On October 22, 1947 Pakistan attacked the State of Jammu and Kashmir. It was the beginning of a conflict that would leave thousands dead and maimed and scar the lives of millions. It was also the start of a feud between India and Pakistan that continues to this day.

Engaged in a bitter slugfest with the US on economic, technological and strategic fronts, China is taking its fight with the US in the third country, especially Zimbabwe where the alleged expose by the African country's largest daily newspaper 'The Herald' is being used by Beijing to badger the US left, right and centre.

Ever since Communist China came into existence in 1949, its belligerence over South China Sea – SCS, has been increasing and some recent events have increased its hostility in the regional sea and towards its neighbour Taiwan. China claims almost all of the SCS covering roughly 3.5 million square kilometres, and its estimated 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 11 billion barrels of oil, in addition to maritime resources such as fish, as part of Chinese territory. Though the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague had firmly rejected China's sovereignty claim in 2016 but even five years after that ruling, China continues to reject the court's authority.

Markets were on a roll and continued to gain strongly in the four-day week which ended on Thursday. BSESENSEX gained 1,246.89 points or 2.08 per cent to close at 61,305.95 points while NIFTY gained 443.35 points or 2.48 per cent to close at 18,338.55 points. The broader markets saw BSE100, BSE200 and BSE500 gain 2.74 per cent, 2.69 per cent and 2.65 per cent respectively. BSEMIDCAP gained 3.34 per cent while BSESMALLCAP was up 1.92 per cent. In sectoral indices, BSEPOWER was up 6.82 per cent while BSEIT lost 1.98 per cent. In individual stocks, the top gainer was Tata Motors which gained Rs 114.50 or 29.90per cent to close at Rs 497.45. Tata motors has moved from Rs 275 on 23rd August to Rs 497.45 on 14th October, a gain of Rs 222.45 or 81 per cent in just about 7 weeks.

Mizoram has made news -- not necessarily for the wrong reasons but certainly for quite unexpected reasons. North-Eastern India generally makes news due to insurgency-related incidents or other instances of violence and killings. This time a mother of 15 children and a widow has been honoured and rewarded with a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh by Mizoram's Sports Minister Robert Romawia Royte.

Nairobi, Oct 13 (IANS) A ruling by the United Nations' top court on the maritime border dispute between Kenya and Somalia has drawn opposing reactions from the two neighbouring countries in East Africa.

Backdrop

Much newsprint was devoted to a naval exercise undertaken between the USA and India. The exercise was designated a two day "passage exercise", and, inarguably, contributed to strengthening bilateral cooperation and military coordination.

India has sought quicker extradition of Kim Peter Davy alias Niels Holck, from Denmark. This happened on the diplomatic stage when Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was in India and holding bilateral talks with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. She also hailed Modi as an 'inspiration' and both sides held significant parleys on green politics to Afghanistan.

We are living in a Digital Age in which more and more complex tasks are being entrusted to machines. In addition, we are also worried about the issues of Data Privacy and how much information should we share with a particular programme or a company. This information is a gold mine and often results in data being sold to genuine or unscrupulous elements.

Markets gained on four of the five trading sessions last week with Wednesday being the sole day of correction. They continued to be volatile and saw benchmark indices making an attempt to make new lifetime highs but failing. BSESENSEX gained 1,293.28 points or 2.20 per cent to close at 60,059.06 points while NIFTY gained 363.15 points or 2.07 per cent to close at 17,895.20 points. The broader indices saw BSE100, BSE200 and BSE500 gain 2.05 per cent, 2.19 per cent and 2.35 per cent, respectively. BSEMIDCAP gained 2.43 per cent and BSESMALLCAP performed even better gaining 3.95 per cent.

New Delhi, Oct 9 (IANS) Where does the Indian government stand on its statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015. To quote him: "Much of India's development agenda is mirrored in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Our national plans are ambitious and purposeful, sustainable development of one-sixth of humanity will be of great consequence to the world and our beautiful planet."

Antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system to fight a disease. On exposure to a foreign body like bacteria or a virus, the body develops what is called the IgM antibodies. These are the first antibodies the body makes when it fights a new infection, are short term and may not be detectable after a few weeks of an infection. It is then followed by IgG antibodies, which provide a longer lasting immune protection. IgA also plays a crucial role in the immune defence of mucosal surfaces such as nasophryanx, lower respiratory tracts, etc., the first point of entry of SARS-CoV-2.

Proposals for a European Union (EU) army have re-emerged after the Afghan fiasco – but many member states still remain ‘hard to convince, about its feasibility.

The week began with a bang with new closing highs recorded on both the BSESENSEX and NIFTY on the very first trading day of the week. Alas! The good news ended there and markets fell on each of the remaining four days to end with losses for the week. BSESENSEX lost 1,282.69 points or 2.14 per cent to close at 58,765.78 points while NIFTY lost 321.15 points or 1.80 per cent to close at 17,532.05 points. The broader indices saw BSE100, BSE200 and BSE500 lose 1.65 per cent, 1.38 per cent and 1.19 per cent, respectively. BSEMIDCAP gained 0.12 per cent, while BSESMALLCAP gained 0.69 per cent. The closing high recorded during the week was 60,077.88 made on September 27 while the intraday high made was in the previous week at, 60,412.32 points, also made the same day. On NIFTY, the closing high made on the same day was 17,855.10 points while the intra-day high made was on the previous September 24at 17,947.65 points.

The fourth-largest empire in the world at its time, the Qing dynasty lasted for almost three centuries commencing 1634. It was not only the largest but also the last dynasty in Imperial Chinese history.

Something great happening in the past has its use mainly if it can be applied in the present for the betterment of the future. Kautilya's Arthashashtra, the most famous of the works on statecraft produced in ancient India, is a treatise comprehensively dealing with the political, economic and administrative concepts on which a King could do justice to his duties.

The US top brass was on one of its frequent visits to the confessional, the Senate Armed Services Committee, revealing just enough to reassure the American people that they have an open system. Defence Secretary Gen. Lloyd Austin must by now be in drill rattling off boo-boos by the military on more occasions than one. I can never forget his being grilled by the same committee during the Syrian war when he was a four star General.

The Chinese pursuit of its rightful place on the global stage and emergence from a century of humiliation at foreign hands has an intricate design. Sun Tzu's golden nuggets of winning without firing a shot and winning through cunning seem to be at the core of its approach.

World over October 1 is celebrated as World Elderly Day. The main purpose of celebrating these days is to make people aware of the socio, economic, health and environmental issues concerning this group of people.

Alliance gives new meaning to political boundaries on physical maps empowering coalitions with political preferences to work together. President Biden does "not seek a new Cold War", clearly expressing at the UNGA and many other leaders are with Biden, including Indian Prime Minister Modi, where the world divided into two rigid blocks will only limit progress and prosperity to many nations. In reality, Cold War structures will resurrect when the rules-based order is threatened, and robust partnerships are required to maintain the security balance.

New Delhi, Sep 29: Over several months before the Taliban took control of Kabul in August 2021, their spokespersons asserted that they were now a "new" Taliban--a Taliban who would be moderate in doctrine and accommodative of the countrys diversity. During the last six weeks, there have been few indications of change. On womens education and employment, the Taliban have not yet taken a final view: though women at present are not permitted access to higher education or employment, the door has not been finally closed on these claims.

China's latest investment of an estimated $1.4 billion in Sri Lanka's Colombo Port City project is the largest single foreign investment in the island nation's history.

New Delhi, Sep 27 (IANS) It is difficult to discern whether Pakistan is angry more with its biggest aid-giver America or arch rival India. It is also confusing while trying to comprehend its sense of loss and being ignored by the superpower, whether to target Joe Biden or India's Narendra Modi.

The past week saw the US's hard push to contain China in its own backyard, by the formation of a new defence agreement known as AUKUS, with no precedent in diplomatic world, as the regional might of the new alliance is already covered by an old alliance named Quad.