New Delhi: The Canadian House of Commons observed a moment of silence Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the killing of separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed on 18 June last year.
The country had accused India of having been involved in the killing, following which diplomatic ties between India and Canada have remained strained. Nijjar was designated a terrorist by India.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in an interview to CBC News, said, “Now that he (PM Modi) is through his election, I think there is an opportunity for us to engage on issues of national security, keeping Canadians safe and rule of law.” Emphasising the “massive people-to-people and economic ties” between the two countries, Trudeau said that the alignment of the various issues needed to be worked upon as democracies. Trudeau had met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘briefly’ on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy last week. He told CBC News that at such summits, “you get an opportunity to engage directly with a huge range of different leaders with whom there are various issues”, especially countries like India.
A Financial Times report takes note of India’s ambitions of becoming a “leading artificial intelligence hub”. “Authorities in India have offered incentives for tech companies to set up everything from electronics manufacturing to data storage,” write correspondents Benjamin Parkin and Camilla Hodgson.
According to the report — ‘India pulls in tech giants for its AI ambitions’ — Microsoft has already committed about $3.7 billion to Telangana government, and acquired land for the construction of data centres, which would add 660 megawatts of IT capacity, and make India the “company’s largest market for its self-built data centres outside the US”. Amazon too plans to invest, the report suggests.
Governments are looking to build AI tech focused on “defence, military, national security”, which need “to be housed in country”, Jabez Tan, head of research at Structure Research, told FT. Faster growing economies have created addressable markets, he added.
A Bloomberg report — ‘India’s Inflation Moderating at a ‘Very’ Slow Pace, Das Says’ — analyses Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das’s remarks about India’s inflation trends. It quotes the RBI governor on the inflation trajectory making it too premature for the central bank to discuss a change in the monetary policy stance.
“At the current juncture, we thought it’s most appropriate to avoid any kind of adventurism, and stick to the path of inflation that we had earlier laid out,” Das said at an ET Now event. Food prices are high although inflation has lowered, he said.
“While inflation is easing, at 4.75% in May it is still above the central bank’s target of 4%. India’s budget due next month will be closely watched to gauge if Prime Minister Narendra Modi pursues populist policies after his party lost its majority in national elections, leaving him to rely on allies to form the government,” the report reads.
In The Guardian’s ‘Indian engineers warn of prolonged blackouts amid searing heatwave’, Amrit Dhillon writes about the ongoing heatwave in Northern India, which has escalated the demand for electricity and is expected to lead to power outages.
The report notes that power consumption in Punjab has increased by 43 percent so far in June, compared with the same period last year, while sales of air conditioners and coolers are up 40-50 percent. It is the ones forced to work outdoors and live in poor neighbourhoods, for whom life has become particularly difficult, writes Dhillon.
Blaming climate change for the heat waves that have not ceased since mid-May in the northern part of the country, the report reads, “Years of scientific research have found the climate crisis is causing heat waves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.”
Thailand to legalise same-sex marriage, Netanyahu slams US for withholding weapons
Set to become the first Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage, Thailand’s Senate passed a marriage quality bill Tuesday. Read the Al Jazeera report for more.
In a video post on social media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has slammed the Biden-led administration in the US for withholding weapons and ammunition from Israel. The comment comes just a few days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Israel. Read the Forbes report to know more.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)