2 Indian peacekeepers honoured posthumously with Dag Hammarskjold medals
India's Permanent Representative P Harish received the medals on Thursday (US time) from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at a ceremony honouring the peacekeepers who died in the service of the UN.
Jha was the acting force commander of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) that is deployed in the Golan Heights to monitor the ceasefire between Israel and Syria after the 1973 war.
Guterres said, "Jha served as acting Force Commander of UNDOF in complex circumstances, following the fall of the Assad Government in Syria. He will be remembered for his leadership and unwavering commitment to United Nations peacekeeping, including in the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) as a military observer from 2005 to 2006.
Jha "played a pivotal role in managing a critical security situation which evolved during the Syrian crisis in December 2024", a citation from India said.
That month, the Damascus government of Bashar al-Assad collapsed, and the border area supervised by the UNDOF came under pressure from both Israel and disparate Syrian groups.
"Jha was a man who stood his ground -- as was evident from the way he handled affairs of UNDOF as the acting force commander. He will be admired by his friends and detractors," the citation said.
Singh served with MONUSCO when he died. Waibhav Anil Kale, a retired Indian Army colonel, also died last year while serving the UN in a civilian capacity in Gaza, the citation from India noted.
Kale was working as a security service coordinator for the UN when the vehicle he was travelling in came under attack from Israeli forces in Gaza's Rafah region.
Thursday was observed as the 77th UN Peacekeepers Day, honouring the work of 61,353 peacekeepers, of whom 5,375 hailed from India.
Meanwhile, in New Delhi, the Indian Army held a ceremony at the National War Memorial to honour the memory of the Blue Helmets who died in the service of the UN.
Lieutenant General Rakesh Kapoor, the deputy chief of Army Staff, led the ceremony honouring the 182 Indian peacekeepers who died while on UN missions.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
a minute ago
- Indian Express
‘Scared to go outside': Indian student plans to return home after violent attack in Ireland
An Indian man in Dublin was reportedly attacked by a group of teenagers over the weekend, in what he says was an unprovoked assault. 'One of the youths rode up on an electric scooter and suddenly kicked me in the stomach,' the man told Irish news outlet, The Journal. 'Many of my friends are even scared to go outside,' he added. The incident marks the fourth racist attack in Dublin within a month and comes after President Michael D Higgins on Tuesday condemned the violence as 'despicable' while expressing a 'deep sense of gratitude' for the Indian community. The victim, speaking on condition of anonymity to The Journal, said around 5:30 pm on Sunday, he was walking home from Fairview Park when the teenager took his metal water bottle and struck him above the eye, causing a deep cut and heavy bleeding that required eight stitches. As he tried to walk away, two more joined in, punching and hitting him until he fell, where they continued the attack. He now plans to return to India following the assault. Although bystanders did not intervene, two teenagers later called the police. The man was taken to hospital. Police are investigating and have appealed for witnesses. He said his friends from the Indian community are 'scared to go outside' after an increase in — (@thejournal_ie) August 12, 2025 His parents, worried after the assault, urged him to return to India. He has since requested an extension from his university to complete his thesis remotely from home. The victim as per The Journal also said he felt 'let down' by the Indian Embassy. According to him, his brother contacted the Embassy the day after the attack. He was then asked via phone to send an email outlining the incident — but has received no follow-up since. The assault is among a spate of violent incidents targeting Indian nationals in recent weeks, including attacks in Tallaght, Waterford, and Dublin. Other recent attacks include a man being stripped and beaten after a false accusation in Tallaght, another man assaulted on his way home from a friend's apartment, and a six-year-old girl attacked in Waterford. The Indian Embassy in Dublin has advised citizens to 'take reasonable precautions for their personal security and avoid deserted areas, especially in odd hours.'
India.com
27 minutes ago
- India.com
Indias Economy Continues On Fast-Growth Track: CEA Nageswaran
New Delhi: The overall momentum of the Indian economy has not slowed, as is evident from high-frequency indicators and although trade-related issues are important, they should not overshadow other critical challenges, the government's Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V. Anantha Nageswaran said on Wednesday. In his address at an event here, Nageswaran said the consumption slowdown last year was largely due to tight credit and liquidity conditions, prompting the government to announce substantial middle-class tax cuts in the Union Budget. The Reserve Bank of India has also cut policy rates by 100 basis points and ensured a liquidity surplus to support growth, he added. Nageswaran said it was too early to assess what impact the US tariffs would have on India's GDP said that India must significantly step up efforts in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor manufacturing to compete with the United States and China. Nageswaran identified energy transition, energy security, AI's economic impact, and sector-wide collaboration as the main challenges. He called for close coordination between public and private sectors, with resources pooled to meet national objectives. He urged the private sector to look beyond quarterly results and commit to long-term national priorities. The US dominates AI research and chip design through companies like Nvidia, Intel, and AMD, while China has expanded chipmaking under state-backed initiatives. The government has launched programmes such as the Semicon India initiative for the first time to strengthen domestic manufacturing. On Tuesday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved Rs 4,600 crore for four semiconductor projects under the India Semiconductor Mission across Odisha, Punjab, and Andhra Pradesh. Nageswaran flagged a shift in India's consumption trends, pointing to a growing diversion of consumer spending towards online gaming and options trading. Shedding light on the data points related to consumer participation in online gaming, he mentioned that in July alone, monthly spending on online gaming stood at about Rs 10,000 crore — implying an annualised run rate of approximately Rs 1.2 lakh crore. While drawing parallels with speculation in options and derivatives, Nageswaran mentioned that 'in these situations, it is the house that builds and not speculates". The CEA observed that much of urban consumption is increasingly moving from listed to unlisted companies, with inadequate data capture for services' consumption.
The Hindu
33 minutes ago
- The Hindu
U.S. tariff impact not to last more than six months, says CEA Anantha Nageswaran
Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran on Wednesday (August 13, 2025) said U.S. tariffs-related challenges will dissipate in the next one or two quarters, and urged the private sector to do more as the country navigates through other longer-term challenges. He attributed the growth slowdown in FY25, which saw a deceleration to 6.5 per cent from FY24's 9.2 per cent, to tight credit conditions and liquidity issues. The right agriculture policies can add 25 per cent to real GDP growth, Mr. Nageswaran added. On the U.S. tariffs, the CEA said it is the second and third order impacts, which will flow once sectors like gems and jewellery, shrimps and textiles have taken the first order brunt, that will be "more difficult" to tackle. The government is aware of the situation and conversations with the impacted sectors have already begun, Mr. Nageswaran said, adding that one will hear from the policymakers in the coming days and weeks but people have to be patient. With speculation on whether U.S. officials will visit India for trade talks later this month as reported, Mr. Nageswaran said the upcoming meet in Alaska between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladmir Putin is likely to influence the outcome. Declining to spell out any details on the trade negotiations between India and the U.S., the academic-turned-advisor said things are very fluid at the world stage right now with relations swinging from cooperation to stalemate, and spelled out his expectation of the impact of 50 per cent US tariff on Indian exports. "I do believe that the current situation will ease out in a quarter or two. I don't think that from a long-term picture, the India impact will be that significant but in the short run, there will be some impact," he said. He said no one can guess the exact reasons why President Donald Trump chose to slap the high tariffs on India, wondering if it's the fallout of Operation Sindoor or something even more strategic. However, the CEA said the focus on tariff-related issues should not blind us to more "important challenges", including the impact of artificial intelligence, reliance on one country for critical minerals, and their processing and strengthening of supply chains. Mr. Nageswaran exhorted the private sector to do more "as we navigate these longer-term challenges, promising that public policy will play the facilitator's role". "Private sector also has a lot of thinking to do, given the massive strategic challenges we face in the coming years... the private sector also has to think about the long-term rather than the next quarter, which is what might have led to many of the challenges we are currently beginning to face," he said in the comments aimed at India Inc. He, however, did not elaborate on the subject any further. Stating that the government has allocated money towards the research purposes, he said it is now for the private sector to up their investments in the area. The Indian youth is staring at both physical and health health issues arising from excess screen use, consumption of ultra processed food, etc, which is leading to anxieties and even suicidal thoughts among people, the CEA said, seeking the private sector's help to tackle the challenge. He welcomed the capital expenditure put in by the private sector in FY26 and data to be released in February next year will attest to the same. The consumption story is "quite healthy", the CEA said, pointing to the data on UPI usage. Specifically on urban consumption, he rued that there is no proper data source to capture services consumption, and added that drawing from listed companies' earnings may also not be the right measure as consumption is moving to the unlisted space. The overall resource mobilisation in the economy is not showing any slackening, the CEA said, asking all to look at banks credit growth, commercial paper issuances, and IPO fundraising together. On China On China, Mr. Nageswaran said "we also need to understand the security dimension and look at the $100 billion trade deficit beyond just the number". As a solution, there is a need to diversify the sources of imports and the CEA stressed that the private sector will have a role to play there. Without naming China, he said only one country supplies critical minerals, which are essential for semiconductors, artificial intelligence tech, and added that the supply is "critically unstable". "We cannot go from crude oil import dependence to critical minerals and ladders import dependence. Understand that crude oil (sources) at least is more diversified," he said. "Indian policy makers must choose between accepting permanent strategic dependence on adversaries or committing the resources necessary for genuine support to independence," Nageswaran said. Stating that AI will cause labour displacement, Nageswaran pitched for caution in AI adoption and added that "we will have to choose the areas in which we allow AI to be deployed and harnessed, and also the speed with which we do so". There is a need to create at least 80 lakh new jobs per annum in the next 10-12 years, he added.
