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Indian Government's organised euphoria over its huge diplomatic success in isolating Pakistan is over by now with the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs demanding that India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi immediately lift the sanctioned curfew in Kashmir. The members further said that the European Union and European Parliament should issue a reactionary statement on the situation in Kashmir as soon as possible.

Jeremy Corbyn offered Leave voters in Labour heartlands a vision of a transformed Britain as speculation of an imminent snap general election was heightened due to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s obduracy. The Labour leader spoke in Salford to lay out the party’s plans for investment in left-behind areas while pledging to block a no-deal Brexit.

VLADIVOSTOK: Russia and India will continue their trade and economic cooperation with Iran, which they qualify as mutually beneficial and legitimate, according to a joint statement adopted Wednesday after the Russian-Indian summit.

Have you ever noticed a honey bee land on a flower? It hovers over it and then ever so gently it sits there, splurging the pollens all over its tiny haired legs and then takes off in no time to spread the pollens to germinate the plants all over elsewhere.

In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman was assertive for easing FDI policy for certain sectors, like in Single brand retail, aviation, media and contract manufacturing. FDI proved a key success story for Make in India, amidst dubious opinion on its success. During 2014-15 to 2018-19, FDI spurred by 46 per cent - from US $30 Billion to US $44 Billion - the highest growth achieved in any five year period ever.

Pakistan has announced the setting up of a separate cell to internationalise the Kashmir issue more effectively. The country’s Foreign Office on Tuesday inaugurated its Kashmir cell, with the objective of adopting a more focused approach in its efforts to highlight existing restrictions in Indian-administered Kashmir.

BERLIN—Elections in two German states in eastern Germany on September 1 saw large gains by the rightist Alternative for Germany party (AfD), though the party apparently failed to worm its way into either of the two state governments. Voters in both Saxony and Brandenburg did not give the AfD the number one position among the five leading parties that it has been aiming for.

As feared, the much publicised updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, instead of finally settling the critical issue of illegal Bangladeshi immigration, only opened up a fresh, bigger can of worms. Both the Central and state governments, utterly confused about dealing with officially identified illegal Bangladeshi migrants, have gone backpedalling. Unable to take the next step ahead, they have reverted to the old route of letting tribunals and the courts decide citizenship issues. A truly anti climactic end to what had been broadly projected as the most effective administrative exercise in India’s northeast! The conclusion that the authorities developed cold feet when it came to dealing with the long term political consequences bound to follow the NRC enumeration, is inescapable.

For the millions of people in Assam who were waiting with dread on their citizenship claims, the ‘D’ day finally arrived on 31st August, 2019 when the final list of National Register of Citizens (‘NRC’) was published. In all, 3,11,21,004 persons are included in the NRC, while 19,06,657 persons residing in Assam have been excluded, inclusive of those who did not submit their claims, thereby proving that out of 3.3 crore applicants, more than 95% has been included in NRC. Even the 5% individuals who had been excluded from NRC can appeal to the Foreigner Tribunal in Assam, and would get another opportunity to prove their claim that they are citizens of India within 120 days of NRC publication. When the draft NRC list was published in July, 2018, more than 40 lakh persons were left out, which got reduced by more than 50% in the final list.

Weekly Round-Up of Major Decisions of the Courts in India as also Legal Policy Developments