts.

The T-90MS is also equipped with a new fire-control system based on a “digital onboard” architecture. Its design includes integrated information-command systems and other innovative solutions. The tank has enhanced firepower thanks to a new range of artillery rounds and guided missiles.

Comparing the T-90MS with foreign tank models, a representative of Uralvagonzavod told TASS in May that, according to Russian military personnel operating the T-90M on the battlefield, the tank demonstrated exceptionally high effectiveness in combat missions in the Ukraine conflict. He added that the tank compares favorably with Western main battle tanks such as the American M1 Abrams and the German Leopard 2, whose effectiveness has come under question after battlefield testing in Ukraine.

Adding that, given India’s existing experience with Russian platforms, the training of crews, instructors, and field-repair specialists would be greatly simplified, as would the standardization of repair equipment and training simulators.

India has been buying Russian tanks since the 1960s. In 2001, New Delhi and Moscow signed a major deal for the supply and licensed production of T-90S tanks in India. Produced as the “T-90 Bhishma” at the Heavy Vehicles Factory in Avadi, Chennai, the program has already delivered more than 1,000 units.

India is currently carrying out a major modernization of its armored fleet. A five-year program, approved at a cost of more than $7.8 billion, focuses on extending the service life and improving the combat readiness of legacy platforms, including 790 T-72 “Ajeya” tanks, 200 T-90 “Bhishma” tanks, 500 BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, and 230 armored recovery vehicles.

ROE noted that Moscow is also offering India technical solutions and systems already used in the latest T-90MS for incorporation into the modernization program for India’s existing T-90S fleet. The Russian side is also open to working in parallel on the joint development of future armored vehicles, given that New Delhi is working on a massive Future Ready Combat Vehicle (FRCV) program, which aims to procure 1,770 next-generation main battle tanks to replace its aging Soviet-era T-72 fleet.

The Middle East conflict has helped Iran to realize it has a potent weapon in its arsenal in the contentious Strait of Hormuz, a former Indian diplomat said.

At the same time, the stated objectives of the US in the conflict it unleashed also stand unfulfilled, former diplomat Rajiv Sikri told RT India in an exclusive interview.

“Americans just can’t stand the thought that they’ve lost this war because none of the objectives for which they fought the war appear to have been achieved, whether it was regime change or the nuclear issue,” Sikri told Runjhun Sharma in the latest episode of India, Russia and the World.

The ceasefire was brokered because after the Americans and the Israelis tried to bomb Iran into submission, “they ran out of ammunition.”

The issue with the protracted conflict is that Israel doesn’t want this war to stop and for all stakeholders, “this has become an existential issue.”

“For Iran, it was a question of survival,” he said, adding that Israel considers Iran as a principal rival “preventing its total domination of the region.”

Not succeeding against a “regional power like Iran is very humiliating” for Washington also, he pointed out.

Iran is vital to Moscow as it is in the same neighborhood. “Any instability there would affect Russia. I don’t think that Russia wants Iran to collapse,” he said, adding that Moscow will provide considerable assistance on the security and technological fronts to Iran.

He said that Russian Security Council Deputy Chair Dmitry Medvedev’s presence at the funeral of slain Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei signals that Russia will stand by the country. “It’s a message to Iran and to America, Israel, and the rest of the world,” Sikri said.

He also noted that the Tarique Rahman administration in Bangladesh has not done anything to reverse some of the questionable and anti-India policies of the Muhammad Yunus regime.

“I think India will have to be quite alert and watchful on what is happening in Bangladesh because you have now a revival of the pre-1971 scenario where you had China, US and Pakistan working in concert.”

New Delhi has asked shipping companies and vessel operators to refrain from deploying Indian sailors in vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, where several ships have come under attack earlier this week.

The advisory comes in the wake of attacks on two ships in the Strait of Hormuz that left two Indian crew members dead and eight others injured in the contentious waterway. The Middle East conflict has resulted in the death of nearly a dozen Indian nationals. Several seafarers have been rescued from ships and tankers that were struck.

“Ship owners, ship managers and (hiring and staffing) companies are directed to avoid deploying Indian seafarers on vessels undertaking voyages involving passage through the Strait of Hormuz until further orders,” India’s Director General of Maritime Administration (DGMA) said in a notification on Wednesday.

The DGMA asked vessel operators to adhere to “heightened security vigilance in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and adjoining waters” and that it “continues to closely monitor the evolving security situation and remains committed to safeguarding the safety, security and welfare of Indian seafarers.”

Advisory for Indian Maritime Stakeholders

In view of the heightened security situation in the Gulf region, the Directorate General of Maritime Administration (DGMA), through DGMA Circular No. 36 of 2026, has directed Ship Owners, Ship Managers and RPSL Companies to avoid… pic.twitter.com/s8XgKI1ifn

— Directorate General of Shipping, Govt. of India (@dgshipping_IN) July 15, 2026

The Indian sailors stranded in the Middle East shipping lanes when Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz and US forces blockaded Iran were mostly employed on foreign-flagged ships.

Indians are disproportionately impacted by the attacks on ships in various global conflict areas as the country has some 300,000 nationals working on ships, making it the third-largest supplier of maritime labor globally.

He added that the Indian government “needs to do more to protect these seafarers.”

“We have ships which are being targeted in Ukrainian waters or in Russian waters or transiting through Black Sea. Then we have ships through the Hormuz Strait, even in West Africa.”

The Middle East conflict has flared up again as the ceasefire agreement reached in June has unraveled after the US and Iran traded strikes, and struck ships trying to transit the strait.

The operator of India’s largest nuclear power plant has denied that any nuclear safety or security-related information was exposed in a recently reported data breach at the facility.

The leaked data is related to common service facilities and not the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant itself, according to a statement by Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL), the owner and operator of the plant.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that ransomware group World Leaks had posted a large cache of files related to the plant on the dark web.

The exposed documents included purported blueprints of parts of the plant’s facilities and supplier details, Reuters said, adding nearly 19,000 files totaling 14.3 gigabytes could have been online.

The plant, which is in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, is being built in collaboration between NPCIL and Russia’s state-owned Rosatom. When complete, it will house six pressurized water reactors. Two units with a capacity of 1,000 MW each are already operational.

“The information claimed to be available on the public domain…  does not relate to any nuclear safety – or nuclear security-related systems or information,” NPCIL said, terming facilities of “conventional nature” that are typically found in thermal power plants as well as other process industries.

❗Kundankulam Data Leak: NPCIL Says No Nuclear Safety Or Security Information Exposed

India's Nuclear Power Corporation said the leaked documents were not related to the plant's core systems, adding that the incident involved data linked to an engineering contractor's… pic.twitter.com/6NO4ZjxqwQ

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 16, 2026

The stolen information came from Indian businessman Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group, which was awarded a contract in 2018 to build all the systems in the power plant other than the actual nuclear facility. Reliance Group told Reuters in a statement that there had been a “partial breach” of its data on a server hosted by third-party Indian data center service provider Yotta, and that the government had been informed of the incident.

Yotta claimed it had prevented suspected ransomware execution on May 29.

The data breach could pose a “serious” risk to the safety of the plant, Nickolas Roth, a senior director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, was quoted as saying by Reuters. However, the news agency also said it could not verify the authenticity of the documents on the dark web.

The dark web is a hidden part of the internet that is unindexed by standard search engines, and can be searched only by using a specialized browser.

World Leaks usually posts stolen corporate data on its website after its victims decline to pay the ransom demanded. In June, the hacker group posted files of Tata Group, which contained confidential designs of its clients Apple and Tesla, after the Indian conglomerate ignored the hacker’s demand for $1.5 million in ransom.

Malware tied to a North Korean hacker group was found on the Kudankulam plant’s administrative network in 2019.

India will run short of the key infrastructure resources needed to power the explosive growth in data centers the country is witnessing, without smart planning, a technology industry analyst told RT India.

India has about 150 operational data centers, with over 100 on the way, driven by the country’s AI boom and cloud adoption.

Data centers guzzle water and power. However, both are in scarce supply in India’s biggest cities where the bulk of them are being built – Navi Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Noida – as well as Jamnagar, RT India reported.

In 2020, India’s data centers consumed around 375 megawatts (MW) of electricity, which jumped to 1,500 MW by 2025. By 2032, the figure is projected to hit 13.56 gigawatts, a 30-fold increase in just over a decade.

A 1 MW data center requires around 26 million liters of water for cooling. A 30 MW facility needs 780 million liters, and a 160 MW one needs as much as 4.2 billion liters of water.

Over half (59%) of Indian districts faced water scarcity in 2025, and 3% are facing absolute scarcity.

Globally, there is a scramble to put guardrails to protect the environment and minimize the potential burden on local communities from data centers.

“The amount of infrastructure required, the resources required to support these gigawatts of data centers by the end of 2030 is going to be unprecedented,” a technology industry analyst at Counterpoint Research in Mumbai, Neil Shah, told RT India.

He noted that India doesn’t have enough resources and hasn’t “even planned for this particular increase.”

In Mumbai, which is on course to be one of the country’s biggest AI data center hubs, an estimated one-third of the electricity will be consumed by data centers. There are 28 new data centers being built in the city alone.

“We still have grids shared with the public infrastructure as well as these upcoming AI data centers,” Shah pointed out.

He said that there has to be “dedicated power grids and supply” built for these structures.

At some point, smart planning for the “required type of electricity, whether it’s renewables or whether it’s nuclear,” will have to come into play, Shah noted.
The approvals for future projects should be templatized to incorporate clean energy standards, emphasizing renewable energy, “whether it is about water recycling… energy efficiency,” he said.

He cited the example of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio as a template to be emulated. At its Jamnagar data facility, Reliance envisages that 50%-60% of the requirements would be met with smart renewables.

“The water recycling and everything is taken care of,” Shah pointed out.

Shah also suggested regular energy audits to scrutinize consumption patterns and separate billing standards for data center-scale electricity and water consumption.

A Russian company is planning to set up shop in India’s GIFT City, an international financial services center, to sell gold to Indians crazy for the yellow metal.

PJSC MGKL, the holding company of Russian pawnshop chain Mosgorlombard, said it will register at the financial center in the western Indian state of Gujarat to enter the capital market.

Mosgorlombard will start with installing automated terminals for the purchase and sale of gold and silver, Interfax reported.

The next step will be to set up a company in India to offer loans secured by gold.
Last year, Indian households held a staggering 34,000 tons of gold, CNBC reported, quoting Morgan Stanley, with some estimates valuing it at $5 trillion. The gold loan market in the country has outstanding portfolios of $225 billion.

Still only 10-12% of household gold is currently pledged, leaving massive room for growth for companies such as Mosgorlombard.

Mosgorlombard is a major pawnshop chain and resale platform that offers instant short-term loans against jewelry, furs, and electronics.

“Considering the scale and maturity of the gold-backed loans market in India, we expect strong demand for contactless acceptance of gold items,” MGKL CEO Aleksey Lazutin said in a statement.

MGKL also operates in the wholesale purchase and processing of precious metals. In April, Indian rating agency CareEdge Global gave a long-term local currency credit rating of B- to MGKL, with a stable outlook.

Entities in GIFT City, modeled on the lines of other global financial centers such as Singapore’s Marina Bay and Dubai’s DIFC, are allowed to transact in foreign currencies, make use of tax incentives, and tap India’s booming financial ecosystem.

The banking asset size of the center exceeds $100 billion.

India and Russia will sign a pact to speed up operationalizing the Arctic shipping route as the countries take steps to achieve a targeted $100 billion in bilateral trade.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin posted on the official portal of regulatory legal acts on Tuesday that Rosatom’s proposal to develop cooperation in maritime cargo transportation along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) has been approved.

The Arctic route will provide India with alternative passages to ship commodities to markets in eastern and northern Europe, saving up to 40% in distance and about two weeks of travel time compared to traditional routes through the Suez Canal.

The uncertainty over the transit of commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after the Middle East conflict began late in February has impacted India, which is heavily dependent on energy imports.

The Arctic route pact would also be a significant boost to efforts by Russia and India to achieve the targeted $100 billion in bilateral trade by 2030.

🇷🇺🇮🇳 Russia Moves To Fast-Track Arctic Trade Route With India

Russia has authorized state nuclear giant Rosatom to sign an MoU with India to expand cooperation on cargo transport through the Northern Sea Route (NSR) - the shipping corridor that could emerge as an alternative to… pic.twitter.com/ByP8NnqUNP

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 15, 2026

Rosatom was instructed to sign the memorandum on behalf of the Russian government, Mishustin posted. Rosatom, which has assets in power engineering, machine building, and construction, is Russia’s designated operator and coordinator of the NSR.

The state-owned conglomerate also manages Russia’s unique fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, essential for keeping the Arctic shipping lane navigable.

In June, Aleksey Chekunkov, Russia’s minister for the development of the Far East and the Arctic, said India is considering increasing its use of the NSR in the wake of disruptions to seaborne trade in the Strait of Hormuz.

The outcomes of Putin’s trip also included the expansion of logistics links to develop the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), the Chennai–Vladivostok corridor – also known as the Eastern Maritime Corridor (EMC) – and the NSR.

Putin said that cooperation on the 3,500-mile NSR, the 4,500-mile INSTC, and the 6,450-mile EMC would accelerate under the new bilateral agreement.

A man who claims to be a US national and to have served in the US Navy has been arrested in India for sneaking into the country without valid identification.

Jordan Brown was detained Monday as he tried to cross over to Nepal from India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh. He tried to escape when challenged by border guards but was arrested with help from local people. 

Brown reportedly told officials that he hails from California, studied at the University of California, and served in the US Navy and Special Forces. He said he left the service two years ago.

Indian agencies are viewing Brown’s arrest seriously as in March, an American citizen was arrested by India’s anti-terror agency along with six Ukrainian nationals. Former US special forces soldier Matthew Van Dyke was accused of illegally entering India’s restricted northeast, crossing over into Myanmar illegally, and providing weapons training to insurgents there.

🚨Security Alert As 'Ex-US Navy' Man Held After 8 Months Illegal Stay In India

A man claiming to be a former US Navy serviceman was arrested near the India-Nepal. He was without a passport or valid travel documents, according to police.

Authorities said the 36-year-old claimed… https://t.co/HnMW16Jhav pic.twitter.com/uep6krIFbv

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 14, 2026

Van Dyke recently made headlines for seeking permission to cook his own meals in Delhi’s Tihar Jail where he is being held.

India’s border police recovered 31,460 rupees ($330) in cash and two mobile phones, religious books, an AI translation device, a Chinese passport, a diary, and a wristwatch from Brown.

He has been booked under the Immigration and Foreigners Act for entering India without valid documents. “We have informed the embassies, and further legal proceedings are underway,” said an officer. It is not clear whether the officer was referring to the US and Chinese embassies.

Brown has made various claims about his travel history. According to one account, he traveled to Thailand on a tourist visa. After losing his passport there, he managed to reach Sri Lanka by sea, and then India. Brown claims he resided in Goa on India’s west coast before trying to travel to Nepal.

In another statement, he said he arrived in Goa directly from the US two months ago and spent six weeks there. He then went to Bengaluru, from where he boarded a long-distance bus to the north Indian city of Lucknow on July 8, and later reached Gorakhpur, then hired a taxi to Sonauli, where he was arrested.

India is the only nation that is being forced to fuel growth while reducing its carbon footprint, an economic expert told RT India.

Today’s developed economies grew first and then retrofitted climate change mitigation, former Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar said in the latest episode of ‘In Conversation with Salman Khurshid’ on RT TV.

“No other country in the world, history, had to grow exponentially and also reduce its carbon footprint at the same time,” Kumar said. “Other countries embarked on the growth process first and then retrofitted.”

“We don’t have that option,” he told Khurshid. India is now the world’s fourth-largest economy.

The IMF said last week in its World Economic Outlook that “India remains among the fastest growing major economies, with growth projected at 6.4%, supported by strong momentum in private consumption and services activity.” 

The world’s most populous nation has, at the same time, committed to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 45% below its 2005 levels until 2030, and achieve Net Zero by 2070.

Kumar also noted that it is a fact that private investors are not very keen on India, and that foreign investors have been taking money out.

“Our own investors are investing abroad or acquiring assets abroad,” he pointed out.

“In our country, unfortunately, our principal stakeholders – the government, the business, private sector, civil society, and academia – after 70 years, don’t work on the basis of mutual trust,” he said.

This approach, he added, doesn’t work in a global scenario, where competition is vigorous.

Kumar pointed out that India had suffered from some severe deficits including “the infrastructure deficit… the education or the skill deficit, or the health deficit.”

But many of these have been tackled quite successfully in the last decade. “What is still not changed enough is the education system,” he said.

“Although we have had a national education policy after three decades and I think its implementation is being done, but ever so gradually, and I hope it will speed up as we go along,” Kumar said.

He termed artificial intelligence “the fifth technological revolution” after steam, electricity, and others.

The economist stated that the time has come for India to collaborate with China to transform its economy.

India and China together can “make a huge difference to this global order and to the global economy,” he said.

India-China economic relations are slowly getting back on track, after a deadly border clash between their militaries froze ties in 2020.

The $100 billion bilateral trade target between India and Russia, he said, is “a target which is not just worth achieving, but must be achieved.”

“It’s an important trajectory to pursue as to which are the industries where we can export… increase our exports to Russia.”

India has summoned Iran’s deputy chief of mission in New Delhi after an attack on two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz left an Indian crew member dead and injured eight others.

The attack was the second such incident in less than a week, after the hostilities in the Middle East over the control of the strategic waterway resumed following a lull induced by a temporary truce between Iran and the US in June.

The defense ministry of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said in a social media post on Tuesday that an Indian crew member died and eight others were injured when two of its tankers were struck by Iranian cruise missiles while transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.

India’s foreign ministry said it summoned Mohammad Javad Hosseini to lodge a ‘strong protest’ against the Iranian attacks on oil tankers passing through the waterway.

The Mombasa and Al Bahiyah were struck while transiting via the southern lane of the strait in Oman’s territorial waters. The dead crew member was on board the Mombasa tanker.

❗️ India ‘Deeply Concerned’ By Attacks on Two Vessels in Strait of Hormuz – MEA

‘We strongly condemn these attacks and acts of violence targeting seafarers and disrupting free and safe navigation through international waterways.’

One Indian seafarer tragically lost his life in… https://t.co/VIZ1zx6ln2 pic.twitter.com/FUqW38cUL7

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 14, 2026

Of the eight wounded, four were seriously injured. Six of the wounded were Indian nationals, and the rest were identified as Ukrainian nationals.

“India is closely monitoring the situation and is in touch with the UAE authorities to ensure assistance to the affected Indian seafarers,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

New Delhi “strongly condemned” the attacks targeting seafarers and disrupting free and safe navigation through international waterways, adding “the targeting of commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure in the region must cease.”

The Middle East conflict has resulted in the death of nearly a dozen Indian nationals. Several seafarers have been rescued as ships and tankers have come under attack.

An Indian sailor who was onboard the Cyprus-flagged GFS Galaxy, which was attacked off Oman’s northern coast while transiting the Strait of Hormuz last Saturday, is also reportedly missing. Twenty-three crew members, including ten Indian sailors, have been rescued.

India summoned US Chargé d’Affaires Jason Meeks to the Foreign Ministry in New Delhi twice then over the deaths.

Washington has said it will resume enforcing a maritime blockade of Iran from Tuesday. US forces also carried out new waves of attacks over the weekend on Iranian targets in retaliation for Tehran’s strikes on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has targeted several countries in the Middle East, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Jordan after the US attacks.

The bodies of 15 tourists who drowned in a speedboat accident in Vietnam on Saturday afternoon have been returned to India.

The vessel was ferrying 32 Indian tourists and four Vietnamese crew members when it capsized, shortly after departing Hon May Rut Ngoai island, authorities said.

The bodies were flown from Ho Chi Minh City to Mumbai on Monday, the Indian embassy in Vietnam posted on X. The embassy said earlier that 16 survivors had been discharged from a local hospital and were returning to India. All the deceased were from the south of the country.

The mortal remains of the 15 Indian nationals have departed from Ho Chi Minh City to Mumbai by Vietnam Airlines flight VN 979 and will arrive at 2130 hours local time.

The State Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu will coordinate transportation of mortal remains…

— India in Vietnam (@AmbHanoi) July 13, 2026

The boat overturned within minutes of departure when a large wave hit it, AP reported. The boat swerved in rough waters before it capsized. Rescue teams arrived within five minutes and pulled survivors from the water.

One survivor, who is in critical condition, has been transferred to Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for specialized treatment.

The tourist group was on a trip organized by a smartphone manufacturer for its employees, distributors, and retail partners.

The accident occurred about 6 miles south of Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s largest island and one of its most popular beach destinations, which attracts millions of domestic and foreign tourists each year.

India’s private sector players are increasingly taking up hardware and equipment manufacturing as the country ramps up defense production, seeking to reduce its reliance on costly imports, RT India reports.

India’s annual defense production surged to an all-time high of $18.64 billion in the financial year (FY) 2025-26. This is a 15.6% increase on the previous financial year’s $16.13 billion, and a 110% surge since FY 2020-21, when the figure was $8.86 billion.

The private sector’s share of this ramp-up is noteworthy, considering defense production has traditionally been a preserve of India’s public sector. The private sector contributed nearly a fourth, or 24%, of the total production in FY25-26, up from 22% in FY 2024-25, official figures show.

India was the second largest arms importer globally in the 2021-2025 period, with a 8.2% share. Russia is India’s primary supplier, accounting for 40% of its arms imports.

From cutting-edge drones to deep-tech supply chains, and precision electronics to autonomous systems, private players are now producing a whole gamut of defense equipment for the Indian military.

Indigenous innovation is also steadily becoming a key pillar of military modernization in line with the country’s Make-in-India initiative.

Considering that high-value programs such as the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft stealth fighter project are reportedly being offered to private firms to bid for, the intent becomes clear, former vice chief of the Indian Army, Lt. Gen. Philip Campose, told RT.

An example of this private sector bounce is Botlab Dynamics, an IIT Delhi startup, which has expanded into military technology through its defense vertical Vyod.

Its flagship platform, the Atri Nano Drone, weighs around 250 grams and offers real-time situational awareness on the battleground with a 2-km range, 30 minutes of endurance, thermal imaging, and encrypted live video.

The drones, which can aid troops to identify threats without exposing themselves to danger, take just seconds to deploy.

The Indian Navy and Army have such surveillance drones in operation. Behind every drone lies an extensive supply chain of small businesses and specialized manufacturers across India, RT reported.

Amid India’s renewed push for military modernization following last year’s brief clash with Pakistan, the role of these deep tech start-ups is becoming more important than ever for the country.

An Indian sailor is missing after an attack on a commercial shipping vessel in the Strait of Hormuz area on Saturday.

The Cyprus-flagged GFS Galaxy was attacked off Oman’s northern coast while transiting the Strait of Hormuz as the shaky ceasefire between Iran and the US unravelled. Search operations are continuing for the missing sailor, while 23 crew members were rescued and given medical aid.

“Of the 11 Indian nationals on board, ten have been rescued so far, while one Indian National is reportedly missing,” India’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. New Delhi condemned the attack, saying the targeting of civilian shipping and infrastructure in the region must end.

In June, three Indian sailors died when US forces enforcing a naval blockade of Iran fired on their vessel, the MT Settebello.

The deaths led to domestic pressure on the Modi government to raise the issue with the Trump administration, with India twice summoning US Chargé d’Affaires Jason Meeks to the Foreign Ministry in New Delhi.

Our statement on the attack on a commercial vessel off the coast of Oman ⬇️

🔗 https://t.co/JtqdfO6iJ0 pic.twitter.com/V6jD6zJOtx

— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) July 12, 2026

The GFS Galaxy, a container ship, issued a distress call after it was hit, which reportedly happened about 44 nautical miles off Musandam Governorate, Oman’s Maritime Security Center said in a social media post on Sunday.

The UK Maritime Trade Operation had earlier reported a fire on board a container ship. Authorities later said the crew abandoned the vessel and evacuated into a lifeboat.

India’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson termed the continued attacks on commercial shipping in the region “worrisome.” The ministry said New Delhi is coordinating with Omani authorities on the search and rescue operation.

The US on Sunday said it carried out fresh waves of attacks on Iranian targets in retaliation for Tehran’s strikes on a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran responded with a barrage of airstrikes targeting several countries in the Middle East, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Jordan.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Yearbook 2026 published in June, India has operationally deployed 12 nuclear warheads for the first time. This marks a significant departure from decades of cautious policy where India strictly stockpiled warheads and delivery systems in separate locations.

The newly deployed warheads are believed to be nested within its nuclear submarines and potentially underground missile silos to shorten reaction times. The assessment highlights that India’s total estimated inventory has risen from 180 warheads last year to 190 currently.

The report claims that this is the first time part of India’s arsenal has been classified as operationally deployed rather than just stockpiled. This shift signals the maturation of India’s sea-based deterrent (such as its Arihant-class submarines) and heightened readiness to counter rapidly expanding arsenals in the region (such as that of China, for instance).

By deploying a small number of warheads (12 out of 190, as per SIPRI) on a ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) and conducting deterrence patrols, India seems to have achieved “continuous at-Sea deterrence,” a military strategy where a country keeps at least one nuclear-armed SSBN continuously patrolling the oceans undetected.

Despite this operational shift in posture, India maintains its foundational No-First-Use (NFU) doctrine. India’s capability is designed purely to deter potential aggressors rather than engage in an arms race.

India faces a uniquely fraught security environment, with two nuclear‑armed neighbors. New Delhi has ongoing territorial disputes and a history of war with both of them. It is therefore important to understand how India’s deployment compares with the nuclear postures of China and Pakistan.

China’s nuclear weapons program

China possesses the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal, with an estimated stockpile of over 620 warheads, SIPRI estimates. The program is undergoing a rapid modernization and expansion, shifting from a historical policy of “minimal deterrence” to a robust nuclear triad. China could potentially have at least as many ICBMs as either Russia or the USA by 2030, depending on how it decides to structure its forces. China’s land-based ICBMs include missiles such as the DF-5B and the highly mobile DF-41. Hundreds of new missile silos have been constructed in remote regions to improve the survivability of forces.

The primary purpose of China’s modernization is to ensure a secure “second-strike” capability. Experts report that elements of China’s nuclear forces have moved towards a launch-on-warning posture, meaning they are ready to retaliate while incoming missiles are still in flight rather than waiting for them to detonate. China continues to upgrade its supporting infrastructure, including plutonium production capabilities and advanced explosive testing facilities.

Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program

Pakistan possesses an estimated 170 nuclear warheads, making it the sixth-largest nuclear-armed state globally, the SPIRI report shows. Initiated in 1972, its nuclear weapons program was a response to regional tensions with New Delhi. Pakistan, like India, is not party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Islamabad’s nuclear strategy is based on “full-spectrum deterrence,” designed primarily to counter conventional military threats. Pakistan, moreover, does not maintain an NFU posture.

Its arsenal is deployed across a nuclear triad of land, air, and sea capabilities. A diverse range of ballistic and cruise missiles, including the Shaheen-III, which has a maximum range of 2,750 kilometers. Dual-capable aircraft such as the F-16 and Mirage III/V, supplemented by air-launched cruise missiles like the Ra’ad are the Air Vector. Submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs) are in development to solidify a robust sea-based second-strike capability. Storage of its nuclear payloads are well spread at different locations. The program’s historical development was notably aided by nuclear technology procurement networks established by metallurgist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

India’s nuclear triad

India’s nuclear triad is a three-pronged military force structure that allows the country to launch nuclear strikes from land, air, and sea. Fully operational since 2018, the triad underpins India’s nuclear doctrine of credible minimum deterrence (CMD) and its NFU policy.

The land leg forms the backbone of India’s strategic deterrence and relies heavily on the indigenous Agni series of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles. Agni-V is an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) with a range exceeding 5,000 km and capable of reaching targets deep within Asia and Europe. It is canister-launched, providing high mobility and quick response times. The Agni-P and Agni-IV are advanced intermediate-range missiles ensuring complete coverage of the immediate region.

The sea leg is the most survivable and secretive part of the triad, ensuring India retains a robust second-strike capability even if land and air bases are destroyed. The fleet consists of indigenous Arihant-class Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear (SSBN) submarines. Arihant, India’s first indigenous SSBN, was commissioned in 2016 and successfully deployed on deterrence patrols. It is armed with K-15 Sagarika Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs, 750 km range).

In 2024, India commissioned another nuclear submarine, the INS Arighaat, to strengthen the sea-based deterrent. The third SSBN, INS Aridhaman, was quietly commissioned in April 2026. It is equipped to carry the longer-range K-4 SLBMs (3,500 km range), drastically expanding India’s strategic reach from the ocean.

Russia – and before it, the Soviet Union – has been India’s principal external partner in both its conventional and nuclear submarine journey, providing technology, training and long-term lease arrangements that helped lay the foundation for India’s indigenous undersea deterrent.

This partnership began with the lease of INS Chakra I, a Charlie-class nuclear attack submarine, from 1988 to 1991, followed by INS Chakra II, an Akula-class SSN leased from 2012 to 2021. The planned induction of INS Chakra III, another Akula-class submarine under a $3 billion, ten-year lease deal, has been delayed as the vessel undergoes deep modernization in Russia.  

Beyond leasing, Russian assistance played a direct role in shaping India’s Arihant-class submarines, particularly in the development of their pressurized water reactors, where Russian expertise and design support helped India overcome major engineering challenges in naval nuclear propulsion. Russian specialists also trained Indian crews near St. Petersburg and Vladivostok, giving the Indian Navy critical experience in operating nuclear-powered submarines and enabling it to develop both its sea-based nuclear doctrine and its own indigenous SSN program.

Pillars of India’s nuclear doctrine

New Delhi’s nuclear doctrine, formalized and released in 2003, is anchored on two core pillars:  a strict NFU policy and a posture of CMD. It emphasizes civilian command, massive retaliatory strikes, and a commitment to global nuclear disarmament.

India will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against states that do not possess nuclear weapons. However, India explicitly reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of a major attack on India or its forces using biological or chemical weapons.

India maintains a stringent policy of export controls regarding nuclear and missile-related technologies and remains committed to non-proliferation.

Until now, only the five “official” nuclear weapons powers (the US, Russia, China, UK, and France) had “deployed” nuclear weapons. Even as New Delhi’s doctrine remains unchanged on paper, its nuclear posture is quietly shifting towards greater deployment and readiness, driven by new technology, a maturing submarine force, and the pressures of China’s rapid arsenal expansion.

Security of India’s nuclear assets

India’s Strategic Forces Command (SFC) is an integrated tri-service command responsible for the management, administration, and execution of the country’s tactical and strategic nuclear weapons stockpile. Operating under the Nuclear Command Authority (NCA), it ensures operational readiness and implements all nuclear contingency plans. NCA has the ultimate operational control and the authorization to use nuclear weapons lie exclusively with the civilian political leadership. The NCA includes a Political Council, chaired by the prime minister, and an Executive Council, chaired by the national security advisor.

For a long time, India kept the core components of its nuclear weapons and their delivery assemblies separate – one under the Department of Atomic Energy and the other under the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). These “de-mated” weapons were likely stored at five centralized locations rather than at bases housing operational forces. They would be mated and handed over to the Strategic Forces Command only after authorization by the Nuclear Command Authority, for deployment on missiles or aircraft.

This system incorporated multiple layers of security, including authorization codes at each stage, and was designed to work quickly if a nuclear emergency ever arose. But while the arrangement was secure and well-tested, it was less suited to rapid response. That is where the need for mated weapons began to emerge.

A nuclear-powered submarine can remain underwater for extremely long periods, limited mainly by its reactor cycle and food supplies. The warheads it carries are kept mated. Operating hundreds, and often thousands, of kilometers from home, such submarines rely, once submerged, only on the transmission of target data and authorization codes through Very Low Frequency (VLF) systems.

Strengthening nuclear deterrence

Given its no-first-use (NFU) policy, India must ensure that no surprise attack can neutralize its relatively limited arsenal – especially when compared with the thousands of warheads held by the US and Russia, and the hundreds possessed by China. Some analysts argue that it may be time for India to revisit its NFU posture. China, for example, has long maintained an NFU policy on paper, but is now rapidly expanding and modernizing its arsenal. By that logic, survivability depends not just on doctrine but on numbers and capability, and some believe India may ultimately need an arsenal of around 500 warheads.

The sea leg is increasingly becoming the backbone of India’s second-strike capability, with stretched Arihant-class submarines entering service and a much larger S-5 class under development. India has also been testing Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles (MIRVs), which allow a single missile to carry several warheads aimed at different targets, significantly improving its ability to penetrate missile defenses.

To preserve a credible NFU posture in an era of faster and more precise adversary technologies, India is prioritizing redundant, secure communications and peacetime patrols for its naval nuclear platforms. Other advanced systems – such as Fractional Orbital Bombardment Systems (FOBS), hypersonic glide vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles – remain in the early stages of development. Even so, India is strengthening its nuclear deterrent slowly, but steadily.

Australia will return three ancient artefacts stolen from temples in South India, the country’s prime minister announced Friday.

In a return gesture, an Indian museum will return the remains of a First Nations ancestor it holds to Australia.

The repatriations were announced during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s just-concluded visit to Australia.

The three antiquities housed in the National Gallery of Australia are being returned after police in the southern state of Tamil Nadu established that they had been removed from temples there and trafficked overseas.

One of them is the stone image of Shanmukha, the six-headed form of the god Karttikeya, known differently as Murugan, Skanda, and Subramanya. It was carved during the period of the Cholas, a 9th century south-Indian maritime empire that stretched up to present day Bali.

Return Of Iconic Indian Treasures Siphoned Off By Colonial Powers Is 'A Great Uplift' Both 'Spiritually & Emotionally,' Art Enthusiast @Jaimadaan_ tells RT India Presenter @osamashaab pic.twitter.com/tcvkrhYOw0

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 10, 2026

The other two items are a ceremonial metal trident, crowned with a figure of the goddess Bhadrakali; and a stone sculpture of Nandi, the sacred bull of the god Shiva.

Tamil Nadu police said in a statement that the artefacts were being repatriated under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty and will be handed over to the temples from where they were stolen.

The skull of the First Nations ancestor in the Government Museum in Chennai was received in 1935 when India was under British colonial rule; and it had sent a skull of an Indian male to Australia in return. Such arrangements were common among colonial territories.

Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made it a mission to reverse the cultural conquest of colonial British and other Western powers, who plundered India’s treasures for centuries with impunity. The Indian government has made it a diplomatic priority to bring back antiquities stolen or looted from India as it pursues its nationalist agenda – “history belongs to its geography.”

A US mercenary awaiting trial in an Indian jail has asked a Delhi court to make a long list of special food items available for him, complaining that his current meals are “spicy and oily.” 

Matthew Aaron VanDyke was arrested by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) along with six Ukrainian mercenaries in March. The group are now in Delhi’s Tihar jail as the NIA probes their activities in India and neighboring Myanmar.

VanDyke filed a request at a Delhi court this week, saying regular consumption of the “spicy and oily” prison meals had adversely affected his health, and demanded special facilities to cook his own food. He said his inability to consume the food provided in the jail had led him to go on what he described as “a hunger strike.”

The US national has asked for food items, including chicken, red meat, seafood, uncooked noodles, pasta, uncooked rice, potatoes, onions, beans, spices, vegetables, olive oil, toned milk, bread, butter and bottled water. He has also requested a stove, pots, and a plastic chopper.

The diet for pre-trial detainees at Tihar jail follows a prescribed menu, with fixed quantities of cereals, pulses, and vegetables. They are not entitled to demand food from outside or have meals prepared according to their personal preferences.

VanDyke is the founder of Sons of Liberty International, which provides military training in conflict zones, the Times of India reported. He has been involved in conflict zones in the past, including fighting with Libyan rebels in 2011, it said.

India has cleared a joint venture between Chinese smartphone maker Vivo and Indian original equipment manufacturer Dixon Technologies, signaling New Delhi’s cautious willingness to allow deeper economic integration with its neighbor in critical areas after a deadly border clash in 2020 froze ties.

The approval, which was revealed this week in a stock market filing by Noida-based Dixon, allows the company to set up a smartphone manufacturing plant with Vivo, the top phone brand in India by shipment volume. Dixon will hold a 51% stake in the joint venture.

It also comes on the heels of India’s Finance Ministry allowing four Chinese power equipment makers with factories in India to take part in government tenders for critical power projects.

Power-equipment makers TBEA Energy, Nanjing Electric India, New Northeast Electric India, and Taikai Electric (India) were exempted from rules that require entities from countries sharing a land border with India to register with Indian authorities to bid for certain government contracts.

India expects peak power demand of 300 gigawatts next year as data centers, AI adoption, and EV usage grows.

Investments by such entities in India had long been regulated by a pandemic-era rule which required them to seek mandatory government approval for investments in strategic and critical sectors. Initially notified to prevent opportunistic takeover of Indian businesses, it remained in force after the Galwan clash when the Chinese and Indian militaries skirmished along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

“We have a very good collaborative approach with China,” the executive vice chairman of the India-China Trade Center in Delhi, Vijay K. Mishra, told RT TV. He noted that India and China have a complementary economic relationship, with India sourcing technology and components for electronics, pharmaceuticals, and infrastructure sectors.

“India is always cautious while taking any FDI… these are applicable to all countries, not only China,” he said.

India’s approach appears to be one that will allow Chinese firms to participate under conditions that strengthen domestic manufacturing, deepen localization, and maintain Indian control over strategic assets, the Economic Times said.

Bangladesh’s former prime minister, who is in self-imposed exile in India after her ouster in an uprising, says she could be killed in her country, where she plans to surrender before a court in December.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and members of her Awami League party will surrender when they return from India, she told Reuters late Thursday. The 78-year-old was the South Asian nation’s longest serving leader.

“They may arrest me on my return, they may even kill me,” Hasina said in a telephone interview with the news agency.

She vowed to return to Bangladesh this year in an interview last month.

Sheikh Hasina Says She'll Prove 'Farcical' 🇧🇩 Courts Wrong

The former PM insists that the legal proceedings against her will expose what she calls a politically motivated case.

She is accused of suppressing dissent and weakening democracy, which she denies.

"Once proceedings… https://t.co/z2E388fqR6 pic.twitter.com/Gm6LF7UWj8

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 10, 2026

After Hasina fled to India, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) handed down a death sentence for her in absentia for alleged crimes against humanity during a crackdown on the student-led uprising. She has denied the charges.

“I have to go,” she said in the interview, adding that members of her party are being subjected to “tremendous repression” in Bangladesh.

“If death comes, I want it to come on my own soil, where my parents are buried and where their blood was shed.”

Hasina’s father was the founding leader of the Bangladesh liberation movement. He was known as the ‘father of the nation’ before the interim government of Muhammad Yunus, which took charge after Hasina’s ouster, removed all references of the kind to him.

India is no longer shy about its aspirations as a rising power, which is causing unease among many global powers, a top anchor told RT India.

Western media reporting portrays India in a particular way, Asia News International (ANI) editor Smita Prakash told RT India in an exclusive interview.

Regarding India’s aspirations as a rising global power, she said, “We are no longer shy about it. When I began my career 36 years ago, we were shy about it. We were embarrassed about it. We were told again and again that we are a third-world country.”

“Today, I don’t see Indians apologetic about wanting to be a growing power. So everybody in the world feels threatened by a country that wants to be a growing power,” she told Runjhun Sharma in the latest episode of India, Russia and the World.

India is the world’s fourth largest economy by GDP and the International Monetary Fund said in a report this week that it remains the fastest-growing major economy despite the macroeconomic headwinds.

The West has created groupings to convey a false impression of egalitarianism, she said, naming the G20 as an example. “We want these developing countries. We want to hear your story. We want to be part of your economy too… But no, nobody likes a growing India.” 

Foreign media outlets “are likely to get the India story wrong” as they base their perception of the country on isolated incidents, Prakash said.

She noted that budgets have shrunk for foreign media outlets. “Unless you travel on the ground and cover it, you’re not covering news,” she said, adding that there are “layers and layers” for a vast country like India.

“But you don’t want to see that manufacturing sector. You don’t want to see that there is a growth story. You want to only see that India is ripe for revolution because the youth are disaffected, because cheating is happening during the medical entrance exam,” she said, referring to the recent leak of questions for a national medical entrance test.

India and Russia must de-dollarize to boost bilateral trade as the countries roll out mechanisms to achieve the targeted $100 billion by 2030, a key Russian official told RT India.

Russia is developing a mechanism to expand payments and settlements in local currencies with partner countries such as India, Moscow’s trade representative to India, Zlata Antusheva, explained.

“It is extremely important to create an independent system with the use of local currencies,” she noted, pointing out that most of the payments between Russia and India are now “made in local currencies.”

Antusheva said that three Russian banks – Sberbank, Gazprom Bank, and VTB Bank – have operations in India. Alfa Bank, the biggest private bank in Russia, is likely to set up shop in the country soon.

Russia and China have essentially eliminated the use of Western currencies in bilateral trade.

🇷🇺🤝🇮🇳 Sberbank Rolls Out ‘10-Minute Cross-Border Transaction Mechanism’ as Trading in National Currencies Accelerate - Zlata Antusheva, Lead of Govt Relations, Finance Sector, Trade Representative of Russia in India

‘Most part of our deals are happening in national currencies… https://t.co/ulGxnoCShw pic.twitter.com/9qVg5yDL6H

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 8, 2026

“Our main goal is to de-dollarize and to focus on development of our own currencies, of course, after some time, not only (at) bilateral level but at the regional level, at the BRICS level,” she asserted.

Moscow is seeking to create a more useful mechanism to make life easier for businesses, she continued, citing Sberbank, where businesses can now make a financial transaction in only 10 minutes.

Antusheva stressed the need for sovereign infrastructure to ensure technology independence, aligning with India’s self-reliance policy.

An India-Russia AI Cybersecurity Center of Excellence is also in the works, she noted, adding that it can connect the “AI ecosystem between the two countries, and then take it to the other BRICS nations.”

Australia agreed to supply uranium to India, ending a stalemate in talks since 2014 following New Delhi’s refusal to sign a nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed an administrative deal on Thursday, facilitating an agreement on exports of the nuclear material, they said in a joint announcement in Melbourne.

The ‘administrative arrangement’ will enable long-term Australian uranium exports to India for peaceful purposes and under IAEA safeguards.

Australia also reiterated its backing for India’s membership in the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group.

Canberra has the world’s largest known resources of the radioactive metal used in nuclear power plants, and in nuclear weapons. Australia has no nuclear power or weapons, and hence all of the metal is exported.

India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which recognizes only the US, China, Britain, France, and Russia as nuclear weapons powers. Australia has signed the pact and refuses to sell uranium to non-signatories.

New Delhi calls the treaty discriminatory, as it recognizes only states that tested nuclear devices before January 1967 as legitimate nuclear weapon states. India first tested a nuclear weapon in 1974, making it the first nation apart from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to conduct a confirmed nuclear test.

The country was hit with international technology sanctions and uranium trade bans after it conducted nuclear tests again in 1998.

List of Outcomes: Visit of Prime Minister @narendramodi to Australia

🔸Joint Declaration on Defense and Security Cooperation (JDDSC)

🔸Maritime Security Collaboration Roadmap (MSCR)

🔸India-Australia Joint Statement on Energy Security

🔸Finalisation of Administrative…

— PIB India (@PIB_India) July 9, 2026

In 2008, the Nuclear Suppliers Group of countries, which includes the US, granted a waiver allowing India to buy uranium from its members, opening up New Delhi’s path to pursue bilateral pacts to get the material. It inked such a deal with Canada in March.

Australia had opposed selling uranium to India until it signs the Non-Proliferation Treaty, though it eased that stance in 2014, when Canberra agreed to allow exports subject to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards and “separation of the Indian civilian and military nuclear programs.”

The administrative agreement signed on Thursday is seen as removing the obstacles to starting uranium supplies, helping India achieve its clean energy goals.

New Delhi seeks to generate 100 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2047 – enough to power nearly 60 million homes a year in a country with a population of 1.4 billion.

Though the South Asian nation has doubled its installed nuclear power capacity in the last decade, nuclear still accounts for a mere 3% of its power generation.

Modi, who is on a three-day trip to Australia, also launched a dedicated critical minerals corridor.

The countries pledged greater defense and security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, “reflecting a step change in the depth and ambition” of the bilateral ties, apart from the Australia-India Partnership on Cyber, Critical Technologies and Supply Chains (AI-PACTS).

The US has charged the imprisoned head of an Indian crime syndicate and his ‘North American deputy’ with ordering a hit on a Khalistan separatist leader in Canada in 2023.

The federal indictment is a blow to Canada as it previously accused Indian intelligence agencies of playing a role in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, plunging relations between Ottawa and New Delhi into a crisis.

The indictment alleges that Bishnoi and Satinderjeet Singh ordered the shooting of Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, British Columbia on June 18, 2023.

In May, 2024, Canadian police arrested and charged four Indian nationals over shooting.

The assassination triggered a diplomatic crisis after then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Canadian authorities were “actively pursuing credible allegations” linking Indian government agents to the murder. New Delhi rejected the claim as absurd.

Canadian police accused Indian intelligence agencies of using Bishnoi gang members to carry out killings and violent intimidation of supporters of the Khalistan Movement, which seeks to carve out an independent state for Sikhs in India’s Punjab.

New Delhi has denied the charges and accused Ottawa of ignoring extradition requests for Bishnoi gang members. The US indictment charging Bishnoi and Singh does not mention any role of the Indian government in the murder plot, Reuters reported.

The indictment says Bishnoi, who is in a Delhi jail, directed the operation from there using smuggled cellphones. Bishnoi has also been charged with providing a co-conspirator with a photograph and multiple addresses of Nijjar to facilitate the killing.

Singh allegedly directed the North American operations of the criminal group, named as the ‘Lawrence Bishnoi Organized Crime Group’. The FBI announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to Singh’s arrest.

Hours after the US indictment, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said there is “no evidence to suggest” that Indian officials were linked to the killing. “Nothing has come out to link the Indian government,” RCMP Deputy Commissioner Lisa Moreland told Canadian public broadcaster CBC News.

The row led to the mutual expulsions of top diplomats in 2024.

India and Canada agreed to reset bilateral ties after years of tensions in June last year, after Trudeau resigned following low approval ratings and mounting pressure from within his party. In September, Canada designated the Bishnoi gang as a ‘terrorist entity’.

Bilateral ties between Ottawa and New Delhi received a boost when Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited India in February. He also initiated talks on a trade deal, which is expected to be completed by November.

Carney’s stance has drawn the ire of some Sikh groups. They have accused Ottawa of failing to hold India accountable to safeguard Sikh Canadians from “foreign interference and transnational repression.”

India is planning an upgrade of its Russian-made tanks and armored vehicles at an estimated cost of $7.85 billion, according to media reports citing army sources.

The orders cover life-cycle enhancement of the Indian Army’s T-72 and T-90 tanks, infantry combat vehicles (BMPs), and Armored Recovery Vehicles (ARVs).

As per plan, 790 T-72 tanks, 200 T-90 tanks, and 230 armored recovery vehicles – crucial for the recovery and repair of tanks on the battlefield – will undergo restoration over five years.

The restoration program aims to bring the platforms to a constant operational readiness capability and extend their lifespan.

State-backed Armoured Vehicles Nigam Ltd (AVNL) is due to execute the upgrade plan. AVNL reportedly completed restoration of two T-72 tanks as a pilot project earlier this year.

The decision comes in the wake of state-backed defense undertakings repeatedly pushing for long-term orders as a prerequisite for investing in capacity, technology, and supply chains, Hindu Business Line reported. The five-year span of orders is a reported departure from the previous short-term procurement model.

India, which clashed with nuclear-armed neighbor Pakistan last year, has undertaken a massive drive to modernize its armed forces.

Earlier this month, New Delhi approved a tranche of arms purchases worth $5.5 billion as part of the effort. In March, India approved the purchase of defense equipment worth $25 billion, including Russian‑made S‑400 air defense missile systems, various types of aircraft, and artillery systems.

The Indian Defense Ministry said the March approvals included additional Russian S‑400 Triumf systems, transport aircraft to replace the country’s ageing fleet of Soviet‑era An‑32 and Il‑76 planes, and various artillery systems.

A couple made a miraculous escape from a landslide during a devastating spell of torrential monsoon rains that claimed four lives in a mountainous district in India’s southern state.

Four people were killed and nine others injured after a landslide in Kerala’s Wayanad on Tuesday, authorities said. The landslide hit a tunneling site, trapping several workers there.

Search and rescue efforts continued, officials said, adding six people are reportedly missing. The death toll is likely to rise.

A man and woman escaped certain death after a tanker lorry that got caught in the debris flow pushed them back nearly a quarter of a mile to a petrol station, while also partly shielding them from the mud and rocks. When the tanker slid to a stop, the muddied couple got up and walked off.

CCTV footage from the incident near the gas station has since gone viral.

Kerala: Couple covered in mud escapes landslide in Wayanad, says 'God got us back'.

Recounting the incident, the woman said, "I got scared seeing the mud rushing towards us. We couldn't do anything. I somehow escaped with my husband. I have pain in my hands now."

“The lorry was… pic.twitter.com/a74shERKo4

— News Arena India (@NewsArenaIndia) July 7, 2026

A red alert has been sounded in the region. Two of the nine people admitted to a hospital were later released, while seven continue to undergo treatment.

In 2024, a deadly landslide killed nearly 400 and left thousands homeless in the mountainous district in Kerala, a South Indian trijunction bordering the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Tuesday’s landslide occurred only a few kilometers from one of the sites devastated in 2024.

The authorities have begun evacuating nearby areas as rain continues to lash the region.

Heavy rainfall linked to climate change and unplanned construction in geographically fragile areas is cited as the key reason for frequent natural calamities in India’s hilly regions.

The Indian Meteorological Department’s latest forecast predicts below-normal monsoon rainfall in the country in July.

The recent visit by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to India came at a moment when the politics of the Indo‑Pacific appear to be in flux, especially amid rising tensions in the Middle East between the US and Iran.

With Washington increasingly tied down by its involvement in the Middle East, as well as in “its hemisphere” through aggression against Venezuela and threats against Cuba, observers on the other side of the globe are questioning what role the US can still play in an evolving Indo‑Pacific landscape – whether in the Taiwan Strait or the Strait of Malacca.

Relations between India and Japan have picked up ever since the then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori paid a visit to India back in 2000. Ties improved particularly during the term of Shinzo Abe, who was a big friend of India and was also the longest serving prime minister of Japan.

To understand Tokyo’s outlook towards ties with New Delhi we need to take a closer look at the current economic and political landscape in and around Japan.

Takaichi has been reaching out to a range of countries ever since taking office as prime minister in October 2025. New Delhi holds a prominent place in Japanese foreign policy, both politically and economically. At the same time, Japan’s trade ties with China appear to have run into difficulties amid rising political tensions, especially given that Takaichi is seen as a protégé of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was widely regarded as a hardliner on China.

Takaichi ran into trouble with China early in her term when, during a meeting in the lower house of Japan’s Diet in November last year, she said that if China were to impose a naval blockade on Taiwan, it would amount to a “survival-threatening situation” and could prompt Japan to exercise its right of collective self-defense. The remark drew strong protests from Beijing.

In addition, profit margins for Japanese companies in China are shrinking rapidly because of tighter regulations, rising competition from domestic firms and higher wages. By contrast, India – with its population of 1.4 billion and its vast youth demographic – fits the bill, especially as Japan’s own population continues to shrink rapidly.

Economic drivers

Japan has played a critical role in India’s infrastructure development. One of the flagship projects is the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high‑speed rail corridor, modelled on Japan’s famed Shinkansen system. As New Delhi plans to roll out a series of high‑speed rail corridors, Japanese technology and support will remain crucial.

India is a very important market for Japan’s high‑speed rail sector, especially after countries such as Indonesia chose an Indonesian–Chinese consortium over Japanese bidders for the Jakarta–Bandung high‑speed railway. It is also worth noting that both India and Japan have stayed out of the China‑led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Another important reason for Takaichi’s visit to India was to advance a deal on the exploration of critical minerals, especially after China imposed restrictions on exports of such materials to Japan. The joint statement issued at the end of the visit noted “the two sides reiterated their grave concerns over the use of economic coercion and non-market policies and practices, including arbitrary export restrictions that may lead to supply chain disruptions, particularly in critical minerals and critical industrial sectors, and price manipulation.”

In what can be seen as a dig at Beijing and its activities in the region, the two sides expressed “serious concern” over the situation in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. They reiterated their strong opposition to any “unilateral actions” that endanger the safety and freedom of navigation and “attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion.”

In the field of security, the two countries agreed to co-develop a naval radio antenna based on Japan’s UNICORN (Unified Complex Radio Antenna) system. The agreement signed by the two prime ministers is important in light of the relaxation of Japan’s strict arms exports rules by the Takaichi administration, a major turnaround for post-war Japan. Notably, a decade ago, New Delhi and Tokyo were in talks for the sale of Japan’s ShinMaywa US-2 aircraft, but a deal never materialized.

Expanding cooperation is in the interests of both nation for a reason. Both depend on China for critical minerals, manufacturing parts, and everyday consumer goods.

Japan’s bilateral trade with India totaled only $27.4 billion during FY 2025-26. India ranks 14th in Japan’s total trade with a measly 1.75% share. Meanwhile, total trade between Japan and China stood at $292.6 billion in 2024, with China being Japan’s largest trade partner. For India, too, China emerged as the largest trading partner in 2025-26, with bilateral trade crossing $151 billion.

The larger picture

Japan and India have an important role to play in maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, hence one of the important priorities for both nations would be to set the Quad (the Quadrilateral Security Initiative, a grouping of Australia, India, Japan, and the US) back to order. 

A summit of Quad leaders has been pending for a long time. Even the recent meeting of Quad foreign ministers in New Delhi in May of this year failed to produce a date for a leaders summit.

Japan, for its part, remains closely tied to China economically, even as it is a formal US ally. This is true not only in terms of bilateral trade, but also because large numbers of Chinese tourists visit Japan and have become an important pillar of its tourism economy. It is therefore unlikely that Tokyo would upset the applecart in Sino‑Japanese relations for the sake of the Quad.

Both India and Japan are treading an uncertain path as the US under the Trump administration has become increasingly unreliable. In Japan, many are preparing for a scenario in which the country will have to shoulder far greater responsibility for its own security. Adding to these concerns, Washington last month dropped the word “Indo” from the name of its Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), reverting to the earlier title of Pacific Command (USPACOM). The move has stirred debate in New Delhi’s strategic circles about what it signals for India’s place in Washington’s foreign policy.

It increasingly appears that Washington’s calculations vis-à-vis Beijing do not align with those of Tokyo or New Delhi. That is one of the key reasons India and Japan are exploring closer cooperation. Under Trump, Washington seems to be leaning toward a kind of G2 arrangement centered on the US and China alone, which would leave countries like Japan particularly vulnerable, given their reliance on US security guarantees. What does seem certain is that India and Japan will see a growing convergence of interests in the Indo-Pacific.

The US Justice Department (DOJ) has explained its decision not to pursue fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who was initially targeted under the administration of President Joe Biden.

A US judge in June ordered prosecutors to justify their decision to drop their case against Adani, saying federal prosecutors did not sufficiently explain their decision.

Prosecutors had said in May that they do not intend to pursue the case, which charged Adani with securities fraud and wire fraud stemming from an alleged bribery scheme.

The case is “primarily foreign, hard to prove, and inconsistent with the agency’s current priorities,” the DOJ said in a ten-page submission on Saturday, Reuters reported.

It listed reasons why it sought to dismiss all charges with prejudice against Adani and other ⁠defendants.

In the latest filing, the DOJ sought to shift the blame to prosecutors under the Biden administration for initiating a “baseless case against Adani with little chance of success.”

“The indictment was unsealed in the final days of the prior administration, apparently as a ‘name and shame’ designed to levy accusations without any realistic prospect of a trial ever occurring,” the DOJ’s court filing said.

The DOJ submission says federal attorneys should not prosecute a “foreign case” of alleged conduct that involves “no criminal organizations and no US companies, and does not affect national security.”

“The alleged ‘payments’ in this case ‌were ⁠made by Indian nationals, working for Indian companies, to the Indian government, with no US interests implicated in any way,” the filing says.

The 2024 case charged Adani with agreeing to bribe Indian government officials to get approval for a group arm to develop a solar energy ⁠plant. The charges also allege that Adani misled US investors by providing reassuring information about his company’s anti-corruption practices.

The Adani Group has consistently denied the charges, and Gautam Adani has not appeared in a US court to respond to them.

The charges, however, remain officially pending until they are dismissed.

Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani had in May agreed to settle an SEC lawsuit by paying a combined $18 million in penalties without admitting or denying the charges.

Gautam Adani has been the target of India’s opposition parties, who claim that his conglomerate has been protected by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

Modi’s opponents say he has longstanding ties with Adani going back nearly two decades to when Modi was chief minister of the western state of Gujarat, to which the Adanis also belong.

They accuse the government of favoring the group in business deals, charges the Indian government has rejected as “wild allegations.”

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has admitted to imitating Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies as he pursues development for the Southeast Asian nation, which faces challenges similar to India’s.

Subianto revealed his admiration for Modi during a banquet he hosted for the Indian leader, who is on a three-day official visit to Indonesia.

“I follow your career, copied your programs,” Subianto said, addressing Modi directly.

Subianto drew parallels between India and Indonesia, citing the demographic similarities and challenges both countries face, and the milestones India has achieved.

“We have the same problems… and yet India has achieved (much) progress,” the Indonesia president said, citing a large population, dependence on agriculture, and natural disasters – the same challenges that India has faced. 

“I openly admit that I follow your career and I copied a lot of your program(s),” he added.

#WATCH | A light-hearted moment with a deeper message. 🇮🇳🤝🇮🇩

Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto drew smiles as he said during the banquet lunch “I copy your career and many of your progress…”

“I’m happy there is no copyright in following this progress”, he said amidst the… pic.twitter.com/EVPSlt2Pib

— DD News (@DDNewslive) July 7, 2026

Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, with around 280 million people. Both countries have a median age of around 30, though India’s below-35 cohort of 950 million is more than three times the entire population of Indonesia.

During his trip, Modi sought to tap the synergies between this vast pool of youth in India and Indonesia, with initiatives centered around youth-oriented education and the startup ecosystem of the two nations.

“The 21st century is a technology-driven century,” Modi said. “India and Indonesia are both nations powered by the energy of their youth. Our young people have a natural affinity for technology.” 

An overseas campus of the Indian Institute of Management (Bangalore) will be opened in the Singhasari SEZ in Indonesia. IIMs are considered centers of excellence in the South Asian country, with their alumni spread across the world. 

“This will greatly benefit young people across the ASEAN region,” Modi said, signaling India’s intent to widen its soft power diplomacy beyond Indonesia, into the ASEAN geopolitical arena.

Modi also announced the launch of the Indonesia Open Network (ION), based on India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) architecture.

“Today, we concluded an important agreement to strengthen technology cooperation between our young people in areas such as artificial intelligence, telecommunications, and digital public Infrastructure. We also agreed to further deepen collaboration between the start-up ecosystems of our two countries,” Modi stated.

Deepening the growing trust between our two countries, the two leaders signed 14 memoranda of understanding, including on maritime safety and security, space cooperation, defense, steel supply chains, rare earths, healthcare, agriculture, and science and technology.

India will sell its supersonic BrahMos cruise missiles to fellow BRICS member Indonesia along with Astra air-to-air missiles as the two countries signed a raft of agreements to strengthen their defense and economic cooperation.

Indonesia on Tuesday conferred the country’s highest honor, Bintang Adipurna of the Republic of Indonesia, on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on an official visit to the country.

The two countries elevated their ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2018, and Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit Indonesia since then.

The missiles deal is one of the key milestones of Modi’s visit. Named after the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, the BrahMos is among the fastest supersonic cruise missiles in the world. Modi and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto signed the missile deal along with other bilateral agreements on Tuesday.

Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto conferred the country's highest honour ’Bintang Adipurna of the Republic of Indonesia’ medal of honour upon PM @narendramodi.#India | #Indonesia | @PMOIndia | @MEAIndia | @IndianEmbJkt pic.twitter.com/SLKdsj4V1l

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) July 7, 2026

Jointly developed by India and Russia and manufactured in India, BrahMos missiles have already been sold to the Philippines. Global interest in the weapon has ticked up since their lethal use by India against Pakistan last year in a brief clash, which India dubbed Operation Sindoor.

India will also supply additional BrahMos batteries to Jakarta.

🚨Made in 🇮🇳 Missiles Go Global: Indonesia Signs Up For BrahMos & Astra

The announcement marks a significant boost for India's growing defence export ambitions. https://t.co/JL544CVqox pic.twitter.com/Wbmj2xpSLO

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 7, 2026

Astra is a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization, and was also used by the Indian Air Force during Operation Sindoor.

Modi’s visit also yielded outcomes on critical minerals and maritime cooperation. India will invest in steel manufacturing, nickel, and rare-earth magnets in Indonesia as New Delhi focuses on strengthening its minerals supply chain.

It has been one month since Abhijeet Dipke, founder of an online meme turned political movement, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), landed in Delhi from the US, where he did his Master’s in Public Relations at Boston University.

Dipke and supporters of ‘Cockroach’ movement have spent last month at Jantar Mantar, an iconic site in the heart of Indian capital, protesting against Narendra Modi-led government policies. The protesters demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan amid a controversy over question paper leaks for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), India’s unified, nationwide entrance examination for undergraduate medical programs.

The test was conducted on May 3, but 10 days later, the National Testing Agency cancelled the exam following widespread allegations of the circulation of a “guess paper” and multiple accusations of irregularities. This had affected over 2.2 million aspirants. On June 21, the re-test was conducted. At least 11 students have allegedly died by suicide in the period between the cancellation of NEET and the scheduled re-test, according to Indian media reports citing police records and family accounts. 

Paper leaks in India constitute a huge and volatile problem owing to a vast demand-supply mismatch; millions of candidates fiercely compete for a small number of government seats in jobs and medical degrees.

Even though the NEET exam was conducted afresh, CPJ movement supporters reject the government’s claim that the crisis has been resolved. 

Protesters’ Demands

After landing in India on June 6, Dipke led a massive youth sit-in protest in the capital that was followed by a series of local demonstrations in Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow, and Bengaluru.

On June 20, the CJP began its second nationwide protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. The rally appeared to draw a larger crowd demanding the resignation of the education minister and turned into a continuous sit-down campaign which continues to date. While over the days the number of protesters has reduced, the demands still stand. 

For 22-year-old Santosh Singh, from Jaipur, it took hours of travel to participate in the protest in Delhi. “I am here for my brother, who studied hard for NEET but got mentally disturbed after the exam was cancelled. He could not be here, but I came. The system is taking away our hard work and selling it,” Singh said. He argued that the exams in the country have turned into “a lottery.”  

“The youth of India are really pissed off and uncertain about their future,” says Singh. “The dreams of India’s youth are wiped out by a simple WhatsApp paper leak, it totally ruins your sanity. This is not about politics or political parties; this is the question of youth’s dignity.”

Anju Kirti, 22, a student from Delhi, who joined the protest at Jantar Mantar, said the re-exam conducted by the government does not address the “systematic corruption in education.” “We want an end to it,” she said. 

In India, observers say that unemployment, delays in competitive examinations, recruitment bottlenecks and repeated paper leaks have left many young people deeply frustrated. The CJP quickly emerged as an outlet for that anger.

However, the slogans and demands voiced from the protest site were not limited to education. Over the past two weeks, a range of political, climate and farmers’ activists have joined the CJP founder on the makeshift stage. Some opposition parties in India, including Aam Aadmi Party  (AAP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party have also openly voiced support for the Cockroach movement, with their representatives appearing on the stage along with Dipke. Addressing protesters on Saturday, TMC party MP Mahua Moitra urged them not to be discouraged by criticism or labels. “This is your chance to write history. Take it, grab it, stay with it,” she said.

On June 28, climate activist Sonam Wanchuk, 59,  began an indefinite hunger strike demanding the resignation of Pradhan. The hunger strike on Monday entered its second week, with activists raising concerns over his condition. “Still Alive, though not kicking…” Wanchuk posted on his X account on Sunday.

Ahead of the June 20 rally, Dipke wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging the government to provide Rs 10 million ($105 000) compensation to families of students who allegedly died by suicide amid examination-related controversies. Dipke also reiterated the demand for the removal of the education minister.

“The Cockroach Janta Party has been demanding the resignation of the education minister for the past month and has been protesting across the country for our demands. All that we students want is to see some accountability for the loss of lives... He [the Education Minister] is serving at your pleasure, and the buck stops with the prime minister,” Dipkee said, addressing CPJ supporters.

On July 4, Dipke released another letter written by CPJ to Modi. The letter, which many social media commenters claimed to be AI-generated, urges the PM to break his “resounding silence” over the CPJ protest at the Jantar Mantar and hold the education minister accountable. 

“We have been sitting in protest at the Jantar Mantar for the past 15 days, and today marks the seventh day of educationist Sonam Wangchuk’s indefinite hunger strike. How long will your government choose to ignore our voices, sir?” the letter asked. 

Letter to PM Modi:

For how long will you ignore Jantar Mantar and our voices? pic.twitter.com/hSIpehvzxt

— Abhijeet Dipke (@abhijeet_dipke) July 4, 2026

“We are sitting here because your government has repeatedly failed to stop exam paper leaks that have shattered the faith and future of crores of young Indians,” the letter said. The CJP claimed that the number of student suicides rose from 11 before the beginning of their rally on June 20 till 29. 

Government's response 

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in an interview with an Indian news channel in June slammed the ‘cockroach’ movement, comparing them with “disruptive elements.”

“Those who were rejected in democracy have come in disguise and are now after the system. They raise slogans for those who want to divide the country. They have been identified,” Pradhan said during an interview with NDTV. He added that some people do not have faith in the country’s progress.

Commenting on the question paper leaks, Pradhan accused the teachers who were found involved in the incident as “protectors who turned predators.”  He also praised the NEET re-exam as a success. 

The fresh exam was held on June 21 under heavy security, with the country’s armed forces and state police units deployed alongside biometric verification systems. Authorities also temporarily blocked the Telegram messaging platform across India from June 16 to June 22. The move came after the National Testing Agency raised concerns over the growing misuse of the platform by organized networks allegedly targeting NEET aspirants with fake paper leak claims and fraudulent schemes.

The speed with which the CJP emerged as a movement and gained attention in India – at least online – triggered a sharp political backlash from the ruling BJP, whose senior leaders dismissed it as a “foreign-sponsored propaganda blitz” rather than a genuine popular movement.

Sukanta Majumdar, union minister and chief of the West Bengal BJP, claimed that the CJP’s online traffic was being artificially boosted by cross-border bots. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju also publicly attacked the party’s online rise, suggesting that the trending anti-paper-leak agitation was heavily driven by foreign bot networks, specifically linking them to an “anti-India George Soros gang.”

The CJP emerged on May 16 as a reaction to an uncomfortable remark by chief justice of India, Surya Kant, in open court, who compared young people to cockroaches.  The online reaction to CPJ was phenomenal, within just five days, the number of followers on CJP’s Instagram page surpassed 20 million, beating both the furling BJP and the key opposition Congress party on social media and quickly morphing into a real-life movement of youngsters.

Even though the movement succeeded in channeling the concerns of Gen Z, political analysts argue it is too early to predict whether it is short-term hype or could someday translate into a full-fledged political force.

“The future of the Cockroach Janata Party is uncertain beyond next year,” says Sakshi Tyagi, a research scholar based in New Delhi. She added that internet protests tend to explode and vanish as fast as they appear.

Even then, the emergence of the movement serves as a wake up call to the entire political establishment, including the opposition. “In a BJP-dominated national climate, simply being anti-BJP is no longer a sufficient political identity. Voters, especially young voters, are looking for freshness, authenticity, risk, and recognisable anger,” said Rasheed Kidwai, author and political commentator. “They want a political language that feels alive, not focus-grouped. They want leaders who look like they have arrived from outside the durbar, not inherited a room inside it. 

“This is why the CJP matters even if it never becomes a real party. It has already performed one function that many opposition parties struggle with: capturing the mood at speed. Its absurdity made it legible. Its humour made it shareable. Its anger made it sticky,”  the expert added. 

“I feel really sad for the many very young people now being conned again by CJP (AAP), as we have gone through the entire cycle in 2008-2013 period with the AAP-IAC (India Against Corruption) giant scam,” Manudhane said in a post on X. He was referring to the anti-corruption movement that was particularly visible around 2011 and eventually led to the formation of the AAP led by activist and former Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal.

“All we can do is warn the young folks, based on our earlier experience. Rest is their destiny now. But remember, with Kejriwal, the end result is guaranteed. He’ll use and throw you out most mercilessly like he did with the entire founding team in IAC AAP itself, while cornering all gains. You under-estimate the man at your severe peril. Research and learn,” Manudhane added. 

Online, too, the CPJ movement has not escaped criticism. Social media users have alleged that Dipke appears at protest sites after spending much of his time in luxury hotels, while others have pointed to his political background to argue that the CJP is not an impartial youth platform, but a strategic proxy for mainstream opposition parties.

Back at the protest site in Jantar Mantar, 23‑year‑old graduate Yugesh Sampath, who has been looking for a job for the past two years, says he hopes the “cockroaches” will not “vanish” until corruption in education and employment comes to an end.

New Delhi and Moscow have made progress in talks to boost trade, India’s ambassador to Russia has said.

Speaking at Russia’s main investment and trade platform Innoprom 2026 on Monday, Vinay Kumar said that the two countries are negotiating a bilateral investment protection agreement and working to remove non-tariff barriers, particularly with regards to agriculture and food products.

India-Russia trade is now at about $58 to $60 billion, and both countries are pursuing a trade target of $100 billion by 2030 that was set during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India in December.

Kumar said that Indian businesses were responding “very positively and actively” to the country’s expanding diplomatic presence, citing New Delhi’s Consulate General in Ekaterinburg that was opened in November.

📹 India, Eurasian Economic Union Advance Free Trade Agreement Talks: 🇮🇳 Ambassador to Russia

Vinay Kumar said the second round of talks was held in Moscow just 10 days ago.

He added that India and Russia are also negotiating a bilateral investment protection agreement and… https://t.co/s1obyMaWua pic.twitter.com/iAo1vQqGwd

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 6, 2026

India is represented by over 30 companies in the investment fair being held at the Ekaterinburg-EXPO International Exhibition Center.

India and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) have also made progress in discussing a free trade agreement. The second round of talks was held in Moscow late last month, Kumar said.

Another Innoprom conclave will be held in India in September, ahead of the BRICS summit in New Delhi.

“Russia is steadily strengthening its status as a reliable supplier of high-tech products,” Mishustin said. “Last year, despite the difficult circumstances, we increased non-resource, non-energy exports by more than 11%. The strongest growth was recorded with China, India, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.”

Russia will continue to build international infrastructure and establish stable cooperative ties with friendly countries and partners within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States, BRICS, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), he said.

Heavy monsoon rains have marooned India’s financial capital Mumbai, leaving six dead over the weekend. Flooding and landslides have cut off regular access to the city.

The deaths were reported in the eastern suburb of Mankhurd, where a four-story residential building collapsed. The victims included a woman and five children, according to civic authorities.

Between 8:30 AM local time on July 4 and 8:30 AM the following day, weather stations in Mumbai recorded more than 200 millimeters of rainfall, with more heavy rain and winds forecast.

Landslides on the expressway connecting Mumbai with the IT and manufacturing hub of Pune disrupted traffic; the two cities are the largest in Maharashtra state on the country’s west coast.

Airline services were disrupted and long-distance train services connecting ⁠Mumbai and Pune were cancelled.

Heavy rains cause widespread flooding in Mumbai. Commuters face knee-deep water. Please be cautious! 🙏
#Mumbai #HeavyRain #Monsoon pic.twitter.com/6Z8ujUcsXY

— Manjesh Jangir🚩हिन्दू (@manjesh_jangir) July 6, 2026

The chief minister of Maharashtra warned of a possible downpour in the city of Nashik on Tuesday. A high alert has been sounded as heavy rains are expected to continue across the state until July 8, although the rain in Mumbai has abated.

The rain started late last month, after a late and weak onset of monsoon in mid-June, uprooting trees on Mumbai’s roads and killing ⁠at least three people, according to media reports.

India was hit by the worst flooding in its modern history in 2005, when it saw the most rain recorded in over a century, taking the lives of an estimated 1,000 people.

India’s Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast more heavy rainfall in many states in the coming days.

On June 30, the IMD projected that the South Asian nation is likely to see below-average monsoon rainfall in July after logging its fifth-driest June since the country started maintaining records in 1901.

Indonesia and India are boosting financial ties via a local currency settlement mechanism to lessen their reliance on the US dollar, a top diplomat has told RT India.

Bank Indonesia and the Reserve Bank of India have agreed on a local currency settlement (LCS) framework for this, the Indonesian Embassy’s deputy chief of mission, Yudho Sasongko, said in an interview given ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jakarta.

Modi was accorded a warm welcome Monday, with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto welcoming him at the airport. Fighter jets accompanied the prime minister’s plane from the time it entered Indonesian air space.

“Central banks are still working on its operational implementation,” Sasongko said, referring to the mechanism. “Once in place, it is expected to reduce transaction costs, lessen reliance on the US dollar, and facilitate bilateral trade and investment.” 

Quick response (QR) code linkages to facilitate easier retail payments for tourists are also being explored, he said.

📹 🇮🇳🇮🇩 Grand Welcome For PM Modi In Jakarta

PM Narendra Modi was welcomed by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto upon his arrival in Jakarta.

In a special gesture, Indonesian Air Force fighter jets escorted the PM's aircraft after it entered the country's airspace. https://t.co/DM61UONmjL pic.twitter.com/JHgroicp1D

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 6, 2026

Indonesia and India share a strong commitment to amplifying the voice of the Global South, Sasongko added, reiterating that reforms at the UN, including of the Security Council, are vital for a just global order. Sasongko also pledged firm backing for India’s BRICS chairmanship.

As two of the largest economies of the Indo-Pacific, Indonesia sees India as a “broader and more substantive” partner “who respects sovereignty, international law, and an inclusive regional order,” he said.

Jakarta aims to see a deeper ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with “concrete initiatives and greater synergy between the ASEAN Outlook and India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative.” 

He said boosting maritime and air connectivity between the nations will “translate directly into investment, jobs, tourism, and shared regional prosperity.” 

Critical minerals and rare earths are, the diplomat explained, “priority sectors” with strong potential for deeper collaboration essential to support resilient and diversified supply chains for clean energy and advanced manufacturing.

Sasongko said cooperation in steel and downstream metal industries could leverage Indonesia’s resource base and India’s manufacturing capabilities to create mutually beneficial partnerships. He also mentioned pharmaceuticals and medical devices, renewable energy and the electric vehicle battery ecosystem, digital technologies, and food processing as potential areas of cooperation.

Bilateral trade between the countries was pegged at $28.16 billion in FY25. India mainly imports mineral fuels, especially coal, palm oil, iron, and steel from Indonesia. Jakarta’s cumulative foreign direct investment in India in the April 2000-March 2025 period was $659.30 million.

India will collect the voice samples of six mercenaries – five Ukrainians and a US national – who were arrested in March by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), New Delhi’s anti-terror agency.

Together with another Ukrainian, they were arrested in March; all have been charged with aiding insurgent groups in neighboring Myanmar and providing them with weaponry.

The six were presented before a Delhi court on Friday amid heavy security, and were told they would remain in custody until August 1. They consented to have their voices recorded.

The court will decide the date for collecting voice samples on Saturday, when the remaining Ukrainian will be presented before it.

The NIA is also seeking an extension of the investigation period to 180 days under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, India’s primary anti-terrorism legislation.

The probe focuses on the alleged illegal entry of the mercenaries into the Indian border state of Mizoram, where foreign nationals are required to obtain a special permit, as well as their subsequent illegal crossing into Myanmar.

The Ukrainian men in custody are Petro Hurba, Taras Slyviak, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Marian Stefankiv, Maksim Honcharuk, and Viktor Kaminskyi; three were detained at Delhi’s airport, while the others were taken in by the NIA in Lucknow. Matthew Aaron VanDyke, the US citizen, was arrested at an airport in the coastal city of Kolkata.

It also accused Indian and Russian media of publishing “distorted interpretations of the available facts.”

But reports at the time indicated that the Indian intelligence agencies were on the trail of the suspects after gathering significant inputs, likely from Interpol or with help from foreign intelligence agencies.

Mizoram’s chief minister, Lalduhoma, alleged last year that “thousands” of Western mercenaries linked to Kiev had crossed over to Myanmar via his state.

The chief minister of the neighboring state of Manipur, N. Biren Singh, suggested in 2024 that authorities suspected the involvement of foreign mercenaries in the violence in the state, referring to combat forces linked to Myanmar. At that time, New Delhi announced it would fence the entire 1,643 kilometer (1,020-mile) border with its neighbor to the east.

India has approved another massive tranche of arms purchases worth $5.5 billion as part of an effort aimed at modernizing its armed forces.

The Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) signed off on the proposals “to enhance combat readiness of defense forces.” In March, New Delhi gave the green light for arms purchases worth $25 billion.

The procurement will include the anti-drone and electronic warfare system Akash Tarang, man-portable anti-tank guided missile systems, a medium range surface-to-air missile system, a very short-range air defense system, active protection system for tanks, and a jet-based kamikaze drone system for the Indian Army.

The Defense Ministry said the Akash Tarang would provide effective anti-drone protection to army formations. 

The DAC also approved purchases of naval mines, shipborne drones, and a testing facility for boosting maritime defense and surveillance capabilities.

New Delhi also wants to buy a high-altitude unmanned aircraft platform, to be deployed by the Indian Air Force for intelligence gathering and remote sensing.

India moved to modernize its armed forces following a brief military conflict with nuclear-armed rival Pakistan last year, and now has a defense budget of $85 billion – a record 15% annual increase. 

Capital expenditure for the armed forces has been set at $23 billion, intended for funding major procurement programs.

India has been the world’s leading importer of major arms (by value) since 1950, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

India is planning to introduce a legal framework that would control virtual private networks (VPNs) operating in the country.

The new measures would require VPN providers to set up a local office and appoint compliance officers to address issues raised by the government.

Prison terms for local officials of VPN service providers failing to comply with the directives are also on the cards.

VPNs encrypt data and provide anonymity online, aiding users to dodge governmental scrutiny and monitoring. They are also used by scamsters and cyber criminals to evade authorities.

The development assumes significance after India’s recent actions against Telegram and WhatsApp over privacy and compliance.

In 2022, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In) asked VPN service providers to store customer data, including their names, email IDs, contact numbers, and IP addresses.

That attempt failed, however, with major VPN providers shifting their physical servers from India and continuing services with virtual services providing Indian internet protocol addresses.

The VPN providers argued that retention of customer information undermined the privacy protections the services are designed to offer.

That response has prompted the new government initiative, the Indian Express reported.

“There has been rampant abuse of VPN services. People use them to conceal their identity, bypass law enforcement, and access websites that have been blocked in India,” NDTV quoted a senior official as saying.

For instance, when the government blocked Telegram temporarily last month for enabling the leaks of question papers of a key medical entrance test, many in the country continued to access the messaging app using VPNs.

New Delhi has aggressively deployed its content blocking ecosystem, with over 24,000 orders issued last year, double the number in 2024. VPNs stymie that effort, authorities argue.

The objective of the new regulations is to enable agencies to trace those involved in cybercrime and other unlawful activities, officials say.

India registered a 13% rise in data breaches in 2025, with an average cost of $2.31 million, up from $2 million in 2024, according to IBM’s Cost of Data Breach Report.

An estimated half of India’s 800 million internet users rely on VPNs, potentially making it the largest user base globally due to the huge size of its internet population.

The globalization of the rupee is a key requirement for a fast-growing India, an economy hit hard by the oil and currency shocks from the Middle East conflict, its central bank governor has said.

New Delhi has repeatedly stressed the larger goal of internationalizing the rupee, prodding its agencies to build an enabling infrastructure for trading and settlement in currencies beyond the dollar-rupee pair.

“It is important as India is a growing economy, it is fast growing compared to other countries,” Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra said at the Financial Congress of the Bank of Russia on Wednesday.

An increase in rupee-denominated transactions will help New Delhi become more insulated from currency shocks and widen its trade basket by facilitating trade with US-sanctioned countries.

New Delhi expects trade in rupees to become more common in the coming years as several countries, including some in Africa, have expressed an interest in establishing payment mechanisms using the Indian currency.

ICYMI: 'Internationalisation Of The Rupee...Will Benefit Everyone' - RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra https://t.co/Wdzyv3puTg pic.twitter.com/wkR2yGJxdz

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 2, 2026

India and Russia have worked on alternative methods for carrying out transactions after the latter was removed from the SWIFT financial messaging system.

In September last year, Malhotra urged the Clearing Corporation of India to strengthen its offerings for retail investors in foreign exchange and government securities.

The central bank governor also said in a conversation with his Russian counterpart, Elvira Nabiullina, that the South Asian nation’s inflation-targeting framework has helped lower average inflation.

New Delhi is unlikely to raise its official inflation target, and there may be a case for lowering it over the long term, he said.

In a March review, the government retained its retail inflation target of 4%. India’s retail inflation stood at 3.93% in ⁠May, and the economy grew 7.8% year-on-year in the quarter ended March.

The energy crisis arising from the Middle East conflict has given momentum to India’s ethanol push, with the country laying out a roadmap to slash petrol use and increase the biofuel content for vehicles.

Earlier this month, India okayed the regulatory framework for the use of 100% ethanol (E100) as a transportation fuel. The step paves the way for a rollout of automobiles powered solely by ethanol, RT India reports.

New Delhi announced an E20 fuel mandate in April – with energy supplies under stress following the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz – which required gas stations to sell only E20 fuel, petrol cut with 20% ethanol.

Ethanol is primarily produced from agricultural feedstocks, such as sugarcane and grains, in India. New Delhi began experimenting with ethanol blending on a pilot basis in 2001.

The government is also mandating the sale of E100 fuel for specially designed engines.

“The higher ethanol blending is being driven by the need for energy security, enhancing farmers’ incomes, and reducing the carbon footprint,” Indian Sugar Bio-energy Manufacturers Association Director General Deepak Ballani told RT.

New Delhi has the capacity to blend 20 billion liters of ethanol, but is currently using only 11 billion liters for the purpose.

The government says blending has reduced crude oil imports and saved nearly $19 billion, and generated billions in additional income for farmers.

The transition has its own set of challenges – sugarcane and rice, the key raw materials, are water-intensive. Higher ethanol blends also require millions more compatible vehicles on the road and a much larger fuelling network equipped to distribute the blended fuel.

Moving beyond E20 presents a much bigger challenge as E85 and E100 can only be used in flex-fuel or dedicated ethanol vehicles. Only a handful of such models exist in India; and fuel stations offering higher ethanol blends remain limited. Carmakers, consumers, and fuel retailers are all moving cautiously as the ecosystem is just developing.

The initiative’s success is not about higher blending targets. It will depend on building the right vehicles, expanding fuel infrastructure, and ensuring that cleaner fuel doesn’t come at the cost of other resources.

Additionally, India has directed the state-backed Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to build and fill another strategic petroleum reserve facility to be ready for future energy crises.

India has raised concerns over the roll-out of usernames by messaging app WhatsApp, calling it a potential cybersecurity risk.

In a notice to Meta, which owns WhatsApp, New Delhi said on Wednesday that the username feature could increase “online scams, phishing, digital arrest scams and impersonation.”

The government is concerned that internet fraudsters could adopt usernames that closely resemble those of real people or institutions, and use them to impersonate individuals, public authorities, financial institutions, and government agencies.

WhatsApp said on Monday that usernames will be a “major privacy feature” that will help users connect to new people “without giving away your phone numbers.”

It has three days to reply to the notice or face regulatory action. The username roll-out is also barred until the company’s consultations with the government are concluded.

Meta said in a report in March that India is second only to the US among countries most targeted by online scammers – validating New Delhi’s concerns.

In response to the notice, Meta said it has multiple layers of guardrails against the misuse of the username feature.

“Users still require a phone number to use WhatsApp, and we’ve built multiple layers of defense against scams into usernames,” a CNBC report quoted a Meta official as saying.

The tech platform also said it intends to limit the number of new people a user account is entitled to contact, block repeated bids to guess usernames, and detect activity that demonstrates patterns linked to impersonation.

This comes days after India temporarily banned the Telegram app, claiming it was a key facilitator in an exam fraud that affected millions of students.

New Delhi also expressed concern with Telegram’s privacy features, which allow users to interact without needing to reveal a phone number, making identity detection difficult.

Telegram founder and Russian-born tech billionaire Pavel Durov accused Indian multinational conglomerate Reliance, without providing evidence, of a “lobbying effort” to get the app restricted in India last month. Meta has around a 10% stake in Jio Platforms, a unit of Reliance Industries.

The combined user base of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram in India is more than 1 billion, making it a top market for Meta. Cybersecurity incidents have doubled in the country, where an estimated 86% of households are connected to the internet, to more than 2 million in 2024 since 2022.

WhatsApp says it banned more than 7 million Indian accounts in May alone.

Farmers in the landlocked northern regions of India, the second-largest fish producing country in the world, have turned to aquaculture, boosting the South Asian nation’s shrimp exports amid India’s Blue Revolution.

Shrimp exports accounted for 66% of India’s total seafood exports worth $8.46 billion last year, according to official data.

Farmers, who once grew wheat and rice, carefully balance minerals like potassium and magnesium to recreate seawater conditions hundreds of kilometers from the coast, according to an RT India report.

The Blue Revolution refers to the expansion of fish farming worldwide. In India, this has led to a surge in aquafarming in northern states like Haryana, which has struggled with saline groundwater and barren farmlands incapable of growing traditional crops for years.

The state produced over 14,000 metric tons of shrimp last year alone.

“We started with 8.5 acres and invested approximately $93,000 in it. We covered all that cost in the first season by selling shrimp worth around $100,000,” a farmer from Sonipat district said.

“There is no shortage of buyers,” he said.

These farms also produce other fish varieties. Haryana produced over 200,000 metric tons of seafood last year.

Aquafarmers also receive financial incentives from the government to build ponds, install equipment, and adopt modern aquaculture practices.

A farmer can harvest up to four to five tons of shrimp within just four months, generating profits of up to $10,000.

Other northern Indian states including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan – all hundreds of kilometers from the sea – are also contributing to the country’s rising seafood exports.

The top buyers are the US and China, followed by Russia and the European Union.

The US has lifted sanctions on four Indian entities, two years after imposing them over alleged links to Russia.

The Indian entities have been removed from the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List as part of the latest sanctions update, the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said.

The entities are Hyderabad-based RRG Engineering Technologies Private Limited and Lokesh Machines Limited, Ahmedabad-based Galaxy Bearings Ltd, and Delhi-based Shaurya Aeronautics Private Limited.

In 2024, the OFAC imposed sanctions on 21 Indian entities – including 19 companies and two individuals for providing financial, material, technological, or other support to the Russian government.

Washington said the actions were taken to prevent efforts to circumvent the sanctions imposed on Russia, following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

India has said it does not subscribe to unilateral sanctions. New Delhi also said it has engaged with the US administration on the matter.

Indian businesses are more vulnerable to so-called secondary sanctions, as unlike Australia, China, and the EU, New Delhi has not adopted any ‘blocking statute’ that prohibits local entities from complying with foreign sanctions.

Two of the four entities removed from the sanctions list – Galaxy Bearings Limited and Lokesh Machines Limited – are listed companies. Lokesh Machines’ customer base includes US-based John Deere and Cummins, Sweden’s Volvo, and Japan’s Honda and Suzuki, Hindustan Times reported.

In May, the US also sanctioned an Indian petrochemical trading firm over oil trading with Iran.

Last August, the US imposed a 25% additional tariff, now lifted, on Indian imports as a punitive measure for purchases of Russian oil. New Delhi has always maintained that its energy purchases are dictated by national interests.

The European Union’s latest proposed sanctions package on Russia also includes entities based in India.

New Delhi has rejected sanctions that are not backed by the United Nations and questioned the legitimacy of such actions against the backdrop of EU nations’ purchases of Russian gas and LNG.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed the need to maintain freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz during a call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Modi welcomed the initial ceasefire agreement reached between Iran and the US that has paved the way for broader talks to find a lasting solution to the Middle East conflict.

He reiterated the need for continued efforts to ensure lasting peace and stability in the region and for safeguarding freedom of navigation and commerce.

The Indian leader emphasized New Delhi’s “consistent position that all issues must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy,” the government said in a statement on Tuesday.

The US-Iran peace talks are clouded by the confusion over who controls the Strait of Hormuz. Iran says it is entitled to charge a toll as part of the broad peace framework that will be in place after 60 days of negotiations, while the US insists that shipping traffic cannot be charged.

Spoke with the President of Iran, Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian, on the recent developments in West Asia. Welcomed the progress made in the negotiations and expressed hope that continued efforts will lead to lasting peace in the region. Reiterated the importance of freedom of navigation…

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 30, 2026

The US-Israeli attacks on Iran at the end of February led to Tehran closing the strait, with Washington responding by imposing a naval blockade of Iranian ports. The blockades hit shipping in the chokepoint, through which a fifth of the world’s energy shipments passed before the conflict began, sending global oil prices soaring to as high as $120 a barrel.

President Pezeshkian briefed Modi on the recent developments in the Middle East and the path ahead amid the peace talks.

India’s oil imports from Russia hit record levels in June, despite a sanctions waiver from the US ending halfway through the month.

Local refiners imported about 2.70 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Russia in the month, preliminary data from Kpler and LSEG showed.

This is a steep rise from the 2.13 million bpd oil imports a month ago.

The data showed that Russian oil imports also accounted for more than half ⁠of India’s overall inbound shipments, up from 36.5% in May.

According to a Kpler report on June 22, India’s oil imports were pegged at an average of 2.66 million bpd up to June 19.

The report projected that India’s June imports were likely to top 2.35 million bpd, driven by competitive discounts and rising demand.

The US sanctions waiver ended on June 17.

India’s oil imports from Russia have steadily increased from 2022-23, when refiners tapped discounted crude after some European ‌customers shunned purchases from Moscow following the Ukraine conflict.

The attacks by Israel on Gaza show a targeted annihilation of children that should be punished, the head of a UN panel that probed the excesses told RT India.

The violence unleashed by Israeli forces was “unjustified and disproportionate… in considerable terms,” Justice S. Muralidhar, the chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, said in an exclusive interview.

“The excuse that Hamas could be using hospitals and schools as bases to carry out its attacks will not justify completely demolishing 97% of all of Gaza’s schools,” he said.

The Gaza war began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage. Israel’s subsequent military operation devastated much of Gaza, killing over 73,000 Palestinians and injuring more than 173,000, according to the local health authorities.

Muralidhar presented the findings of the UN panel on Tuesday and discussed the Israeli violations against children.

Citing a pattern of targeted attacks on children, he said: “When you shoot a 10-day-old baby breastfeeding on his mother… through his head, you can by no means label such a baby as an enemy of the State of Israel and justify these kinds of attacks.”

Israeli quadcopters with thermal imaging cameras can clearly distinguish a child from an adult, he said.

That children were specifically targeted is clear from the number of “instances of babies with gunshot wounds to their head and neck to cause maximum damage.” He added that babies were aimed at with “tiny cube-shaped pellets” that “spread like a cluster of ammunition and destroy all the internal organs.”

“So it became very clear… that babies were special targets,” Muralidhar, who once served as chief justice at the high court in the eastern state of Odisha, said.

He noted that Israeli soldiers recounted on TV how they targeted children with quadcopters, claiming that “their commanders complimented them for doing that.”

Muralidhar said the pattern was clearly revealed “by a collection of all the forms of evidence,” including forensic and medical.

Muralidhar noted that “one of the elements of genocide is to prevent childbirths,” claiming that for Israeli forces, “mothers who are pregnant are targets, and they are denied any nutritious intake, so the mothers are malnourished.”

He added that hospital equipment was destroyed, while doctors were prevented from bringing in new equipment and emergency medication.

“So one can clearly see a pattern that reproductive health is being targeted. Newborn babies are targeted,” he said, while also claiming that “Israel targets the orphanages” and noting that the report cites “over 58,000 orphaned children in two years.”

Muralidhar lamented the “failure of all UN member states… to prevail upon Israel to comply with the three provisional orders of the International Court of Justice, [which] weakens the international legal order.” 

India’s capital has announced cash incentives for car owners to scrap their old cars for electric vehicles, as it scrambles to curb the alarming pollution levels.

The government of Delhi state has earmarked $1.59 billion over the next four years under a policy initiative to boost electric vehicles.

Delhi retained its distinction as the world’s most polluted capital city for the eighth consecutive year in 2025, according to the World Air Quality Report. The city has 8.76 million registered motor vehicles, and the new policy targets a minimum 30% electrification by March 31, 2030.

Under the policy, a $1,060 scrapping incentive will be offered to owners ready to trade in cars bought before April 1, 2020 for an electric car.

Additionally, electric cars priced up to around $31,700 will be exempt from road taxes and registration fees. These costs usually account for 4%-10% of a car’s on-road price.

The Indian capital wants a swifter energy transition for two-wheelers, of which it has 5.9 million. Delhi will only register electric two-wheelers from April 1, 2028.

The city will also offer a subsidy of around $300 to electric two-wheelers in the first year, reducing the amount by around $100 each in the next two years, to speed up the transition.

However, owners of hybrid vehicles will not benefit from these incentives.

Also, the city will only register electric autorickshaws – three-wheel vehicles – from January 1.

BrahMos Aerospace’s manufacturing facility in the northern Indian city of Lucknow has become the country’s largest, boosting production of the missile by 20%.

The new facility has manufactured the first batch of the missiles, BrahMos Aerospace co-director Aleksandr Maksichev told Sputnik. Manufacturing of “the second batch is now underway,” he added.

India has four BrahMos manufacturing facilities, with the others located in Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram in southern India and Pilani in the northwestern state of Rajasthan.

Maksichev said the commissioning of the facility has significantly enhanced both the speed and capacity of BrahMos missile manufacturing.

Global interest for the missile has since picked up. New Delhi has already sold it to the Philippines and Vietnam, and talks are underway with Indonesia and the UAE.

BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture by Indian and Russian defense manufacturers, posted record revenue in the previous fiscal year.

An Indian disaster relief team that rushed to Venezuela to help with earthquake relief work has set up camp and operationalized a field hospital in the capital.

The Indian Embassy in Venezuela said a medical team has been set up at the International La Rinconada Racetrack in Caracas.

At least 1,450 people have died since two devastating earthquakes struck Venezuela last week, with rescue teams racing to find survivors.

Two Indian Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft transported 66 tons of aid, including the army field hospital and over 35 tons of relief supplies, to Caracas in Operation Amistad.

The supplies include two BHISHM cubes – state-of-the-art, modular field hospital and trauma care systems designed for rapid disaster response, with medical essentials to treat up to 200 people.

The cubes were previously deployed to Ukraine, Jamaica, and other sites of disasters.

Operation Amistad: Venezuelan Vice Health Minister and Head of Government of the Capital District of Venezuela visit Indian Field Hospital ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Av5ERsXWNn

— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) June 29, 2026

Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal shared a tweet of the Venezuelan vice health minister and head of government of the Capital District of Venezuela visiting the field hospital.

The IAF said the planes flew 23 hours, covering a distance of over 14,000 km from New Delhi to Caracas. “This transoceanic deployment reaffirms India’s growing role as a responsible first responder and a reliable humanitarian partner,” it said.

India’s ties with Venezuela received a boost recently when acting President Delcy Rodriguez visited New Delhi earlier this month to develop energy trade between the two countries.

India has raised concern about the repeated targeting of children during armed conflicts, demanding that those committing such crimes be held accountable.

Stressing that education is a right that should endure even in times of conflict, Indian Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Harish Parvathaneni said “education is a right whose fulfilment is among the most powerful contributions to lasting peace.”

He pointed out that “protection of children without accountability is incomplete.”

Under international humanitarian law, a deliberate attack on a school amounts to a war crime.

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday it may never be known who was at fault for a deadly strike on a girls’ school in Iran on February ‌28, the opening day of the US-Israeli strikes on the country, that killed more than 120 students aged 6-13 and 26 teachers.

The US initially tried to blame the Iranian military for the bombing of the school in Minab in southern Iran. But an internal US military investigation showed American forces were likely responsible for the fatal strike, Reuters reported.

📹 India At UNSC: Those Targeting Schools With Impunity Must Be Held Accountable

Ukraine is accused of targeting a bus carrying Belarusian school kids, while the US has been accused of carrying out the devastating strike in Minab. pic.twitter.com/BQZCmqHyWp

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) June 26, 2026

Ukrainian drones targeted a dormitory and school at night in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic on May 22, while students were sleeping inside. The building partially collapsed, leaving 21 people dead, mainly teenage girls.

Kiev targeted a bus carrying 44 people, 28 of them children, in Russia’s Bryansk last week. Those on board were members of a Belarusian youth sports team. 

Following the attack Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of “hunting” children.

“India remains unwavering in its commitment to protecting children in armed conflict and to upholding their right to learn, to grow, and to realize their full potential,” Parvathaneni added.

The Indian permanent representative’s remarks came after the UN Secretary General released a report on ‘Children and armed conflict.’

The report noted that violations against children in armed conflicts reached “shocking levels” in 2025, and a record number of children were affected, a PTI report said.

It said in conflict scenarios, parties “failed to uphold or proactively undermined their obligations… and continued to commit grave violations with near-total impunity.”

India’s trade minister has set a condition to finalize a trade deal agreed with the United States earlier this year.

After the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s tariffs as illegal in February – soon after the two countries reached an agreement – the administration imposed a 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act.

Trade Minister Piyush Goel said at the India Global Forum in London on Wednesday that New Delhi’s negotiated deal with Washington offered a then-competitive 18% tariff, which offered an edge over competing economies like ASEAN, other than Singapore, and neighboring countries.

“That is why the deal was attractive,” Goyal said.

“With the US Supreme Court striking down the tariffs, and now with the 10% expiring on July 24, we obviously need to have some reason to be able to enter into force that agreement,” he said.

Piyush Goyal: India Won't Activate US Trade Deal Until Competitive Edge Is Secured

The Indian Commerce Minister alluded that New Delhi is seeking clarity on how it will retain an edge over competing manufacturing economies before moving ahead with the deal.

He noted that the… https://t.co/labdIoYmfM pic.twitter.com/l7QU6qeEqk

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) June 25, 2026

Goyal said New Delhi needs to ensure a competitive advantage over what is being paid by countries in the same stage of development, naming some ASEAN nations and neighboring countries, including Bangladesh.

“Until the framework for getting a competitive advantage is finalized, we cannot enter into force a US deal,” Goyal said.

The remark came just a day after India held trade talks with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The New Delhi talks were the third round on the issue since the trade deal was announced in February.

New Delhi and Washington failed to reach an agreement on trade after several rounds of talks last year. The US then slapped a 50% tariff on India, half of which was cited as a penalty for India’s purchases of Russian oil.

Also on Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said tariff rates could return to previous levels after Greer “concludes studies on Section 301 investigations.”

Section 301 allows the US to levy tariffs without additional congressional approval. The move shows the Trump administration’s resolve to circumvent the legal setbacks it suffered. 

The investigations under Section 301 were launched in March against several countries including China and India, and the European Union.

Russian weapons manufacturer Kalashnikov has signed a pact to supply small arms to partners in India.

Maxim Karavaev, Kalashnikov’s business development director in India, said the pact envisages the supply of anti-drone cartridges.

Under the terms of the deal signed at India Homeland Security Expo, an exhibition of equipment and technologies for national and public safety, Kalashnikov is expected to produce the supplies by the end of this year.

In particular, anti-drone shotguns, anti-drone cartridges of various calibers, and pistols will be shipped, it said in a statement.

“Anti-drone protection today is among the most popular in the world. The products of the concern in this niche are effective and proven,” Karavaev said.

Unmanned aerial systems have been a standout feature of the two-day India Homeland Security Expo, which ends on Thursday.

The compact Karakurt and Goliath copter-type UAVs and the SKAT 350 M high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, known as GARUDA in India, were the highlights of the expo.

Kalashnikov already has partnerships with Indian entities. Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL), formed by Rosoboronexport and the Kalashnikov Concern along with two state-owned Indian firms – Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited and Munitions India Limited – started manufacturing AK-203 assault rifles in India in 2023.

The manufacture of 600,000 AK-203 rifles spread over ten years is being done under the ‘Make in India’ initiative of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The rifles are being made using Russian technology and certified equipment in the town of Korda in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Meta, the parent company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced earlier this week that it has made a $900 million investment in Bengaluru-based startup Cred. 

Cred is a fintech startup founded by Kunal Shah, who now will take over as the global head of Meta’s WhatsApp messaging platform.  

While the Meta-Cred deal signals the US-based tech major’s growing ambitions in India’s digital payments and financial services market, it has also sparked concerns about data crossing borders. The huge investment, combined with a leadership role, has made the deal the focus of attention.

RT examines the multiple layers of the partnership.

What is Cred?

Cred started as a platform that rewarded users for paying their credit card bills on time. Founded in 2018 by Shah, it targeted financially responsible high-value customers, enabling the platform to build a user base of affluent Indians.

The platform later widened its reach beyond credit card payments, offering a host of services, including UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and merchant payments, apart from lending products, insurance services, and wealth management tools. In effect, Cred transitioned to a broader fintech platform rather than being a one-trick pony.

Cred was valued at $6.4 billion during the peak of the startup funding boom in 2022, but later saw a significant valuation drop due to cautious investor sentiment.

The new deal with Meta gives the US tech giant a minority 20% stake in Cred at a valuation of $4.5 billion. Cred has said it will not share the startup’s customer data with Meta.

Meta’s interest

Cred’s overwhelmingly urban and higher-income customer base set it as a prime target of global majors, with Meta finding it an attractive proposition in a major market such as India.

The South Asian nation is one of the key markets for Meta, with millions of users on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. India has over 850 million WhatsApp users, making it the app’s largest global base.

Meta has repeatedly tried – and thus far failed – to transform this massive user base into a dominant digital payments force. WhatsApp Pay, which was positioned to become a major force in India’s UPI ecosystem, remains a minor player in a crowded market dominated by leaders PhonePe and Google Pay, which have cornered the lion’s share of UPI transactions.

Meta sees the payments gamble as a crucial part of a larger digital commerce strategy. For example, it could have a user find a product on Instagram, discuss it with peers on WhatsApp, and make the payment through its own platform – an ecosystem of embedded loyalists within the Meta-verse, so to speak. Cred is an ideal bet to pull this off, with expertise spanning payments, lending, and financial products.

The deep understanding of Indian consumer traits and its complex and highly competitive fintech landscape that Cred offered were tantalizing add-ons.

Why Meta scooped up Shah

Shah is not a newcomer to the financial ecosystem. Before launching Cred, he founded FreeCharge, a digital payments company, which was later sold to Snapdeal. A deep knowledge of consumer behavior and financial technology propelled him to the highest echelons of India’s startup ecosystem.

Shah’s appointment as the global head of WhatsApp is a hint that Meta sees a goldmine in his leadership abilities. Meta can count on him to infuse fresh thinking in WhatsApp and to boost the app’s floundering payments strategy – not only in a huge market like India, but in other countries as well, as digital transactions gain increasing appeal among global consumers. 

Is there a catch?

The deal announcement spurred discussions over data sovereignty and the role of US-based tech giants in India’s fintech sector as well as their access to the vast financial data generated by Indian consumers.

A report by Global Trade Research Institute (GTRI) warned that Meta’s investment in Cred could deepen foreign tech influence over India’s fintech sector and consumer financial data. The think tank has urged greater transparency on data‑sharing safeguards and stronger regulatory oversight of the deal. GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava noted that the Meta-Cred transaction “comes at a time when India’s digital-payments ecosystem is increasingly dominated by platforms linked to US firms.”

Allowing global firms to hold sway over public digital infrastructure risks of foreign-controlled ecosystems gaining access to valuable financial data assets, the GTRI report argued, noting that Cred processes more than 40% of India’s credit-card bill payments.

“The central issue is not whether Meta gains access to Cred’s data today. It is whether India is gradually allowing control over the financial data of millions of economically active citizens to migrate into foreign-owned digital ecosystems,” Srivastava wrote.

Data sovereignty concerns linked to startup acquisitions and regulatory oversight have also been flagged by a Mumbai-based entrepreneur Arnab Mitra. The deal is “data arbitrage at national scale,” he said in a LinkedIn post, citing that Meta would have access to “25 million Indian credit profiles. Affluent. Verified. Creditworthy.”

India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 stipulates explicit consent before personal financial data is transferred to any third party and restricts cross-border transfer of personal data to countries not on an approved whitelist. According to Mitra, the catch here is that the government “has not notified the whitelist, and the US is not on it yet.” The implications are that data crossing borders is not a possibility that is ruled out.

In 2021, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the national antitrust regulator, penalized Meta over WhatsApp’s privacy policy and the way user data was collected and shared with other Meta companies.

It remains unclear to what extent the CCI – whose approval will be required for the deal to go through – will be willing to probe the deeper contours of the transaction and focus on data concerns, rather than limiting itself to competition issues.

India has honored Russian scholar Dr. Lyudmila Khokhlova, acclaimed Indology professor and linguist, with the Padma Shri award for her contribution to the field of literature and education, and advancing Indian languages and culture.

The Moscow State University scholar has a decades-long academic career spanning historical linguistics, the origins and evolution of Sikhism, and the study of Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, and Marwari. She has authored six books and 92 publications, while teaching generations of young India specialists.

President Droupadi Murmu presented India’s fourth highest civilian honor to Dr. Khokhlova on Tuesday in New Delhi.

Earlier in January, speaking to RT when the award was announced on India’s Republic Day, she said: “I wish for Indians to keep moving forward, continue their rapid economic development and preserve all the glorious spiritual traditions since ancient times.”

“This award means a lot to me both personally and professionally. And I will work as much as possible to make myself worthy of this award,” she added. Dr. Khokhlova is an Associate Professor in the Department of Indian Philology at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Fewer than ten Russian scholars have received the Padma Shri since it was instituted in 1954. 

The Iran conflict shows that the era of the unipolar world is over, a leading policy expert has said. The US can bomb a country to the Stone Age, but cannot “create global governance,” Samir Saran, the head of the Observer Research Foundation, told the Primakov Readings International Forum in Moscow.

“If the biggest power in the world cannot open the Hormuz Strait, I don’t think that power should be recognized as being anything close to being powerful,” he said on Wednesday at the event.

Speaking exclusively to RT on the sidelines of the event, Saran stated that traditional friends Moscow and New Delhi do not have another partnership that can claim the same level of trust.

“India and Russia have a very special relationship and a special connection with each other,” he said.

On New Delhi’s concerns regarding Moscow’s ties with Beijing, he said Russia and India should “view only what we do with each other. We should double it, then triple it, then grow [the relationship].”

“We should be each other’s most essential partners and we should continue to invest in that. What we do with others should not be a concern to either of us.”

“We will not have the dominance of the USA and USSR of the past ever. There will be no real superpower in the next 25-30 years,” he said.

Saran went on to say that commodities will be key among the “four drivers of the world of the future,” listing technology, demography, and identity as the other three.

He slammed the “new export control ethic emerging around AI,” saying it will create divides like never before. “Technology is going to create an underclass,” he warned.

Saran predicted that “identity and sovereignty are going to be stronger in the next 20 years than they were in the last 20 years.” 

Russia and India are working on increasing bilateral trade volumes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said, as the countries pursue a trade target of $100 billion by 2030.

Ties between Russia and India, the world’s most populous country and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, are set to reach new heights, Peskov told RT on the sidelines of the 12th International Scientific and Expert Forum ‘Primakov Readings’ in Moscow.

“We are working on increasing the volume of economic relations. This volume has a stable growth trend. We will work together further,” Peskov said.

The bilateral trade target of $100 billion to be reached by 2030 was set during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India in December.

Earlier this month, Putin expressed confidence in achieving the target, saying, “At present, trade turnover stands at approximately $58 to $60 billion. However, all the necessary conditions are in place to intensify our joint efforts and achieve even more ambitious goals.”

China is currently India’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade at $151.1 billion.

India is a country with potential in all areas, Peskov said, adding Moscow’s ties with New Delhi have a “particularly privileged status.”

Earlier at the Primakov Readings, Peskov posed a query on India’s role in the emerging global order, linking its bilateral ties with Russia, to policy expert Samir Saran, the head of the Observer Research Foundation think tank.

In reply, Saran said the role of Russia-India relations is crucial in the emerging world. India will play a pivotal role in a world “where commodities and climate change and development challenges exist. If the Russians and the Americans were the military superpowers and the Chinese are the economic superpowers, India is the development superpower,” he said.

Saran pointed out that India, with a population of about 1.47 billion, has lifted “more people out of poverty, provided more food, provided more solutions to more people than anyone else in the world.”

The World Bank said last year that the number of Indians living on less than $2.15 a day, the international benchmark for extreme poverty, fell sharply from 16.2% in 2011-12 to just 2.3% in 2022-23.

India has called for the emergence of a strong voice for the Global South at a meeting of the security chiefs of BRICS countries in New Delhi.

Warning that multilateralism is on the decline globally, Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval struck a note of caution about the growing security challenges. “Tumultuous times, marked by military conflicts and growing security challenges, need a stronger voice of the Global South,” he said.

The two-day meeting was attended by top security officials from the bloc’s countries, including Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. 

The BRICS leaders "reaffirmed their commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including through countering the use of new technologies being utilized by them," India's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Doval pointed out that BRICS was created to promote a more multipolar world order, strengthen the voice of the Global South, and advance peace, development, and cooperation. The NSA said the bloc is “gaining strength day by day.”

Backing Doval about waning multilateralism in global relations, Russia’s Shoigu said BRICS should play a key role to reform “failing international organizations, including the UNSC and WTO.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously pushed to reform the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. “A reform of leading UN institutions and global financial structures is long overdue,” Putin said in the presence of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan. “The weight of the developing nations in the world economy has radically changed in the past decades.”

🇷🇺 Security Council Secretary Shoigu Calls For Creation Of BRICS Emergency Reserve

The mechanism would be "for storing stocks of medicines, food, energy, fertilizers, rare earth metals, and other vital goods" for use in crisis situations. https://t.co/VjyFc9CVC0 pic.twitter.com/nPVUv9maej

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) June 23, 2026

Shoigu also called for the creation of a ‘BRICS Emergency Reserve’ as a mechanism “for storing stocks of medicines, food, energy, fertilizers, rare earth metals, and other vital goods” for use in crisis situations.

The NSA meeting is a preparatory initiative to lay the groundwork for the BRICS Leaders’ Summit scheduled for September 12-13 in India, which Putin is expected to attend.

Doval also met with China’s Wang on the sidelines and held “constructive and forward-looking talks,” the ministry said.

The ministry “noted progress towards gradual normalization” of bilateral ties.

Twelve Indians are among the 13 killed in a blast at a Ras Laffan gas facility on Monday, the Qatari authorities say.

Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi said the blast at the Barzan plant in the Ras Laffan LNG complex was due to a “technical malfunction,” ruling out any “hostile” action.

Qatar suffered Iranian missile and drone attacks during the recent Middle East conflict triggered by US-Israel strikes on Iran, with the Ras Laffan facility extensively damaged in March.

The Indian Embassy in Doha said the Qatari authorities confirmed that 12 of the deceased were from India. The 66 reportedly injured are Qatari, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Kenyan, Ghanaian, Tanzanian, Nigerian, and Nepalese nationals, Qatari officials said.

The Qatari authorities said the injured are in stable condition and are receiving medical treatment.

Qatari authorities have confirmed that 12 Indian nationals have unfortunately passed away in the Ras Laffan incident yesterday night. We extend our deepest condolences to the bereaved families and prayers for the departed souls.

Qatari authorities have also confirmed that all…

— India in Qatar (@IndEmbDoha) June 22, 2026

The Indian Embassy said officials are in touch with the authorities to extend “all possible help to the Indian nationals and their families affected by this incident, including ensuring that the mortal remains of the deceased are sent back to India at the earliest.”

The Ras Laffan Industrial City around 80 km north of Doha houses the world’s largest LNG export complex and produces around a fifth of global supply.

Qatar Energy did not provide details on the extent of the damage in the blast. Al-Kaabi, who is also the CEO of the state-owned company, said the blast “will not affect in any way our exports to the world.”

Qatar is India’s largest LNG supplier, accounting for nearly half of the country’s imports. Qatar owns nearly all of the plant, with ExxonMobil holding a small share.

The explosion occurred as workers were restarting operations at the complex. There was no gas leakage, Qatar’s Interior Ministry said, adding that the incident does not pose any danger to public safety.

A blaze in a commercial building in the northern Indian city of Lucknow on Monday has left at least 14 people dead, most of them students.

The fire broke out in a building located in the Aliganj neighborhood, which housed a pet shop and veterinary clinic on the lower floors, in addition to an animation studio and a study center upstairs.

The deputy chief minister of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Brajesh Pathak, confirmed that 14 bodies have been recovered, while ten people were undergoing treatment in a hospital.

Local media reports that several people were injured. Rescue efforts were coordinated by officials from the fire department, police, and district administration.

Disturbing and scary visuals from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh where people were seen jumping from the first floor of a shop caught in a massive fire. pic.twitter.com/ofT6vlKOQW

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) June 22, 2026

Authorities have not determined the cause of the blaze. Videos circulating on social media showed people shimmying to the ground on makeshift ropes, as well as a person falling from the first floor while trying to escape. Local media later reported that the man has been hospitalized.

Some animals rescued from the pet clinic were also injured.

Firefighters broke open a wall to gain entry to the building as thick smoke hampered rescue efforts. Exhaust fans were used to clear the smoke.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that cash assistance would be provided to the families of the victims and those hurt in the blaze.

“Anguished by the loss of lives in a fire mishap in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. My condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover at the earliest,” he posted on X.

India is in initial talks with the United Arab Emirates for the potential sale of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, Reuters reports.

The Gulf nation is ramping up weapons purchases in the aftermath of the Middle East conflict and amid concerns about regional stability.

The negotiations also include the potential purchase of India’s Akashteer air defense system, Reuters reports, citing two sources.

“The talks between India and UAE are at initial stages and are progressing fast,” the report quoted a third source as saying.

BrahMos, jointly developed by India and Russia, is among the world’s fastest cruise missiles and has land, sea, and air variants. The missile, with speeds reaching up to Mach 3, was employed with lethal effectiveness against Pakistani targets last year by Indian forces.

Akashteer is a fully automated air defense system developed by state-run Bharat Electronics Ltd and the Indian Army.

Russian oil exports to India rose in June, with shipments surging despite the third US sanctions waiver on oil purchases from Russia ending last week.

India imported an average of 2.66 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from Russia this month up to June 19, compared to 1.91 million bpd in May, data from Kpler shows.

India’s oil imports in June are likely to top 2.35 million bpd, driven by competitive discounts and rising demand, PTI reported, quoting a Kpler analyst.

Imports from the US during the period slumped to 91,000 bpd from 252,000 bpd in May.

India is the world’s third-largest energy importer. New Delhi diversified its crude basket after its crude, LNG and LPG imports from the Gulf region were disrupted by the Middle East conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Nearly a fifth of global energy shipments were routed through the strait before the US-Israeli war against Iran, sending oil prices soaring.

Oil shipments to India from the United Arab Emirates stood at 636,000 barrels per day (bpd), a slight dip from the 644,000 bpd imported a month ago. Venezuela emerged as India’s fourth-largest supplier with shipments of 209,000 bpd, behind Saudi Arabia’s 384,000 bpd.

The US sanctions waiver on Russian oil expired on June 17. Washington initially waived sanctions on Russian oil purchases on March 5, and extended it twice, despite claims to the contrary.

Reports suggest that another extension is unlikely, as oil supplies from the Middle East may return to the market as a US-Iran peace deal takes shape.

The US waiver was issued to stabilize global oil prices after the Iran war. Washington slapped a 25% punitive tariff on Indian imports for its Russian oil purchases in 2025, although it was lifted earlier this year.

A New Delhi court has rejected the messaging app Telegram’s appeal to overturn a temporary ban introduced by India’s federal government.

The restrictions were imposed on the popular messaging app earlier this week to prevent its use by “cheating rackets” to defraud candidates taking a nationwide medical entrance examination.

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test held last month was cancelled following allegations of question leaks and exam irregularities; about 2.2 million students will take the retest on Sunday.

The Delhi High Court found ‌the government’s action legal and reasonable. The government is “empowered... to issue directions for blocking public access to Telegram,” it ruled.

The ban is effective June 16 to June 22, with the app’s message-editing feature blocked until June 30. The government says the feature was misused to circulate back-dated messages, creating the impression that exam questions had been leaked in advance.

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology invoked the provisions of its information technology law, which enables authorities to block access to online sites in the “interest of sovereignty and integrity of India,” to temporarily ban the app founded by Russian tech entrepreneur Pavel Durov.

India is Telegram’s biggest market by downloads, although Meta’s WhatsApp remains the top messaging platform in the country of 1.4 billion.

The legal battle is the most high-profile case between a global tech giant and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. ⁠In 2025, it reduced the number of officials who can order content takedowns following a bitter legal battle with Elon Musk’s X.

India has directed the state-backed Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to build and fill another strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) facility, which would expand its reserve capacity by a third, a report has said.

The oil explorer and producer will invest an estimated $1.6 billion to implement the federal government’s directive. New Delhi is prioritizing energy security in the wake of the Middle East conflict, which depleted its strategic reserves and exposed its vulnerability to oil shocks.

The proposed 1.75 million metric ton (MMT) underground facility in the southern port city of Mangaluru is expected to increase New Delhi’s current emergency reserve capacity of 5.33 MMT by a third, The Economic Times reported.

ONGC would require $602 million for construction and $1.2 billion for filling the facility with crude oil, according to estimates based on current oil prices.

India currently has three SPR facilities located in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. These were funded by the government and are owned by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd, a state-owned special purpose vehicle. 

A phase 2 plan to add 6.5 MMT was approved earlier.

India’s daily consumption is five million barrels of oil per day, making its SPR capacity of about 39 million barrels look meager compared to the reserves of other major economies. 

New Delhi held just 21 million barrels of strategic crude stocks at the end of 2025. 

China’s reserves, at more than 220 million barrels, can last 60 days, while Japan’s 324 million barrel-reserve can last 230 days.

The recent incident of the US Navy attacking an unarmed merchant ship off the coast of Oman with two Hellfire missiles and killing three Indian mariners as a result has deeply angered Indian public opinion.

The Indian government was forced to summon the US chargé d’affaires in New Delhi twice to register a protest. What has particularly offended India is the lack of any expression of regret by the US for killing Indian nationals. Whatever the circumstances that led to this killing, some words of regret from the US were expected given the friendly relations between the two countries.

India and the US have a comprehensive global strategic partnership. Both have been cooperating to promote maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region, with regular naval exercises and membership of the Quad. A US officer is stationed in Indian Navy’s Information Fusion Center – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) in Gurugram. India maintains a reciprocal liaison officer in the US Central Command HQ in Florida as part of deepening maritime, counterterrorism, and undersea domain awareness cooperation.

Given this level of institutional engagement, and the fact that Indian seafarers make up roughly 10% to 12% of the global maritime workforce, the risk to Indian nationals in a region that is a major source of oil and gas not only for India but for Asia as a whole should have prompted the discussion and development of clear protocols to protect their lives.

It is in this context that Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar spoke to US Secretary of State Rubio and reiterated India’s strong protest at the attacks by the US Navy in the Gulf that killed three Indian mariners. During the call, Jaishankar stated that such lethal actions against commercial shipping were not justified.

Rather surprisingly, Rubio’s response was unusually harsh and peremptory. He stressed to Jaishankar that all commercial vessels should immediately comply with orders from US forces which seek to uphold peace and security in the strait. He underscored that violations of the US blockade and the illicit transport of Iranian oil will not be tolerated. 

Rubio implicitly not only justified the killing of three Indian mariners under the circumstances, but warned that this could happen again as the US will not tolerate the violation of its unilaterally imposed blockade. There is not even a pro forma expression of regret at the killing of nationals of a friendly country.

The irony of Rubio’s unyielding message to India is that two days later President Donald Trump announced the lifting of the US blockade and unhindered passage through the strait following a preliminary framework agreement with Iran. Rubio would have been aware of this development and yet he chose to respond to Jaishankar’s oral démarche in such hectoring language. This will only serve to seed more distrust in India towards the US.

Trump evaded the issue. This "working together" could have started with some expression of regret as a demonstration of  good faith. An opportunity was missed to close the matter and actually even win over Indian public opinion.

The broader context of US-India ties

The US has been building a relationship of trust with India ever since the presidency of George W. Bush. The nuclear deal with India reversed decades of mistrust between the two countries and opened the doors to an expanding relationship in several areas: economic, trade, technology, defense, and security. Presidents Obama, Biden, and even Trump in his first term continued to consolidate the relationship. India-US ties were described as the defining relationship of the 21st century.

Defense ties that were virtually absent in 2005 became a major confidence-building measure on India’s part, with New Delhi buying weapons and platforms worth over $22 billion. India and the US signed all the required foundational agreements in the defense area. India was declared a Major Defense Partner by the US and certain export control regulations were eased to allow the sale of US defense material and technologies to India.

Bilateral military exercises expanded during these years. Within the Quad, along with Japan and Australia, India and the US have been cooperating in the area of maritime security in the Indo-Pacific. The US linked the security of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, which was logical in view of Japan’s membership of the Quad. A major objective was to deter the maritime expansionism of China, though New Delhi worked to enlarge the remit of Quad to also include important non-security areas. 

In the US Congress, India has enjoyed a bipartisan consensus all these years. The large Indian diaspora in the US has been valued as a strong bond. The number of Indian students enrolling in US universities overtook the number of Chinese students, hitherto the largest. India was the biggest beneficiary of the H‑1B visa scheme, and this has played a large role in strengthening links between the IT giants in the US and Indian talent.

The US has continued to be uncomfortable with India’s ties with Russia. On the defense side, Washington has made no secret it wanted to dilute India’s defense ties with Russia, and even replace Russia as India’s biggest defense partner. The CAATSA legislation passed by the US Congress, with the encouragement of Trump in his first term, was to deter India from acquiring new high-end defense platforms from Russia such as S-400 air defense missiles. This legislation put India in a defensive position to seek waivers from the Washington to avoid risks of US secondary sanctions. The US compelled India to cease buying Iranian oil under threat from sanctions. India has had to seek waivers for its operations at the Iranian port of Chabahar. 

The US State Department has repeatedly targeted New Delhi in its annual reports on issues such as human rights, the treatment of minorities, and religious freedom in India – much to the annoyance of Indian opinion, which has long criticized Washington’s double standards and hypocrisy.

After Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine, pressure on New Delhi to condemn Moscow and cease buying Russian oil became contentious issues in the relationship.

While India has stood its ground, these pressures have constantly reminded India that the US is incapable of treating other countries as equals, that over dependence on the US would constrain India’s strategic autonomy which India must conserve at all costs.

In his second term, Trump has undone the progress in trust building between India and the US. From India’s viewpoint he has done this gratuitously, without any provocation from India. He has always been obsessed with high Indian tariffs, overlooking the fact that these are not US specific and are WTO compliant. He went on to impose 50% tariffs on India, the highest on any other country except Brazil, including 25% penalty tariffs for India buying Russian oil. He overlooked the fact that the Biden administration had encouraged India to buy from Russia in order to avoid a sharp spike in global oil prices.

India’s bipartisan support in the US Congress has not shielded it from Trump’s arbitrary actions. The Indian diaspora has not mobilized itself actively in the support of their homeland. The US corporate sector with large interest in India has chosen not to bat for India openly for fear of provoking the capricious Trump administration.

India has made major concessions to the US to secure a trade deal, a fact recognized by USTR Jamieson Greer, but Trump has kept it in abeyance because he wants to extract concessions from India on agricultural products in particular, which India cannot offer. He wants India to plead for a deal. He is now using Section 301 of the US trade legislation to reimpose high tariffs on India and others.

Trump has made insulting remarks about India, calling it a “dead economy” and a “hellhole.” Members of his administration, especially the commerce and treasury secretaries, have also used offensive language. Trump has further embarrassed India politically by claiming nearly 60 times that he brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan by threatening to use tariffs, and that he thereby prevented a nuclear war. India has officially denied this, but that has not deterred him. He appears resentful that India denied him an opportunity to bolster his case for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump has been strikingly insensitive to India’s concerns by politically bolstering Pakistan’s regional standing. His administration has lionized Field Marshal Munir, who is deeply hostile towards India, while drawing attention away from Pakistan’s terrorist affiliations. At the same time, it has also effectively strengthened the China-Pakistan axis by not questioning Pakistan’s high‑end arms purchases from China – as he does in the case of India’s arms purchases from Russia – even though Pakistan’s economy is in dire shape and dependent on IMF bailouts.

India’s concern is that in a bid to strengthen Washington regional military role Trump may supply US arms to Pakistan. Trump has gone to war with Iran on its nuclear program but the US ignores the expansion of Pakistan’s nuclear program, its China connection, and repeated Pakistani nuclear threats against India.

Just before the Trump-Modi meeting at Evian, the US announced that the US Indo-Pacific Command, so named in 2018 by Trump, will revert to its original name of the US Pacific Command. This erodes the salience of the Quad.

India, the only country with credible naval power in the Indian Ocean littoral, is an indispensable partner for ensuring maritime security in  these waters through which the vital trade and energy routes of ASEAN and East Asian countries – including China, Japan, and South Korea – pass. By its uncertain messaging in the Indo-Pacific area, the US is reflecting the same kind of strategic disarray that that the Trump administration’s adventurism in the Middle East has already exposed.

An energy vessel that crossed the Strait of Hormuz has docked in an Indian port for the first time since the announcement of an initial peace agreement between the US and Iran on Sunday, as shipping traffic began to trickle back through the chokepoint.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier MT Disha docked at Dahej Port in the western state of Gujarat early on Friday, reports said. The tanker was said to be among the first to cross the strait after the agreement between Washington and Tehran and the subsequent lifting of the US naval blockade of Iran.

India is the world’s third-largest importer of oil, the fourth-largest of LNG, and the second-largest importer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Before hostilities broke out, 45% of India’s crude oil imports, half of its LNG imports, and 90% of its LPG imports were routed through the Strait of Hormuz.

The MT Disha had loaded its cargo in Ras Laffan, Qatar. LNG is a priority energy item for India, amid demand growth and a lack of strategic reserves. But with imports from Qatar and the UAE entirely halted, New Delhi has turned to the US, Oman, and Nigeria.

#WATCH | First LNG vessel to arrive in India after the Iran-US MoU docks at Dahej Port in Gujarat

LNG carrier Disha, which transited the Strait of Hormuz, reached the Petronet LNG jetty during morning hours, according to Bharuch Port Authority#LNG #India #IranUSDeal #Energy pic.twitter.com/Og8DEAVCWg

— ET NOW (@ETNOWlive) June 19, 2026

At least 12 tankers have moved through the strait in recent days, Turkish media reported. Among those were three Saudi oil supertankers and an Iranian products tanker, the report said, citing data analytics company Kpler.

It is not clear if any of them were bound for India.

Ships owned by Grimaldi Group, Cosco, Knutsen, and NYK were beginning to cross the strait after effectively being marooned there since February, Richard Meade, editor in chief of Lloyd’s List, said in a media briefing.

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz had largely halted since the US-Israeli attack on Iran at the end of February, sending energy prices soaring globally. A fifth of global energy passed through the Middle East chokepoint before the conflict erupted.

About 100 vessels transited the route daily before conflict began.

All four of the world’s largest container carriers – Maersk, MSC, CMA CGM, and Hapag-Lloyd – had suspended Hormuz transit by March.

Some 40 ships carrying LPG, LNG, and fertilizers were waiting to sail through the strait to India, reports said in May.

A day after the announcement of a deal to end hostilities, an Indian official told Reuters that 16 India-bound vessels loaded with fertilizer were still stranded in the strait.

During active hostilities in the region, Iran repeatedly targeted vessels in the strait, although several India-bound ships passed through it.

Democratizing artificial intelligence (AI) should be India’s priority as the world’s most populous country, a top minister and ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told RT India.

Nara Lokesh, the information and technology minister of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, said India’s AI mission has a clear mandate: the technology’s effective use at the grassroots level.

“We don’t look at AI as a profit-making machine,” he said in the latest episode of ‘India, Russia and The World’ podcast. “But we look at AI at the scale of 1.4 billion people using it, using it effectively and enhancing their livelihoods.” 

The AI mission aims to bring in the physical infrastructure and build local models, while exploring how to use the technology to effectively improve outcomes for citizens, he said.

Lokesh argued AI should not remain a product for the elite or create a greater digital divide.

“It should help the farmer… it should help the street vendor… it should help the taxi driver, or the auto driver. And that’s when you would have really unlocked the value of AI,” he said.

“Some countries look at profiting from it, some countries look at regulating it. I believe India, given its scale, should democratize AI.” 

RT has launched a Hindi-language version of its Gateway to Russia project, expanding access for audiences in India and Hindi speakers around the world.

The new platform offers content on Russian culture, history, travel, education, and everyday life, along with practical guidance tailored for Hindi-speaking users. 

The Hindi version is designed to help users better understand Russia and explore opportunities related to study, travel, and relocation. The site includes information for those interested in learning Russian, pursuing higher education in the country, navigating visa and citizenship procedures, and understanding what it is like to move to and live in Russia.

The launch comes as Russia and India continue to expand people-to-people, educational, and economic ties, with growing interest among Indian students, workers, and tourists in opportunities in Russia.

The Gateway to Russia project has been developed by RT since 2024 and serves as an informational platform for foreign audiences interested in the country. With the addition of Hindi, the portal is now available in 11 languages: Russian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Serbian, Arabic, German, and Hindi.

The Hindi launch marks RT’s latest effort to broaden its outreach in South Asia and make Russian-focused content more accessible to one of the world’s largest language communities.

Last year, RT launched a new India-dedicated channel – RT India. It was inaugurated in-person by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his state visit to the country. Putin hailed the RT India launch as an “important milestone” that will allow millions of Indians to receive information about Russia’s realities today, its perspectives, and its aspirations.

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani is planning an ambitious project to launch a large constellation of satellites into low-earth orbit. 

The move would propel Ambani’s Reliance Jio, a dominant player in India’s telecom sector, into a global market currently dominated by Elon Musk’s Starlink and Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Leo. Ambani is the richest man in India and has an estimated net worth of about $100 billion.

Jio plans to launch around 1,600 satellites into a low-earth-orbit altitude of about 650 km, the Economic Times reported. This would enable the company to extend its dominance in the Indian telecom and fiber internet markets to space, and would critically enable India to reduce reliance on foreign infrastructure in the strategic sector.

Reliance Jio’s plan is being evaluated by the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center, the report said.

The role that Starlink has played in the Ukraine conflict has spurred national security concerns in India, especially because the US-based company could turn connectivity on and off remotely.

Starlink’s commercial launch in India is on hold, though it has received preliminary licenses. New Delhi is reportedly wary of constellations that use laser links to beam data directly between satellites outside of its control and even potentially through “surveillance hubs and hostile jurisdictions.”

Starlink has about 10,000 satellites in orbit, while Amazon Leo has about 370, with plans for up to 3,200.

The report said the Indian government is likely to back Jio in its filings with the International Telecommunication Union to secure orbital slots – scarce real estate in an already crowded chunk of space.

The constellation could cost Reliance Jio $10 billion-$15 billion and would take about three years to execute. It would enable Reliance Jio to offer services that are no longer dependent on towers, fiber, or geography, and even offer direct-to-device connectivity.

In March, Russia launched 16 communication satellites for its Rassvet (Sunrise) high-speed internet project, Moscow’s alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink.

India and Russia are jointly developing smaller hypersonic versions of the BrahMos missile, whose lethal precision was on display against Pakistani targets last year.

BrahMos is “an emblematic example” of bilateral defense cooperation between Russia and India, Moscow’s envoy to New Delhi, Denis Alipov, said while marking the 25th anniversary of the missile’s first test launch.

Named after the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, the BrahMos is among the fastest supersonic cruise missiles in the world.

“Today, work is underway to develop smaller and hypersonic variants, which will further enhance the Indian Armed Forces’ multi-domain strike capabilities,” he said Wednesday.

BrahMos is a supersonic missile with speeds reaching up to Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound. It is now available in land-, sea-, and air-launched variants.

BrahMos Goes Hypersonic: 🇮🇳 & 🇷🇺 Working On Next-Gen Missile Variants - Russian Ambassador To India

India and Russia are jointly developing smaller and hypersonic versions of the BrahMos missile, Denis Alipov has said.

"Today, work is underway to develop smaller and hypersonic… pic.twitter.com/4nPh10IsLA

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) June 18, 2026

Alipov recalled the use of the missile in Operation Sindoor, India’s brief military clash with Pakistan last year. Some 15-20 BrahMos missiles were fired by India in the clash, damaging several major Pakistani air bases.

The BrahMos joint venture, established in 1995, transformed bilateral ties from a “traditional buyer-seller framework” into one based on “technology sharing, co-development, and co-production,” Alipov said.

After a decade and a half, New Delhi has institutionalized this approach under its Make-in-India program, he said.

The envoy added that the joint development of fifth-generation fighter aircraft based on Russia’s Su-57 platform and the production of S-400 air defense systems would strengthen the trajectory of bilateral defense collaboration.

“The project also marked a turning point in our bilateral cooperation, paving the way for other landmark initiatives such as the licensed and localized production of Su-30MKI fighter aircraft and T-90 main battle tanks in India,” he noted.

BrahMos Aerospace Managing Director Alexander Maksichev said last week the company is ready to supply missiles to the Russian Navy and land forces.

Originally capped at a range of 180 miles (290 km), the weapon has since been upgraded for greater reach. The Philippines was its first foreign customer, signing a $375 million contract in 2022. The first batch of BrahMos missiles was delivered to Manila in April 2024 and the second in April 2025.

India confirmed it earlier this month it had also made a deal with Vietnam to supply the missiles.

BrahMos Aerospace reported a record revenue growth of 48.6% in 2025-26.

The US-Iran peace deal to end the Middle East conflict is a strategic achievement for Tehran, its envoy to New Delhi has told RT India.

While its details have not been disclosed, it is clear that the agreement is “a highly significant strategic achievement” for Iran, Mohammad Fathali told RT India.

“In my view, this agreement constitutes a major victory for the Iranian nation,” he said.

Those who spoke of “regime change” and the “complete destruction of Iran’s nuclear capabilities” failed to achieve those objectives, the envoy said.

“They have also been compelled to recognize the nuclear rights of Iran,” Fathali said. He added that Iran has always emphasized the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Iranian people to benefit from nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

The realities on the ground and the economic and strategic consequences of a prolonged war have also forced the United States to opt for a peace deal, he said.

“The continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz was harming not only the global economy but also the interests of the United States and its allies, imposing significant costs on international trade and global energy security,” Fathali said.

He made clear that Iran does not intend to impose transit fees on countries for passage through the Strait of Hormuz. “However, charges will be collected for services provided to passing vessels, such as navigation services, marine environmental protection, and vessel insurance,” he said.

A fifth of the global energy supplies passed through the choke point controlled by Iran, and its closure following the US-Israeli attack on Iran had sent energy prices soaring, sparking inflationary pressures across the globe.

Fathali rejected Israel’s statement that it is not a party to the deal, calling it “an attempt to justify the illegal and aggressive actions” in Lebanon and other parts of the region.

The envoy said Israel was primarily to blame for the instability, insecurity, and escalating tensions in the region.

Tehran believes that trust in US intentions could be gauged only through “practical evidence and genuine adherence to commitments.”

He also called the attacks on commercial vessels and the loss of Indian sailors’ lives “regrettable, inhumane, and contrary to all principles and norms of international law and humanitarian law.”

Three commercial ships were attacked by US forces near the Strait of Hormuz, and three Indian sailors on board one of them were killed.

US President Donald Trump has commented on the deaths of three Indian sailors near the Strait of Hormuz, saying he had heard about the incident.

The seamen were killed when US forces enforcing the blockade of Iran fired on their ship, the MT Settebello, last week. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France on Wednesday.

Replying to a question from the press as to whether he had words of condolence for the grieving families, Trump said, “It’s [seafaring] a rough profession, and there is no question about it.”

Pointing toward Modi, he said, “we will work together on it.”

“We love all those people, they are great people,” Trump added.

⚡Trump On Indian Seafarers: "I Heard About The Indian Sailors. It’s A Rough Profession. We Love All Those People'

📹 White House pic.twitter.com/ZIv12kz7X9

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) June 17, 2026

The killings led to domestic pressure on the Modi government to raise the issue with the Trump administration. India protested the attacks on commercial ships to US Chargé d’Affaires Jason Meeks, who was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi twice. 

In his interaction with Trump, the prime minister said he hoped the deal with Iran would help ensure the safety of sailors.

“Hundreds of thousands of Indian seafarers are performing their duties across global maritime trade routes, including the Strait of Hormuz, contributing heavily to global progress,” Modi told Trump. “Their safety is of the utmost importance to us.”

Altogether, three commercial ships with Indian crew were attacked off Oman by US forces last week. In another case, an Indian sailor aboard a vessel trapped by the blockade died following an illness. Media reports quoting seafarers’ union officials alleged that US Navy ships nearby had not responded to SOS messages from the ship’s captain.

India has more than 300,000 seamen working across global shipping fleets. Of them, over 18,000 are employed in West Asia.

India’s defense production surged in the financial year that ended in March, driven by initiatives under the Make in India program as its defense industrial base rapidly expands.

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said defense production surged 15% in financial year 2025-26 to $21 billion – from $18 billion a year ago.

New Delhi is seeking to reduce dependence on imports while developing indigenous capabilities across land, air, naval, missile, and space domains.

It has successfully indigenized thousands of military items, reducing import dependence and simultaneously boosting its own defense exports. Domestic ammunition production, for instance, has risen from 32% in 2014 to 90% in 2026.

India, however, remains the world’s second largest importer of major arms as it seeks to plug capability gaps quickly. Russia, France, and Israel are among its top arms suppliers.

Singh noted that the production figure for FY26 is a giant leap from the $8.94 billion recorded in 2020-21, and a 110% rise from $4.62 billion in 2013-14.

The defense ecosystem’s growth is spearheaded by nine public sector undertakings or government-backed companies, more than 430 licensed private defense companies, and thousands of medium and small enterprises.

Under the inspiring leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi, India’s defence production is reaching new heights every year. I am delighted to inform everyone that India’s annual defence production has surged to an all-time high of Rs 1.78 lakh crore in the Financial Year (FY)…

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) June 17, 2026

India spent $92.1 billion on its military in 2025, making it the fifth largest country in terms of military expenditure, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. 

The South Asian nation has earmarked $82.9 billion for defense in the federal budget for the current financial year. This accounts for 15% of the total federal spending.

Of this, $14.7 billion is for procurement from domestic defense industries, in sync with the Make in India push.

Russian-born tech billionaire Pavel Durov blamed Indian multinational conglomerate Reliance on Tuesday, as well as WhatsApp, for what he called a “lobbying effort” to get his messenger Telegram restricted in India. 

Telegram appealed to the Delhi High Court on Wednesday against the Indian government’s temporary restrictions on the app ahead of the rescheduled national medical entrance examination, NEET-UG 2026, on June 21. The court agreed to hear the matter on “an urgent basis.” 

But it looked like in his haste to criticize WhatsApp, Telegram’s biggest rival and the dominant messaging app in India, Durov missed some crucial details and trained his guns on the wrong party. 

“Indian telecom Reliance is sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users OUTSIDE India (including the UAE) via a rogue method called BGP hijacking,” Durov said in the post.” The sabotage seems intentional, as Reliance has ignored multiple reports.” 

He claimed that this “may be part of a competitive war, as Reliance is partially owned by Meta – the company behind WhatsApp.” 

The Telegram owner shared a screenshot containing what looked like hacking logs as proof of the alleged sabotage. But it showed Reliance Communications, or RCom, a bankrupt entity owned by the Anil Ambani group.   

Meta’s partnership is with Reliance Industries, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, prompting X users to point out the distinction to Durov. Mukesh is the elder brother of Anil Ambani.   

Meta’s WhatsApp is the top messaging platform in the country of 1.4 billion, which is also Telegram’s biggest market by downloads. Meta has a stake of about 10% in Jio Platforms, a unit of Reliance Industries. 

New Delhi restricted Telegram on the recommendation of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which oversees the conduct of the exam for admission to medical courses nationwide, for which hundreds of thousands of applicants appear every year. The test held in May was cancelled following alleged question paper leaks and a retest is scheduled for Sunday. 

Indian telecom Reliance is sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users OUTSIDE India (including the UAE) via a rogue method called BGP hijacking.

The sabotage seems intentional, as Reliance has ignored multiple reports.

This may be part of a competitive war, as…

— Pavel Durov (@durov) June 16, 2026

The app has been barred until June 22 and the platform has been directed to disable its message-editing feature until June 30. 

The NTA said the curbs would prevent “cheating rackets” from using Telegram to spread false claims about question paper leaks concerning the retest. 

The ban has triggered intense discussions on social media, but students and parents appear to want the authorities to focus on preventing question paper leaks.   

The Group of Seven countries no longer run the world, member Canada has said.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said the presence of countries such as India at the gathering of the world’s most advanced economies and democracies highlights the G7’s acknowledgement of the need for a wider global perspective.

“It’s a recognition that the G7, if it ever did run the world, no longer runs the world or pretends to,” the Canadian leader said at an interaction at Trinity College Dublin, ahead of the G7 conclave in Evian, France.   

The grouping comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US, in addition to the European Union, which participates in the meetings as a ‘non-enumerated’ member.

Carney pointed out that tackling major global challenges requires wider international cooperation and perspectives beyond the group’s traditional members.

The G7 summit is taking place shortly after Iran and the US struck a peace deal ending months-long hostilities that have paralyzed shipping in the Gulf of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical waterways. The deal is to be formally signed this coming Friday. 

The summit, which is already underway, also includes as partner countries Brazil, Egypt, Kenya and the Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates – apart from India, which holds the BRICS presidency this year.

Carney said these countries provide a “broader perspective and a broader element of the solution” to discussions on key global challenges.

🌍🇮🇳 G7 No Longer Runs The World, India's Presence Proves It: Canada PM Carney pic.twitter.com/5YkL26l78F

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) June 16, 2026

This underscores the key role of emerging and middle powers in addressing global issues, he said, adding the expanded gathering could formulate the contours of a new world order.

US President Donald Trump, who is attending the G7 meeting, is expected to hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid strained relations over trade tariffs and the killing of Indian sailors by US forces enforcing the Iran blockade. 

Carney’s comments come on the heels of Modi and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico backing comprehensive reforms of multilateral institutions, including the UN Security Council.

The structure of the UN was decided in the aftermath of World War II, but is increasingly seen as out of step with the modern world, where countries such as India have increased their economic and military clout. Russia and China have also been left out of the G7.

At the World Economic Summit in Davos in January, Carney urged “middle powers to work together in response to growing geopolitical tensions.”

India has successfully flight-tested the indigenously developed Long-Range Land Attack Cruise Missile (LRLACM), boosting the country’s deep- and precision-strike capabilities.

The LRLACM can change altitudes and speeds in flight, much like the US Navy’s Tomahawk missile, leading some commentators to call it India’s Tomahawk.

India’s Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO) conducted the test from Dr. Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha, according to an official statement.

Data from tracking instruments deployed by the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur showed that all test objectives were met.

Long Range Land Attack Cruise Missile (LRLACM) was successfully flight tested from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha on 15th June 2026.https://t.co/wVYJauGjNQ pic.twitter.com/nutCCfzWEd

— DRDO (@DRDO_India) June 15, 2026

The cruise missile reportedly has a speed of up to 0.8 Mach and is capable of hitting targets in excess of 620 miles (1,000 kilometers). It can evade radar by flying low and is capable of carrying a 500-kg warhead, reports suggest.

The missile is expected to add to the strike capabilities of the Indian Navy and Air Force as New Delhi builds out its missile arsenal. A few other tests were also conducted by the DRDO last week, including interceptor missiles for India’s ballistic missile defense shield.

BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between DRDO and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya rocket design bureau, makes the BrahMos cruise missiles in land, air, and sea variants.

The LRLACM’s successful test comes after the reported failure of the similar long-range Nirbhay missile project.

The cruise missile was developed entirely with indigenous technologies. All its sub-systems were developed by DRDO-backed laboratories and domestic industry partners. The Aeronautical Development Establishment in the southern city of Bengaluru functioned as the Nodal Laboratory of the project.

India has temporarily blocked the popular messaging app Telegram in an effort to prevent its use to defraud candidates taking a nationwide entrance examination.

The app will be barred until June 22, the Indian Education Ministry’s National Testing Agency (NTA) said. The Indian government also asked the platform to disable its message-editing feature in the country until June 30.

The agency was forced to cancel the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, or NEET, last month following widespread outrage over reported leaks of questions for the test.

For thousands of young people in a country that views an engineering or physician job as proof of having arrived in life, the undergraduate entrance exam for admission to medical colleges nationwide is a gateway to social respect and relative wealth.

A retest is scheduled on June 21.

The NTA said the curbs would prevent “cheating rackets” from using Telegram to spread false claims about question paper leaks about the retest.

It alleged that the app’s message-editing feature enabled channel admins to edit older posts and replace attachments with question papers of a recently concluded exam, while retaining the original timestamp.

Such altered posts then circulated widely, creating the impression that the question papers were leaked ahead of the exam.

Indian authorities characterized the curbs as a “last resort” as earlier attempts to remove fraudulent content from the platform – which was founded by Russian tech entrepreneur Pavel Durov – had not worked.

The application was still working for many in the South Asian country at 12 noon local time on Tuesday.

The ban “punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India – not the insiders who leaked the exam materials,” Durov posted on X. “And the ban hasn’t stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps.”

The anger over the paper leaks raised a political firestorm for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, leading to the rise of a GenZ-backed mock political party called the Cockroach Janata Party.

The party, with little on-ground presence or structure, has kept the issue alive with sporadic protests, demanding that the education minister take responsibility for the fiasco and resign.

India is Telegram’s biggest market by downloads, although Meta’s WhatsApp remains the top messaging platform in the country of 1.4 billion.

Such sweeping blocking action is rare in India. In 2020, New Delhi banned dozens of Chinese apps, including PubG and TikTok, following a brief clash between troops at their common Himalayan border.

India has sought rare earth samples from a Siberian deposit owned by Russian company Rosneft, Reuters has reported.

New Delhi is pursuing a strategy to secure supplies and cut dependence on critical minerals from China, which is the world’s largest producer of rare earths.

India’s IREL, formerly known as Indian Rare Earths Limited – which spearheads the South Asian nation’s outreach to secure rare earth supplies – aims to study the mineral composition of the deposit in Tomtor, Siberia, before ⁠considering deeper engagement, the report said.

Rosneft acquired the deposit last year.

Rare earth magnets are key components in energy transformation, going into everything from electric vehicles to renewable energy production.

India sits on the world’s third-largest rare earth reserves of nearly 7.23 million metric tons, but does not produce rare earth magnets domestically. Its consumption is expected to double by 2030.

Last year, Reuters reported that IREL is in talks with Japanese and South Korean companies to manufacture rare earth magnets commercially.

Globally, nations are frantically pursuing rare earth minerals amid trade tensions between the US and China. Beijing has restricted rare earth exports in response to US tariffs, sparking supply disruptions for the automotive and other high-tech industries.

India is also exploring rare earth mining pacts with Russia, Australia, Argentina, Chile, and several African countries.

India has repeated its demand for reforms in the United Nations, saying that global institutions should reflect contemporary geopolitical realities.

On his first visit to Slovakia, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Slovakian counterpart affirmed their commitment to multilateralism.

Modi and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico also backed – in a joint statement – comprehensive reforms of multilateral institutions, “including the United Nations, particularly the United Nations Security Council, to make them more representative, inclusive, effective, and reflective of contemporary geopolitical realities.”

The United Nations’ structure was decided in the aftermath of the Second World War, but is increasingly seen as out of step with the modern world where countries like India have grown their economic and military clout.

❗️ ‘India Has to Be Part of Reformed UNSC’ – 🇸🇰 PM Fico https://t.co/urWfSdzybg pic.twitter.com/Bl42PjDK9a

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) June 15, 2026

The call comes ahead of the G7 meet in Evian, France, where the Indian Prime Minister is expected to hold talks with world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Indo-US trade talks could figure in the meeting on the sidelines of G7, but whether Modi will raise his concerns on the US attacks on Indian merchant navy ships in the Middle East recently is something that is keenly watched in the country.

Formal discussions on the final touches to a trade deal between India and the US are expected only during US Trade Representative ‌Jamieson Greer’s visit India on June ⁠23-24.

The Modi-Trump meeting assumes significance as it comes at a time when the tech rivalry between the US and China and wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are reshaping New Delhi’s foreign policy choices. India warned against double standards in how global security issues are treated at last month’s International Security Forum in Moscow.

The Indian prime minister is also expected to hold bilateral meetings and discussions with G7 countries, partner countries, and international organizations, including South Korea, Kenya, Brazil, and Egypt, and officials of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and OECD.

Modi’s bilateral engagements in Paris include addressing the VivaTech Summit, Europe’s premier technology and startup conference. President Macron visited Mumbai and Delhi in February this year for the AI Impact Summit.

On Sunday, Macron hailed India as “a major driver of global innovation” at the Bharat Innovates 2026 conclave in Nice.

An Indian sailor has died on board a vessel stranded near the Strait of Hormuz. US forces had earlier searched the ship and diverted its course, suspecting it of attempting to sail to an Iranian port.

Nishanth Uirthanathan, second officer of the MT Celestial, died on June 11 after falling seriously ill. There was no response to repeated distress calls from the ship for a medical evacuation of the 35-year-old, the crew said in a video that went viral on social media on Sunday.

Media reports citing ship records alleged that the crew of MT Celestial Sea had repeatedly called the US Navy on VHF Channel 16 but received no response.

The Forward Seamen’s Union of India posted on X that the crew had to keep the body on board the ship for two days and used cold water bottles in the absence of refrigeration systems. 

On Sunday, the body was finally disembarked at Duqm Port in Oman. The Indian Embassy in Oman said it is coordinating with local authorities to send Uirthanathan’s remains to India and is in touch with his family.

"That was very horrible that the master tried to reach out all the authority including the port authority as well as the US naval forces. We have heard his statement that he tried to reach out to the Indian embassy as well.
Due to the shortage of the medical care on board, he tried to approach to all the appropriate authority by releasing SOS. But unfortunately, nothing has been received from the other side," Yadav said.

At the same time, in an unrealted incident, the US Naval Forces Central Command announced on Sunday that it assisted in the rescue of the crew of another stranded vessel, MV Virat 1, in the Northern Arabian Sea on Sunday. Eleven of the crew were later transported to the M V Jabal Ali. Three mariners, whose life raft capsized, were airlifted to Jabal Ali.

US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that the blockade of Iranian ports would be lifted immediately, after a peace agreement with Tehran was finalized.  Hundreds of ships had been stranded in the Persian Gulf area after Iran closed the area and the US blockaded Iranian ports in retaliation.

Uirthanathan's death comes amid the killings of three Indian crew members aboard a chemical tanker in a US missile strike last week. Two other tankers were also struck by US forces for allegedly trying to run the blockade of Iran.

India has more than 3,00,000 seafarers working across global shipping fleets. Of them, over 18,000 are employed in West Asia. India conveyed its concerns about the attacks on commercial ships to US Chargé d’Affaires Jason Meeks, who was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in New Delhi twice last week.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to meet Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France this week.