Tag: Narendra Modi

Multiple challenges await India’s new defence minister

- by India Writes Network

India’s new defence minister Manohar Parrikar will have to hit the ground running as he begins his tenure in South Block from November 10. From tensions on the unresolved borders with China and Pakistan to India’s embarrassing tag of being the world’s largest arms importer, he will have his hands full.
It has taken Prime Minister Narendra Modi over five months to appoint a full-time defence minister for the country. Parrikar, a grocer’s son and former Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) pracharak, is known to share a good personal rapport with Modi.
While his predecessor Arun Jaitley set the ball rolling, it will be Parrikar who will have to measure up to the challenging task of overseeing India’s operational military preparedness.
The task at hand for Parrikar is particularly onerous given that his predecessor A.K. Antony, who served as the defence minister for no less than eight years, was unwilling to take fast decisions and risks lest his image of ‘Mr Clean’ be sullied.

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With economy on rebound, Modi set for G20 summit debut

- by Manish Chand

Eight summits and six years after it was born in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, the upcoming G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, could be a milestone in fructifying some key initiatives to restore global economic growth and create the much-needed equilibrium in the global economic order.
For India, there will be a lot riding on how some of the expected outcomes shape up in the G20 joint declaration on November 16. Growth and job creation will be the twin focus of India’s business-friendly Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for whom the Brisbane summit will be his first G20 experience as well as his first major global outing with leaders of the world’s most advanced and emerging economies.
At a time when the economic growth across the world remains uneven and show stark asymmetries, India is going to the Brisbane summit on a high note, with a clear message that India will contribute substantially to the global economic growth in the years to come, and hence it makes sense for the world to be on the side of the India story and global economic resurgence.

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India-Pakistan border tensions: PM Modi gives ‘full hand’, says everything will be fine

- by India Writes Network

Amid the most intense cross-border firing between India and Pakistan in a decade, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reported to have given security forces a “free hand” in dealing with Pakistani troops, and assured that “everything will be fine soon.”
Nine Pakistani and eight Indian civilians have been slaughtered since fighting erupted more than week ago in the worst case of ceasefire violations since 2003. The two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours have accused each other of targeting civilians and unprovoked violations of the 11-year-old ceasefire agreement.
The mood has turned sour and belligerent on both sides. India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh has asked the Border Security Force to return Pakistan’s firing with full force.
Mr Modi, who surprised many by inviting Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, along with other leaders of the South Asian countries at his swearing-in ceremony in May, said in Kashmir cryptically: “Everything will be fine.” His statement seemed to indicate that India will retaliate with full vigour even as Pakistan raised the issue at the UN.

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