News update

Tokyo:  President Joe Biden said Monday the United States would defend Taiwan militarily if Beijing invaded the self-ruled island, warning China was "flirting with danger". "That's the commitment we made," he said when asked if Washington would intervene militarily against a Chinese attempt to forcibly take control of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province to be unified with the mainland. "We agreed with the One China policy, we signed on to it... but the idea that (Taiwan) can be taken by force is just not appropriate. "It will dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine." In his strongest comments to date on the issue, Biden directly linked the outcome of Western attempts to help Ukraine repel the Russian invasion with lessons likely to be learned in Beijing regarding Taiwan. It's "important that Putin pay a price for his barbarism in Ukraine", Biden said. "Russia has to p...

To provide some much-needed relief to customers, Maharashtra government has announced to slash Value Added Tax or VAT on fuel. The state government has reduced   VAT on petrol   by Rs 2.08 per litre and on diesel by Rs 1.44 per litre, effective immediately from Sunday. This decision would cost state exchequer an annual revenue loss of Rs 2,500 crore. The move came after the central government had slashed the excise duties on petrol and diesel by Rs 8 and Rs 6 per litre on May 21. With the latest rate cut, the petrol and diesel prices dropped by Rs 9.5 litre and Rs 7 per litre respectively. Earlier in November, 2021 the Centre lowered the excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 5 per litre and Rs 10 per litre, respectively. Following Centre’s decision, the Rajasthan government also brought down VAT on petrol by Rs 2.48 per litre and on diesel by Rs 1.16 per. Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot in a tweet said, “Due to the reduction in the prices of petrol a...

The India-Japan relationship has new responsibilities and goals including amid the Covid pandemic as global tensions and disruptive challenges to stability and security in the Indo-Pacific region have underlined the need for building resilient supply chains, a human-centric development model and stable and strong international economic relations, capable of resisting coercion and exploitation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who on Monday arrived in Japan on a two-day visit to attend a summit of the Quad leaders, wrote in an opinion editorial in a leading Japanese newspaper. He said the relationship between Japan and India is "special, strategic and global". The Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which comprises India, the US, Japan, and Australia is a regional formation based on shared interests over cooperation in the strategic Indo-Pacific region. The member nations say they share values of "democracy, freedom and rule-based international order". India and J...