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PM Modi leaves for Namibia after concluding two-day visit to Brazil
Modi is on a five-nation visit, and Namibia will be his last stop.
In Brasilia, PM Modi held "productive talks" with President Lula, the Prime Minister's Office said in a post on X.
The discussions focused on diversifying trade ties, as well as expanding cooperation in clean energy, sustainable development and mitigating climate change. The leaders also agreed to deepen collaboration in defence, security, agriculture, space, semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI) and Digital Public Infrastructure, it said.
Prime Minister Modi in a post on X also said that he held "fruitful talks with President Lula, who has always been passionate about India-Brazil friendship".
"Our talks included ways to deepen trade ties and also diversify bilateral trade. We both agree that there is immense scope for such linkages to thrive in the coming times," he said.
During the visit, India and Brazil also inked agreements to bolster cooperation in several areas.
The Prime Minister on Tuesday was also conferred with Brazil's highest civilian award, the Grand Collar of the National Order of the Southern Cross.
The honour was presented by President Lula in recognition of PM Modi's notable contributions to strengthening bilateral relations and enhancing India-Brazil cooperation across key global platforms.
On Monday, Prime Minister Modi attended the Brics summit, during which he said that nations must work together to make supply chains for critical minerals and technology secure and ensure that no country uses these resources for its own "selfish gain" or as a "weapon" against others.
Brics, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has been expanded with five additional members: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
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The Hindu
39 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Top news of the day on July 23, 2025
Election Commission of India begins preparations to hold vice-presidential poll The Election Commission of India (ECI) said it has begun the process of holding the vice-presidential election and has started constituting the electoral college comprising MPs of both Houses of Parliament. The poll panel said it is also finalising Returning Officers for the vice-presidential election. "On completion of the preparatory activities, the announcement of the election schedule to the office of the Vice-President of India will follow as soon as possible," the ECI said. Ahmedabad plane crash: 'Established protocols' followed for identifying victims, says India after U.K. media report on families receiving wrong bodies The Indian government is working closely with U.K. authorities to 'address concerns' raised by an aviation lawyer about families bereaved after the June 12 Ahmedabad Air India crash, receiving wrongly identified last remains, including in one case where remains of more than one person were placed in the same casket .British newspaper Daily Mail reported that relatives of one victim had to abandon funeral plans after being informed that their coffin contained the body of an unknown passenger. Parliament Monsoon Session: Deadlock continues in Parliament as both Houses see no business for third straight day Parliament remained in deadlock, as Opposition protests, demanding a discussion on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, continued to stall proceedings in both Houses. Repeated adjournments rocked both Houses and no business was conducted on the day. Both Houses were adjourned immediately after commencing, only to reconvene and be immediately adjourned two more times in the day. Opposition members protested in Lok Sabha with placards Parliament failed to transact any business on Tuesday (July 22, 2025) too. PM Modi embarks on four-day visit to U.K., Maldives Prime Minister Narendra Modi left on a four-day visit to the U.K. and the Maldives, expressing confidence that this will boost India's ties with the two countries. In his departure statement, Mr. Modi said India and the United Kingdom share a comprehensive strategic partnership that has witnessed significant progress in recent years. He noted that the collaboration between the two countries spans a wide range of sectors, including trade, investment, technology, innovation, defence, education, research, sustainability, health and people-to-people ties. India extends airspace closure for Pakistan planes till August 24 India has extended the closure of its airspace for Pakistan planes by another month till August 24. In the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people on April 22, India closed its airspace for planes operated, owned or leased by Pakistan airlines and operators, including military flights, with effect from April 30. The ban is part of various measures taken by the government against Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack. Polls being 'stolen'; will bring out 'vote theft' in black and white with Karnataka example: Rahul Amid the raging row over revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that elections are being "stolen" in India and claimed that his party has figured out the modus operandi of the "vote theft" by studying a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka. Mr. Gandhi said he would put before the people and the Election Commission in black in white on how the "theft of votes" is being done. V-P Dhankhar's resignation: Mallikarjun Kharge says 'daal mein kuch kaala hai', seeks govt. clarification Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that there is something fishy about Jagdeep Dhankhar's resignation as the Vice-President and asked the government to clarify on it. Mr. Kharge claimed that Mr. Dhankhar used to "defend" the BJP and the RSS more than the BJP-RSS people themselves, but still had to resign. CJI agrees to constitute Bench to hear plea on behalf of Justice Varma Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai said he will constitute a Bench for hearing a petition filed on behalf of Allahabad High Court judge, Justice Yashwant Varma, challenging the in-house inquiry procedure and the then Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna's recommendation to the President and Prime Minister, in the month of May, to remove the judge from office. The Chief Justice said he, however, would not be part of the Bench. Dharmasthala burial case: 20 police personnel posted in SIT Three days after the government of Karnataka formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe allegations of mass burials at Dharmasthala, on July 22, the State police chief posted 20 personnel drawn from various units of the Western range to assist the team headed by Pronab Mohanty, along with DIG M.N. Anucheth, DCPs S.K. Soumyalatha and Jitendra Kumar Dayama. The order also drew the curtains on rumours about M.N. Anucheth and Soumyalatha excusing themselves from the probe citing personal reasons. Pakistan steeped in fanaticism, terrorism: India tells UNSC meeting India told a United Nations Security Council meeting presided over by Pakistan that there should be a 'serious cost' to nations who foment cross-border terrorism, as it described the neighbouring country as a 'serial borrower' steeped in 'fanaticism'. 'As we debate promoting international peace and security, it is essential to recognise that there are some fundamental principles which need to be universally respected. One of them is zero tolerance for terrorism,' India's Permanent Representative to the U.N. Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish said. India-Pakistan war was probably going to end up nuclear: Trump U.S. President Donald Trump claimed yet again that he 'stopped the recent war' between India and Pakistan and that five planes were shot down in the conflict. He also claimed that the conflict between India and Pakistan "was probably going to end up in a nuclear war". "We stopped wars between India and Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda," he said at a reception in the White House with the Congress members. Trump announces trade deal with Japan including 15% tariff U.S. President Donald Trump announced a trade framework with Japan, placing a 15% tax on goods imported from that nation. 'This Deal will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs — There has never been anything like it,' Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social, adding that the United States 'will continue to always have a great relationship with the Country of Japan.' IND vs ENG Test 4 Day 1: England opt to bowl against India in 4th Test; Kamboj makes debut, three changes in India's playing XI England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bowl against India in the fourth Test. Grappling with a spate of injuries, India made three changes to their playing XI, bringing in Sai Sudharsan, Shardul Thakur and Anshul Kamboj in place of Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy and Akash Deep. England also made a change with Liam Dawson replacing fellow spinner Shoaib Bashir, who suffered a hand injury in the third Test at the Lord's.


New Indian Express
39 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Parliament likely to hold discussion on Pahalgam attack, Operation Sindoor next week
Amid opposition protests bringing the Parliament to a standstill for three consecutive days after the beginning of the Monsoon session on Monday, both the Houses are likely to hold a 16-hour debate each on the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor early next week, reported PTI. According to the report citing sources, Lok Sabha will begin the discussion on July 28 and the Rajya Sabha a day later if there are no disruptions. The decisions were taken at the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meetings on July 21 and 23 as the opposition has been insisting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should speak on Operation Sindoor and the alleged security lapses during the Pahalgam terror attack. The government however, the sources said, has made no commitment on the opposition's demand for the prime minister's response but has cited its proposal for a parliamentary discussion next week on the ground that Modi will be back by then from his four-day foreign visit, for which he left on Wednesday. The government has also given no assurance regarding any discussion on other issues raised by the opposition, including the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

The Wire
43 minutes ago
- The Wire
The Gujarat Model: At a Dangerous Crossing
'He is incorruptible'; the middle-aged founder of a well-known chartered accountancy firm in Mumbai looked palpably thrilled. It was another of Mumbai's social get togethers following a business conference where India's supposedly best minds exchanged political gossip and fulminated on the state of the nation, including its celebrated potholes. 'He is ushering in changes. He looks like a man on a mission.', the exuberant gentleman continued, like a rollercoaster on steroids. I saw a Narendra Modi 'bhakt' long before that dodgy sobriquet became a national meme. The year was 2004. The Gujarat chief minister had already assiduously created a political narrative about himself, even as an ageing PM Atal Behari Vajpayee was selling the chimera of India Shining. But I am not easy pickings; we are not an argumentative nation for nothing. 'These things don't matter. They happen all the time' 'Do you endorse what happened in Gujarat in 2002? Is that okay? Does that not alone disqualify Modi from holding such an august office?'. The gentleman was unperturbed. If at all, he seemed stunned at my apparent naivete. He looked at me with a bemused expression of a laboratory scientist who was about to do a surgery on a trapped cockroach: "These things don't matter. They happen all the time'. Whataboutery would go on to become India's favorite sport on prime-time TV to rationalise the worst of shenanigans, corruption, violence, sectarianism and riots. Fast forward to 2014: Modi was the presumptive prime ministerial candidate of the BJP. He had graduated from being a regional satrap ( as TV anchors brand ambitious provincial leaders) into a national alternative. By that time, I had morphed from being a part-time, quasi-back-office analyst for the Congress to becoming its ubiquitous face on television networks. Modi willy-nilly would become the surname I encountered at every nook and corner. And on every show. 'Mr Jha, Modi stands for development', the popular bespectacled face who had mesmerised the nation with his trademark theatrics, was implacable. 'India needs his Gujarat model'. He sounded like the saffron party's campaigner-in-chief himself. ' Seriously? ', I pushed back. 'Are we saying that we have become a $ 2 trillion economy without development? Are you aware that India has grown at nearly 7.8% average GDP during 2004-14 and lifted over 140 million people out of poverty ? Yes, there are problems, but we are the global sweet spot after China. So what new 'development' are we talking about?'. It was my early discovery that facts, data, statistics and evidence mattered little in the noisy public discourse. Modi's Acche Din ( Happy days) was a precursor to what would be Donald Trump's astonishingly successful Make America Great Again ( MAGA) shibboleth that would transmogrify into a movement, a neo-Republican vote bloc. On every parameter, America was the dominant superpower in 2016, but Trump had altered the political conversation. Both Modi and Trump would go on to annihilate their beleaguered and stunned opponents. On July 11, 2025 , a bridge in Vadodara district of Gujarat collapsed. It killed 20 innocent people for no fault of theirs. Barring a tiny fleeting mention, the news cycle cursorily buried it. They cannot be blamed. When the Morbi bridge fell in October 2022, its death toll of 135 people did not affect the electorate whatsoever. The BJP returned to power in the assembly elections that were held just a few months later with a massive mandate. In Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur-Kheri, the son of the local Member of Parliament was arrested for driving his jeep mercilessly into protesting farmers in October 2021. In the assembly elections just five months later, the BJP won all 8 assembly seats in the Lok Sabha constituency with handsome margins. I was reminded of my unforgettable confabulation with the suited-booted corporate schmoozer in 2004: 'These things don't matter. They happen all the time'. But do they? And just because they happened in the past, true or exaggerated, must we silently condone the brazen dismantling of what was once a democratic and secular role model to the world? We were once a newly independent country that had boldly resurrected itself from a pulverised economy and a harrowing bloody partition, to embrace religious diversity and inclusive growth, and become a lighthouse to new societies battling seemingly irreconcilable contradictions. Societies pay a huge price for not just bad choices but even for temporary blind-sidedness. The Congress's underwhelming defense of itself led to an unprecedented wave of support for Modi, enough for its people to shockingly ignore the deadly pogrom of 2002, fake encounter killings, rise of crony capitalism, the ruthless decimation of dissenting voices, the unrelenting intimidation of brutalised minorities. A manufactured cult A cult was born, or more appropriately, manufactured. The Gujarat model is now trumpeted as Modi's India by his acolytes. In his model, all you do is build highways, expressways, metro lines, trains, ports and highways. And even have an eponymous cricket stadium. In her Pulitzer Prize winning book Autocracy Inc, author Anne Applebaum talks of disinformation, surveillance and propaganda as the trifecta of modern-day autocracies, democratically elected leaders who surreptitiously through regulatory and media capture change the destinies of nations. As I write, the Supreme Court calling out India's police state (Why are you fighting political battles, ED?) , and the alleged attempt by the Election Commission to disenfranchise voters in Bihar are a warning; Politicians may love power, but despots will never give it up. Even as Modi continues to boast about his infrastructure push, he has not yet understood the core principle of political leadership; societies need a bridge between communities before they pay their toll-tax for a shimmering patch of concrete. And tragically for Modi, even they are crumbling. And broken. Sanjay Jha is an author and former national spokesperson for the Congress. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.