Tag Archives: India

Roll Call reports: Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee spoke with India’s ambassador to the U.S., Harsh Shringla, on Monday to apologize for President Donald Trump’s claim that he was asked by the Indian prime minister to mediate the Kashmir territorial conflict between his country and Pakistan. “Everyone who knows anything about foreign policy in South Asia knows that …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration announced on Friday that it was stripping India of a special status that exempts billions of dollars of its products from American tariffs, part of a deepening clash over India’s protections for its market. The White House said that it would terminate India’s preferential market access to the United States as of …

The Christian Post reports: Indian police have said that they now believe two American evangelicals helped missionary John Allen Chau reach the North Sentinel island in the Andamans, where he was killed last month. Dependra Pathak, head of police in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, said that there are no signs of Chau’s body. “We are investigating the role of …

Via press release: We here at International Christian Concern are extremely concerned by the reports of an American missionary being murdered in India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Our thoughts and prayers go out to both John’s family and friends. A full investigation must be launched in this this murder and those responsible must be brought to justice. Every day, new …

The Indian Supreme Court has just unanimously struck down Section 377, the 1861 penal law that criminalized homosexuality. With India’s population of over 1.3 billion, the ruling finally frees (at least) tens of millions of LGBT Indians from a cursed holdover from British colonial times. The New York Times reports: In a groundbreaking victory for gay rights, India’s Supreme Court …

Buzzfeed reports: India could be on the brink of repealing a 157-year-old law that criminalizes gay sex in what is one of the world’s largest and longest-running LGBT legal battles. On a sweltering Tuesday afternoon in a courtroom so full people barely had space to turn around, a bench of five judges from India’s highest court began hearing arguments against …

The Associated Press reports: Donald Trump Jr. said that any talk of his family profiting from his father’s presidency is “nonsense” as he embarked on a trip to India that has raised ethical concerns about using the name of the American president to promote international business ventures. The eldest son of President Donald Trump, who is in India to meet …

Buried in a report from the Washington Post: Senior administration officials said that the president has been known to affect an Indian accent and imitate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who in an Oval Office meeting last year told him, “Never has a country given so much away for so little in return” as the United States in Afghanistan. To …

The Times Of India reports: Thanks to the right to privacy being deemed a fundamental right, the Supreme Court (SC) today agreed to reconsider its 2013 decision which criminalised gay sexual relations and said it will review Section 377 of Indian Penal Code that makes such relations a crime. The SC today also issued a notice to the Centre seeking …

The Hindustan Times reports: The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday Indians have a constitutional right to privacy, a verdict that could have wide-reaching implications on broader civil rights issues, including homosexuality and prohibition. Experts have said the ‘right to privacy’ case would be a test of our democracy, with the possibility of citizens challenging laws based of individual rights. Privacy …

CNN International reports: President Donald Trump looked to show unity with Narendra Modi when the Indian prime minister visited the White House on Monday, heralding the military cooperation between the United States and India in a move that thrusts the new President into the delicate world of India-Pakistan relations. The meeting between the off-the-cuff President and the prime minister who …

Creativity reports: Procter & Gamble brand Vicks centers an emotive new Asian campaign around a mother and her adopted daughter — but it’s not until later on in the spot we discover the whole story. Created by Publicis Singapore predominantly for the Indian market, the ad is narrated by the daughter, Gayatri, who describes how was orphaned and then adopted. …

The BBC reports: US presidential candidate Donald Trump is speaking a little bit of Hindi in his latest campaign video as he attempts to woo Indian-American voters. He is appropriating Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popular campaign slogan “Abki bar Modi sarkar” (“This time Modi government”). However, if the reaction of Indians in Delhi is anything to go by, Mr …

The Times Of India reports: Mumbai: The amiable Sindhi lady, waiting at Kemps Corner signal, carefully propped up her shopping bags against her leg, and trained her phone’s camera on the profusion of colour that had suddenly poured down the road. “It is for gay rights, no?” she asked a couple of passing reporters. “Yes, I read about it in …

Huge news out of India this morning. Video below. The BBC reports: India’s Supreme Court has agreed to revisit a previous judgement that upheld a law criminalising gay sex. Three senior judges said the 2013 ruling would be re-examined by a larger bench of judges, in a move that has been welcomed by activists. The judges said that the issue …

1.2 million views in 48 hours. Pink News reports: India’s first trans pop band has released its début single. Hum Hain Happy is a Bollywood inspired cover of Pharrell Williams’ ridiculously catchy 2013 hit Happy. The band, who sing in Hinglish – a blend of Hindi and English – is comprised of six trans women from Mumbai, who were selected …

By a vote of 71-24, India’s Parliament today rejected a bill to decriminalize homosexual acts. The Hindustan Times reports: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s private member’s bill to decriminalise gay sex was rejected in the Lok Sabha on Friday, with the former minister saying it was “surprising to see such intolerance”. Tharoor had proposed to amend Section 377 of the Indian …

USA Today reports: Scores of people have died after a magnitude 7.5. earthquake struck Afghanistan on Monday, causing deaths in neighboring Pakistan and tremors in northern India. The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the quake was in the far northern Afghan province of Badakhshan, which borders Tajikistan and China. “Significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially …

The Indian charity founded by Mother Teresa has ended its adoption services rather than comply with new rules which allow single and divorced parents to adopt. A spokesman for the charity told the press, “What if the single parent who we give our baby [to] turns out to be gay or lesbian? What security or moral upbringing will these children …

Ad Week reports: An Indian clothing company is out with an ad that news reports are billing as the socially conservative country’s first to feature a lesbian couple. Anouk and Ogilvy & Mather Bangalore created the spot, in which the couple get ready to meet—and, the ad suggests, come out to—the parents of one of the women. Three and a …