GS-II

With just six months away for Brexit to become a reality, Ireland is wooing Indian companies, currently having United Kingdom (U.K.) as their EU headquarters, to shift base to the country. “Indian companies in the U.K. and particularly, those using the U.K. as a gateway to the EU face some …

The Maldives Supreme Court on Sunday rejected a petition by outgoing President Abdulla Yameen to annul the September presidential election, clearing the way for transfer of power to joint opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. Mr. Yameen’s claim that the poll was rigged was not substantiated with evidence, the five-member bench …

U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that the U.S. would pull out of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia, a crucial Cold War-era treaty banning the development, testing and possession of short and medium range ground-launched nuclear missiles with a range of 500-5,000 km. The treaty, signed in 1987, …

The Assam government has said it would not allow a proposed rally of 27 Bengali organisations in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 that seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. This followed a State-wide shutdown call by a conglomerate of 42 organisations of …

Indians divided over paying homage to the Mahatma on a cremation ground A fortnight after the Indian Embassy in Tehran was forced to cancel a Gandhi Jayanti event on the Indian Community Cremation Ground of the city, the Ambassador has triggered a fresh controversy after he presided over a “tree …

Six civilians, including a teenager, were killed in a blast caused by ammunition in a house, where three Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militants were killed in a pre-dawn operation in Kulgam on Sunday. “People as usual didn’t follow appeals to refrain from going to the encounter site. They went inside the house …

Tens of thousands of supporters of the European Union (EU) began marching through London on Saturday as part of what organisers say will be the largest ever demonstration to demand that the British government holds a public vote on the terms of Brexit. The protesters waved the blue and gold …

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lost three National Assembly (NA) seats in the October 14 byelections, two of which were won by Mr. Khan in the July general election and vacated later, in what is widely seen as a reality check for the Prime Minister. Byelections took place …

The newly-appointed U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, recently concluded a trip to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar aimed at setting the stage for talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Mr. Khalilzad met with Taliban representatives in Qatar in early October, following several statements made by …

Quietly, the rapidly deteriorating ties between China and the United States — often dubbed a “trade war”— are acquiring a military edge. In the midst of the downslide in the relationship, which first began in the form of rising tariff walls and Washington’s efforts to deny high technology to China, …