Timeline of India D 2007-2011
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2007 Jan
3, In northern India ash-smeared and naked Hindu saints led millions
of devotees in a pre-dawn holy dip at the meeting of three major
rivers, starting a weeks-long pilgrimage to wash away their sins.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 5, In India suspected
separatists and rebels in Assam state killed 35 migrant workers and
wounded at least 19.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.A3)
2007 Jan 6, In northeast India
suspected separatist rebels fatally shot 13 sleeping migrant workers
before dawn, adding to a string of attacks over two days that killed
a total of 48 people and wounded at least 19.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 7, Suspected
separatists fatally shot eight people in India's northeast as army,
police and paramilitary forces swept through a remote corner of the
region after earlier militant attacks killed dozens.
(AP, 1/7/07)
2007 Jan 8, Thousands of poor
migrant laborers fled India's remote northeast despite a government
promise of protection after dozens were massacred at the weekend by
a powerful rebel group.
(AP, 1/8/07)
2007 Jan 9, More than 100
Indian fishermen left for home after Pakistan set them free in a
goodwill gesture to its longtime rival.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 10, In northern Indian
a 4-story building under construction in Allahabad collapsed,
killing 10 workers and injuring at least 25.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 13, Pranab Mukherjee,
India’s foreign minister, visited Islamabad to discuss Sir Creek and
other disputes. 2 days later Indian and Pakistani surveyors began
mapping the creek in preparation for settling their maritime border
there.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.52)
2007 Jan 15, In India hundreds
of Hindu holy men, naked but for the ash smeared on their bodies and
an occasional marigold garland, led a sea of humanity to the waters
of the Ganges River to wash away their sins at the apex of a weeks
long pilgrimage.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 16, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh reiterated his government's offer for talks with separatist
rebels in restive northeast Assam state after recent violence left
73 people dead.
(AFP, 1/16/07)
2007 Jan 18, India prepared to
send 125 of its crack policewomen to Liberia to act as UN
peacekeepers, the first time the world body has deployed an
all-female unit.
(AFP, 1/18/07)
2007 Jan 18, In India a boat
carrying people to a religious festival sank on the Krishna River.
As many as 66 pilgrims were feared drowned.
(AP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 21, In India at least
one person was killed and eight wounded in two separate explosions
in the insurgency-hit northeastern state of Assam.
(AFP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 21, In India Tata
Motors broke ground on a new factory at Singur in West Bengal that
took the land or jobs of at least 14,000 farmers and sharecroppers.
(Econ, 1/27/07, p.43)
2007 Jan 23, In northeast India
suspected separatist rebels set off a large bomb in a crowded market
in Gauhati, the capital of Assam state, killing at least one person
and wounding 12.
(AP, 1/23/07)
2007 Jan 24, India and Russia
agreed two arms deals meant to bring bilateral military ties into a
new era, a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin's arrival for
a two-day summit.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Jan 24, In India some
18,000 rickshaw operators went on strike in Kolkata to protest a ban
on rickshaws by the Communist government of West Bengal.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.43)
2007 Jan 25, Russian President
Vladimir Putin arrived in India, hoping to use the two nations'
decades-long friendship to push for deals in civilian nuclear
cooperation, military hardware and trade expansion. Putin sealed a
deal to construct more nuclear power plants in India.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 25, In India an angry
crowd severely beat up two suspects who are accused of sexually
assaulting and killing up to 20 children and women. The crowd
pounced upon the two as they were being taken to a lockup by police
after a court in Ghaziabad, a town on the outskirts of New Delhi,
sent them to police custody for 15 days.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 26, In western India a
four-story boarding school collapsed, killing at least 11 girls and
injuring 14. The school in Tichakpura, a village in Gujarat, served
tribespeople in the area.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan 28, Officials said
India will set up an aerospace defense command to shield itself
against possible attacks from outer space.
(AP, 1/28/07)
2007 Jan 30, Reliance
Industries opened 9 shops in and around Delhi. They were among the
first supermarkets to appear in India.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.64)
2007 Jan 31, Tata Steel said
its $11.3 billion offer to acquire European steel maker Corus
(formerly British Steel) is strategic to its global ambitions, even
as the winning bid raised concerns that the deal's high cost could
undermine the combined company's financial health.
(AP, 1/31/07)(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.C3)
2007 Jan, A 67% stake in
Hutchinson Essar, India’s 4th largest mobile operator, was put up
for sale by Hutchinson Telecom, which in turn was controlled by Li
Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s richest tycoon. The other 33% was owned by
Essar, an Indian steel and oil refining group controlled by the Ruia
family.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.59)
2007 Jan, Police in India’s
Jammu & Kashmir state turned up 5 bodies of Kashmiris buried as
Pakistani militants. 8 police officers in the Ganderbal district
were arrested including Hansraj Parihar, Ganderbal’s top policeman.
(Econ, 2/17/07, p.44)
2007 Feb 2, In northern India a
crowded bus veered off a steep mountain road and fell into a gorge,
killing at least 10 people and injuring 17 others.
(AP, 2/2/07)
2007 Feb 3, In India at least
19 laborers were crushed to death when a wall they were building
collapsed near Mumbai.
(AFP, 2/3/07)
2007 Feb 5, In India “Metro
Now,” Delhi’s first tabloid, was launched. A 2nd tabloid called
“India Today” was due to appear later in the year.
(Econ, 2/17/07, p.69)
2007 Feb 5, In India a fire
gutted a garment factory in eastern India, killing seven workers in
Howrah, a suburb of Calcutta.
(AP, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 8, India’s air force
chief S.P. Tyagi told reporters at the Bangalore air show that the
government expects to sign a contract to buy 40 Russian Sukhoi-30
aircraft by the end of the fiscal year March 31.
(AFP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 8, An object fell from
the sky and killed 3 nomads in northern India’s Rajasthan state. The
impact left a crater and the object was believed to have been a
meteor.
(SFC, 2/17/07, p.B6)
2007 Feb 13, India's central
bank tightened monetary policy for a second time in two weeks to
fight accelerating inflation, hiking the amount of cash commercial
banks must keep on deposit. Inflation at 6.73% hit a 2-year high,
despite 5 interest rate hikes in the past year. Italian PM Romano
Prodi led a jumbo-sized trade delegation to India and called for
closer ties for companies from his country with Indian industry in
farming and manufacturing.
(AP, 2/13/07)(AFP, 2/13/07)(WSJ, 2/17/07, p.B1)
2007 Feb 14, Deutsche Boerse,
operator of the Frankfurt stock exchange, said it has agreed to buy
five percent of the Mumbai stock exchange for 42.7 million dollars
(32.8 million euros).
(AFP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 17, Police in the
central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh recovered 390 pieces of bones
of newly born babies or fetuses from the backyard of a Christian
missionary hospital. Last December, the government said 10 million
girls had been killed by their parents in the past 20 years either
before they were born or immediately after.
(Reuters, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18, India’s federal
minister for women and child development said the government plans
to open centers where people can abandon unwanted daughters in a bid
to tackle the abortion of female fetuses and infanticide.
(AFP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18 In northern India 2
bombs exploded on a train headed from India to Pakistan, sparking a
fire that swept through two coaches and killed at least 68 people.
Most of the dead were Pakistani. Officials said the attack was aimed
at undermining the peace process between the rivals.
(AP, 2/19/07)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.47)
2007 Feb 20, In southern India
a river boat carrying children on a school trip capsized, and at
least 18 children and four teachers drowned, a local official said.
Sixteen children were missing.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 21, India said it has
banned the export to Iran of all material, equipment and technology
which could contribute to Tehran's nuclear program.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 21, India and Pakistan
signed a deal to reduce the risk of a nuclear arms accident in a
show of cooperation and defiance against terror attacks that killed
68 people from both countries.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 23, In India the
Toxics Link environmental group said India has generated 150,000
tons of electronic waste each year for the last 3 years, with no
laws to regulate its disposal.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 24, In India 16 police
officers were killed when suspected rebels ambushed their patrol in
northeast Manipur. In eastern India an ill Sabita Behera (30), was
beaten to death by her in-laws. They suspected she had AIDS and
feared she would infect the rest of the family.
(Reuters, 2/26/07)(Econ, 3/3/07, p.50)
2007 Feb 25, In India a 6-day
national meeting of Indian sex workers started in the city of
Kolkata to press demands for labor rights and legal recognition as
entertainment workers.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 28, In Kashmir Indian
officials charged 7 policemen in Srinagar with murdering a man and
claiming he was an Islamic militant, the first charges in an alleged
plot by officers to kill innocent people and earn rewards.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, In India finance
minister Palaniappan Chidambaram presented his annual budget speech.
As inflation approached 7% he increased funds for education by 34%
and money for health and family welfare by 22%. Defense spending was
set to increase 7.8%.
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.49)
2007 Feb 28, French author
Dominique Lapierre opened the first of 15 schools planned in India
with money raised by auctioning an iconic dress worn by Audrey
Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb, An Indian chili, the
bhut jolokia, was accepted by Guinness World Records as the world’s
spiciest chili. In 2010 the Indian military decided to use the bhut
jolokia to make tear gas-like hand grenades to immobilize suspected
terrorists.
(SFC, 3/24/10, p.A2)(www.thehottestpepper.com/)
2007 Mar 1, India’s government
approved a proposal to merge 4 state-owned air-carriers in order to
make them more competitive.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.59)
2007 Mar 1, Surender Koli, an
Indian servant, confessed to killing and sexually assaulting at
least 19 children and women and stuffing their dismembered remains
into a storm drain outside the house where he worked.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 4, In eastern India
suspected communist rebels assassinated lawmaker Sunil Mahato as he
watched a soccer game being played. Two bodyguards and a civilian
also were killed.
(AP, 3/5/07)
2007 Mar 5, A Tokyo paper said
Japan, the United States and India will carry out a joint military
drill in the Pacific off Japan's coast amid concerns about China's
military build-up.
(AFP, 3/5/07)
2007 Mar 6, In western India
wildlife officials said poachers had killed three highly endangered
Asiatic lions in their only remaining sanctuary, removing their
claws and bones and raising fears for the future of these rare cats.
Tiger numbers in India had collapsed to around 1,800 in the wild,
about half the world’s total.
(AP, 3/6/07)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.41)
2007 Mar 6, Researchers
reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that
pollution from Asia is helping generate stronger storms over the
North Pacific, according to new research. Satellite measurements
have shown an increase in tiny particles generated from coal burning
in China and India in recent decades.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 7, In Pakistan senior
officials from India and Pakistan wrapped up the first meeting of a
joint panel on counterterrorism set up in September under a peace
process begun in 2004. They pledged to share information and help
each other prevent terrorism. In southwestern Pakistan a bomb
attached to a motorcycle exploded near a vehicle carrying
pro-government tribal elders, killing one of them and wounding 12
others.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Mar 12, In mountainous
northern India a bus carrying a wedding party plunged into a gorge,
killing at least 18 people and injuring another 27.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 14, Farmers in eastern
India angered by government plans to build an industrial park on
their land fought police with rocks, machetes and pickaxes. At least
14 people were killed in Nandigram, West Bengal state.
(AP, 3/14/07)(SFC, 6/18/07, p.A13)
2007 Mar 15, Communist rebels
armed with rifles, hand grenades and petrol bombs attacked a police
post in the jungles of eastern India, killing at least 55 officers.
In eastern India farmers angry over plans to build an industrial
park on their land torched a government office in a second day of
unrest that has claimed 14 lives.
(AP, 3/15/07)(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, In eastern India
thousands of activists burned buses and blocked roads to protest the
recent killing of 14 farmers opposed to government plans to build an
industrial park on their land.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 17, India’s West
Bengal state government said it is dropping plans for an industrial
zone after deadly riots by farmers furious that their land was being
taken for the project.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 26, In India New
Delhi’s High Court imposed new measures aimed at deterring
habitually bad drivers in the capital, including the smoking ban and
a prohibition on using mobile phones while behind the wheel.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 29, India's Supreme
Court suspended a government program to reserve spots for
lower-caste students at the country's top medical, engineering and
professional schools.
(AP, 3/29/07)
2007 Apr 1, Laurie Baker (90),
a British-born architect, died in India. He spent more than 60 years
in India building homes that were ecologically sound and affordable
for the poor.
(AP, 4/8/07)
2007 Apr 3, Activists said
traffickers are selling children in India for amounts that are often
lower than the cost of animals and most of them end up working as
laborers or commercial sex workers.
(Reuters, 4/3/07)
2007 Mar 24, Uttar Pradesh, one
of India’s poorest states, numbered some 170 million
people.
(Econ, 3/24/07, p.48)
2007 Apr 4, In India South
Asian leaders (SAARC) wrapped up a two-day summit predicting a new
dawn for the region but offering little in terms of concrete action.
(AP, 4/4/07)
2007 Apr 7, In India a jeep
carrying a gelatin-based explosive used for a highway construction
project exploded in a southern village, killing 16 people and
injuring 22 more.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 7, The 17-year
insurgency in Kashmir continued with an average of 3 lives lost
every day. India had an estimated 600,000 soldiers and paramilitary
police stationed in Jammu & Kashmir state.
(Econ, 4/7/07, p.14)
2007 Apr 12, India test-fired a
new missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads with a 1,900-mile
range. Indonesia said the missile forced 2 of its jetliners off
course.
(AP, 4/12/07)(WSJ, 4/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Apr 16, The staff of an
Indian news channel in Mumbai was attacked and its offices ransacked
by dozens of Hindu protestors after it broadcast an interview with a
runaway couple, a teenage Hindu girl and a young Muslim man. In
southern India a passenger train crashed into a minibus carrying
local council officials at an unmanned rail crossing, killing 11
people and injuring another 12 in the vehicle.
(AP, 4/16/07)(Reuters, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 18, Ultrasound
machines in India, primarily sold by GE, were reported to be linked
to a declining sex ratio, even though laws forbade doctors from
disclosing the sex of fetuses. Females fetuses were widely aborted
due to high dowry costs.
(WSJ, 4/18/07, p.A1)
2007 Apr 22, In India’s Uttar
Pradesh state a small political party pushed for the reinstatement
of the legal rights of people wrongly declared dead by unscrupulous
relatives trying to steal their assets. The Indian Express reported
that 8 tigers were missing from the Ranthambore National Park in
western India, raising new concerns about the country's dwindling
big cat population.
(AP, 4/22/07)(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 23, Indian police
discovered a human "bones factory" in West Bengal state and arrested
six people for illegally trading in skeletons. Authorities in
northeastern Assam state launched a crackdown on rhinoceros
poachers, rushing in armed paramilitary soldiers to a sprawling game
reserve.
(Reuters, 4/23/07)(AP, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 26, In India police
arrested 3 suspected Islamic militants armed with explosives near
the Dilli Haat crafts market, a popular New Delhi tourist site. A
Pakistani national and two Kashmiris were carrying a package of
explosives, a detonator and a hand grenade. They were believed to be
members of the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militant group.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 Apr, In India Mahindra
Renault, a joint venture formed in 2005, launched a new version of
the Logan priced at $7,100 before taxes. The original Logan was
designed in Romania. It went on sale in Iran in March under the name
Tondar (thunder), with record orders and deliveries due in May.
Iran’s model was built by Iran Khodro (IKCO) and Saipa.
(Econ, 4/28/07, p.78)
2007 May 8, In India Mohammed
Shahabuddin, a popular Muslim lawmaker from the state of Bihar, was
convicted and sentenced to life in prison on a charge of kidnapping
with intent to kill a rival who disappeared eight years ago and has
never been found.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 11, In India's most
populous state of Uttar Pradesh, a party dominated by the lowest
caste (dalits) scored a surprise win in elections, while the
country's ruling and main opposition parties both lost ground. In
eastern India a bus plunged nearly 30 feet into a riverbed, killing
at least 20 people and injuring 12. Three Indian officials working
for a South Korean steel company were taken hostage by activists who
contend that the company's plan to build a plant in eastern India
would displace thousands of people.
(Reuters, 5/11/07)(AP, 5/11/07)(AP,
5/12/07)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.41)
2007 May 11-2007 May 12, At
least 31 people died as a storm hammered northern India. All the
deaths were reported from the worst-hit state of Uttar Pradesh.
(AFP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 14, In India Dr.
Binayak Sen (b.1950), a human rights activist, was arrested for
conspiring with Naxalites in Chhattisgarh state. He was charged with
carrying messages to the Maoist insurgents.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binayak_Sen)(Econ,
5/31/08, p.48)(Econ, 1/29/11, p.41)
2007 May 14, In western India a
gas tanker, truck and bus collided, sparking a fire that engulfed
the three vehicles and killed at least 30 people.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 15, In India
separatist rebels fatally shot six migrant workers in northeastern
Assam state. At the heart of the violence is simmering resentment by
Assam's indigenous people, most of whom are ethnically closer to
people in Myanmar and China than India, against the federal
government in New Delhi, some 1,000 miles to the west, and ethnic
Indians who have migrated to the state over the centuries.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 16, Indian company
United Spirits bought Scottish liquor maker Whyte and Mackay for
more than one billion dollars, emphasizing India's growing economic
clout abroad.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 18, In India a bomb
attack at the 17th-century Mecca Majid, the main mosque in
Hyderabad, killed 13 people. Two other unexploded bombs were found
and defused by police. Ensuing clashes with police left five more
dead. A serial killer who has been leaving headless torsos outside
the Indian capital's jail for more than a year, allegedly in revenge
for wrongful imprisonment, struck again. This was the fourth time
since December 2005 that a torso had been left in a sack outside the
Tihar Jail.
(AP, 5/18/07)(AP, 5/19/07)(WSJ, 11/28/08, p.A6)
2007 May 21, Indar Jit Rikhye
(86), Indian peacekeeper, died. In 1970 he set up the Int’l. Peace
Academy in NYC to train military officers and diplomats in simulated
conflicts.
(Econ, 6/9/07, p.99)(www.ipacademy.org/our-work)
2007 May 22, In India streets
were deserted and shops closed across the northern state of Punjab
after Sikh leaders called a general strike in the wake of a clashes
with a quasi-religious sect that have left one person dead. The
Akali Dal, the Sikh’s main political party, encouraged protests
against the Dera Sacha Sauda, a powerful group that had supported
Congress in state assembly elections.
(AP, 5/22/07)(Econ, 7/7/07, p.43)
2007 May 25, The US filed a
complaint at the World Trade Organization against India, saying its
duties on alcoholic beverages and other imports violate global trade
rules.
(AP, 5/25/07)
2007 May 26, In India a bomb
exploded in a busy market in northeast Assam state, killing 7 people
and injuring 18.
(Reuters, 5/26/07)
2007 May 29, In India clashes
between police and thousands of people demanding government aid in
the northern state of Rajasthan left at least 13 people dead.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 May 30, Officials said one
of the world's largest slums, a filthy shantytown in western India,
will be razed and replaced with free homes for Mumbai's poor in a
multi-billion dollar project by a private developer.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 May 31, India and the
United States began talks intended to resolve delays in a nuclear
energy deal that will give India access to long-denied Western
nuclear technology.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 1, Police in northern
India issued shoot-on-sight orders as eight more people were killed
in ethnic clashes that have left 28 dead so far.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 1, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir suspected Islamic militants attacked a
paramilitary camp, a police post and an army vehicle in an upsurge
in violence, killing three government soldiers and wounding another
22.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 2, India and the
United States failed to resolve differences over an American offer
to share nuclear know-how and fuel, ending three days of
negotiations that were intended to seal a deal seen as the
cornerstone of an emerging partnership.
(AP, 6/2/07)
2007 Jun 3, In northeast India
suspected rebels ambushed a police vehicle, killing four policemen
and injuring two others.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, Emerging economic
powers India and Brazil pledged to increase bilateral trade
four-fold to 10 billion dollars in the next three years.
(AFP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 7, The Bollywood
Oscars was formally launched in England.
(AP, 6/7/07)
2007 Jun 8, It was reported
that the student wing of the Shiv Sena party, a right-wing Hindu
group, has asked public Internet centers in India to partly block
access to Orkut, and is making a software to monitor abusive
communities on the popular social networking site operated by
Google.
(Reuters, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 9, Indian officials
said a group claiming to represent the al-Qaida terror network
declared a holy war on India over its partial control of the divided
Himalayan region of Kashmir.
(AP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 14, India's governing
coalition chose Pratibha Patil (72), the governor of northwestern
state of Rajashtan, as its presidential candidate, setting the stage
for her to become the country's first female president. It was later
reported that in the late 1970s she had favored compulsory
sterilization for people with hereditary diseases. Reports also said
that the Reserve Bank of India had shut down a women’s co-operative
bank where she had given favorable loans to relatives.
(AP, 6/14/07)(Econ, 6/30/07, p.49)
2007 Jun 16, It was reported
that a coin shortage had gripped Calcutta, India. Bank officials
investigated claims that coins were being melted down to make razor
blades.
(SFC, 6/16/07, p.A2)
2007 Jun 18, Officials said 2
high schools in Mumbai have banned pupils from holding hands,
kissing or touching on campus, warning that they will face
disciplinary action if caught.
(AP, 6/18/07)
2007 Jun 19, Indian police said
they have discovered a stash of hundreds of human skulls and thigh
bones and arrested a gang for allegedly smuggling them to the
Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan for use in Buddhist monasteries.
(Reuters, 6/19/07)
2007 Jun 22, In India 12
members of a wedding party were among 31 feared drowned overnight in
two separate boat accidents in the northern Indian state of Uttar
Pradesh. Heavy rains and flooding killed at least 45 people in the
southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and left nearly 100 children
stranded on the roof of their school.
(AP, 6/23/07)
2007 Jun 23, In India the
mutilated bodies of Manoj and Babli Banwala were fished out of
Barwala Link Canal in Hisar district by Kheri Chowki police, their
hands and feet tied. Manoj and Babli Banwala (19), childhood
sweethearts in northern Haryana state, were murdered some days
earlier by male relatives of Babli, who was forced to drink
pesticide by her brother. Manoj was garroted by the bride’s uncle.
Their alleged crime was to have married within the same Hindu clan.
(Econ, 4/17/10,
p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaithal_honour_killing_case)
2007 Jun 24, In Indian Kashmir
3 suspected Muslim rebels were shot dead trying to cross from the
Pakistan side of the divided state. The region's main guerrilla
group vowed to continue attacks and shun peace talks. A landmine
attack by rebels on an Indian police convoy wounded 10 on the
outskirts of Srinagar.
(AFP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jun 25, In India police
arrested Dr. K. Murugesan and his physician wife, the parents of
Dhileepan Raj, who supervised their son while he allegedly performed
the Caesarean section.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun, BP PLC said it will
invest $90 million in a joint venture with UK-based D1 Oils PLC, a
biofuels startup that is developing the jatropha plant in India and
elsewhere. The oil rich, non-edible plant was first cultivated in
South America and brought to India by Portuguese traders.
(WSJ, 8/24/07, p.A12)
2007 Jul 4, In India 13
passengers aboard the Karnataka Express from Bangalore to Delhi were
found unconscious in their compartment. They had eaten cookies laced
with sedatives offered by thieves and lost all their possessions.
(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.G2)
2007 Jul 5, Shares of top
real-estate firm DLF, which raised 2.24 billion dollars in India's
biggest ever public share offering, leapt 36% on their first day of
trade before retreating.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 6, India’s Health
Ministry released a report saying the number of Indians infected
with HIV is between 2-3 million, half of what experts had previously
estimated, and about 0.3% of the 1.1 billion population.
(SFC, 7/7/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 7, Authorities said
floods in eastern India have left nearly a million people stranded
from torrential monsoon rains.
(AFP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, A global poll
picked the Great Wall of China, Rome's Colosseum, India's Taj Mahal,
Peru’s Macchu Picchu, Jordan’s Petra, Brazil's Statue of Christ
Redeemer and Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid as the new seven wonders
of the world. The campaign to name the new wonders was launched in
1999 by the Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, In India at least
four people drowned or were electrocuted over the weekend in the
northwestern desert state of Rajasthan, bringing India's overall
monsoon death toll to 177.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Chandra Shekhar
(b.1927), former Indian prime minister (1990), died from a
blood-related illness. He served briefly during a period of
political turmoil.
(AFP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 9, In India’s
Chattisgarh state an hours-long battle between police and Maoist
rebels armed with machine guns and mortars ended with the deaths of
25 rebels and 24 police. The Maoist insurgency is now spread across
13 of India's 28 states and the rebels are believed to have
10,000-15,000 fighters in an increasingly well-armed force.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 12, An influential and
conservative Islamic theological school in India said marriages of
Muslim couples using Internet Web cameras were acceptable and legal.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 13, UN officials said
they are investigating allegations that Indian peacekeepers in Congo
traded food and even military intelligence with Rwandan Hutu rebels
in return for gold.
(Reuters, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 16, Reliance
Communications, India's second largest telecom company, said it paid
300 million dollars to buy US-based telecom firm Yipes Holdings to
expand data services.
(AFP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 15, A minister said
India's southern coastal Kerala state was reeling from an outbreak
of mosquito-borne Chikungunya viral fever infections that have
claimed 193 lives. Chikungunya, transmitted by the Aedes aegypti
mosquito, was first detected in 1955 in Africa and last year caused
the deaths of some 200 people on the French Indian ocean island of
Reunion. Federal health minister Anbumani Ramadoss told parliament
last year that some 1.1 million Indians were infected with
Chikungunya.
(AFP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 18, In India at least
26 people were killed and 15 others injured when a seven-story
building collapsed in Mumbai.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 19, Lawmakers voted in
an election widely expected to give India its first female
president. Pratibha Patil (72), governor of the northwestern state
of Rajasthan, was said to have been selected for her unswerving
devotion to Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress party, and Gandhi's
powerful family, which has historically controlled the party.
Pratibha Patil was elected as the country's first female president
in a vote seen as a victory for the hundreds of millions of Indian
women who contend with widespread discrimination. An Indian
anti-terror court sentenced three more men to death for their
involvement in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai in 1993 which
killed 257 people.
(AP, 7/19/07)(AFP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 22, Indian police
killed Shiv Kumar (Dadua), one of the country's most notorious
bandits. He had ruled the ravines and forests of central India
through a mixture of fear and love for three decades, with many
hailing him as a modern-day Robin Hood.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 23, Indian officials
said dozens of plastic bags stuffed with body parts believed to be
from aborted female fetuses or newborn girls killed because their
families wanted boys have been found in an abandoned well in eastern
India.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 25, India inaugurated
Pratibha Patil (72) as its 1st female president. She promised to
fight for the rights of women and an end to the widespread practice
of aborting female fetuses. In northeastern India 2 domesticated
elephants went on a rampage through several villages, killing eight
people and wounding five before being shot dead by police.
(AFP, 7/25/07)(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, Germany's Identity
Foundation said leading Indian economist and Nobel laureate Amartya
Sen (73) will be awarded the Meister Eckhart prize for his work on
human development theory.
(AFP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 27, The United States
and India said they have worked out differences blocking the sharing
of civilian nuclear fuel and technology, hailing a "historic
milestone" accord that would reverse three decades of American
anti-proliferation policy.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 27, Mohamed Haneef
(27), an Indian doctor, was freed from custody after Australia's
chief prosecutor said that a charge linking him to failed terrorist
bombings in Britain was a mistake. In 2010 Haneef accepted what his
lawyer described as a "substantial" but confidential settlement for
his ordeal in which authorities incorrectly linked him to failed car
bombings at airports in London and Glasgow.
(AP, 7/27/07)(AFP, 12/21/10)
2007 Jul 28, In southern India
police shot dead at least eight protestors after a political
demonstration turned violent. Police opened fire after hundreds of
protestors burned furniture in a government office in a small town
in Andhra Pradesh state, where communist parties campaigned for
distribution of government land to the rural and urban poor.
(Reuters, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 29, Dilip Ganguly
(b.1949), journalist, died in Calcutta. His 21-year career at The
Associated Press saw him report from Baghdad during the Gulf War, on
the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and on stories across South
Asia.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 30, It was reported
that India’s Maharashtra state government has banned domesticated
elephants from Mumbai, India's largest city, saying that forcing the
animals to walk the city's chaotic, crowded and polluted streets was
an act of cruelty. The ban took effect last week.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 31, An Indian
anti-terror court sentenced Bollywood film star Sanjay Dutt to six
years in jail for illegal weapons possession in connection with
serial bombings in Mumbai in 1993. Dutt was freed on bail after 22
days in jail.
(AP, 7/31/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.38)(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 1, An overcrowded boat
evacuating people from a flooded village capsized in a rain-swollen
river in northern India, killing at least 28 people. Dozens of
people were killed across South Asia as surging flood waters caused
by heavy monsoon rains forced millions from their homes.
(AFP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 2, Officials said days
of heavy monsoon rains have devastated large swaths of northern
India and Bangladesh, killing at least 164 people, stranding
millions and washing away vital crops.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 3, The death toll in
south Asia rose to at least 186 people killed. 19 million have been
driven from their homes as heavy monsoon rains triggered floods,
destroyed crops and submerged roads across a wide swath of northern
India and Bangladesh. The UN child welfare agency said that in India
alone, the number of dead from the monsoons topped 1,100.
(AP, 8/3/07)(AFP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 7, Indian communist
parties, which shore up the government, rejected a landmark nuclear
pact between New Delhi and Washington saying it compromised India's
sovereignty and imposed US influence. In northeastern Assam state,
gunmen killed 4 traders in the village of Harinagar after they
refused to pay about $1,200 each. Police blamed the militant group
Dima Halam Daogah, which demands an autonomous state for people of
the Dimasa tribe.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 6, Wal-Mart signed an
agreement to start wholesale operations in India in equal
partnership with Bharti Enterprises, an Indian conglomerate.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.59)
2007 Aug 7, The toll from
severe floods across South Asia soared to nearly 1,900 and although
water levels in the region's swollen rivers started to recede,
millions of people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal still faced
hunger. About 40% of Bangladesh was under water.
(AFP, 8/7/07)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.34)
2007 Aug 8, In northeastern
India's Assam state suspected separatist rebels fatally shot 12
people in two separate attacks. Police suspect the attack was
carried out jointly by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)
and another local insurgent group, the Karbi Longri National
Liberation Front, which is fighting for autonomy for people of the
Karbi tribe.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, The death toll from
the worst monsoon floods to hit South Asia in decades passed 2,000
even as torrents of muddy water receded from millions of acres of
farmland and rains shifted west.
(AFP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 10, In India a
government report said 77% of Indians, about 836 million people,
live on less than half a dollar a day in one of the world's hottest
economies. Suspected separatist rebels gunned down a group of
migrant workers as they slept and bombed two markets in the
insurgency-wracked northeast, bringing the total number of people
killed in a week of violence to 23. Police have blamed the violence
on the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom and the Karbi Longri
National Liberation Front.
(Reuters, 8/10/07)(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 11, The int’l. medical
charity Doctors Without Borders said it has been stopped from
working in a Maoist-hit area of India, after being accused of
treating banned rebels.
(AFP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 12, In India suspected
rebels killed four Hindi-speaking migrant workers before dawn and 3
more bodies were found from an earlier killing in the
insurgency-wracked northeast, bringing the death toll from a week of
violence to 30.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 16, Australia’s PM
John Howard said he would lift a ban on selling uranium to India,
subject ot strict conditions.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.40)
2007 Aug 21, The leader of
India's ruling party, Sonia Gandhi, arrived in South Africa for a
three-day visit in a bid to strengthen ties between the two nations.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, Japanese PM Shinzo
Abe arrived in New Delhi to firm up billions of dollars of
investment projects, expand trade ties and discuss India's
controversial nuclear cooperation deal.
(AFP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 25, In Hyderabad,
India, where Hindu-Muslim animosity runs deep, a pair of almost
simultaneous bombings blamed on Islamic extremists tore through a
popular family restaurant and an outdoor arena, killing 43 people.
Another 19 bombs were discovered and made safe in the area. In
Hyderabad, Muslims make up 40 percent of the population of 7
million. Officials blamed foreign militants.
(AP, 8/26/07)(WSJ, 8/27/07, p.A1)(Econ, 9/1/07,
p.34)
2007 Aug 29, In India the
world-famous Taj Mahal was closed to tourists after officials in the
city of Agra imposed a curfew following rioting that left one person
dead and 50 hurt. Rioters fought pitched battles with police,
pelting them with stones, glass bottles and setting vehicles alight,
after a speeding truck crushed four Muslims to death. Officials in
the eastern state of Orissa said at least 105 people have died of
cholera and some 6,000 people are suffering from diseases caused by
drinking dirty water.
(AFP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 31, Australia and
India agreed to study the possibility of a free trade agreement.
Trade Minister Warren Truss said it was a natural result of New
Delhi's rising economic power.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug, In India Ashok
Malhotra was arrested for illegal real estate deals on the outskirs
of New Delhi. He allegedly obtained and sold some 5,500 small plots
meant for the resettlement of slum-dwellers. Malhotra had
established himself financially by delivering a curried chickpea
breakfast to members of Delhi’s state assembly.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.35)
2007 Sep 1, It was reported
that Mumbai, India, had a population of 14 million, making it the
largest city in south Asia. The UN said it expected Mumbai to reach
25 million by 2015.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.33)
2007 Sep 4, 5-nation war games
began in the Bay of Bengal. Indian and US aircraft carriers launched
fighter jets into the air as American submarines cruised below
Japanese, Australian and Singaporean warships.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 7, In northwestern
India a large truck crammed with Hindu pilgrims crashed into a
gorge, killing at least 85 people and injuring 64.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 9, In southern India a
highway overpass collapsed in Hyderabad, crushing vehicles and
injuring pedestrians taking shelter from a rainstorm. At least 2
people were killed. officials said they feared 20 people had died.
(AP, 9/10/07)
2007 Sep 11, India's Supreme
Court gave permission for ship breakers to dismantle a former French
cruise liner, the Blue Lady, that environmentalists say is lined
with toxic asbestos.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 11, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon visited India's technology hub of Bangalore to get a
feel for the success of its outsourcing companies, and to encourage
them to invest more in Mexico.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 15, Officials said
nearly 13.5 million people have been marooned or displaced by floods
in India and Bangladesh. The flooding in South Asia caused by the
June-to-September monsoon has been described as the worst in
decades, with more than 3,300 people killed. Landslides and floods
in Nepal killed at least another 185 people since the start of
monsoon.
(AP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 20, Officials in India
said torrential rains and thunderstorms over the last 4 days have
killed at least 63 people in southern India, and flooded dozens of
villages.
(AP, 9/20/07)
2007 Sep 22, To date 144
countries had ratified the UN Convention Against Torture. Holdouts
included Sudan, North Korea, Myanmar, Zimbabwe and India.
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.72)
2007 Sep 23, Indian Oil
Minister Murli Deora witnessed the signing of three accords between
state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and the state-run Myanmar
Oil and Gas Enterprise at Nay Pyi Taw, the administrative capital of
Myanmar.
(AFP, 9/24/07)
2007 Oct 3, In India at least
13 elderly women traveling to a Hindu festival were trampled to
death and 42 others were injured in a northern railway station when
two trains arrived on adjacent platforms in Mughalsarai.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, Philippine
President Gloria Arroyo called for increased trade with India at the
start of a three-day visit.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 10, Some 30 Tibetan
exiles protesting Chinese religious policies stormed the Chinese
Embassy in New Delhi, with several breaching the front gate and
chaining themselves to the flag pole inside.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 11, In India 2
worshippers were killed and nearly a dozen injured in a bomb attack
near a revered Islamic shrine in the northern state of Rajasthan. A
bus carrying Hindu pilgrims fell into a river in a remote part of
northern India, killing at least 41 people.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 12, The government of
India, under pressure from opposition, indicated that that they
would rather shelve a nuclear energy deal with the US rather than
risk a general election.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.51)
2007 Oct 14, In a northern
Indian an explosion ripped through a crowded cinema, killing at
least five people in the industrial city of Ludhiana. The area
around the Shingar Cinema has a large Muslim population. At least 12
Hindu devotees were trampled to death on a narrow path crowded by
thousands heading to a temple in western India. Another eight people
were injured.
(Reuters, 10/14/07)(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh arrived in the Nigerian capital Abuja in the first state visit
by an Indian premier to the oil-rich west African state in 45 years.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 16,
India and Nigeria reaffirmed their stance in favor of UN
Security Council reform and signed up to a slew of cooperation
agreements on day two of a state visit to Nigeria by Indian PM
Manmohan Singh.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, India's PM
Manmohan Singh raised fresh doubts about a landmark nuclear energy
accord with the US, telling President Bush that his government is
having "certain difficulties" finalizing the deal, which has faced
mounting domestic opposition.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 17,
In South Africa the leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa
vowed to push the interests of poor nations in stalled international
trade talks and said any agreement would have to benefit the
developing world.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 18,
India and Pakistan pledged to maintain a ceasefire after
resuming talks as part of their slow-moving peace process but
reported no specific progress on issues under discussion.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 19,
India and Pakistan reviewed their efforts to cut the risk of
accidents involving nuclear weapons and discussed arms and security
issues.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 19,
In Indian Kashmir Rawathpora village residents claimed that
Indian soldiers detained teacher Abdul Rashid Mir (26) outside a
school, then tortured and fatally shot him while he was in custody.
The Indian army said Mir was accidentally shot after he got into a
squabble with an army patrol team. Violence quickly erupted.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, In Indian Kashmir
thousands of angry Rawathpora villagers torched government vehicles
in street battles that injured 30 police one day after army soldiers
allegedly shot dead a schoolteacher.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 21,
New Delhi Deputy Mayor S.S. Bajwa was rushed to a hospital
after the attack by a gang of Rhesus macaques, but succumbed to head
injuries sustained in his fall.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 27, In eastern India
Naxalite rebels opened fire on a crowd of revelers at a festival,
killing a politician's son and 17 other people in Jharkhand state.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 28,
Tens of thousands of impoverished Indians arrived in New Delhi
ending a monthlong march to draw attention to the plight of those
dispossessed of their land by recent economic development.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29,
In India 14 children working in a textiles factory were
rescued after media reports said an Indian clothing supplier to US
retailer Gap was employing underage workers.
(AFP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel met India's leadership at the start of a state visit
aimed at boosting trade and security links.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Nov 1, The Indian
government proposed to recruit retired soldiers to patrol tiger
sanctuaries in the hopes of saving the last of the cats after an
official report confirmed a drastic drop in wild tiger numbers.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 5, The Delhi State
Consumer Commission ordered ICICI Bank to pay $137,500 in penalty
after its loan collectors beat a man with iron rods and dragged him
from a car before seizing the vehicle.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, In Bangalore,
India, doctors began operating on Lakshmi, a 2-year-old girl born
with four arms and four legs, in an extensive surgery that they hope
will leave the girl with a normal body. Surgeons completed the
surgery the next day and said will it give the girl a chance at a
normal life.
(AP, 11/6/07)(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 6, In Kashmir a 4-day
gunbattle began that left five Islamic militants and four Indian
soldiers killed.
(AFP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 12, IUCN, a
Geneva-based conservation group, said the world's smallest bear
species faces extinction because of deforestation and poaching in
its Southeast Asian home. The sun bear, whose habitat stretches from
India to Indonesia, has been classified as vulnerable by the World
Conservation Union.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 16, The communist
parties that support India's ruling coalition backed off their
strong opposition to a landmark nuclear deal with the US, clearing
the way for the pact to go forward after months of high-stakes
political gamesmanship.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 21, India and the
International Atomic Energy Agency agreed to start negotiations on
putting Indian reactors under IAEA safeguards, clearing a key hurdle
to closing a US-Indian nuclear supply pact. Dozens of soldiers
marched through Calcutta and police imposed a curfew to try to quell
riots that erupted after protesters alleged government brutality.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 23, A series of
near-simultaneous explosions ripped through courthouse complexes in
three north Indian cities, killing at least 13 lawyers and injuring
dozens of other people. Federal authorities blamed militants trying
to spark unrest between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority
for the blasts in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2007 Nov 24, In India
protesting tea plantation workers in the remote northeast clashed
with area residents, in violence that left six people dead and 60
others injured. A group of nearly 10,000 workers from tea
plantations all over the state of Assam, led by the All Assam Tea
Tribes Students Association, had been marching in the state capital
of Gauhati to demand that the government recognize them as a
separate tribal group.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 30, India's Tata Steel
signed a joint venture with Australia's Riversdale Mining to develop
a hard coking and thermal coal project in Mozambique.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Dec 4, Police in northern
India broke up a major tiger poaching ring, arresting an alleged
kingpin and 15 others.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, A survey said
Indian business confidence has slumped to a five-year low on the
back of flagging exports, aggressive monetary tightening and a
rising rupee that has slowed the economy.
(AFP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 6, India overturned a
1914 law that banned women from tending bar in New Delhi. A ruling
in New Delhi in January said women could do bar work in hotels and
restaurants, ended a 92-year-old law barring their employment. In
August the Delhi government sought a ban on such jobs for women.
Each of India’s 29 states has its own laws governing the sale of
alcohol, and many restrict women working behind the bar.
(SFC, 12/22/07,
p.A15)(http://in.news.yahoo.com/071206/211/6o422.html)
2007 Dec 12, India announced
major plans to increase its nuclear capabilities, saying it was
close to testing a ballistic missile capable of hitting targets up
to 6,000 kilometers (3,800 miles) away.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 13, In northeast India
a bomb tore through a moving train, killing five passengers and
wounding four others. A little-known militant group claimed
responsibility for the attack. In southern India two men attacked a
self-proclaimed holy man (80) and chopped off his right leg,
apparently believing it had magical powers.
(AP, 12/13/07)(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, In northern India
a bus collided with a train, killing at least 16 people, including
nine children on their way to school.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 16, In eastern India
299 communist prisoners overpowered guards and escaped from a
prison.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 21, India announced a
final successful test of the surface-to-air Akash missile before
starting mass production under a plan to build a national missile
defense shield.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 22, Police in India
arrested two men near Lucknow suspected of being Islamic militants
involved in a series of explosions that ripped through courthouse
complexes in three north Indian cities last month, killing at least
16 lawyers.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 23, India's main Hindu
nationalist party swept to an impressive election victory in the
western state of Gujarat after a bitter campaign fought in the
shadow of deadly 2002 anti-Muslim riots that still scar the state.
Chief minister Narendra Modi led the BJP to carry 117 of 182 seats.
Modi represented the most anti-Muslim wing of the BJP.
(AP, 12/23/07)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.36)(Econ, 8/2/08,
p.44)
2007 Dec 24, In Indian Kashmir
5 worshippers were being held hostage inside a mosque for a second
day by Muslim rebels as security forces sought to end siege
peacefully. Indian forces killed three suspected Islamic militants
ending the two-day hostage standoff and sparking angry protests that
injured dozens of people.
(AFP, 12/24/07)(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 25, In eastern India
Hindu extremists attacked Christians celebrating Christmas,
ransacking and burning at least six village churches. One person was
killed in the violence.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 27, In eastern India
Hindu extremists burned down the house of a prominent Christian
politician, as violence by gangs from both sides continued despite a
curfew imposed after two days of attacks against Christians by Hindu
hard-liners. In Orissa state at least three people were killed when
they opened fire on a group of hard-line Hindus who set fire to a
police station during ongoing clashes between Hindus and Christians.
(AP, 12/27/07)(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Stephen Alter authored
“Fantasies of a Bollywood Love Thief: Inside the World of Indian
Moviemaking.”
(SSFC, 8/12/07, p.M3)
2007 Ramachandra Guha authored
“India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy.”
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.93)
2007 Edward Luce authored “In
Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India.”
(SSFC, 2/4/07, p.M3)
2007 Robyn Meredith authored
“The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What
It Means for All of Us.”
(SSFC, 7/29/07, p.M1)
2007 Martha C. Nussbaum
authored “The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and
India’s Future.”
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.93)
2007 MTV India, launched in
1996, came to America.
(Econ, 1/2/10,
p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_India)
2007 India planned to complete
a 1,800 mile fence along the Pakistan border and a 2,500-mile fence
along the Bangladesh border were scheduled to be completed at a cost
of $3 billion.
(SFC, 5/29/04, p.A1)
2007 India scrapped 129 ships
at its ship recycling yard in Alang, down form a high of 428 in
2001. Business was lost to less regulated recycling yards in
Bangladesh and Pakistan.
(SSFC, 7/6/08, p.A2)
2007 In India brothers Himanshu
and Varun Aggarwal founded Aspiring Minds, an assessment technology
pioneer, in order to provide a full spectrum of assessments
including Language, Aptitude, Skill and Personality assessment.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.76)(www.aspiringminds.in/)
2007 In India Sachin Bansai and
Binny Bansal setup shop in a flat in Bangalore and began an
e-commerce business that delivered books to people’s homes. By 2011
their firm, Flipcart, was one of India hottest Internet businesses.
(Econ, 10/22/11, SR p.18)
2007 Road accidents in India
averaged nearly 100,000 per year.
(SFC, 12/7/07, p.A25)
2008 Jan 1, In northern India 2
assailants with guns and grenades ambushed a police recruitment
center in an attack that killed seven police officers and a civilian
in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh state. In Bihar state suspected Maoist
rebels shot dead four soldiers.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 2, In northern India
an unusually fierce cold snap has killed nine people over the past
two days, bringing the death toll from weeks of unusually chilly
weather to 38.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 3, Worshippers at a
Hindu temple in southern India stampeded as they tried to draw close
to a goddess' statue, trampling at least five people to death and
injuring 15 others. The northern state of Himachal Pradesh said it
planned to use unemployed youths to sterilize monkeys to try to
combat aggressive primates who have been raiding farms. The idea
drew immediate condemnation from conservationists, who said the plan
was unscientific and would likely worsen the problem.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, Ford Motor Co.
named Tata Motors Ltd. the top bidder for its Jaguar and Land Rover
brands and entered into "focused negotiations at a more detailed
level."
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 4, P. Chidambaram,
India’s finance minister, urged state-run banks to reduce lending
rates by half a percentage point to spur consumption and investment
as signs emerge of a slowdown in consumer spending. Police arrested
14 men for allegedly harassing two women outside a five-star hotel
in Mumbai during New Year's celebrations, a case that drew
widespread criticism after police initially refused to pursue it.
(AP, 1/4/08)(AFP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 6, Dr. Pramod Karan
Sethi (80), inventor of a low-cost prosthetic foot that has helped
millions of people in developing and war-torn countries, died in
Jaipur, India. The surgeon developed the Jaipur Foot in 1968 with
India's rural poor in mind.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 10, India's Tata
Motors unveiled the world's cheapest car, bringing new mobility
within the reach of tens of millions of people and nightmares to
environmentalists, traffic engineers and safety advocates.
(AP, 1/10/08)
2008 Jan 11, The World Bank
uncovered serious incidents of fraud and corruption in about $750
million of health projects it has funded in India dating back to
1997.
(WSJ, 1/14/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 13, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh arrived in Beijing for a three-day visit aimed at boosting
sometimes strained relations between the two Asian giants.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 14, In India hundreds
of residents were evacuated as a towering fire in a central Calcutta
market burned for the third straight day. Some 2,500 shops have been
destroyed in the blaze, although there have been no serious injuries
or deaths reported.
(AP, 1/14/08)
2008 Jan 15, India confirmed a
bird flu outbreak among poultry following the death of thousands of
chickens in the past week in the state of West Bengal. A train
collided with a packed auto rickshaw in eastern India, killing nine
people and injuring two.
(AFP, 1/15/08)(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 15, Australia's new
government told an Indian envoy that it will not sell uranium to his
country while it is not a member of the global nonproliferation
treaty.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 19, In India
laboratory workers analyzed new samples from dead chickens amid
fears that India's worst-ever bird flu outbreak may have spread in
eastern India as locals resisted a massive cull.
(AFP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 20, Britain's PM
Gordon Brown arrived in India hailing relations between the two
countries as a "partnership of equals" as he looked to further boost
links.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 20, In western India a
bus carrying Hindus on a religious pilgrimage skidded off a hill and
plunged into a gorge, killing at least 38 people and injuring 40
others.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, Israel launched an
advanced spy satellite that will be able to track events in Iran,
the country it considers its top foe, even at night and in cloudy
weather. India successfully launched the Israeli spy satellite into
orbit.
(AP, 1/21/08)(AFP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 22, In India officials
said an outbreak of bird flu in India's most densely populated state
could spiral out of control, as the disease spread to a seventh
district in West Bengal.
(Reuters, 1/22/08)
2008 Jan 25, India and France
said they would push their military ties beyond weapons sales and
open up nuclear power cooperation as soon as New Delhi is able to
enter the global atomic energy market.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 30, Police in India
said they broke up an illegal organ transplant ring spanning five
Indian states and involving at least four doctors, several
hospitals, two dozen nurses and paramedics and a car outfitted as a
laboratory (see Feb 7).
(AP, 1/30/08)(WSJ, 1/31/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 31, India's Tata
Chemicals, part of tea-to-steel conglomerate Tata Group, announced
it was buying US-based soda-ash producer General Chemical Industrial
Products for over one billion dollars.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Feb 2, South Korean car
giant Hyundai Motor Co opened a second plant in India, making the
country its biggest foreign manufacturing site.
(AP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 3, In western India a
four-story building collapsed in Ahmadabad, killing eight people and
injuring another 12 after a warning to evacuate days before went
unheeded.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 4, India and Pakistan
signed an agreement to exchange security information, opening up a
new channel of communication between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
(AFP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 7, In western India
Dynaneshwar Sathawane, a local leader of the ruling Congress party,
was stripped, stoned and beaten to death by a mob during a rally of
nearly 500 people in Maharashtra state.
(AP, 2/9/08)
2008 Feb 7, Nepalese
authorities arrested Amit Kumar, the alleged mastermind of a shadowy
organ transplant operation in India that illegally removed hundreds
of kidneys, sometimes from unwilling donors, at a jungle resort in
southern Nepal (see Jan 30).
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 9, In India Baba Amte
(93), founder of a leper center in Warora (1951), died at the center
in western Maharashtra state.
(SFC, 2/22/08, p.B9)(Econ, 3/1/08, p.93)
2008 Feb 14, Boeing and India's
Tata Industries announced an agreement to set up a joint venture
company to handle an initial 500 million dollars of defense-related
aerospace component work in India.
(AFP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 15, In eastern India
hundreds of Maoist militants stormed six police compounds in
carefully coordinated attacks, killing 13 police personnel and one
civilian. 11 policemen were injured.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 17, Indian troops
killed at least 20 Maoist guerrillas in clashes following the
killing of 13 policemen by the insurgents in the eastern state of
Orissa.
(AFP, 2/17/08)
2008 Feb 18, At least 13 Maoist
rebels and six paramilitary soldiers were killed in renewed fighting
in eastern India, days after carefully coordinated rebel attacks
killed 13 police and two civilians.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, In Goa, India, the
bruised body of Scarlette Keeling (15), a British citizen, was found
on a beach with her clothes partially removed. Some of her injuries
indicated sexual assault. In March 3 men were detained in connection
with her murder. On March 13 police confirmed murder charges against
local barman Samson D'Souza (29) and Placido Carvalho, an alleged
drugs dealer working the beaches of the former Portuguese colony.
(AP, 3/9/08)(AFP, 3/13/08)
2008 Feb 22, South Africa and
India agreed to allow businessmen traveling between the two
countries multiple entry visas, as part of several agreements signed
in Pretoria.
(AFP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb, India announced a
debt waiver to some 30 million small farmers as part of its budget
along with a massive job creation scheme for rural paupers.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.46)
2008 Mar 8, India awarded
Russia a 965-million-dollar contract to upgrade its multi-role
MiG-29 warplanes. The two post-Cold War allies signed the deal to
extend the life of India's fleet of 70 MiG-29 jets another 15 years
from their current 25 years.
(AFP, 3/10/08)
2008 Mar 10, Hundreds of
Tibetan exiles began a six-month march from India to Tibet to
protest Beijing's hold on the Himalayan region and China's hosting
of the Olympic Games. Indian police barred the Tibetan exiles from
marching.
(AP, 3/10/08)(WSJ, 3/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 13, Indian police
arrested 100 Tibetan exiles trying to walk to their homeland as part
of a major protest ahead of the Beijing Olympics, although the
demonstrators vowed the march would go on.
(AP, 3/13/08)
2008 Mar 16, In India suspected
insurgents lobbed a hand grenade at thousands of people
participating in a cultural festival in the northeast Jonai, killing
three and wounding another 50.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 16, In northern India
15 poor people were freed from captivity after selling their blood
to private clinics to make money. Five people were arrested and
later charged with illegal confinement of people and attempt to
murder.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 17, In India 7 migrant
workers believed to be from northern Uttar Pradesh state were shot
and killed on the outskirts of Impala, the capital of Manipur state.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, In India 4 migrant
workers were shot and killed in two separate shootings on the
outskirts of Impala, the capital of Manipur state.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, In India the Dalai
Lama vowed he would resign as leader of Tibet's exiles if violence
back home worsened, just hours before his aides said 19 people were
killed in new demonstrations.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 26, India's Tata
Motors said it had bought British luxury icons Jaguar and Land Rover
from ailing US carmaker Ford Motor Co for 1.15 billion pounds (2.3
billion dollars).
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Apr 1, India scrapped
import duties on cooking oils and maize and extended a ban on pulse
exports, escalating its fight against surging inflation driven by
rises in global commodity prices.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 9, India ended its
first-ever summit with African nations, aimed at deepening ties with
the resource-rich continent and trying to ensure it is not eclipsed
by Asian rival China.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 11, In India Rajiv
Agarwal, a senior official of Uttar Pradesh state, said state
authorities have banned the sale of a cheap variety of hair dye
after debt-ridden farmers were found to be drinking it to end their
lives.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 13, In eastern India
Biranchi Das (40), the controversial coach of a young boy who ran a
marathon in an attempt to set a world record, was shot dead. Also in
eastern India Naxalite rebels fatally shot five policemen and a
luggage porter and seriously wounded two others in an attack on a
railroad station.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, Train service
between Bangladesh and India resumed after a 43-year hiatus.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 16, In western India
at least 44 people, nearly all children heading to school for final
exams, drowned when their bus plunged off a bridge into a canal in
Bodeli, Gujarat state.
(AFP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 17,
India's central bank tightened monetary policy to fight high
inflation, raising by half a percentage point the amount of cash
commercial banks must keep in reserve.
(AFP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17, In India runners
carried the Olympic flame along a heavily guarded route through
central New Delhi, protected by about 15,000 police who kept Tibetan
exiles and other anti-China protesters from disrupting the ceremony.
Tens of thousands of pro-Tibetan demonstrators gathered across India
to protest the torch relay.
(AP, 4/17/08)(SFC, 4/18/08, p.A16)
2008 Apr 29, A $7 billion gas
pipeline that would link Iran and India topped the agenda as the
Islamic republic's president made his first visit to New Delhi,
despite strong US objections to the project.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 May 4, In India 16 people,
including three children, were killed when an overcrowded jeep
crashed into a truck outside Mumbai. The jeep was filled with
members of a family traveling to a wedding party.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 7, India successfully
test-fired a nuclear-capable missile that can hit targets from
Beijing to Baghdad.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 9, In Balla, India, 5
armed men killed Sunita (21), 22-weeks pregnant, and her boyfriend,
Jasbir Singh (22). They were beaten, dragged into waiting cars,
driven away and strangled. Their bodies, half-stripped, were laid
out on the dirt outside Sunita's father's house for all to see, a
sign that the family's "honor" had been restored by her cold-blooded
murder. At the small police post in Balla, a constable later
admitted the case was unlikely to ever reach prosecution, with the
village putting enormous pressure on the police, and especially
Jasbir's family, to quietly drop the case.
(Reuters, 5/16/08)
2008 May 11, In India suspected
rebels lined up and fatally shot eight railroad workers in the
insurgency-wracked northeastern region of Assam.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 11, Indian forces and
suspected Islamic militants clashed in two separate incidents in
Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing six people, including two
civilians and a news photographer.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 12, In India
Renault-Nissan and India's Bajaj group said they planned to make a
2,500-dollar car by early 2011, the second effort to make a cheap
car for the South Asian nation's rapidly growing middle class.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 13, In India 8 bombs
ripped through bustling streets in Jaipur, killing 63 people and
injuring 216. Evidence pointed increasingly towards Indian Islamists
backed by a Bangladeshi militant group as being behind the blasts.
The Indian Majuhideen claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 5/14/08)(AP, 5/16/08)(Econ, 5/17/08,
p.54)
2008 May 14, In India a poor
worker and his 4-year-old daughter were crushed to death by a bus
after the conductor pushed them off for not having the fare for the
journey. Angry passengers set the bus on fire near Jharsuguda,
Orissa state. The bus conductor was arrested and charged with
unintentional murder.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 14, In India a poor
worker and his 4-year-old daughter were crushed to death by a bus
after the conductor pushed them off for not having sufficient fare
for the journey. Angry passengers set the bus on fire near
Jharsuguda, Orissa state. The bus conductor was arrested and charged
with unintentional murder.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 18, In eastern India
at least 16 people were killed in clashes between rival political
parties during local council elections. Over 200 people were injured
as supporters of the Communist Party, which governs in West Bengal
state, and the Congress Party that heads the federal government,
fought battles using guns and rocks.
(AP, 5/19/08)(WSJ, 5/20/08, p.A15)
2008 May 19, In southern India
police said locally brewed liquor apparently tainted with lethal
chemicals killed at least 59 people over the weekend. By May 21 the
death toll rose to 156.
(AP, 5/19/08)(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 20, West Bengal,
India, completed 2 weeks of local elections, which left 37 people
killed in fighting by rival parties.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.59)
2008 May 21, India and Pakistan
signed a pact in Islamabad granting consular access to prisoners in
each other's jails but reported no significant progress in
negotiations on the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 25, In India
authorities invited leaders of one of India's lowest castes for
talks as the death toll rose to 37 from three days of bloody
demonstrations over caste classification in western Rajasthan state.
The Gujjars sought to reclassify their hereditary sect to a lower
level in order to qualify for government jobs and university places.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata party won elections in Karnataka
state.
(AP, 5/25/08)(WSJ, 5/24/08, p.A16)
2008 May 27, India's military
veterans staged protests nationwide to press for higher wages for
defense personnel and warned the unrest could spill over into the
serving ranks if New Delhi fails to act.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 29, Members of one of
India's lower castes blocked major roads, burned car tires, and
threw stones at police in several areas around New Delhi in a
continuation of protests in the country's north and west that has
left 39 people dead. Police said a truck ferrying people to a
wedding has plunged into a river in southern India, killing at least
39 people. An elephant rampaged through a village in northern India,
killing at least 7 people who tried to surround it.
(AP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 30, In India police
fired on protesters from one of the lower castes in western
Rajasthan, killing two people and bringing the death toll to 43
after a week of violence.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 Jun 9, South Africa's
ruling African National Congress party chief Jacob Zuma kicked off a
visit to India with talks with PM Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 10, In eastern India
tens of thousands of tourists were stranded in the Darjeeling
tea-growing region of West Bengal state after a Gurkha separatist
group called a strike to press its demand for an independent state,
shutting down hotels, shops and roads.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 11, India’s central
bank raised its key short-term lending rate by .25% to 8%.
(WSJ, 6/12/08, p.A13)
2008 Jun 11, Japanese
pharmaceutical firm Daiichi Sankyo said it would buy control of top
Indian generics firm Ranbaxy for up to 4.6 billion dollars, entering
the fast expanding non-branded drugs market.
(AFP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 13, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir Islamic rebels ambushed an army vehicle
and killed five Indian soldiers, including two senior officers.
(AP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 14, In northeast India
landslides and house collapses caused by 2 days of heavy rains
killed at least 14 people and injured more than 50 others.
(AP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 18, Leaders of one of
India's lower castes reached an agreement with the government of a
western Indian state, ending weeks of often violent protests. In
eastern India officials said monsoon floods that have killed at
least 29 people in the past week.
(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 19, In India officials
said soldiers and rescue workers rushed to provide relief to
hundreds of thousands of people stranded in eastern India by monsoon
floods that have killed at least 38 people in the past week.
(AP, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 21, India's finance
minister warned against "panic" and promised more measures to tame
prices, a day after the country's inflation rate shot to a 13-year
high.
(AP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jun 25, In India several
commanders of a leading separatist group in the restive northeast
announced a cease-fire and called for an end to their 30-year
rebellion.
(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 27, In India Field
Marshal Sam Manekshaw (b.1914) died. He became the 8th chief of the
Indian army in 1969 and in 1971 led India’s forces in the war with
Pakistan that ended with the creation of Bangladesh.
(SFC, 7/1/08, p.B5)(Econ, 7/5/08, p.95)
2008 Jun 29, In India at least
39 members of an elite anti-insurgency unit were missing feared
drowned in eastern Orissa state after their boat capsized following
an attack by Maoist rebels. A blast at a crowded roadside market in
the restive northeast killed six people and injured 40.
(AFP, 6/29/08)(AP, 6/29/08)
2008 Jun 29, In India several
hundred gay rights supporters took to the streets of Calcutta,
Bangalore and New Delhi to call for an end to discrimination in a
society where intolerance is widespread. The marches came days
before the Delhi High Court is expected to hear arguments on
overturning Section 377 of the penal code, a law against homosexual
sex that dates to the British colonial era with punishment of up to
10 years in prison.
(AP, 6/29/08)(Econ, 7/5/08, p.51)
2008 Jun 30, India’s massive
waiver for the debts of small farmers took effect. This cost the
government an estimated 1.6% of GDP. Banks and credit cooperatives
will be reimbursed in installments over the next 4 years.
(Econ, 7/5/08, p.84)
2008 Jul 2, In India an
estimated four million truckers went on strike to press for uniform
diesel prices and to protest against an increase in taxes.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, In Kashmir the
Indian army said 11 Muslim rebels and an Indian soldier have been
killed in two days of fierce fighting in a district bordering the
Pakistani part of the disputed state.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 4, India's coalition
government underwent a major shake-up with the dominant Congress
party pushing on with a controversial nuclear deal with the US and
ditching left-wing allies. In eastern India at least six people were
killed and 20 injured in a stampede at a popular Hindu religious
festival in Orissa state’s Puri district. Truck drivers called off
their strike after the government agreed to roll back rising road
tolls.
(AFP, 7/4/08)(WSJ, 7/5/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 5, In northern India
flooding, house collapses and lightning strikes from heavy rains
killed at least 14 people, raising the reported death toll in the
annual monsoon season to 79.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 8, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh's communist allies withdrew their support for his
four-year-old coalition government to protest the government's plan
to push forward with a controversial nuclear deal with the United
States. The government had gained new support from the Samajwadi
Party (SP) and submitted a draft request to the IAEA for a required
safeguards accord on July 9.
(AP, 7/8/08)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.50)
2008 Jul 15, In eastern India
at least 20 members of a wedding party were killed when the jeep
carrying them plunged into a roadside canal outside Patna, the
capital of Bihar state.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 16, In eastern India
at least 20 special commando police officers were killed when their
vehicle struck a land mine planted by communist rebels in Orissa
state.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 18, A border clash
triggered by a smuggling attempt left two Bangladeshi troops dead
and one Indian soldier seriously wounded.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 20, In northern India
a packed bus collided with a truck in Uttar Pradesh state, killing
at least 17 people and wounding 35 others.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 22, India’s BJP
opposition was defeated in a confidence vote and charged the ruling
Congress Party-led coalition of offering bribes in exchange for
abstentions in the vote.
(WSJ, 7/23/08, p.A8)
2008 Jul 25, India's
high-technology capital Bangalore was rocked by 8 bomb blasts. One
woman was killed and over 150 wounded.
(AFP, 7/25/08)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.44)(WSJ, 11/28/08,
p.A6)
2008 Jul 26, In western India
at least 51 people were killed and 161 wounded when 19 bombs went
off in several crowded neighborhoods of Ahmadabad, Gujarat state.
(AP, 7/26/08)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.44)
2008 Jul 29, India’s central
Reserve Bank raised its key lending rate an unexpected half per cent
to 9%, a 7-year high.
(WSJ, 7/30/08, p.C2)
2008 Jul 29, Indian and
Pakistani soldiers traded fire across the heavily armed Kashmir
frontier for more than 12 hours overnight and into the day in what
the Indian army called the worst violation of a 2003 cease-fire
agreement between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 31, At least 36 Hindu
pilgrims from Nepal were killed when their bus plunged into a river
in the mountainous northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.
(AFP, 7/31/08)
2008 Aug 1, The UN atomic
watchdog's board of governors unanimously approved an inspections
agreement with India that is key to finalizing a US-India nuclear
deal.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 1, In southern India
at least 32 people have died after several coaches of the Gautami
Express train caught fire.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 2, In northern India
40 farm laborers died after a truck carrying them home from the
fields plunged into a river near Ghoomsa in Bihar state.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Sri Lanka a
two-day summit of leaders of the 15th South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC), opened amid extraordinary security.
Leaders of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives,
Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka attended the summit. Government troops
captured rebel-held Vellankulam village in Mannar, the last rebel
stronghold in the area. Fresh fighting between Sri Lankan troops and
Tamil Tiger separatists killed 14 rebels and two soldiers across the
embattled northern region.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, In northern India
145 people, including many women and children, were killed when
pilgrims stampeded at a Hindu temple. The devotees were attending a
9-day religious festival at the Naina Devi Temple in the Bilaspur
district of the Himachal Pradesh state.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Sri Lanka the
South Asian summit ended. Tensions between India and Pakistan
overshadowed the summit, but the two nuclear-armed rivals vowed to
work together and save a tenuous peace process. A draft summit
declaration called for collective action to combat "all forms of
terrorist violence" that was threatening their "peace, stability and
security." The leaders also agreed to implement a regional trade
pact, signed in 1995 but never fully implemented.
(AFP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 4, Indian officials
pledged to stop Hindus from imposing an economic blockade on the
mainly Muslim Kashmir valley as tensions heightened with the deaths
of protesters. Police opened fire at hundreds of stone-throwing
Hindu protesters angry over a government decision to not transfer
land to a Hindu shrine, killing two people. A Muslim protester was
also killed by a tear gas shell.
(AFP, 8/4/08)(AP, 8/4/08)(WSJ, 8/6/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 4, India announced an
additional $450 million in aid for development projects in
Afghanistan. PM Singh met with Afghan Pres. Karzai in New Delhi and
both countries pledged to fight terrorism.
(WSJ, 8/4/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 6, In Indian Kashmir a
Hindu protester was shot dead in army firing as Premier Manmohan
Singh was due to hold talks with political parties in a bid to
defuse tensions in the region.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 7, Critics of China's
human rights record made sure they were not forgotten, a day before
the grand opening of the Beijing Olympics, with protest actions the
world over and in China itself. Thousands of Tibetan exiles
demonstrated in Nepal and India.
(AFP, 8/7/08)(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 9, In India an
official said monsoon rains had crumpled homes and triggered flash
floods in southern India, killing 18 people. Floods, mudslides,
house collapses and lightning strikes have killed at least 184
people across the country so far this year.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 10, In southern India
40 villagers riding on a truck were swept away by a flooded river
and feared dead. Monsoon rains have claimed at least 59 lives in the
past three days.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 11, Indian troops shot
dead Sheikh Abdul Aziz (52), a prominent Kashmiri separatist leader,
and three other protesters. The shooting came as Indian security
forces tried to prevent about 100,000 Muslims from marching towards
the de facto border with Pakistan.
(AFP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 12, Indian security
forces shot dead 15 Muslim demonstrators in Kashmir amid a wave of
anger against New Delhi's control over the disputed region.
(AP, 8/12/08)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.33)
2008 Aug 12, Tesco, the biggest
British retailer, announced plans to open wholesale grocery stores
in India that will supply goods to hypermarkets owned by Indian
conglomerate Tata Group.
(AFP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 13, The Indian army
said that it was investigating UN allegations its troops had engaged
in sexual abuse while on peacekeeping duties in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. A five-story building in a crowded residential
neighborhood of Mumbai, India's main financial city, collapsed after
monsoon rains, killing at least 20 people.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, Riots erupted
across Indian-controlled Kashmir as Muslims mourned 15 people killed
in a day of bloody violence, as the protests spread to other parts
of India. Indian police say they have issued orders to shoot
protesters defying a curfew in the town of Kishtwar in
Indian-controlled Kashmir.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 14, India’s cabinet
approved a 21% average wage increase for federal-government
employees to be backdated to January 2006. In southern India at
least nine schoolchildren and two adults were killed after a
speeding school bus plunged into a river outside Mangalore.
(WSJ, 8/14/08, p.A8)(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, Thousands of
Muslims poured into the streets of Kashmir, demanding independence
from India hours after archival Pakistan called on the United
Nations to stop what it characterized as gross human rights
violations in the divided Himalayan region. Police shot dead another
protester, bringing the death toll from days of rioting to 22 as
security was boosted on the eve of India's Independence Day
celebrations.
(AP, 8/14/08)(AFP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 15, In India's part of
Kashmir tens of thousands of Muslims took to the streets again,
ignoring a plea by the country's prime minister for an end to weeks
of violence that has left 34 people dead.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 16, In India police
arrested the alleged leader of the July Ahmadabad bombings. Mufti
Abu Bashir was arrested in the northern Indian city of Lucknow.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Tens of thousands
of Muslims marched in India's portion of Kashmir in honor of a
prominent separatist leader killed in a recent wave of violence that
has rocked the volatile Himalayan region.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 18, The river Kosi, a
tributary to the Ganges, burst an embankment on the Nepali side of
the border with India and flowed into a channel it had abandoned a
century earlier. Water flooded into Bihar state and displaced over 3
million people.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.51)
2008 Aug 20, International and
domestic flights were disrupted across India as thousands of airport
employees went on strike to protest plans to privatize airports.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 21, Monsoon rains
pummeled northern India, bringing dozens of buildings crashing down
and killing 74 people. The deaths were reported in Uttar Pradesh
state, bringing this monsoon season's death toll to more than 300
people across India.
(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 22, In Indian Kashmir
hundreds of thousands of Muslims marched in Srinagar in the largest
protest against Indian rule in over a decade. Police estimated the
crowd at 275,000.
(AP, 8/22/08)(SFC, 8/23/08, p.A8)
2008 Aug 24, In India about
40,000 protesters surrounded the Tata Motors factory slated to
produce the Nano, the world's cheapest car, alleging land for the
site was forcibly taken from local farmers. A day earlier Ratan
Tata, whose Tata Motors is India's top vehicle-maker, warned he
would move the plant out of the state if the demonstrations kept up,
although his company has already invested 350 million dollars in the
project.
(AFP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In India Swami
Laxmanananda Saraswati, a hard-line Hindu leader, was killed in the
eastern state of Orissa. His death triggered violence between Hindus
and Christians that left dozens dead. Right-wing Hindu groups blamed
Christians for killing, but a month later Maoist rebels say they had
murdered the Hindu leader.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Aug 24, In Kashmir
soldiers and police fired at Muslim protesters demanding an end to
Indian rule killing one person, as authorities arrested top
separatist leaders in a bid to quash unrest that has left at least
37 people dead since June.
(AP, 8/25/08)(SFC, 8/25/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 25, In India
authorities struggled to get aid to more than 1 million people
stranded by floods in northern Bihar state. A Bihar official
described the situation as a catastrophe. Bunty (whose real name was
Om Prakash), the notorious gang leader who terrorized New Delhi from
astride a motorcycle, died in a pre-dawn shootout with police. A
Roman Catholic nun was raped by a Hindu mob in Orissa state. On Oct
24 she said that she will not cooperate with local police, alleging
that they stood by idly during the attack. In Jan, 2009, police
charged 10 men with gang raping the Catholic nun.
(AP, 8/25/08)(AP, 8/26/08)(AP, 10/24/08)(AP,
1/29/09)
2008 Aug 26, In India
Christians clashed with Hindu mobs who attacked churches, and eight
people died in the violence in Kandhamal district of Orissa state, a
region known for deadly religious fighting.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 26, Andhra Chiranjeevi
(53), Indian film star, launched his People’s Rule Party
(Prajarajyam) in southern Andhra Pradesh state.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.43)
2008 Aug 26, In Dubai a
fire in a building packed with foreign laborers killed 11 people. 10
of the victims were Indian.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, Indian police were
ordered to shoot on sight to end Hindu-Christian clashes. Parts of
eastern Orissa state have been rocked by Hindu-Christian clashes
since Aug 23, when a hardline Hindu holy leader and four other
people were shot dead by unknown assailants.
(AFP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, In
Indian-administered Kashmir police traded fire with militants
allegedly holding 8 people hostage, including 6 children, in a
building in Jammu. 3 soldiers and 3 civilians died in the violence.
The militants had illegally crossed into Indian Kashmir from
Pakistan a day earlier.
(AP, 8/27/08)(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, In India Hindu
mobs ransacked a church and clashed with Christian villagers in
eastern Orissa state. Hindu mobs had already destroyed over a dozen
churches following the murder of a Hindu leader in Kahdhamal.
(WSJ, 8/29/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 28, In Indian Kashmir
Government forces ended a hostage crisis in the mainly Hindu city of
Jammu when they killed the last of three rebels believed to have
seized eight people. 2 hostages died in the gunbattle.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 29, In India Tata
Motors suspended work on its new plant in Mumbai, West Bengal, due
to ongoing demonstrations in support of local farmers who say they
were forced off their land to make way for the plant.
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 30, In India,
officials said more than 300,000 people, trapped in India's worst
floods in 50 years, have been rescued but that nearly double that
number remained stranded without food or water. In eastern India 12
policemen were killed in a landmine blast triggered by suspected
Maoist rebels.
(AP, 8/30/08)(AFP, 8/30/08)
2008 Sep 6, The 45 nation
Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) overcame fierce obstacles and approved
a landmark US plan to engage in atomic trade with India, a deal that
reverses more than three decades of American policy. The plan still
needs backing from US Congress.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 8, Australian Trade
Minister Simon Crean said Australia will not sell uranium to India
unless it signs a key non-proliferation pact, despite a decision by
nuclear supplier nations to end a ban on trading with New Delhi.
(AFP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 13, In India a
coordinated series of bombings struck crowded shopping areas across
New Delhi, killing 21 people with over 100 wounded. 5 bombs exploded
and 3 were defused. India blamed a group with ties to
Lashkar-e-Taiba. A Muslim extremist group claimed responsibility for
the explosions.
(AFP, 9/14/08)(WSJ, 11/28/08, p.A6)(WSJ, 12/8/08,
p.A6)
2008 Sep 19, Indian police in
New Delhi battled suspected Islamic militants holed up in a house,
killing two and arresting one before 2 others escaped. They were
believed to be members of the Indian Mujahedeen, the group
responsible for the Sep 13 serial bombings in New Delhi.
(AP, 9/19/08)(SFC, 9/20/08, p.A10)
2008 Sep 20, Indian officials
said thousands of people have been evacuated and at least were 7
swept away in eastern Orissa state after 4 rivers burst their banks
and inundated scores of villages. Uttar Pradesh state, meanwhile,
reeled under torrential rains which killed at least 16 people and
toppled trees and houses.
(AFP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 22, The death toll
from heavy monsoon rains and flooding across India reached 119 in
the past three days.
(AP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 25, A joint statement
said India's PM Singh met with Pakistan's Pres. Zardari at the UN in
New York and they agreed to boost a faltering peace process between
the nuclear-armed neighbors.
(AP, 9/25/08)
2008 Sep 25, In India about 50
Christians armed with knives, sticks and stones hacked a Hindu man
to death in the eastern state of Orissa in the latest outburst of
sectarian violence that has left 27 people dead. In a 2nd incident
about 500 Hindus attacked and burned about 50 Christian homes and
two prayer halls in Beherasahi village.
(AP, 9/26/08)
2008 Sep 27, In India one child
was killed and 18 people were wounded in a bomb attack in a crowded
shopping area in New Delhi. A young boy was killed instantly when he
picked up a bag containing the bomb to return it to suspects who
fled the market before the explosion. A 2nd man died the next day
from his injuries.
(AFP, 9/27/08)(AP, 9/28/08)
2008 Sep 29, Two bombs exploded
in separate towns in western India in crowded markets packed with
Muslim shoppers, killing six people and wounding 45 others.
(AP, 9/30/08)
2008 Sep 30, In western India
thousands of pilgrims panicked by false rumors of a bomb stampeded
at a Hindu temple in Jodhpur, killing at least 224 people in the
crush to escape.
(AP, 9/30/08)(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 1-2008 Oct 3, In India
over 100,000 Bollywood actors, technicians and cameramen began an
indefinite strike protesting irregular pay and the hiring of
non-union members. The strike was called off Oct 3 after unions and
producers announced they had thrashed out a deal for better pay and
working conditions.
(WSJ, 10/2/08, p.A14)(AFP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 2, India’s ban on
smoking in public places became effective, leaving public health
officials with a much tougher task: get the nation's estimated 120
million smokers to stub out their cigarettes.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 3, India's Tata Group
announced it was abandoning a plant in eastern India which was
slated to turn out the world's cheapest car after weeks of violent
demonstrations triggered by a land dispute.
(AFP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 5, Clashes between
Hindus and Muslims in Dhule, a western Indian town left at least
four people dead and 80 injured, forcing police to impose a curfew.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 6, Clashes between
ethnic groups in India's remote northeast killed 19 more people,
bringing the death toll from four days of violence to 49, including
15 people shot by police. Another 100,000 people have fled their
homes.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 5, In southern Mexico
5 state police officers were arrested in connection with a deadly
raid to dislodge protesters from a Mayan archaeological site.
Mexican authorities seized 7 million pills of pseudoephedrine, the
main ingredient used to make methamphetamine, at the Guadalajara
airport. More than 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of the pills were
found packed in 24 boxes on a shipment from Calcutta, India. Three
separate shipments of more than a ton each were confiscated last
month at Mexico City's airport. Those also originated in Calcutta.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 7, In India Tata
Chairman Ratan Tata said the company had acquired 1,100 acres in
Gujarat state and will relocate equipment from the failed Nano
minicar project in West Bengal.
(WSJ, 10/8/08, p.A14)
2008 Oct 7, In northeast India
5 days of clashes between members of the Bodo tribe, Assam’s largest
tribe, and local Muslims left 53 people dead with 25 of them shot by
police.
(Econ, 10/11/08, p.60)
2008 Oct 8, Pres. Bush signed
legislation allowing American businesses to enter India’s
multi-billion-dollar nuclear market.
(SFC, 10/9/08, p.A13)
2008 Oct 10, The US and India
signed a pact allowing American firms to sell nuclear technology to
India.
(WSJ, 10/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 11, India's PM Singh
launched Kashmir's first train service, the fruit of an eight-year
project that overcame tough terrain and rebel strife, on a visit
overshadowed by violence. Shops, businesses and schools were shut to
protest Singh’s visit.
(AFP, 10/11/08)(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Pope Benedict XVI
gave the Roman Catholic church four new saints, including an Indian
woman whose canonization is seen as a morale boost to Christians in
India who have suffered Hindu violence. They included Sister
Alphonsa (1910-1946) of the Immaculate Conception, a nun from
southern India and India’s first woman saint; Gaetano Errico
(1791-1860), a Neapolitan priest who founded a missionary order in
the 19th century; Sister Maria Bernarda, born as Verena Buetler
(1848-1924) in Switzerland, who worked as a nun in Ecuador and
Colombia; and Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran (1832-1869), a 19th
century laywoman from Ecuador who helped the sick and the poor.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 13, In India police
arrested seven relatives of a 75-year-old widow for doing nothing to
prevent the woman from killing herself by jumping into her husband's
funeral pyre.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, In north and
northeastern India a series of road accidents killed at least 48
people and injured another 64. 43 of the dead died in 2 bus crashes.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, Indian author
Aravind Adiga (b.1974) won the 2008 Booker Prize with his first
novel: “The White Tiger.” The book follows Balram Halwai, the son of
a rickshaw puller, who dreams of better things than life as teashop
worker and driver.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 19, In India 2 people
were killed and 12 injured after a bridge being built to extend New
Delhi's six-year-old metro system collapsed onto a bus and cars.
(AFP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 20, India’s central
bank cut its repurchase rate, a leading rate for which the central
bank lends to other banks, to 8%, the first reduction since March
2004.
(WSJ, 10/21/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 21, In India 25,000
members of the United Forum of Reserve Bank Officers and Employees
went on strike in a dispute over pensions. The Reserve Bank of India
denounced the strike as illegal.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.87)
2008 Oct 21, A bomb exploded
outside a training center for police commandos in northeast India,
killing at least 17 people and wounding 23 more.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 21, In Kashmir trucks
laden with fruit, honey, garments and spices crossed the heavily
armed frontier as India and Pakistan opened a trade route between
the two sides of the divided region for the first time in six
decades.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 22, India launched its
first mission to the moon, rocketing the Chandrayaan 1 satellite up
into the pale dawn sky in a two-year mission to redraw maps of the
lunar surface. On board was the Mono Mineralogy Mapper, a NASA
spectroscope.
(AP, 10/22/08)(Econ, 10/25/08, p.96)
2008 Oct 23, A huge explosion
at an illegal fireworks factory in western India killed 27 people,
including 12 children.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 25, Police in India
arrested more than 1,000 students in eastern Bihar state after their
protests over the release on bail of a firebrand politician turned
violent.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 26, Government troops
in Indian Kashmir opened fire on hundreds of angry protesters
demanding the release of several people arrested during a recent
strike, killing one and wounding at least three others.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 29, In Germany
Viswanathan Anand of India retained his world chess title by drawing
with the white pieces against Russian challenger Vladimir Kramnik.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, In India a series
of 11 coordinated blasts tore through northeast Assam state, killing
at least 77 people and sending police scrambling to find any
unexploded bombs in a province troubled by years of separatist
violence and ethnic tensions. The next day the "Islamic Security
Force-Indian Mujahedeen" took responsibility and warned such attacks
would continue in Assam state.
(AP, 10/30/08) (AFP,
10/31/08)(SFC, 10/31/08, p.A2)
2008 Oct, A US Embassy cable
called Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, a powerful leader of
the nation's bottom caste untouchables, a 'virtual paranoid
dictator' who had institutionalized corruption throughout India's
most populous state, charged potential candidates $250,000 to run
for Parliament on her party's ticket and was obsessed with becoming
prime minister. The cable was revealed by WikiLeaks in 2011.
(AP, 9/6/11)
2008 Nov 4, India’s finance
minister called in the bosses of state owned banks for a chat.
Afterwards they said they would cut their lending rates by .75%.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.91)
2008 Nov 4, In northern India.
a passenger bus rolled into a gorge near Kufri, a popular ski
resort, killing at least 45 people.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 7, India said it will
send one of its most decorated army units to join a UN mission in
Congo and support other Indian troops as Congolese rebels advance to
seize fresh areas.
(Reuters, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 8, In India at least
five people were killed when they tried to dismantle a discarded
artillery shell in the northern town of Meerut.
(AFP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 10, Malaysia's Scomi
Engineering said its consortium with an Indian company has won a
1.85 billion ringgit ($523 million) state contract to build the
first monorail in India.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 14, An Indian probe
landed on the moon, in a milestone for the country's 45-year-old
space program.
(AFP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 14, In India suspected
Maoist insurgents triggered landmine blasts to scare away voters in
Chhattisgarh state, killing 2 people.
(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.A6)
2008 Nov 14, In India the
Kuber, a 45-foot fishing boat, left port at Porbandar with a crew of
5 men. It was soon hijacked by terrorists from Pakistan, who used it
to reach Mumbai for the attacks that began late Nov 26. The crew
were all killed, including lead crewman Amar Narayan Singh (45), who
was found with his throat slashed.
(WSJ, 12/2/08, p.A6)
2008 Nov 18, Separate bands of
pirates seized a Thai fishing trawler with 16 crew members and an
Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25 in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates
on the trawler then apparently fired on the Indian naval frigate
Tabar. The Indians, believing the trawler to be a pirate "mother
ship," returned fire turning the Ekawat Nava 5 into a massive
fireball and killing 14 of the 15 crew as well as the pirates. The
Tabar then chased two attack boats into the night. A surviving
sailor spent six days adrift in the shark-infested ocean before
another ship picked him up. The Iranian vessel was released on Jan
9, 2009.
(AP, 11/19/08)(AP, 11/26/08)(SFC, 11/26/08,
p.A3)(AP, 1/10/09)(AP, 6/5/09)
2008 Nov 25, In eastern India
suspected communist rebels blew up a bridge, killing five police
officers who were escorting election officials in Chattisgarh state.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 26, In India 110
people were killed and over 300 injured when suspected Islamic
militants attacked 10 sites in Mumbai including the five-star Taj
Mahal Palace and Tower and the 19th century Chhatrapati Shivaji
railroad station. On Oct 3, 2009, David Headley (b.1960 as Daood
Sayed Gilani), a US citizen of Pakistani descent, was arrested in
Chicago on suspicion of doing reconnaissance Mumbai attack. In 2010
Gilani pleaded guilty and testified that the Pakistani spy agency
provided individual handlers for the Lashkar-e-Taiba attackers.
(AP,
11/27/08)(www.talkleft.com/story/2009/12/7/125726/611)(SFC,
10/20/10, p.A5)
2008 Nov 27, Black-clad Indian
commandoes raided two luxury hotels to try to free hostages, and
explosions and gunshots shook Mumbai, India's financial capital, a
day after suspected Muslim militants killed 110 people.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 28, In India commandos
who stormed the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-orthodox Jewish
group found the bodies of five hostages inside, as a fresh battle
raged at the luxury Taj Mahal hotel and other Indian forces ended a
siege at another five-star hotel. More than 150 people have been
killed since gunmen attacked 10 sites across India's financial
capital on Nov 26, including 22 foreigners, two of them Americans.
Commandos killed the last two gunmen inside the luxury Oberoi hotel,
where 24 bodies had been found.
(AP, 11/28/08)(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 29, In India a 60-hour
terror rampage that killed at least 173 people across Mumbai,
India's financial capital, ended when commandos killed the last
three gunmen inside the 565-room Taj Mahal hotel while it was
engulfed in flames. A group called Deccan Mujahideen, which alludes
to a region in southern India traditionally ruled by Muslim kings,
claimed responsibility for the attack. Officials said they believed
that just 10 gunmen had taken part in the attack. Nine were killed
and one was captured. The 10th gunman was later identified as
Mohammad Ajmal Amir Imam from Faridkot village in Pakistan. 19
foreigners were killed including 6 Americans.
(AP, 11/29/08)(WSJ, 11/29/08, p.A1)(AP,
12/1/08)(WSJ, 12/5/08, p.A1)(SFC, 12/10/08, p.A9)(Econ, 12/6/08,
p.57)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Mumbai_attacks)
2008 Nov 30, India's top
security official, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, resigned as the
government struggled under growing accusations of security failures
following terror attacks that killed 174 people.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Dec 1, India has formally
demanded that Pakistan take "strong action" against the people
behind the Mumbai attacks. An Indian police official said the only
gunman captured alive after the attacks claimed to belong to
Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group with links to the
disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir and one long seen as a creation
of the Pakistani intelligence service.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 2, India demanded
Pakistan hand over 20 of its most wanted fugitives as a sign of good
faith, while both sides tried to cool tensions over the Mumbai
attacks before a visit by Washington's top diplomat. India named
Yusuf Muzammil, the senior leader of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba,
as the mastermind of the attacks in Mumbai. A bomb exploded in a
train coach in India's insurgency-hit northeast, killing at least
three people and injuring another 29.
(AP, 12/2/08)(WSJ, 12/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 5, India and Russia
signed a civilian nuclear deal that would see Russia build four
nuclear reactors for power-starved India.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Police in India
arrested two Indian men accused of illegally buying mobile phone
cards used by the gunmen in the Mumbai attacks. In eastern India
suspected Maoist rebels killed five police officers in an ambush.
(AP, 12/6/08)(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 6, India’s central
bank cuts its benchmark short term lending and borrowing rates by
one percentage point. The next day the government unveiled a
stimulus package that included increased spending and easing of some
taxes.
(WSJ, 12/8/08, p.A8)
2008 Dec 7, Pakistani security
forces overran a militant camp on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad,
Pakistani Kashmir's main city, and seized Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, an
alleged mastermind of the attacks that shook Mumbai last month.
Zarar Shah, another top operational commander, and 10 others were
seized at the camp run by the banned group Laskhar-e-Taiba.
(AP, 12/8/08)(WSJ, 12/9/08, p.A10)
2008 Dec 9, India police
released the names of nine suspected Islamic militants killed during
their attack on Mumbai, bolstering India's charges that all of them
came from Pakistan. A speeding bus caught fire in northern Uttar
Pradesh state, killing at least 63 Hindu pilgrims.
(AP, 12/9/08)(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 11, Indian authorities
reported an outbreak of bird flu in Assam state. Some 245,000 birds
had been culled and the outbreak was localized.
(WSJ, 12/12/08, p.A12)
2008 Dec 13, The Indian navy
captured 23 pirates who threatened a merchant vessel in the lawless
waters of the Gulf of Aden, where dozens of ships have come under
attack by gunmen in recent months. The pirates were from Somalia and
Yemen. A German helicopter thwarted another attack on a freighter
being chased by speed boats off Yemen.
(AP, 12/13/08)(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.A20)
2008 Dec 21, India arrested 3
suspected Islamic militants, including a Pakistani soldier, for
allegedly planning a suicide attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
The suspects were members of Jaish-e-Mohammed, one of more than a
dozen groups fighting since 1989 to oust India from Kashmir.
(SFC, 12/24/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 26, Pakistan began
moving thousands of troops to the Indian border, sharply raising
tensions triggered by the Mumbai terror attacks.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 28, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh called the higher than expected turnout in elections in
disputed Kashmir a "vote for democracy," as results showed no one
party dominated the polls.
(AP, 12/28/08)
2008 Dec 29, The Indian Coast
Guard rescued two people off India's east coast during a search for
more than 300 illegal immigrants missing for the past four days and
feared dead. Survivors told Indian authorities that more than 300
people from Bangladesh and Myanmar, members of the ethnic Rohingya
minority, had jumped from a rickety boat that had been drifting for
13 days in the Indian Ocean and tried to swim to shore near the
Andaman Islands. On Jan 16 a refugees' advocacy group accused the
Thai navy of tying up four illegal immigrants and throwing them into
the ocean before abandoning hundreds of others on a barge in open
water, where some 300 drowned. At least 100 were rescued in Indian
waters. Survivors at the time told Indian authorities they had been
detained by Thai authorities, who towed them into the open sea and
left them.
(AP, 12/30/08)(AP, 1/16/09)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.A5)
2008 Dec 29, In India Manjit
Bawa 67), a leading Indian artist, died. His work had highlighted
peaceful coexistence.
(AP, 12/29/08)
2008 Dec 30, In Indian Kashmir
the National Conference, which with 28 seats won more than any other
party, and the Congress party, which won 17, struck an agreement to
form a new coalition, giving them a majority in the state
parliament.
(AP, 12/30/08)
2008 Dec 31, India's president
signed an anti-terror bill into law to boost police powers in the
wake of a bloody attack on the country's financial capital.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2008 Dec 31, A senior Pakistani
government official said Zarar Shah, a militant arrested in
Pakistan, has confessed involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks and
is giving investigators details of the plot. Shah and another
suspect, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, were said to be cooperating with
investigators.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2008 L.K. Advani, head of
India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) authored “My Country My Life,”
a history of Indian politics.
(Econ, 5/31/08, p.88)
2008 Amit Chaudhuri (b.1962)
authored “Clearing a Space: Reflections on India, Literature and
Culture.”
(Econ, 7/5/08,
p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amit_Chaudhuri)
2008 Tarun Khanna authored
“Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping The
Futures and Yours.”
(Econ, 1/26/08, p.80)
2008 Arvind Panagariya authored
“India: The Emerging Giant.”
(Econ, 3/8/08, p.94)
2008 India’s Congress Party
boasted of paying bribes to wavering lawmakers to secure passage of
a landmark civilian nuclear deal between India and the US. In 2011
WikiLeaks revealed a diplomatic cable that described Congress
insiders showing off chests of money to achieve this end.
(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A2)
2008 Research in India
began to document two little known languages, Aka and Miji. A third
language, Koro, was discovered in the process. In 2010 researchers
said Koro, spoken by only about 1,000 people, was a distinct
language with an entirely different vocabulary and linguistic
structure from Aka.
(AP, 10/6/10)
2008 India’s treated sewage was
estimated 13%. An estimated 700 million people in India had no
access to a proper toilet.
(Econ, 12/13/08, SR p.11)
2008 India-based Tata
Consultancy Services opened a new facility in Milford, Ohio.
(Econ, 11/5/11, p.74)
2009 Jan 1, In India 3 bombs
exploded in Gauhati, capital of northeast Assam state, killing at
least five people and wounding 50, about an hour before the nation's
top security official arrived in the area.
(AP, 1/1/09)(SFC, 1/2/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 2, India eased foreign
borrowing for real estate and certain other companies and allowed
additional liquidity for non-banking financial firms to boost
growth.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 5, India handed to
Pakistan what it said was evidence linking the country to the
Islamic militants who attacked Mumbai in November.
(AFP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 5, Boeing signed a
$2.1 billion deal with India for eight P-81 maritime patrol
aircraft.
(WSJ, 1/6/09, p.B4)
2009 Jan 7, B. Ramalingu Raju,
the chairman of India's Satyam Computer Services Ltd., quit after
admitting the company's profits had been doctored for several years,
shaking faith in the country's corporate giants as shares of the
software services provider plunged nearly 80 percent. Raju was
arrested 2 days later as Indian authorities fired the remaining
board members and launched an accounting review of the company.
(AP, 1/7/09)(WSJ, 1/10/09, p.B1)
2009 Jan 9, In India some
55,000 white collar workers at state-run oil companies called off a
three-day strike, after causing a severe fuel shortage in India.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 9, Pakistan’s PM
Gilani said his intelligence agency has given India information
about the Mumbai attacks, as US Vice President-elect Joe Biden
arrived in Pakistan for talks with the country's top leaders. A
series of blasts have gone off near a theater in the eastern city of
Lahore, but there has been no immediate word on casualties.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 11, At the Golden
Globe awards, "Slumdog Millionaire" emerged as the potential film to
beat at the Academy Awards, an unexpected position for a movie with
a cast of unknowns and a story set among orphans and criminals on
the streets of Mumbai. The late Heath Ledger won a best supporting
actor Golden Globe for “The Dark Knight.”
(AP, 1/12/09)(WSJ, 1/12/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 12, In Dubai Kabir
Mulchandani, chairman of the Dynasty Zarooni development company,
was arrested on charges of fraud and embezzlement. He was accused of
defrauding investors of more than $100 million. He has been under
investigation in India for the past 10 years by the excise
department, directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI), enforcement
directorate (ED), and income tax authority.
(WSJ, 1/24/09, p.C3)(http://tinyurl.com/amevml)
2009 Jan 15, Pakistani
officials said 71 people have been arrested in a crackdown on groups
allegedly linked to the Mumbai attacks, while adding that the
information India has handed over needs work before it can be used
as evidence in court. Pakistan also said security forces had closed
five training camps run by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for the
Mumbai attack, and arrested the entire top, middle and lower-level
leadership and those of a related charity. Security forces killed
and injured a large number of militants in the Swat valley in the
country's northwest. Four local militant commanders died in the
clash.
(AP, 1/15/09)(Reuters, 1/15/09)(AP, 1/16/09)(WSJ,
1/16/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 16, In India a herd of
nearly 150 hungry elephants rampaged through a village in the remote
northeast, trampling to death a young family as they slept in their
hut.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 21, In northeastern
India an Assam Rifles paramilitary soldier shot and killed six of
his colleagues, then fled their military camp in a remote and
dangerous outpost.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 23, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh was hospitalized and will undergo heart bypass surgery after
doctors found blocked arteries.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 24, In India a
right-wing Hindu nationalist group, outraged by what they viewed as
"obscene" behavior, stormed a fashionable bar in the southern city
of Mangalore and the assaulted female patrons. The Sri Ram Sena
(Lord Ram's Army) claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AFP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 25, Indian police shot
dead two suspected militants from Pakistan in a pre-dawn car chase
near New Delhi.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 26, It was reported
that recent analysis of vials of treated wastewater taken from a
plant in Patancheru, where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their
residues, enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed
into one stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 27, Ramaswamy
Venkataraman (98), India's eighth president (1987-1992), died. He
helped draft the country's 1950 constitution.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 29, India began a plan
to issue a new biometric identity card to its whole 1.2 billion
population. On June 25 Nandan Nilekani, a co-founder of Infosys, was
given ministerial status and appointed to run the scheme.
(Econ, 7/4/09, p.36)(http://tinyurl.com/nvfahh)
2009 Jan 30, Indian officials
said tigers have killed at least three children and four adults in
northern Uttar Pradesh in recent weeks, forcing frightened villagers
to stay indoors while forest rangers search for the wild cats.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan, In Sharjah, UAE, a
mob of up to 50 people beat Masri Khan, a Pakistani man, to death
with metal bars in a fight over control of an illegal liquor
business. In March, 2010, 17 Indians were sentenced to death for the
beating. In 2011 the victim’s family accepted over $900,000 in
"blood money," allowing the men to return to their families. In
September, 2011, an Emirati court commuted the death sentences to
two years in prison, paving the way for their return home.
(AFP, 3/30/10)(AP, 7/21/11)(AFP, 9/12/11)
2009 Feb 2, The International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) signed a nuclear inspections deal with
India.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 4, French group Areva
signed a draft accord for the sale of two to six nuclear reactors to
India, a huge new market now open with the end of a nuclear trade
embargo on New Delhi.
(AFP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 8, In London the film
"Slumdog Millionaire", the rags-to-riches tale of a Mumbai tea boy
who wins big, swept the board at the British Academy Film Awards
(BAFTAs) with seven prizes including best film.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 11, India’s Supreme
Court declared ragging, the bullying of first-year undergraduates by
older university students, a “human rights abuse in essence” and
ordered measures to stamp it out.
(Econ, 8/1/09, p.38)(http://tinyurl.com/lg6v9a)
2009 Feb 12, In India Chief
Justice A.P. Shah said the High Court in New Delhi is so behind in
its work that it could take 466 years to clear the backlog.
(SFC, 2/13/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 13, In eastern India
at least 15 people were killed and more than 160 injured when a
train derailed in Orissa state near Jajpur.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 19, In southern India
lawyers sympathetic to Sri Lankan rebels set fire to a police
station in Chennai and clashed with police leaving 20 police
injured.
(WSJ, 2/20/09, p.A12)
2009 Feb 21, In India
Sivaprakasam (60), a former civil servant, burned himself to death
in Tamil Nadu to protest Sri Lanka’s campaign against the Tamil
Tiger rebels. His was the 5th Tamil Nadu suicide by fire this year.
(Econ, 2/28/09, p.46)
2009 Feb 22, The film "Slumdog
Millionaire," a tale of hope amid adversity and squalor in Mumbai,
came away with 8 Oscars, including best picture and director for
Danny Boyle. Sean Penn won his second best-actor Oscar, this one for
playing slain gay-rights pioneer Harvey Milk in "Milk," while Kate
Winslet took best actress for "The Reader," in which she plays a
former concentration camp guard. Heath Ledger (d.2008) won as best
supporting actor in “The Dark Knight”; Penelope Cruz won as best
supporting actress for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”
(AP, 2/23/09)(SFC, 2/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 25, In India police
charged Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the man they say is the lone surviving
gunman in last year's Mumbai attacks, with "waging war" against
India and included two Pakistani soldiers among 37 others charged.
(Reuters, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb, In India the high
court of Chhattisgarh state ordered an inquiry into the deaths of 12
Gond tribe people allegedly killed by police in Singaram village.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 4, In India officials
said investigators looking into an outbreak of hepatitis uncovered a
huge operation engaged in illegally recycling hundreds of tons of
used medical equipment. Gujarat state officials launched the probe 2
weeks earlier after 56 people died of hepatitis B.
(SFC, 3/5/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 6, India's government
said it assisted an Indian businessman in his successful $1.8
million bid for Mohandas Gandhi's eyeglasses and other items,
despite initially protesting the auction as a "crass
commercialization" of the pacifist leader's legacy. An Indian court
had even filed an injunction in an attempt to prevent the auction in
New York.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 18, Mumbai police
arrested an Indian businessman (49) for allegedly raping his
daughter for more than eight years, apparently on the advice of a
Hindu mystic who .said it would make him wealthy. Tantrik Hansmukh
Bhai Rathode (54) was arrested the next day.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 22, In India the
Election Commission found Varun Gandhi (29), the great-grandson of
India's first prime minister, guilty of hate speech and inciting
violence against Muslims. He was filmed on March 16 comparing a
rival Muslim politician to Osama Bin Laden and threatening to cut
the throats of Muslims during two political rallies earlier this
month.
(AP, 3/23/09)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.46)
2009 Mar 23, India’s Tata
Motors launched its ultra-cheap Nano car in Mumbai. The vehicle was
hoped to herald a revolution by making it possible for the world's
poor to purchase their first car.
(AP, 3/22/09)
2009 Mar 25, The Indian army
said it had killed 17 militants from Lashkar-e-Taiba in Kashmir.
Recent fighting has left at least 25 people dead.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 28, Police in northern
India arrested a great-grandson of the country's first prime
minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, over allegations he made inflammatory
comments against Muslims. Police fired in the air and baton-charged
a crowd of at least 10,000 of Varun Gandhi's supporters shouting
pro-Hindu slogans as he was arrested in his constituency in Uttar
Pradesh.
(Reuters, 3/28/09)
2009 Mar 30, Findings were
presented for an experimental combo pill, to prevent heart attacks
and strokes, indicating it as effective as nearly all of its
components taken alone, with no greater side effects. The study
tested the Polycap, an experimental combo formulated by Cadila
Pharmaceuticals of Ahmedabad, India.
(AP, 3/30/09)
2009 Mar 31, Volkswagen opened
a new plant in western India, pledging to make further inroads into
the country's growing auto market.
(AFP, 3/31/09)
2009 Apr 6, In India 2 bombs
ripped through crowded markets in the restive northeast, killing at
least seven people and wounding 60 others. A grenade attack left two
police officers injured. Authorities suspected the separatist United
Liberation Front of Asom was behind the attacks.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 9, A prominent Indian
comedian took aim at the country's notoriously corrupt political
elite by starting up his own party with promises to bribe as many
voters as possible. Jaspal Bhatti, known for his biting satire on
Indian TV shows, unveiled his new party and field of candidates,
saying he hoped to give the big parties a run for their dirty money.
(AFP, 4/9/09)
2009 Apr 10, In western India a
blaze at a fireworks factory killed at least 23 workers and injured
48 others.
(AP, 4/10/09)
2009 Apr 13, In India IJP
candidate Bahadur Sonkar (48) was found hanging from an acacia tree
in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh state. Dhananjay Singh, a rival BSP
candidate and alleged gangster, was accused of Sonkar’s murder.
(http://labs.aljazeera.net/console/taxonomy/term/3043)(Econ,
4/18/09, p.47)
2009 Apr 13, Pakistan's
Maritime Security Agency arrested 20 Indian fishermen and seized
their four boats for illegally trawling in its waters in the Arabian
Sea. Authorities estimated that more than 100 Pakistani fishermen
are languishing in Indian jails while Indian authorities say nearly
500 Indian fishermen are in Pakistani prisons.
(AFP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 14, Indian police
arrested Ashok Sahu, a Hindu nationalist politician and member of
the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for an alleged
April 5 anti-Christian hate speech at a poll rally in Orissa state,
which was hit by Hindu-Christian riots last year.
(AFP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 14, In Himalayan
Kashmir an avalanche hit an Indian army post, killing 7 soldiers.
(AP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 16, Indians voted in
their tens of millions as the world's largest democracy kicked off
month-long, five-stage elections, with little hope of a clear winner
emerging at the end of it all. Attacks at 14 polling stations left
17 people dead in eastern and central India.
(AFP, 4/16/09)(SFC, 4/17/09, p.A3)
2009 Apr 21, India's central
bank cut two key short-term interest rates by 25 basis points each,
in a bid to kickstart the Asian giant's slowing economy. The Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) lowered the repo, the rate at which it lends to
commercial banks, to a record low of 4.75%, from a peak of 9.0% last
year. It also reduced the reverse repo, the rate at which it borrows
from banks, to 3.25%.
(AFP, 4/21/09)
2009 Apr 23, Around 110 million
Indians voted in the second and largest stage of month-long
elections. In eastern India suspected communist rebels blew up a
jeep carrying polling officials in Bihar state, killing five people
as part of a wave of violence that has marred national elections.
Ethnic separatist rebels killed two policemen when they opened fire
on the convoy of a politician in northeastern Assam state.
(AP, 4/23/09)(AP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 24, In India's remote
northeast Assam state wild elephants demolished two thatched-roof
huts, killing five villagers in a pre-dawn attack. India's northeast
has the world's highest number of wild Asiatic elephants, with 7,000
estimated in the states of Assam and Meghalaya alone.
(AP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 25, In India two
employees of Airworks, the company that maintained the helicopter of
an Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, sabotaged the gear box. The
potentially lethal tampering was not motivated by corporate rivalry,
but was part of a dispute between Airworks employees and management
dating back to 1995. Two janitors were arrested in the attempted
sabotage. Uday Warekar (42) and Palraj Ganpat Tewar (38) faced life
in prison for violating the unlawful activities act and the civil
aviation act.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 Apr 30, In India millions
cast their votes in the third wave of month-long elections, with
security tight as the staggered polls took in the Kashmir Valley and
the financial capital Mumbai.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 Apr, In India Mahanand
Naik, a Goa auto-rickshaw driver dubbed "The Dupatta Killer," was
arrested and later charged with 16 murders between 1995 and 2009. In
2011 He was also found guilty of killing Vasanti Gawade in
1995 in a village 35 km (20 miles) north of the state capital,
Panaji.
(AFP, 7/20/11)
2009 May 1, In India officials
said at least 18 people have died in a scorching heat wave that has
swept through more than a dozen Indian states.
(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 2, India's biggest
drug maker Ranbaxy announced the recall of an antibiotic, on sale in
the US, because of manufacturing problems, marking a new setback for
the company. The Japanese-controlled company said it was voluntarily
recalling all lots of nitrofurantoin capsules, an antibiotic used in
the treatment of urinary tract infections.
(AFP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 7, In Kashmir scores
of protesters clashed with government troops in Srinagar as
residents went to the polls in the disputed Himalayan region and
other Indian key states in a monthlong parliamentary election.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 8, Indian police used
teargas and batons to disperse hundreds of rock-throwing Kashmiris
protesting against the holding of national elections in the
revolt-hit region.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 13, Voting in India's
marathon elections ended, with early exit polls giving the ruling
Congress party and its allies a slight edge over the opposition bloc
led by the Hindu nationalist BJP.
(AFP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 14, In India
Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, the 10-year-old child star of "Slumdog
Millionaire," was awakened by a policeman wielding a bamboo stick
and ordered out of his home. Minutes later it was bulldozed along
with dozens of other shanties in the Mumbai slum he calls home.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 16, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh's ruling coalition won an overwhelming election victory,
boosting hopes of a stable government as the emerging Asian power
faces economic downturn and tensions with Pakistan. The Congress
party won 206 seats, short of the 272 needed for a parliamentary
majority. The BJP won just 116 of 545 seats.
(Reuters, 5/16/09)(Econ, 10/10/09, p.48)
2009 May 18, In India Krishna
Pattabhi Jois (b.1915), a yoga teacher and practitioner famous for
popularizing Ashtanga yoga in the West, died in Mysore. He
concentrated on stretching and balancing. Ashtanga yoga literally
means "eight-limbed yoga," as outlined by the sage Patanjali in the
Yoga Sutras. According to Patanjali, the path of internal
purification for revealing the Universal Self consists of the
following eight spiritual practices: Yama (moral codes), Niyama
(self-purification and study), Asana (posture), Pranayama (breath
control), Pratyahara (sense control), Dharana (concentration),
Dhyana (meditation), Samadhi (contemplation).
(AP, 5/20/09)(Econ, 6/6/09,
p.85)(www.ashtanga.com/html/background.html)
2009 May 19, In India newly
elected Congress lawmakers formally chose PM Manmohan Singh as their
leader for a second term, clearing the way for the swearing in of
his new government this week.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 20, In India the
shanty home of another "Slumdog Millionaire" child star was torn
down by Mumbai authorities as they demolished part of city's slum
where she lived.
(AP, 5/20/09)
2009 May 25, In India 2
protesters were killed in Punjab state in fierce rioting sparked by
the shooting dead of a guru in fighting between rival Sikh
communities in Austria.
(AP, 5/25/09)
2009 May 26, Cyclone Aila
lashed low-lying areas in eastern India and Bangladesh, destroying
thousands of homes, stranding tens of thousands of people in flooded
villages and killing at least 191 before it began to ease.
(AP, 5/26/09)(AP, 5/27/09)
2009 May 28, The Indian navy
thwarted a pirate attack on a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden off
the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 29, In Kashmir the
bodies of two young women (17 & 22) were found in Shopian town.
The pregnant wife of Shakeel Ahmed Ahangar and his teenage sister
were allegedly raped and murdered by Indian soldiers.
(Reuters, 6/20/09)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.48)
2009 May 30, In Indian Kashmir
massive protests and clashes erupted after the bodies of two young
women were found amid claims that they were raped and murdered by
Indian soldiers.
(AP, 5/30/09)
2009 May 31, In Indian Kashmir
more than 40 people were wounded as clashes continued for a 2nd day
between Indian police and Kashmiris demonstrating over the recent
deaths of two young Muslim women.
(AFP, 5/31/09)
2009 Jun 3, India's Parliament
elected Meira Kumar (64) as its first-ever female speaker. Kumar is
the daughter of a former deputy prime minister and an untouchable, a
member of India's lowest caste.
(AP, 6/3/09)
2009 Jun 8, In Indian Kashmir
security forces opened fire on protesters, wounding at least seven
people, including two critically, in the worst clash since unrest
broke out last week over the deaths of two young women.
(AP, 6/8/09)
2009 Jun 9, An Indian air force
transport plane crashed near the disputed Chinese border in
the mountains of northeast Arunachal Pradesh state. All 14 on
board were killed.
(Reuters, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 9, In Indian Kashmir
30 protesters were hurt when police fired shots in the air and
teargas during fresh protests over the alleged rape and murder of
two Muslim women.
(AFP, 6/9/09)
2009 Jun 12, Indian Home
Minister P. Chidambaran, speaking in Srinagar, said India is to
phase out the controversial presence of large numbers of its troops
in towns across the Muslim-majority Kashmir region. Indian troops
and paramilitaries were thought to number up to 500,000.
(AFP, 6/12/09)
2009 Jun 13, In India a
rebellion by left-wing activists began against West Bengal state's
communist rulers. About 1,800 state and federal troops were deployed
to quell the uprising. By June 18 ten CPM activists had been killed
as security camps and party offices were burned down.
(AP, 6/20/09)
2009 Jun 16, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh met with Pakistan's president for the first time since last
year's deadly terrorist attacks on Mumbai, and told him Pakistan
must prevent its territory from being used to launch such attacks.
The leaders of South Asia's nuclear-armed neighbors met on the
sidelines of summits in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg.
(AP, 6/16/09)
2009 Jun 18, China angrily
denounced the recent approval by the Asian Development Bank of a
2.9-billion-dollar funding plan for India, saying the scheme
encroached on a territorial dispute between the Asian giants. China
was particularly concerned about a 60-million-dollar watershed
protection project in the Arunachal Pradesh region, where much of
China and India's territorial dispute is centered.
(AFP, 6/18/09)
2009 Jun 20, Indian troops
regained control of Lalgarh town captured by Maoists during a
rebellion by the left-wing activists against West Bengal state's
communist rulers.
(AFP, 6/20/09)
2009 Jun 21, In central India
at least 11 special police personnel were killed and 10 injured in a
landmine blast triggered overnight by suspected Maoist rebels in the
state of Chhattisgarh.
(AFP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 22, Across eastern and
central India security forces were on high alert as Maoists staged a
2-day general strike and the federal government slapped a formal ban
on the rebels.
(AP, 6/22/09)
2009 Jun 22, In Kashmir 4
Indian police officials were suspended over their handling of a rape
and murder case that has sent shockwaves through the disputed
Muslim-majority region.
(AFP, 6/22/09)
2009 Jun 23, An Indian court
issued arrest warrants for 22 Pakistani nationals accused of
masterminding last year's deadly Mumbai terrorist attacks, including
the founder of an Islamist militant group recently freed by a
Pakistani court.
(AP, 6/23/09)
2009 Jun 24, In northern India
a passenger bus plunged into a gorge, killing at least 25 people in
Jammu-Kashmir state.
(AP, 6/24/09)
2009 Jun 24, In Indian-ruled
Kashmir thousands of people defied a ban on protest marches with a
fresh demonstration over the alleged rape and murder of two young
Muslim women by Indian troops.
(AFP, 6/24/09)
2009 Jun 28, In India hundreds
of gay rights supporters waved flags and danced past traffic during
marches through three Indian cities to celebrate gay pride and call
for the decriminalization of homosexuality in this deeply
conservative country.
(AP, 6/28/09)
2009 Jun 28, In India at least
35 people including eight children were killed after they were
struck by lightning in the adjoining eastern Indian states of Bihar
and Jharkhand.
(AFP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jun 30, India's first "sea
bridge" was officially opened in Mumbai, raising hopes that the
state-of-the-art structure will ease chronic congestion on the
city's notoriously choked roads. The 5.6-kilometer (3.5-mile)
Bandra-Worli Sea Link, an eight-lane freeway, will help cut the
40-minute journey between the suburbs of Bandra and Worli to just
eight minutes. Suspected militants used automatic weapons and
machetes to kill a family of four migrant workers in India's
insurgency-hit northeast.
(AFP, 6/30/09)(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jul 1, The Indian
government announced a rise in petrol and diesel fuel prices, saying
its hand had been forced by the increase in global crude oil prices.
(AFP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 1, In India Tyeb Mehta
(b.1925), a celebrated modernist painter, died in Mumbai.
(SSFC, 7/5/09, p.C8)
2009 Jul 2, A top Indian court
issued a landmark ruling that decriminalized gay sex between
consenting adults by declaring a colonial-era ban on homosexuality
unconstitutional. The decision applied only to the territory of the
capital, New Delhi.
(AFP, 7/2/09)(SFC, 7/3/09, p.A5)
2009 Jul 6, In western India
people began falling ill after a night of drinking tainted
home-brewed liquor. The death toll soon rose to at least 112.
(AP, 7/8/09)(AP, 7/9/09)(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 7, In India at least
16 people were killed and 25 injured after a fire tore through a
firecracker factory in Madurai.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 8, Protesters in
Indian Kashmir set fire to a police van and stoned other security
vehicles after the body of a missing young man was recovered in the
regional capital Srinagar.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 11, In India 2 boats
capsized in the Wainganga River in western Bhandara district leaving
26 women drowned.
(SFC, 7/13/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 12, Indian Maoists
killed at least 30 policemen, including a senior officer, in two
separate ambushes in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh. A section of
a bridge being built for the New Delhi metro rail system collapsed,
killing 6 people and injuring 13 in a major setback to the project
that officials hope to complete before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
(AFP, 7/12/09)(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 15, A court in
Indian-run Kashmir ordered the arrest of four police officers for
allegedly destroying evidence in the rape and murder of two women
that triggered violent protests last month.
(AP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 15, Luxury carmaker
Jaguar, owned by India's Tata Motors, announced it would end
Liverpool production of its X-Type car by the end of the year with
the loss of up to 300 jobs.
(AFP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 16, The leaders of
India and Pakistan, following rare talks in Egypt, vowed to
cooperate in the fight against terror in the wake of the devastating
Mumbai attacks.
(AFP, 7/16/09)
2009 Jul 16, In India Rita
Bahuguna Joshi, a leading politician of India's ruling Congress
party, was arrested and her house set on fire by activists after she
suggested that a rival leader be raped so she can better understand
the plight of rape victims.
(AP, 7/16/09)
2009 Jul 20, The United States
and India agreed on a defense pact that takes a major step toward
allowing the sale of sophisticated US arms to the South Asian nation
as it modernizes its military. New Delhi also approved sites for two
US nuclear reactors.
(Reuters, 7/20/09)
2009 Jul 20, In India Ajmal
Kasab (21), the lone surviving gunman in the Nov 26, 2008, Mumbai
attacks, pleaded guilty and gave a detailed account of the plot, his
training in Pakistan and his role in the rampage that killed 171
people dead and paralyzed the city for three days.
(AP, 7/20/09)(SFC, 7/21/09, p.A3)
2009 Jul 26, India launched the
first nuclear-powered submarine built on its soil, asserting itself
as a world power. It joined 5 other countries that can design and
construct such vessels. The 367-foot (112-meter) -long submarine,
named "Arihant" or "Destroyer of Enemies," was sent for sea trials
at a ceremony attended by PM Manmohan Singh.
(AP, 7/26/09)
2009 Jul 29, One of India’s
last queens, Maharani Gayatri Devi (90), died. She was feted as an
international style icon and spent time in jail after she became a
politician. Devi had married the Maharaja of Jaipur in 1939,
becoming a member of the royal family that effectively ruled the
city of Jaipur and the surrounding area of Rajasthan state. She
became a successful politician winning a seat in parliament in 1962
and retaining it twice in elections.
(AFP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 31, An Indian court
issued a warrant for the arrest of Warren Anderson, the former head
of the American chemical company responsible for a gas leak that
killed at least 10,000 people in Bhopal 25 years ago. Anderson was
the head of Union Carbide Corp. when its factory in the central
Indian city leaked 40 tons of poisonous gas on Dec. 3, 1984, in the
world's worst industrial disaster. In 1989, Union Carbide paid $470
million in compensation to the Indian government and said officials
were responsible for the cleanup. India said its efforts were slowed
when Midland, Mich.-based Dow Chemical Co. took over Union Carbide
in 2001, seven years after Union Carbide sold its interest in the
Bhopal plant.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Aug 4, In eastern India at
least 11 people were killed and 15 others seriously injured after
being struck by lightning in Burdwan district in West Bengal state.
(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 8, India’s army said
its troops killed three Islamic militants along the de facto Kashmir
border, thwarting the seventh attempt by rebels to infiltrate from
Pakistan in a week.
(AFP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 8, In northern India
landslides triggered by heavy rains killed at least 43 people in
three remote villages in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state.
(AP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 13, In India thousands
of schools, colleges and cinemas shut down in Mumbai to combat the
spread of swine flu as the government struggled to contain public
anxiety.
(AFP, 8/13/09)
2009 Aug 20, The Association of
Parents of Disappeared People (APDP) said their workers have
discovered several unmarked graves containing about 1,500
unidentified bodies in Indian Kashmir, and alleged that some of
corpses were likely innocent people killed by government forces.
APDP said at least eight of the graves held more than one body.
(AP, 8/20/09)
2009 Aug 22, India and Nepal
agreed to a new trade treaty as PM Madhav Kumar Nepal ended a
five-day official visit to the regional giant that both countries
hailed a great success.
(AFP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 28, It was reported
that dozens of impoverished Indian farmers in southern Andhra
Pradesh state have killed themselves in recent weeks due to debt and
poor rainfall.
(SFC, 8/28/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 28, India's first moon
mission, launched amid much fanfare in 2008, came to an abrupt end
after the country's lunar craft lost contact with its controllers.
The satellite was launched on October 22 and then fired a
TV-set-sized probe painted in the green, white and orange colors of
the Indian flag which landed on the moon on November 14.
(AFP, 8/29/09)
2009 Aug 29, Britain’s Cairn
Energy began pumping crude from a vast oilfield in the Indian desert
state of Rajasthan that is set to increase the country's crude
output by 20 percent.
(AFP, 8/29/09)
2009 Sep 2, In India a
helicopter carrying Y.S.R. Reddy (60), a powerful politician from
southern Andhra Pradesh state, disappeared in heavy rains as it flew
over a forested region largely controlled by Maoist rebels. Wreckage
and the bodies of all 5 aboard were found the next day.
(AP, 9/2/09)(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 3, In India heavy rain
triggered a landslide in Sakinaka, a densely populated suburban
Mumbai slum killing at least 12 people and injuring 25 others. Many
others remained trapped under piles of mud and stones.
(AP, 9/4/09)
2009 Sep 10, In India hundreds
of students, who were jammed into a narrow New Delhi school
staircase, panicked and set off a stampede that left five girls dead
and 31 other students injured. Mohammed Shahabuddin, a 12-year old
snack vendor, had to have his left leg amputated after Bihar state
railway police threw him out of a moving train when he failed to pay
them 10 rupees (20 cents) as a bribe. The boy had offered the
policemen five rupees, which was all the money he had.
(AP, 9/10/09)(AP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 18, In India at least
nine Maoists and a soldier were killed when government troops
launched a major offensive against a rebel stronghold in the central
state of Chhattisgarh.
(AFP, 9/18/09)
2009 Sep 23, In central India
an 820-foot (250m) chimney collapsed during bad weather killing 40
people. More than 100 workers were feared dead at the site in Korba,
Chhattisgarh state, where the giant chimney came crashing down on
the plant's cafeteria as the workers had tea. On Jan 11, 2010, 2
Chinese engineers and a project manager wee charged with culpable
homicide not amounting to murder. The arrests took to 7 the number
of people held in connection with the accident.
(AP, 9/24/09)(AFP, 9/24/09)(AFP, 1/11/10)
2009 Sep 29, In India 2 boats
capsized in flooded rivers in eastern Bihar state during a major
Hindu festival, killing at least 27 people and leaving around 24
missing.
(AP, 9/29/09)
2009 Sep 30, In southern India
a state-owned boat carrying 75 tourists capsized on a reservoir in
the remote Thekkady forest area in Kerala state, killing at least 17
people and leaving dozens missing.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 2, In southern India
flash floods and heavy rains killed at least 172 people in the state
of Karnataka and 50 in neighboring Andhra Pradesh. One more person
was killed in the southern seaside resort state of Goa as heavy
rains resulted in the collapse of 250 houses. Fifty of the victims
drowned when a rescue boat capsized.
(AFP, 10/3/09)(AP, 10/4/09)(AP, 10/5/09)
2009 Oct 8, In India some 200
Maoist rebels, known as Naxalites, killed 17 Indian policemen in the
western state of Maharashtra, the latest in a series of bloody
assaults by the guerrillas.
(AFP, 10/8/09)(SFC, 10/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Oct 15, It was reported
that the Taj network, funded by the National Science Foundation, now
connects India, Singapore, Vietnam and Egypt to the larger Global
Ring Network for Advanced Application Development (GLORIAD) global
infrastructure, and "dramatically improves existing US network links
with China and the Nordic region," according to an NSF statement.
(www.livescience.com/technology/091015-global-gloraid-taj-cyber-net.html)
2009 Oct 16, In southern India
a blaze erupted at a fireworks warehouse in Pallipat near Chennai,
killing at least 32 people and injuring 10 others as millions of
Hindus prepared to celebrate Deepavali, the festival of lights.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 19, In India in an
interview published in the weekly magazine Open, Mupalla Laxman Rao,
better known as Ganapathi, vowed to unleash a "tornado" of violence
if the government goes ahead with a planned large-scale offensive
against his Maoist forces.
(AFP, 10/19/09)
2009 Oct 20, An Indian official
said 8 South Asian countries have agreed they can't be part of any
climate change deal that sets legally binding limits on their
emissions.
(AP, 10/20/09)
2009 Oct 21, China and India
put aside a diplomatic spat to sign a five-year agreement in New
Delhi to cooperate on climate change leading up to crucial talks in
Copenhagen.
(AFP, 10/21/09)
2009 Oct 21, In northern India
a passenger train crashed into another train's rear carriage
reserved for women and disabled passengers, killing 22 people and
injuring 16 who remained trapped for hours near Agra, the home of
the Taj Mahal.
(AP, 10/21/09)
2009 Oct 28, Britain’s PM
Gordon Brown welcomed Indian President Pratibha Patil on the second
day of her state visit which he said showed growing ties between the
two nations.
(AFP, 10/28/09)
2009 Oct 29, In India a huge
fire at an oil depot near Jaipur killed at least six people and
injured 150. Officials said it would be allowed to burn out as
firefighters had little hope of dousing it. The blaze was visible
from over 25km (16 miles) away.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Oct 29, India banned
pre-paid mobile telephones in Kashmir, following concerns that
militants were using them to trigger bombs and hide their
identities.
(AFP, 10/30/09)
2009 Oct 30, Congo's foreign
minister said India has offered Democratic Republic of Congo $263
million in loans to build hydroelectric plants and repair battered
infrastructure in the war-ravaged nation. The two countries agreed
to the final terms of the loan package this week during a four-day
visit by Foreign Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba to India.
(Reuters, 10/30/09)
2009 Nov 2, The International
Monetary Fund said it has sold 200 metric tons of gold worth $6.7
billion to India's central bank as part of an effort to shore up IMF
finances and increase low-cost lending to developing countries. The
purchase put gold at 6% of India’s reserves and helped push the
price of gold to over $1,100 a troy ounce.
(AP, 11/3/09)(Econ, 11/14/09, p.86)
2009 Nov 4, In southern India
at least eight children drowned when a boat carrying at least 35
students capsized on the Chaliyar river in the Malappuram district
of Kerala state.
(AP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 6, In northern India a
crowded bus plunged down a steep mountain gorge, killing 32 people
near Baner Khud, Himachal Pradesh state.
(AP, 11/6/09)
2009 Nov 8, In India joyous
Buddhist pilgrims welcomed the Dalai Lama back to the Himalayan town
he first set foot in five decades ago while fleeing Chinese rule in
his native Tibet, a rare trip close to his homeland that has angered
Beijing.
(AP, 11/8/09)
2009 Nov 10, Indian officials
said at least 43 people have been killed in landslides caused by
torrential rains in the Nilgiris hills in the southern state of
Tamil Nadu.
(Reuters, 11/10/09)
2009 Nov 12, Afghanistan
exported 12 tons of apples to India and touted the shipment as a key
step in exploring much-needed international markets for its
agricultural products.
(AFP, 11/12/09)
2009 Nov 13, India officials
said all elephants living in Indian zoos and circuses will be moved
to wildlife parks and game sanctuaries where the animals can graze
more freely.
(AP, 11/13/09)
2009 Nov 14, In western India a
speeding train derailed, killing at least nine people and injuring
more than 80 in Jaipur, Rajasthan state.
(AP, 11/14/09)(SSFC, 11/15/09, p.A6)
2009 Nov 14, Indian troops shot
dead five suspected Islamic militants as they tried to enter Indian
Kashmir from the Pakistani side of the disputed state.
(AFP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 15, India's Essar
Group, and energy-to-steel conglomerate, said it has agreed to buy a
majority stake in Dhabi Group's telecommunication businesses in
African nations Uganda and Congo.
(Reuters, 11/15/09)
2009 Nov 16, French tire maker
Michelin announced plans to invest nearly 900 million dollars to
build a tire plant to supply India's fast-growing vehicle market.
(AFP, 11/16/09)
2009 Nov 18, South Korean auto
giant Hyundai said it would roll out another new small car in India
as it jostles with rivals for a larger slice of the fast-growing
Indian market.
(AFP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 19, In India thousands
of sugar cane farmers staged a massive demonstration in New Delhi,
halting traffic as they demanded higher prices for the crop.
(AFP, 11/19/09)
2009 Nov 19, In eastern India a
passenger train derailed after Maoist rebels blew up a key track in
Jharkhand state, killing two people and injuring at least 30 others.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In India 7 people
were arrested in Mumbai after activists from a hardline Hindu
regional political party ransacked a television station's offices
and beat up staff.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 22, India’s PM
Manmohan Singh arrived in Washington for talks with Pres. Obama.
(SFC, 11/23/09, p.A6)
2009 Nov 22, In northeast India
suspected separatists set off two explosions killing five people and
wounding at least 52 more near Gauhati, the Assam state capital. Two
people died later in a hospital.
(AFP, 11/22/09)(AP, 11/22/09)
2009 Nov 23, India's army
tested a nuclear-capable Agni missile after sunset for the first
time to demonstrate it could be fired whenever required.
(Reuters, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 24, President Barack
Obama showered praise on India and PM Manmohan Singh in an elaborate
welcoming ceremony, declaring it was only fitting the Indian leader
should be the first state visitor of his administration. Virginia
couple, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, met Pres. Obama in the receiving
line of the state dinner for PM Singh. A "deeply concerned and
embarrassed" Secret Service later acknowledged that its officers
never checked whether the two were on the guest list before letting
them onto the White House grounds.
(AP, 11/24/09)(AP, 11/28/09)
2009 Nov 29, In India senior
government officials said workers at the Kaiga nuclear power plant
in southern Karnataka state were treated for poisoning after
drinking water was deliberately spiked with radiation.
(AFP, 11/29/09)
2009 Nov 29, San Francisco
Mayor Gavin Newsom led a 50-person Bay Area delegation to Bangalore,
India, on a 3-day trip to sign business deals as part of the San
Francisco-Bangalore Sister City Initiative.
(SSFC, 11/29/09, p.D1)
2009 Dec 1, In India newspaper
executives and editors gathered from around the world heard calls to
seek more payment for their content on the Internet as they decried
their industry's sharply falling advertising revenues.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 2, The World Bank said
it will give India at least one billion dollars to help clean up the
heavily polluted holy river Ganges as part of moves to sharply hike
lending to the country.
(AFP, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 4, Indian officials
said Arabinda Rajkhowa, the commander of a powerful rebel movement
in the remote northeast, was arrested along with a top deputy.
Security officials said the chairman of the United Liberation Front
of Asom, or ULFA, was actually arrested days earlier in Bangladesh,
where he had long been thought to be hiding.
(AP, 12/4/09)(Econ, 12/12/09, p.47)
2009 Dec 4, GM and its Chinese
partner SAIC announced a joint venture to produce small cars in
India.
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.72)
2009 Dec 9, India’s federal
government agreed to give in to a high-profile hunger strike and
create the new state of Telangana out of the vast state of Andhra
Pradesh.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 11, In India
protesters took to the streets of Hyderabad, setting public buses on
fire and clashing with police, in anger over the government’s
decision to carve a new state out of the southern region of Andhra
Pradesh. Leaders of the Gorkhas, a group of ethnic Nepalis living in
West Bengal, called for an indefinite strike to push their
decades-old demand for the creation of Gorkhaland.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 12, In India 20 state
ministers resigned amid mounting street demonstrations and violence
to protest India's decision to carve a new state out of southern
Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 14, India's inflation
rate jumped to its highest level in 10 months, according to official
data, raising pressure on the central bank to begin reversing deep
interest rate cuts. The wholesale inflation rate climbed by a
larger-than-expected 4.78% in November from a year earlier after
rising by 1.34% in October.
(AFP, 12/14/09)
2009 Dec 18, India said it has
withdrawn 30,000 soldiers from Kashmir as rebel attacks decreased
over the past two years. Hundreds of thousands are believed to
remain in the heavily militarized region also claimed by Pakistan.
(AP, 12/18/09)
2009 Dec 21, In India Riona
Wines, based in western Maharashtra state, the country's
grape-growing centre, signed investment agreements with Italian
vintners Moncaro and Enzo Mecella.
(AFP, 12/22/09)
2009 Dec 23, Rajendra Pachauri,
chairman of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), said India had to curb its high-polluting coal
consumption in the near future or risk burning through its reserves.
(AFP, 12/23/09)
2009 Dec 24, In southern India
police with bamboo batons clashed with crowds of protesters as
outrage over a delay in creating a new state (Telangana) erupted
into violent demonstrations in several cities in Andhra Pradesh.
Over 40 people were feared dead after the bridge under construction
over the Chambal river collapsed on the outskirts of Kota city in
western Rajasthan state. 12 bodies were recovered and 30 others
remained missing.
(AP, 12/24/09)(AFP, 12/25/09)(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 26, In India Andhra
Pradesh Gov. Narain Dutt Tiwari (86) resigned, a day after a
television news channel broadcast a tape allegedly showing him in
bed with three women.
(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 27, Japanese PM Yukio
Hatoyama arrived in India on a three-day visit aimed at
strengthening economic and security cooperation with the emerging
giant.
(AFP, 12/27/09)
2009 Ram Charan, India-born
business consultant, authored “Leadership in the Era of Economic
Uncertainty,” his 16th book on business management.
(Econ, 2/28/09, p.72)
2009 Wendy Doniger authored
“The Hindus: An Alternative History,” a loosely chronological
cultural history of the Hindu people.
(WSJ, 4/2/09, p.A17)
2009 Nandan Nilekani,
co-founder of Infosys, authored “Imagining India: The Idea of a
Renewed Nation.”
(Econ, 3/21/09, p.90)
2009 Arundhati Roy, Indian
writer, authored “Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on
Democracy.”
(Econ, 8/1/09, p.73)
2009 Amartya Sen (b.1933),
Indian Nobel prize winning economist, authored “The Idea of
Justice,” a summation of his work on economic reasoning and on the
elements and measurement of human well-being.
(Econ, 8/8/09,
p.71)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amartya_Sen)
2009 In India armed violence in
Manipur state left some 444 people dead this year.
(Econ, 2/20/10, p.41)
2009 The world Muslim
population was estimated at 1.57 billion, or about 23% of the global
population of 6.8 billion, including 203 million in Indonesia, 174
million in Pakistan and 160 million in India.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.62)
2009 More than 17,000 Indian
farmers committed suicide, a seven percent rise on the previous
year, according to new government figures released in 2011.
(AP, 1/17/11)
2010 Jan 2, In northern India 4
trains collided in two separate accidents caused by dense winter
fog, killing 10 people and injuring 47 others.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 2, In Australia Indian
accounting graduate Nitin Garg (21) was stabbed by unknown attackers
before collapsing in the Melbourne burger restaurant where he
worked. On June 17 a 15-year-old Australian boy was charged with the
stabbing murder. On June 18 the boy (16) was charged with accessory
to the killing. On April 20, 2011, the boy (16) pleaded guilty to
the murder and one count of attempted armed robbery.
(AFP, 1/4/10)(AFP, 6/17/10)(AFP, 6/18/10)(AP,
4/20/11)
2010 Jan 3, In northern India
police said more than 30 people have died in cold weather-related
incidents in the past 24 hours, including 10 people killed in train
accidents caused by dense fog.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 5, In India global car
manufacturers eyeing the explosive growth of the Indian market
unveiled new compact models at the Delhi auto show as they sought to
break the dominance of entrenched local producers.
(AFP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Indian Kashmir
suspected Muslim militants opened fire in the main market area of
Srinagar, killing one police officer and sending residents running
for cover. A suicide bomber struck an army facility in the
Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir, killing four soldiers and
wounding 11 others in an area where such attacks are rare.
(AFP, 1/6/10)(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 7, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir government forces ended a 20-hour
gunbattle with suspected rebels in Srinagar, shooting and
killing the two attackers who paralyzed the region's main city.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 8, Australia angrily
condemned an Indian newspaper cartoon likening its police to the Ku
Klux Klan over their investigations into the recent murder of a
young Indian man.
(AFP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, Government forces
in Indian Kashmir killed two suspected rebels in a gunbattle. The
fighting started after troops cordoned off a house in Khrew village
after receiving a tip that suspected militants were hiding there.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 11, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh laid out ambitious plans to make his country a global leader
in solar power as he launched a government initiative to boost use
of the technology. Andy Pag (35) was detained in the western state
of Rajasthan for having an unlicensed satellite phone. He (Andrea
Pagnacco) was ordered held for 14 days while police investigate
whether he is a threat to national security. The London-based
environmental campaigner was traveling around the world in a
biofuel-driven bus. In March ordered to pay a fine for illegally
using a satellite phone and became free to leave India 69 days after
his arrest.
(AFP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/17/10)(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Jan 14, In India hundreds
of thousands of Hindus bathed in waters considered sacred across
large parts of India to mark the start of a religious festival. In
West Bengal state six women were among seven people killed in a
stampede as thousands bathed at the confluence of Ganges river and
the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 15, In India suspected
Maoist rebels blew up a police jeep in eastern Jharkhand state
killing six officers and their civilian driver.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 17, In India Jyoti
Basu (95), communist leader of West Bengal’s opposition and the
state’s chief minister for 23 years, died.
(Econ, 1/23/10, p.82)
2010 Jan 24, In India
environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China
said that talks in New Delhi had further cemented their alliance
following the Copenhagen climate change summit. The group, known by
the acronym BASIC, pledged to strengthen its unified stance but
would seek consensus with developed countries.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 25, South Korea's
president offered to help energy-hungry India build more nuclear
plants as the two Asian powerhouses set a goal of doubling bilateral
trade by 2014.
(AFP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 30, Ashes of Indian
independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, kept for decades by a family
friend after his assassination, were scattered off South Africa's
coast.
(AFP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 31, In the
Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir Wamiq Farooq (14), a Muslim
boy, died after being struck by a shell fired by police to quell a
demonstration by separatists in Srinagar.
(AFP, 2/2/10)(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 2, In Kashmir Indian
police and Muslim protesters clashed for the second day running over
the death of a Muslim boy killed by a police tear-gas shell.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 7, India again
successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable missile that can hit
targets across much of Asia and the Middle East. It was the fourth
test of the Agni III missile.
(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 8, In Kashmir 17
Indian soldiers were killed in an avalanche that slammed into a
group of 70 combat troops at a high-altitude warfare training camp.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 9, India halted the
release of the world's first genetically modified eggplant, saying
further study needed to be done to guarantee consumer safety before
it could be cultivated in the country.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 12, In India thousands
of devout Hindus bathed in the waters of the Ganges river as part of
the Kumbh Mela, often described as the world's largest religious
gathering. The festival began on January 13 in Haridwar, a
temple-filled town at the foothills of the Himalayas where the
Ganges river enters the sprawling plains of northern India. The
festival ends April 28.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 12, In India Rouvanjit
Rawla (12), a pupil at the prestigious La Martiniere for Boys school
in the eastern city of Kolkata, hanged himself in his room after
being caned for bringing stink bombs into class. Illegal but often
tolerated, caning was rife in India's school system, but the suicide
of the pupil after a beating brought the practice out of the
shadows.
(AFP, 7/03/10)(http://tinyurl.com/29t956x)
2010 Feb 13, In India a terror
attack took place at the German Bakery restaurant in the western
city of Pune. The death toll reached 17 people with some 60 others
injured. A group called Lashkar-e-Taiba al-Almi claimed
responsibility in response to India's "refusal" to discuss the
disputed region of Kashmir. A terror cell responsible for the attack
was broken up in 2011.
(AFP, 2/13/10)(AFP, 2/20/10)(AP, 11/30/11)
2010 Feb 13, Fourteen Indian
border guards were suspended for suspected involvement in the Feb 5
shooting death of Zahid Farooq Shah (17) in the Indian-ruled portion
of Kashmir.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 14, Kuwait's state
news agency said the Kuwaiti telecom group Zain has agreed to
offload its African assets to India's Bharti Airtel, in a deal
valued at $10.7 billion. The next day Bharti confirmed the deal.
(Reuters, 2/14/10)(Econ, 2/20/10, p.61)
2010 Feb 15, In eastern India
suspected armed Maoist rebels riding motorcycles killed at least 24
policemen in a daring gun and bomb attack on a security camp. Two
Maoist guerrillas were also killed in the raid in West Bengal
state's Midnapore district.
(AFP, 2/15/10)(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 18, In India suspected
Maoist rebels raided a village in eastern Bihar state, and killed at
least 12 people in an apparent act of revenge after several
guerrillas were captured and turned over to police. The dead
included a family of 4 burned to death in Kasari.
(AP, 2/18/10)(SFC, 2/19/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 23, India responded
cautiously to an offer by a top Maoist guerrilla leader for a
cease-fire and talks with the government, with the home minister
saying he would wait for a formal proposal before considering the
offer.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, India's biggest
carmaker Maruti Suzuki India announced it has recalled 100,000 of
its best-selling A-Star hatchback cars due to a fuel leakage
problem.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 25, India and Pakistan
held their first official talks since the 2008 Mumbai siege, with
both sides saying they wanted to rebuild trust shattered in that
attack but acknowledging that the meeting was just a first step
toward a renewed peace process.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In India a Hindu
newspaper said India's best-known painter M.F. Husain (94), who went
into exile after death threats from Hindu hardliners, has been
granted Qatari citizenship, sparking new soul-searching about his
persecution at home. Husain, known as the "Picasso of India," had
angered hardline Hindus by portraying Hindu deities in the nude or
in a sexually suggestive manner.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Saudi Arabia
Indian PM Manmohan Singh pitched for investment in his economy and
closer petroleum sector cooperation with Saudi Arabia, the second
day of a visit to the Middle East oil giant.
(AFP, 2/28/10)
2010 Mar 1, In southern India
nearly 3000 Muslims protested a newspaper article they say was
critical of Islam, clashing with police and leaving at least two
people dead and dozens injured in Shimoga, Karnataka state.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 4, In India a stampede
among thousands of poor villagers scrambling for free food and
clothes at a commemorative event killed 63 women and children at a
Hindu temple in Kunda, Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/4/10)(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 4, A collection of 300
films capturing the final days of the British Empire in India and
other parts of south Asia was released by the University of
Cambridge. The free archive footage is available at
www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk/films.html. The silent films, taken between
1911 and 1956, celebrate unique moments in history, from life after
the Quetta earthquake of 1935 to the partition of India and Pakistan
in 1947.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 9, China and India
gave a qualified approval to the nonbinding Copenhagen climate
accord brokered by Pres. Obama in the final hours of the December,
2009, climate summit.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 12, In India a troupe
of 10,780 tribal villagers in northeast Mizoram state set a record
for the largest dance ensemble in the world with a carefully
choreographed routine to welcome in the summer.
(AFP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 12, India and Russia
signed an agreement for the construction of as many as 16 Russian
nuclear reactors at three different sites in India.
(AFP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 13, In India Abdul
Latif Rashid and Riyaz Ali were arrested late in the day in Mumbai's
Matunga suburb. Police said the two men were preparing to attack
several targets in the city, the country's financial and
entertainment hub. Police said the men had links with terror groups
in Pakistan and were acting on directions from handlers there.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 21, India successfully
tested a new, more maneuverable version of its BrahMos supersonic
cruise missile that was jointly developed with Russia.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 23, In India at least
four people died and 18 others were injured when a fire engulfed a
landmark building in the heart of the eastern city of Kolkata.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Pakistani
hardliners vowed to wage a holy war to liberate the disputed
Himalayan state of Kashmir from Indian control.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 29, Officials said the
US and India have reached an agreement on reprocessing nuclear
material, clearing a major hurdle in putting into practice a
landmark atomic energy pact.
(AFP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 30, In India
Paramhamsa Nityananda (32), a Hindu holy man with thousands of
followers across India, resigned as head of Dhyanapeetam (knowledge
center) after police began investigating his role in a sex scandal.
On April 21 Nityananda, who claims to have devotees in 33 countries,
and an aide Nithya Bhaktananda, were nabbed in the northern state of
Himachal Pradesh on charges including obscenity and hurting
religious sentiments.
(Reuters, 3/30/10)(AFP, 4/21/10)
2010 Mar 30, An Indian naval
spokesman said Somali pirates may be holding several dhows carrying
an estimated 100 Indian sailors they have seized over the past five
days.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Kashmir 4
Indian soldiers and 10 separatist guerrillas were killed in clashes,
the highest number of people killed in firefights in 24 hours in
recent months.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Apr 1, In India the Right
to Education Act came into effect. The Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE), was passed
by the Indian parliament on 4 August 2009.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_Children_to_Free_and_Compulsory_Education_Act)
2010 Apr 1, India began a
yearlong census of its billion-plus population in which it plans to
photograph and fingerprint every citizen over the age of 15 to
create a national database and then issue its first national
identity cards.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Apr 6, In eastern India
Maoist rebels launched a series of devastating attacks on government
forces patrolling the forests of Chattisgarh state, killing 76 armed
policemen in the deadliest strike against the state in the 43-year
insurgency.
(AP, 4/6/10)(Econ, 4/10/10, p.45)
2010 Apr 7, China and India
signed an agreement to set up a hot line linking their top leaders.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 11, In India’s Manipur
state Naga tribes people began a blockade to the rest of India to
protest Manipur’s announcement of local elections in Naga-inhabited
areas in June.
(Econ, 5/22/10, p.46)
2010 Apr 13, Indian Sikhs
celebrated World Turban Day to demonstrate the importance of
retaining the headgear rather than adopting Western-style haircuts.
(AFP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 13, In Indian Kashmir
one person was killed and 24 hurt during a strike to protest the
conviction of six Muslims, including a Kashmiri separatist, for a
1996 bombing in New Delhi.
(AFP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 13, In India a cyclone
demolished ten of thousands of mud huts, killing 137 villagers in
the northeastern parts of West Bengal and Bihar states. Officials
later said more than 200,000 houses were fully or severely damaged
by the storm, which packed wind speeds of 120 kph (75 mph).
(AP, 4/14/10)(AP, 4/15/10)(AP, 4/22/10)
2010 Apr 14, Chinese President
Hu Jintao and Indian PM Manmohan Singh arrived in Brazil to
participate in bilateral meetings with the leaders of other emerging
economies and a BRIC summit on April 16.
(AFP, 4/15/10)
2010 Apr 16, India banned some
phone users in insurgency-hit Kashmir from sending SMS text
messages, causing anger on the streets and provoking the wrath of
the volatile region's chief minister. Kashmir chief minister Omar
Abdullah termed the ban "harassment."
(AFP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 16, Renault announced
that it has pulled out of a joint venture with Indian car
manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra, which produced its first car for
the growing South Asian market, the Logan.
(AFP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 19, In western India
police found 12 fetuses dumped near a garbage bin in Ahmadabad, the
main city of Gujarat state.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 20, India’s trade
ministry said it will launch a formal dispute against the EU at the
World Trade Organization (WTO) over EU seizures of Indian generic
drugs.
(Reuters, 4/20/10)
2010 Apr 27, India’s foreign
ministry said a female diplomat, Mrs. Gupta (53), working in the
Indian embassy in Islamabad has been arrested on charges of spying
for Pakistan. Strikes to protest rising food and fuel prices shut
down air, rail and road traffic in several parts of India.
(AFP, 4/27/10)(SSFC, 5/2/10, p.M3)
2010 Apr 29, The prime
ministers of India and Pakistan agreed to resume peace talks between
their top diplomats and work toward rebuilding trust shattered by
the deadly 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that New Delhi blamed on
Pakistani militants.
(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 May 3, In India Mohammed
Ajmal Amir Kasab (22), a Pakistani national, was found guilty for
his role in the 60-hour siege (Nov 26-28, 2008) that left 166 people
dead. He was convicted on most of the 86 charges against him and
faced the death penalty. The next day Judge M.L. Tahaliyani imposed
the death penalty against Kasab on four counts of murder, waging war
against India, conspiracy and terrorism offences.
(AFP, 5/3/10)(AFP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 7, India's Supreme
Court ruled in favor of the country's richest man Mukesh Ambani in
his long-running feud with his brother Anil over a family deal to
share the nation's largest gas find.
(AFP, 5/7/10)
2010 May 8, In northern India
at least 52 people were killed and scores injured by heavy rains
over the past two days. The worst hit areas were the central and
eastern regions of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, where
35 people died and some 50 were injured. The other 17 casualties
were reported from neighboring Bihar state. Maoist rebels in central
India blew up an army truck killing 8 paramilitary soldiers and
wounding 2 others in a densely forested area in Bijapur district of
Chattisgarh state.
(AFP, 5/8/10)(AP, 5/8/10)
2010 May 14, In central India a
bus carrying wedding guests hit a high-tension electricity line,
killing 28 people on board, mostly women and children, who were on
their way back from the ceremony in the Mandla district of Madhya
Pradesh state.
(Reuters, 5/14/10)
2010 May 14, In Indian Kashmir
4 policemen and 2 civilians were injured in a grenade attack by
suspected Muslim militants, minutes after protesters and police
clashed.
(AFP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 15, In central India
Maoist rebels kidnapped and killed six villagers in a thickly
forested area of Chattisgarh state, alleging that the men were
police informants. Their bodies were found the next day. The rebels
were currently present in 20 of the country's 28 states with an
estimated 10,000 to 20,000 fighters.
(AP, 5/16/10)
2010 May 16, In India at least
two people died in a stampede at a railway station in New Delhi as
thousands of passengers waited to board trains.
(AFP, 5/16/10)
2010 May 17, In central India a
Maoist land mine blew up a bus filled with police and civilians as
it drove through Chhattisgarh state, killing at least 35 people.
(AP, 5/17/10)
2010 May 18, India’s home
minister said the government is willing to begin peace talks with
Maoist rebels, but only if the insurgents halt all attacks for 72
hours.
(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 19, India's auction of
3G bandwidth for mobile telephone services ended, with final bids
earning the government close to 15 billion dollars -- double its own
estimate.
(AFP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 20, In India Cyclone
Laila slammed into the southeast, toppling power lines and plunging
a large swath of coastal Andhra Pradesh state into darkness. Heavy
rains and strong winds claimed at least 23 lives.
(AP, 5/20/10)(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 22, An Air India
Express plane trying to land at a tricky hilltop airport in southern
India overshot the runway, crashed over a cliff and burst into
flames at dawn, killing 158 people. There were 8 survivors. An
investigative panel later said Serb flight commander had slept
through more than half the flight and was disoriented during
landing.
(AP, 5/22/10)(SFC, 11/20/10, p.A2)
2010 May 27, Indian President
Pratibha Patil sought to soothe trade disputes and recent border
tensions in meetings with Chinese leaders in Beijing.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 27, In India
temperatures close to 50 degrees Celsius gripped large swathes of
the country, killing dozens of people as the country waited for the
annual monsoon rains.
(Reuters, 5/27/10)
2010 May 28, In eastern India
suspected Maoist rebels derailed an overnight passenger train,
triggering a crash with an oncoming cargo train that killed 145
people near the small town of Sardiha, about 90 miles (150km) west
of Calcutta in West Bengal state.
(AP, 5/28/10)(Reuters, 5/29/10)(AP, 5/30/10)
2010 May 29, Indian railway
authorities canceled all night trains in West Bengal state one day
after a passenger express train derailed and was hit by a cargo
train. The government accused Maoist rebels of sabotaging the
tracks.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 29, Police in Indian
Kashmir fired teargas to disperse thousands of villagers protesting
against what they said was the staged killing of three Muslims by
the security forces.
(AFP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 30, In India at least
30 people, including 10 children, were burnt alive when a bus bound
for the southern city of Bangalore ploughed into a roadblock and
caught fire.
(AFP, 5/30/10)
2010 Jun 7, An Indian court
convicted seven former senior employees of Union Carbide's Indian
subsidiary of "death by negligence" for their roles in the 1984
Bhopal gas tragedy that left an estimated 15,000 people dead more
than a quarter century ago in the world's worst industrial disaster.
The former employees, many of them in their 70s, were sentenced to
two years in prison and ordered to pay fines of 100,000 rupees
($2,175) apiece. All seven were released on bail shortly after the
verdict.
(AP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 9, Sri Lanka's
President Mahinda Rajapakse began his first foreign trip to
influential neighbour India since being re-elected, in a visit that
drew protests from Indian Tamils.
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Jun 10, India’s government
took steps to make divorce easier as nuptial breakdown becomes more
common. The proposed amendment, which was passed by a cabinet
meeting chaired by PM Manmohan Singh, will include "irretrievable
breakdown of marriage" as a legal justification for divorce for the
first time.
(AFP, 6/10/10)
2010 Jun 11, In India Reliance
Industries said it will pay 48 billion rupees ($1 billion) for a 95
percent stake in Infotel Broadband, the only company to win
pan-India broadband wireless spectrum in a government auction. The
auction yielded 383 billion rupees ($8.2 billion) in spectrum fees.
(AP, 6/11/10)
2010 Jun 14, Indian security
forces killed 10 Maoists in an operation that involved about
2,000 men to clear a rebel stronghold in Jharkhand. One paramilitary
policeman was also killed in the fighting, which began late the
previous evening.
(AFP, 6/14/10)
2010 Jun 14, In northern India
at least 52 people drowned after a boat capsized on the Ganges river
in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 6/14/10)(AP, 6/15/10)
2010 Jun 18, India handed over
to Pakistan a new dossier of evidence related to the November 2008
Mumbai attacks, ahead of talks next week between top foreign
ministry officials.
(AP, 6/18/10)
2010 Jun 19, In India at least
100 tourists were stranded by an indefinite strike in Darjeeling, as
a Gorkha political party campaigned for an autonomous Gorkha
homeland. The tourists had to be escorted out by police.
(SSFC, 6/27/10, p.N3)
2010 Jun 20, Indian troops
fired on hundreds of demonstrators who tried to torch a paramilitary
bunker in Kashmir, killing one person and wounding at least five.
More were injured in subsequent clashes.
(AP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 21, In India a group
of government ministers, appointed to suggest remedies for the 1984
disaster at Bhopal, made its recommendations. As many as 100,000
people continued to suffer chronic sickness from the poisonous gas
that leaked from a Union Carbide plant.
(Econ, 6/26/10, p.43)
2010 Jun 22, In southern India
a speeding truck rammed into two tractors pulling trolleys loaded
with guests returning from a wedding, killing 18 people, including
the groom.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 24, Indian authorities
arrested a key separatist leader and 40 other activists in a bid to
quell spiraling protests in the Indian-controlled portion of
Kashmir.
(AP, 6/24/10)
2010 Jun 24, Indian and
Pakistani diplomats pledged to strive for sustained dialogue to get
their fragile relations back on track and deny militants space to
derail reconciliation efforts.
(AFP, 6/24/10)
2010 Jun 25, India detained a
Pakistan-bound cargo ship carrying a "huge quantity" of explosives
and other weapons at a harbor in eastern India. Police identified
the vessel as the MV Aegean Glory and said it was registered in
Panama.
(AFP, 6/26/10)
2010 Jun 26, In eastern India
an overcrowded bus collided head-on into a truck along a sharp curve
on a highway, killing 23 people and injuring 15 others in Bihar
state.
(AP, 6/26/10)
2010 Jun 29, In India gunmen
believed to be Maoist rebels killed at least 26 paramilitary
personnel during a roadside ambush in Chattisgarh state.
(SFC, 6/30/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 2, In India leading
Naxalite Cherkuri Rajkumar, aka Azad, was killed security forces in
Andhra Pradesh state.
(Econ, 7/24/10, p.44)
2010 Jul 13, In Muzaffarabad,
Kashmir, PM Raja Farooq Haider Khan, the top official in
Pakistan-held Kashmir, vowed to fight India for control of the
disputed territory in a speech to thousands of people assembled by a
coalition of banned militant groups.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 14, India's Foreign
Minister S.M. Krishna arrived in Pakistan saying that he brought a
message of "peace and friendship" but called on Islamabad to act
decisively against terrorism.
(AP, 7/14/10)
2010 Jul 14, An Air India plane
carrying more than 200 passengers from New York became the first
commercial flight to land at New Delhi's new Terminal 3, part of a
$2.7-billion airport upgrade.
(AFP, 7/14/10)(Econ, 7/10/10, p.72)
2010 Jul 14, In India at least
92 people were sickened, eight of them critically, when they inhaled
chlorine that leaked from a cylinder in an industrial part of
Mumbai.
(AP, 7/14/10)
2010 Jul 15, India unveiled a
symbol for its rupee currency that it hopes will become as globally
recognized as signs for the dollar, the yen, the pound and the euro.
The symbol was designed by research student D Udaya Kumar, who
earned $5,300 for his pains.
(AP, 7/15/10)(Econ, 7/24/10, p.43)
2010 Jul 15, Pakistan and India
sought to improve their strained relationship with high-level talks
aimed at rebuilding trust that was fractured by the terrorist
attacks that killed 166 people in the Indian city of Mumbai nearly
two years ago.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 19, In eastern India a
powerful crash between two express trains at a station killed 63
people and injured scores more in West Bengal state.
(AP, 7/19/10)(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Jul 22, India unveiled the
prototype of a $35 basic touchscreen tablet aimed at students, which
it hopes to bring into production by 2011.
(AP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 24, India’s
Chhattisgarh state, seen as a bastion of an increasingly deadly
Maoist revolt, said it was seeking one billion dollars to counter
the left-wing insurgency with a surge in development.
(AFP, 7/24/10)
2010 Jul 25, In India Amit
shah, a minister of Gujarat state, was arrested in connection to the
2005 murder of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a suspected extortioner whose
murdered was staged on Nov 26, 2005. The killing was orchestrated by
senior police officers of the Indian Police Service, and was
allegedly ordered by Gujarat minister for home Amit Shah.
(Econ, 7/31/10,
p.30)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sohrabuddin_Sheikh_fake_encounter)
2010 Jul 26, In northeast India
gunmen ambushed a jeep In Assam state, killing four paramilitary
soldiers and wounding another three in an attack blamed on
separatist rebels.
(AP, 7/26/10)
2010 Jul 28, British PM David
Cameron kicked off a much-hyped visit to India, pitching for
investment and open trade to boost Britain's fragile post-recession
recovery.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 30, In India
separatist rebels triggered a land mine that killed at least five
paramilitary soldiers and wounded 41 others in the remote
northeastern state of Assam.
(AP, 7/30/10)
2010 Jul 30, In Indian Kashmir
paramilitary soldiers fired on thousands of demonstrators, killing
three men and wounding at least 80 others as protests against Indian
rule spread across the disputed region.
(AP, 7/30/10)
2010 Jul 31, UNESCO added seven
cultural sites to its World Heritage List including Bikini Atoll in
the Marshall Islands, home to nuclear bomb testing in the 1940s and
1950s. Also added to the list were the Turaif District in Saudi
Arabia; Australia's penal colony sites; the Jantar Mantar
astronomical observation site in India; a shrine in Ardabil in Iran;
the Tabriz historic bazaar complex, also in Iran; and the historic
villages of Hahoe and Yangdong in South Korea.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Aug 1, In northern India a
truck carrying Hindu pilgrims plunged into a gorge in a mountainous
region in Uttarakhand state, killing at least 20 people as rescuers
searched for another seven who were missing.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Aug 4, Indian police
battled Maoist rebels who ambushed their patrol in dense jungle, as
violence worsens in an insurgency that has seen bigger and bolder
attacks on government forces this year. 5 people were killed when
the rebels blasted a vehicle carrying security guards of a bank in
the eastern state of Jharkhand.
(Reuters, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 5, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir the death toll from civil unrest rose to
48 after two more people were killed when paramilitary forces opened
fire on demonstrators angry about decades of Indian rule over the
Himalayan region.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 6, In Indian Kashmir
at least 113 people were killed and hundreds injured after rare
rainfall triggered flash floods in an area popular with foreign fans
of high-altitude adventure sports.
(AFP, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 7, The
Panamanian-registered MSC Chitra smashed into the St.
Kitts-registered MV-Khalijia-II near Mumbai's Jawahar Lal Nehru
port. The environment minister of Maharashtra state told reporters
the next day that about 2 tons of oil was pouring into the water
every hour. Indian authorities plugged the fuel leak on Aug 9 after
some 500 tons of oil had spewed into the Arabian Sea.
(AP, 8/9/10)(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 12, India ordered
telephone operators to allow security agencies access to BlackBerry
services carried on their networks by the end of the month.
(AFP, 8/12/10)
2010 Aug 12, In India Cindy
Iannereli, an American from Cecil, Pa., was murdered near the Osian
resort in Rajasthan state. Her son teenager Joncarlo Patton (15) was
arrested as the prime suspect in the murder. On May 3, 2011, the boy
was sentenced to serve three years in an Indian juvenile detention
facility. On May 11, 2012, an Indian court overturned the conviction
and Patton was released.
(http://tinyurl.com/3wtvvn5)(AP, 5/3/11)(AFP,
5/11/12)
2010 Aug 15, India's PM
Manmohan Singh appealed to the people of Indian-controlled Kashmir
to end violent protests and said his government is ready to hold
talks to resolve their long-standing problems. An off-duty officer
flung a shoe at Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Indian-controlled
Kashmir's top elected official, during India's independence day
ceremony.
(AP, 8/15/10)(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 18, Indian tycoon Anil
Ambani's Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd and CBS Studios
International announced plans to launch three new television
channels in India and South Asia.
(AFP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 18, In northern India
a mudslide triggered by heavy rains demolished a school building,
killing at least 18 children.
(AP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 20, India's Cabinet
cleared a nuclear liability bill, a crucial step on the path to
bringing foreign companies into its potentially vast nuclear energy
market. The bill caps the liability of foreign firms at $320 million
in the case of an industrial accident.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Aug 26, Canada-based
Research in Motion said it was willing to work with India to support
the country's needs to lawfully access encrypted services on the
company's Blackberry smartphone.
(Reuters, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 28, Indian officials
said at least 215 people, mostly children, have died in an outbreak
of Japanese encephalitis in an impoverished region of northern
Indian and that the death toll is likely to soar.
(AFP, 8/28/10)
2010 Aug 30, In Kashmir police
opened fire with live rounds at rock-throwing Kashmiris, sparking
violent street protests by hundreds in India's portion of the
troubled Himalayan region. At least five people were wounded, one
critically.
(AP, 8/30/10)
2010 Sep 1, India's government
began allocating third-generation (3G) bandwidth for cellphone
services to mobile operators after a multi-billion-dollar auction of
licenses.
(AFP, 9/1/10)
2010 Sep 1, In western India
wave after wave of tar balls floated ashore on the renowned Goa
beaches after a ship dumped tons of waste oil, about three days
after officials believe a ship dumped burnt oil at sea.
(AP, 9/1/10)
2010 Sep 3, In eastern India
police found the body of a policeman in a remote forested district
150 km (100 miles) from the Bihar state capital Patna. A handwritten
note found near the body said: "We will kill the three other
policemen and send their bodies soon." The rebels had seized 4 men
during a raid on security forces last week that left 10 policemen
dead.
(AFP, 9/4/10)
2010 Sep 6, In Kashmir Indian
government forces fired on protesters hurling stones at them,
killing three people and wounding at least 17 other demonstrators.
(AP, 9/6/10)
2010 Sep 8, British mobile
phone giant Vodafone lost a legal appeal against an Indian tax bill
estimated at $2.0 billion relating to the group's 2007 purchase of
local group Hutchison Essar.
(AFP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 13, India’s PM
Manmohan Singh again voiced his willingness to talk to Kashmiris and
to respond to their demands, but the government has not yet
responded to a proposal by the separatists for peace talks. Indian
forces killed 18 protesters and wounded scores of others in
confrontations across Kashmir fueled in part by a report that a
Quran was desecrated in the United States. A police officer was also
killed.
(AP, 9/13/10)(AP, 9/14/10)
2010 Sep 13, In India Maoist
guerrillas killed two policemen and five civilians as the rebels
began a two-day shutdown across the east of the country.
(AFP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 14, Indian police
opened fire on stone-throwing protesters in Kashmir as small groups
took to the streets in defiance of curfew orders.
(AP, 9/14/10)
2010 Sep 14, It was reported
that only about 3,500 tigers worldwide were left in the wild, with
less than a third of them breeding females. Most of the tigers were
in India.
(SFC, 9/15/10, p.A2)
2010 Sep 15, Indian police
opened fire on Muslim demonstrators in a town near Kashmir, killing
four people and wounding 30 as leaders of India's main political
parties debated how to end months of separatist protests in the
region.
(AP, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 16, In the Indian
portion of Kashmir protesters defied a round-the-clock curfew and
attacked government forces with rocks, wounding six of them.
(AP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 17, India deployed
soldiers on the streets of protest-hit Kashmir to restore order, as
three more people were shot dead by security forces during violent
demonstrations.
(AFP, 9/17/10)
2010 Sep 18, Kashmir police
fired on fresh anti-India demonstrations, killing 3 protesters and
bringing the number of civilian deaths in an unprecedented wave of
unrest to 102.
(AFP, 9/18/10)
2010 Sep 19, In India gunmen on
motorbikes shot at a tourist bus near the main mosque in New Delhi,
wounding two Taiwanese visitors, weeks before the city hosts the
Commonwealth Games.
(Reuters, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 19, In northern India
heavy monsoon rains and landslides swept the hilly areas. 24 people
died as falling boulders crushed their homes in three villages in
Almorah district in Uttrakhand state. Another 23 people were either
swept away by floodwaters or died when homes collapsed in landslides
in Pitthoragarh, Champawat and Uttarkashi regions over the weekend.
(AP, 9/20/10)
2010 Sep 19, In Indian Kashmir
3 people wounded during recent protests against Indian rule died
ahead of a visit by a delegation of lawmakers seeking ways to defuse
months of civil unrest. A 22-year-old woman was killed in Sopore
town by security forces.
(AP, 9/19/10)(AP, 9/20/10)
2010 Sep 20, A delegation of
Indian lawmakers launched a mission in Kashmir to find ways of
defusing months of deadly unrest, but their trip was immediately
derided by the Himalayan region's separatists as a publicity stunt.
Fresh protests erupted in Sopore town, a day after a 22-year-old
woman was killed by security forces.
(AP, 9/20/10)
2010 Sep 20, In central India a
freight train on the wrong track slammed into a stationary passenger
locomotive amid heavy rain at the Bhaderwah rail station, killing at
least 21 people and injuring 53.
(AP, 9/20/10)
2010 Sep 21, In India the Delhi
Commonwealth Games were plunged into crisis 12 days from the start
after the athletes' village was described as "uninhabitable" and a
footbridge collapsed at the main stadium. An avalanche hit army
mountaineers in northern India, killing two and injuring about 20.
(AFP, 9/21/10)(AP, 9/21/10)
2010 Sep 21, Eighteen people
have died and 48 are missing after Fanapi churned through southern
China, while 65 people were killed in monsoon rain in India and
100,000 displaced after a lake burst in southern Pakistan. Two
people went missing and thousands of homes flooded when a record
rainstorm hit parts of South Korea during a national holiday.
(AFP, 9/22/10)
2010 Sep 23, Indian officials
said raging floodwaters triggered by heavy rain in the north have
killed at least 17 people, washed away thousands of homes and forced
some 2 million people to evacuate in a 24 hour period.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, In eastern India a
speeding freight train struck a herd of elephants overnight in a
densely forested region, killing seven. India's wild elephant
population was recently estimated at around 26,000.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 25, The Indian
government said it will ask authorities to release hundreds of
students and youths detained during months of civil unrest that has
left at least 107 people dead in Kashmir and review the massive
deployment of security forces there.
(AP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 26, Kashmiri
separatist leaders rejected India's offer to release hundreds of
young detainees and review the massive deployment of security forces
in the Himalayan territory to defuse deadly civil unrest.
(AP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 29, India began the
massive task of issuing unique identification numbers to its 1.2
billion people, many of whom don't have documents establishing their
identity.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Sep 29, India imposed a
nationwide ban on bulk cell phone text messaging amid concerns that
a potentially explosive court judgment on who should control a
disputed holy site could spark unrest.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Sep 30, An Indian court
ruled that a disputed holy site that sparked bloody riots in the
past should now be divided between the Hindu and Muslim communities.
The compromise ruling gave Hindus control over the area where the
now-demolished Babri Mosque stood, and where a makeshift tent-shrine
to the Hindu god Rama now rests. Some 2,000 people were killed in
1992 when Hindu hard-liners razed the Babri Mosque built on the site
in 1528 by the Mughal emperor Babur.
(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Sep, In India Kalamandalam
Hemaletha danced for 123 hours in Thrissur, Kerala state. She had
practiced an Indian classical dance for 10 hours a day and ran for
28 miles (45 km) to build her stamina. Guinness World Records
confirmed the record on Jan 6, 2011.
(AP, 1/6/11)
2010 Oct 1, Indian cinema's
most expensive movie "Endhiran" (Robot), starring former bus
conductor Rajinikanth, opened. The weekend opening of the $35
million film broke box office records.
(AFP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 3, In India the
troubled Commonwealth Games got underway with a glittering opening
ceremony in a fortress-like New Delhi after a shambolic run-up that
threatened to derail the event.
(AFP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 6, In Indian Kashmir
50 students arrested during months of deadly protests were released
from custody in a latest move to defuse tension in the Himalayan
region.
(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 7, Interpol notified
its members that India has issued arrest warrants for five Pakistani
citizens, including two army officers, for alleged involvement in
the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 7, The assembly in
Indian-controlled Kashmir erupted in violence when opposition
lawmakers scuffled with security guards to protest a suggestion that
only a deal between India and Pakistan could bring peace to the
region.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 10, In India a boat
carrying dozens of farm workers capsized on the flooded Ganges River
killing at least 22 people.
(SFC, 10/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 11, Krishna Poonia won
India's first Commonwealth Games athletics gold medal in 52 years
when she led a stunning host nation clean sweep in the women's
discus.
(AP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 12, In India a second
doping case in two days, and again involving a Nigerian runner, was
reported. Both cases involved Methylhexaneamine. It was also found
in about a dozen Indian athletes in recent months.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, At the United
Nations Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa were
elected to join the big guns on the UN Security Council for two
years, starting in January.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20101012/ts_csm/331624)(Reuters,
10/13/10)
2010 Oct 14, In India the
Commonwealth Games ended after 11 days of fiery competition that
went some way to mending the damage done to Indian pride and
prestige tarnished by the chaotic buildup to the event.
(AFP, 10/14/10)
2010 Oct 17, In northern India
an argument over sacrificing goats during a Hindu festival triggered
a stampede that killed 10 people in a packed temple.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 18, Human rights
activists said Indonesian security forces have been captured on
video torturing an alleged separatist in Papua province, burning his
genitals as he screams out in agony and then threatening to shoot
him in the mouth.
(AP, 10/18/10)
2010 Oct 18, India's largest
coal producing company Coal India (CIL) opened its initial public
offering (IPO) for subscription. The government sold 10% of its
shares and raised about $3.5 billion. The offer was over-subscribed
on its 2nd day.
(www.deccanchronicle.com/business/coal-india-ipo-subscribed-34-481)(Econ,
10/23/10, p.76)
2010 Oct 18, In India Yertward
Mazmanian (aka Eight Finger Eddie, 1924-2010), an American-born
hippie died of a heart attack in Anjuna's hospital. In 1965 he and
some other hippies had settled in Anjuna, Goa state, and helped put
the area on the travel map for global backpackers and stoners.
(AP, 10/28/10)
2010 Oct 19, India announced
the creation of a tribunal to punish those who sully the forests or
rivers or otherwise break its environmental laws, in the hopes of
clearing a backlog of some 5,000 such cases languishing in a
sluggish court system.
(AP, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 19, In India the
Microfinance Institution Network petitioned the Andhra Pradesh state
high court to block new provisions designed to protect impoverished
people. High interest and coercive loan collection by some
microfinance groups had led to some 30 suicides.
(SFC, 10/20/10, p.D7)
2010 Oct 22, In eastern India
suspected Maoist rebels triggered a land mine as a police vehicle
drove past, killing six officers in the Sheohar district of Bihar
state.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 23, New Delhi
Commonwealth Games organizers informed Sri Lanka that boxer Manju
Wanniarachchi (30), Sri Lanka's only gold medalist at this month's
games, had tested positive for the performance-enhancing steroid
nandrolone.
(AFP, 10/24/10)
2010 Oct 24, Pakistani soldiers
allegedly fired machine guns and rockets on an Indian military post
killing an Indian soldier in the Poonch sector of Kashmir.
(AP, 10/25/10)
2010 Oct 25, The leaders of
India and Japan signed a broad agreement in Japan aimed at
increasing trade and agreed to speed up talks toward a civilian
nuclear energy deal despite sensitivity in Japan over India's past
atomic test blasts. PM Naoto Kan and PM Manmohan Singh also agreed
to speed up talks toward a civilian nuclear cooperation deal that
would allow Japanese companies to export nuclear power generation
technology and equipment to India.
(AP, 10/25/10)
2010 Oct 29, A leading ratings
body warned that India may have to step in to avert collapse of the
6.7-billion-dollar microfinance industry, as lenders once hailed as
saviors of the poor faced a major crisis.
(AFP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 30, In eastern India
rescuers battled to find survivors after a ferry overcrowded with
Muslim pilgrims capsized and sank in the Hooghly River near the Bay
of Bengal. The 60 person capacity boat was carrying around 224
people. After 3 days 69 bodies were recovered.
(AFP, 10/30/10)(AFP, 11/1/10)(SFC, 11/3/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct, The Times of India
newspaper reported that the Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai,
intended to giving shelter to wounded Indian war veterans and the
widows of those slain in battle, appeared to have been a huge scam.
Nearly every one of the valuable units was sold for a song to a
clutch of top politicians, their kin and retired generals. The land
had been earmarked for a six-story building of apartments for
disabled veterans, war widows and heroes of the 1999 Kargil conflict
between India and Pakistan that raged for three months across the
disputed Kashmir region. But the original blueprints for a modest
building were cast aside and in its place arose a 31-story luxury
high-rise. The scandal rocked India's ruling Congress Party.
On Jan 16, 2011, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said the
building must be demolished within three months for violating
coastal zoning laws.
(AP, 11/1/10)(AP, 1/16/11)
2010 Oct, India began assigning
its 1.2 billion citizens a universal identity number (UID) based on
biometric markers. The program under Nandan Nilekani was assigned to
3 vendors: Accenture, L-1 Identity Solutions of America and Morpho
of France.
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.61)(Econ, 1/14/12, p.39)
2010 Nov 2, India's central
bank raised key interest rates for the sixth time this year to
contain persistently high inflation, another sign of the gulf
between fast growing emerging Asian economies and tepid growth in
the developed world.
(AP, 11/2/10)
2010 Nov 2, US motorcycle maker
Harley-Davidson said it will open an assembly plant in India next
year to meet demand for its luxury two-wheelers in the country's
booming economy.
(AFP, 11/2/10)
2010 Nov 3, Purushottama Lal
(81), Indian poet and publisher, died. He published some 3,500
titles of Indian writers in English.
(Econ, 11/13/10, p.105)
2010 Nov 4, In India Irom
Sharmila, an extremely frail 38-year-old woman dubbed "The Iron
Lady," marked 10 years without voluntarily taking food or water, a
hunger strike launched to protest an anti-terror law that grants
Indian soldiers sweeping powers to crack down on rebels. She had her
last voluntary meal on Nov. 4, 2000, in Imphal, capital of Manipur,
one of several northeastern states facing armed rebellions against
Indian rule. She was arrested three days later and has been
force-fed through her nose ever since.
(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 5, China and India
received long-sought recognition as global economic heavyweights as
the International Monetary Fund gave them and other emerging powers
a significantly larger role in stabilizing the world economy. IMF
chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn announced planned reforms to the fund's
voting power after a meeting of the organization's board in
Washington, DC.
(AP, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 6, President Barack
Obama announced a host of new trade deals with India supporting tens
of thousands of US jobs as he began a 10-day trip through Asia on a
determinedly domestic note.
(AP, 11/6/10)
2010 Nov 8, In India Bodo
militants in Assam state began killing innocent people to avenge the
killing of a suspected rebel. 22 people were killed by the end of
the week.
(SSFC, 11/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Nov 8, President Barack
Obama backed India for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council,
a dramatic diplomatic gesture to his hosts at the end of his first
visit to this booming nation. The White House said Indian and US
companies have discussed or signed over $14.9 billion in deals
around President Barack Obama's trip that will support 53,670 US
jobs.
(AP, 11/8/10)
2010 Nov 9, India’s ruling
Congress party sacked 2 officials, Suresh Kalmadi and Ashoka Chavan,
over graft relating to the Commonwealth Games.
(Econ, 11/27/10, p.50)
2010 Nov 12, Canada and India
launched talks on a free trade deal they said could boost gross
domestic product in each nation by C$6 billion ($5.9 billion) a year
and increase existing trade flows by 50 percent.
(Reuters, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 15, Indian police
arrested two top former officials of the Delhi Commonwealth Games on
charges of corruption. In New Delhi a five-story building pancaked,
killing 67 people and injuring scores.
(AP, 11/15/10)(AP, 11/16/10)(AP, 11/17/10)
2010 Nov 16, India's national
auditors slammed a former telecommunications minister over a
multi-billion-dollar scandal in which government contracts were
handed out at "unbelievably low prices." The row over the
second-generation (2G) spectrum for mobile phones being sold in 2008
at far below market rates forced Andimuthu Raja to quit on Nov 14.
(AFP, 11/16/10)
2010 Nov 18, India's Supreme
Court issued a sharp and rare rebuke of PM Manmohan Singh, demanding
he explain why the government took a year to investigate a
cell-phone licensing scandal that cost the country billions of
dollars.
(AP, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 21, A global tiger
summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, approved a wide-ranging
program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in
the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that
still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China,
India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam
and Russia. Experts wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if
countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect
their habitats and step up the fight against poaching.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 22, India gave the
green light for the construction of a second international airport
in the commercial capital Mumbai, a two billion dollar project that
was ten years in the making.
(AFP, 11/22/10)
2010 Nov 24, In India police
arrested eight people, including senior executives of leading state
banks, in Mumbai on accusations of taking bribes of more than 200
million dollars to smooth large corporate loans to builders. Those
arrested include the chief executive of LIC Housing Finance, India's
second largest housing loan firm, as well as executives of the Bank
of India, Central Bank of India and Punjab National Bank.
(AFP, 11/25/10)
2010 Nov 24, In India police in
the central state of Chhattisgarh arrested 11 people including a
"witchdoctor" and his wife after the body of a boy (2) was
discovered in their house. Further searches of the property in the
industrial town of Bhilai, about 45 km (30 miles) from state capital
Raipur, revealed the skeletal remains of a second victim, a girl
(6). The accused man had confessed to killing both children to
acquire "occult power and good fortune."
(AFP, 11/25/10)
2010 Nov 24, In India Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar's National Democratic Alliance won 206 seats
in the 243-seat Bihar assembly, a huge jump from the 143 seats it
controlled in the last assembly. Bihar's reputation as one of
India's most crime-ridden states forced officials to hold the
elections in six phases over a month to allow the limited police
force to protect the polls.
(AP, 11/24/10)
2010 Nov 24, In India a local
official said the northern Lank village council in Uttar Pradesh
state has banned unmarried women from using cell phones for fear
they will arrange forbidden marriages that are often punished by
death.
(AP, 11/24/10)
2010 Nov 25, India told
financial firms to review their exposure to a string of companies
whose executives were arrested on suspicion of taking millions of
dollars in bribes.
(AFP, 11/25/10)
2010 Nov 27, In eastern India
suspected Maoist rebels blew up an ambulance with a land mine in
Orissa state, killing at least three people inside.
(AP, 11/28/10)
2010 Nov 29, In Indian Kashmir
3 suspected militants and a policeman were killed in a gunbattle in
a busy market in Srinagar, as panicked locals ran for cover. Police
said one of the slain militants was identified as Abdul Rehman,
alias Naveed of Lashkar, a Pakistani national active in the area for
the last four years.
(AFP, 11/29/10)
2010 Dec 1, In India Azim
Premji (b.1945), chairman of Wipro Ltd., announced a nearly $2
billion donation to fund education programs for the poor.
(SFC, 12/3/10,
p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azim_Premji)
2010 Dec 2, Australian
contractor Leighton Holdings said it had won a 22-year coal mining
contract with India's state-owned NTPC power company worth 5.5
billion dollars (5.3 billion US).
(AFP, 12/2/10)
2010 Dec 6, India and France
signed a multibillion agreement to build two nuclear power plants in
India as French President Nicolas Sarkozy worked to drum up business
for his nation during his four-day visit.
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 7, In India a bomb
hidden in a metal canister exploded in Varanasi as thousands
gathered for a Hindu ceremony, killing a toddler and triggering a
stampede that left many others wounded.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 9, Human Rights Watch
said India's security forces routinely gun down cattle smugglers and
other civilians crossing the border with Bangladesh despite scant
evidence of any crime.
(AP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 10, Police in
Indian-controlled Kashmir arrested a college lecturer on charges he
gave his students an English exam filled with questions attacking
India's crackdown on demonstrations in the disputed region. The exam
written by Noor Mohammed Bhat and administered to students across
the region on Dec 8 included questions such as, "Are the stone
pelters real heroes? Discuss."
(AP, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 11, Turkmenistan
signed broad agreements with Afghanistan, India and Pakistan at a
summit in its capital Ashgabat on the 1,700-km (1,050-mile) TAPI
pipeline. Afghanistan the next day said it will deploy up to 7,000
troops to secure the major transnational gas pipeline, slated to run
through some of the most dangerous parts of the war-torn country.
(AFP, 12/12/10)
2010 Dec 13, India's parliament
ended its winter session without having passed a single piece of
legislation, after the opposition forced adjournments for 22
business days in a row.
(AFP, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 14, In India a bus
carrying wedding guests plunged into a reservoir killing 29 people
in Karnataka state.
(SFC, 12/15/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 15, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao's travelled to India to build trust between two Asian
powers with increasingly close economic ties despite their ongoing
competition for regional influence.
(AP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 16, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao pressed on with a charm offensive in India, offering
support for New Delhi's bid for a greater role in the United Nations
and agreeing on an ambitious target of $100 billion annually in
trade between the rising Asian powers by 2015.
(Reuters, 12/16/10)(SFC, 12/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 16, India's Hero Group
said it was ending a 26-year-old joint venture with Honda Motor and
buying out the Japanese firm's stake in the biggest Indian
motorcycle manufacturer by sales.
(AFP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 21, In India Russia’s
Pres. Medvedev clinched agreements with its Cold War-era ally to
deepen nuclear energy cooperation and develop a supersonic fighter
to rival a US jet. Russia and India pledged to share intelligence
and work together to fight international terror.
(Reuters, 12/21/10)(AP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 22, The Indian
government, facing mounting public anger over soaring onion costs,
scrapped tax on imports of the vegetable to try to rein in prices of
the staple food.
(AFP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 23, Indian official
data showed that food price inflation has returned to double-digits,
fuelled by surging onion prices, adding to pressure on the
scandal-hit Congress government.
(AFP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 24, In India Dr.
Binayak Sen (60), a physician, outspoken government critic and human
rights activist, was convicted along with 2 others of aiding
communist rebels in eastern India. All three were sentenced to life
in prison.
(AP, 12/25/10)
2010 Dec 25, In India a rocket
carrying a GSAT-5P communications satellite exploded just after
takeoff from the Sriharikota space center in Andhra Pradesh state.
(SSFC, 12/26/10, p.A5)
2010 Dec 25, In northern India
a bus collided head-on with a van that was carrying mourners
returning from a funeral, killing 35 people.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 29, A payments dispute
between India and Iran escalated after Tehran refused to sell oil to
India under New Delhi's prohibitive new rules. Last week, the
Reserve Bank of India said deals with Iran must be settled outside
the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) system, used by central banks of
member nations to settle bilateral trades.
(Reuters, 12/30/10)
2010 Jonathan Holslag authored
“China And India: Prospects for Peace.”
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.89)
2010 Hamish McDonald authored
“Mahabharata in Polyester: The Making of the World’s Richest
Brothers and Their Feud.” It was about Indian brothers Mukesh and
Anil Ambani.
(Econ, 11/6/10, p.105)
2010 In India over 200 poor,
debt-ridden residents of Andhra Pradesh killed themselves late this
year following over indebtedness to microfinance companies.
(SFC, 2/25/12, p.A4)
2010 In India some 410 million
people lived below the UN’s estimated poverty line of $1.25 per day.
(Econ, 9/25/10, p.36)
2011 Jan 1, In India separatist
leader Arabinda Rajkhowa (54) was released on bail, and said he was
committed to peace talks with the Indian government to end his
group's 30-year insurgency in the northeastern state of Assam.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 3, In India a
government environmental panel approved the initial stage of a
project by POSCO of South Korea, to produce 4 million tons of steel
on a 4,000-acre site in Orissa state. Activists opposed the project
citing ecological damage.
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.67)
2011 Jan 4, In India school
principal Rupan Pathak fatally stabbed Raj Kishore Kesri (51), a
Hindu nationalist lawmaker, while he was meeting with some of his
supporters at his residence in eastern Bihar state. Pathak accused
Kesri of sexually harassing her over a three-year period. Kesri's
guards overpowered Pathak, who is in her early 40s, and beat her up.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 5, Indian officials
said near-freezing temperatures and icy Himalayan winds have killed
dozens of people in northern India over the past two weeks and
forced schools to close in the capital. A sightseeing bus overturned
and plunged into a gorge, killing 22 Indian tourists and injuring 12
others who were visiting Mussoorie at the foot of the Himalayas. The
driver fled the scene but was arrested the next day.
(AP, 1/5/11)(AP, 1/6/11)
2011 Jan 7, India’s Border
Security Force (BSF) shot dead a 15-year-old girl, Felani, at an
illegal crossing into Bangladesh from West Bengal. She was on her
way to get married.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.54)
2011 Jan 8, India said at least
22 people, many of them homeless, have died over the past three days
in Uttar Pradesh state, pushing the death toll from two weeks of
cold weather to 63.
(AP, 1/8/11)
2011 Jan 8, In India a 2-day
cricket player auction for the Indian Premier League was watched by
some 19 million people. 127 cricketers were sold for $62 million.
(Econ, 1/15/11, p.70)
2011 Jan 9, In eastern India at
least 12 Maoist rebels were killed in two separate clashes with
police. 9 were killed in Orissa state and 3 rebels were killed in a
clash with police in Bokaro district of neighboring Jharkhand state.
According to the Home Ministry the rebels were present in 20 of
India's 28 states and have an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 fighters.
(AP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 13, In India Tata
Coffee Ltd, part of the Tata group conglomerate, and Starbucks said
they have signed a pact to source coffee in India and explore
opening local retail stores.
(Reuters, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, Canada’s
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion said it has given India the
means to access its Messenger service and reiterated that no changes
could be made to allow monitoring of secure corporate emails.
(Reuters, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 14, In India a senior
government official said the government will reduce its enormous
military presence in the Kashmir region by 25% if anti-Indian
violence there ends.
(AP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 14, In southern India
more 102 pilgrims were killed and 44 injured in a stampede following
a religious festival in Kerala state.
(AP, 1/14/11)(AP, 1/15/11)
2011 Jan 18, In western India a
major fire on the outskirts of Mumbai burned nearly 10,500 gallons
(40,000 liters) of lubricant oil at a depot of state-owned Indian
Oil Corporation.
(AP, 1/18/11)
2011 Jan 19, India’s Supreme
Court asked the government to release more details on how rich
Indians stash money abroad to evade taxes.
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.51)
2011 Jan 24, India's sports
ministry removed the top two organizers of last year's tainted
Commonwealth Games in New Delhi to enable an "unhindered" police
probe into alleged corruption.
(AFP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 24, Bhimsen Joshi
(88), singer of India, died.
(http://wn.com/Pandit_Bhimsen_Joshi__AIR_Films_Division_Documentary_Part_1)(Econ,
1/29/11, p.100)
2011 Jan 26, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir thousands of police prevented a Hindu
nationalist party and a separatist group from raising flags for
their opposing causes in a central square to mark India's Republic
Day.
(AP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 27, Indian police
raided the Gyuto monastery, home of Ugyen Thinley Dorje, the 17th
Karmapa Llama, and seized about $777,000 in cash. The top Buddhist
monk was seen as the possible next spiritual leader for Tibet. The
next day India's NDTV news chain reported Indian security officials
planned to question the Karmapa over alleged Chinese links, saying
the monk was suspected to be planning to set up a string of
pro-Chinese monasteries. On Feb 11 authorities cleared the Karmapa
saying the money found during a raid had been donated by his
followers.
(AFP, 1/28/11)(SSFC, 1/30/11, p.A4)(AP, 2/11/11)
2011 Jan 27, In northwest India
an American man, Jeff Knaebel (71), died after setting himself on
fire in an abandoned Buddhist center in Virat Nagar, Rajasthan
state, leaving a cryptic suicide note that blamed his death on
"cruel incidents" in his homeland and India.
(AP, 1/28/11)
2011 Jan 29, Tibet's
parliament-in-exile rallied behind a Buddhist monk seen as the
possible next spiritual leader for Tibet after Indian police seized
hundreds of thousands of dollars from his monastery.
(AFP, 1/29/11)
2011 Jan 30, In India at least
5,000 people marched through central New Delhi to show their anger
over recent scandals that hit PM Manmohan Singh's government. This
was the anniversary of the death of independence leader Mohandas K.
Gandhi, who was known for his scrupulous honesty.
(AP, 1/30/11)
2011 Jan 31, India rejected
Canada-based Research In Motion's (RIM) offer to allow it only
partial access to its BlackBerry data services, while neighboring
Pakistan reversed its earlier decision to restrict the popular
smartphone's services.
(Reuters, 1/31/11)
2011 Jan 31, India gave
approval to South Korea's POSCO to build a giant $12 billion steel
plant, in the country's biggest foreign investment deal since market
reforms launched in 1991.
(AFP, 1/31/11)
2011 Feb 2, Indian police
arrested former telecom minister A. Raja and other senior officials
as part of a probe into one of the country's biggest corruption
cases.
(AFP, 2/2/11)
2011 Feb 2, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai arrived in New Delhi to discuss efforts to restore
security in Afghanistan and to attend a conference on sustainable
development.
(AP, 2/2/11)
2011 Feb 3, An Indian court
granted police the right to detain arrested ex-telecom minister A.
Raja for five days as investigators probe one of the country's
biggest ever corruption cases.
(AFP, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 5, In India doctors in
Gujarat reported two more cases of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever,
a tick-borne virus endemic to parts of Africa. 4 people in Gujarat
had already died of the disease this year.
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.68)
2011 Feb 6, In India heavily
armed men kidnapped six volunteers from WWF-India who were counting
the tiger population at the Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam state. 3
female volunteers were released on Feb 8.
(AP, 2/7/11)(AP, 2/8/11)
2011 Feb 6, In Bhutan the top
diplomats of India and Pakistan held talks in Thimphu, the Bhutanese
capital, in the first high-level meeting between the two rival
countries since July.
(AFP, 2/6/11)
2011 Feb 6, The Indian navy and
coastguard captured 28 suspected Somali pirates after a firefight
with a "mothership" off southwestern India. At least some of 24
other men on board were believed to be hostages rescued as a result
of the firefight on the Thai fishing vessel that had been hijacked
up to six months ago off the coast of Somalia.
(AFP, 2/6/11)
2011 Feb 8, In India 2
supporters of a Gorkha separatist party were killed and 4 were
injured after attacking a group of officers during a protest march
in the northeast state of West Bengal.
(AP, 2/8/11)
2011 Feb 9, In India millions
of census workers fanned out across the country as they began a
mammoth effort to document every person in the world's second most
populous country over the next three weeks.
(AP, 2/9/11)
2011 Feb 10, India's Supreme
Court told the government to set up a special court to speed up
hearings into an alleged telecoms fraud that cost the nation up to
$40 billion in lost revenues.
(AFP, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 10, A rebel group in
India's violence-plagued northeast began peace talks with the
government in an effort to end a decades-old insurgency.
(AP, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 10, India and Pakistan
announced they would resume wide-ranging peace talks that were
frozen after the 2008 terrorist attacks in the Indian city of
Mumbai, which were blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
(AP, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 16, In India Maoist
rebels in eastern Orissa state kidnapped a senior local official and
his aide and demanded an end to security force operations in the
area.
(AFP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 20, Indian lawmakers
said the government is to concede to opposition demands for a
cross-party probe into an alleged telecoms fraud that cost the
nation up to $40 billion in lost revenue.
(AFP, 2/20/11)
2011 Feb 21, British energy
giant BP and India's Reliance Industries announced a massive
investment deal which could be worth up to $20 billion with later
investment in key Indian oil and gas assets.
(AFP, 2/21/11)
2011 Feb 22, An Indian court
convicted 31 people on conspiracy and murder charges over a deadly
train fire in 2002 that triggered anti-Muslim rioting in which 2,000
people were killed.
(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 23, Indian police
arrested Commonwealth Games’ director general, V. K. Verma and its
secretary general, Lalit Bhanot, two top organizers of last year's
tainted games, as part of a widening probe into alleged graft.
(AFP, 2/23/11)
2011 Feb 24, The southern
Indian state of Kerala passed a bill allowing compensation claims
against soft drink giant Coca-Cola over alleged environmental damage
caused by a bottling plant. The Palakkad bottling factory in Kerala
was closed in 2005 after protests from activists and residents. A
high-level state panel concluded last year that the plant had caused
environmental and soil degradation as well as water contamination,
and recommended a fine of 47 million dollars.
(AFP, 2/25/11)
2011 Feb 28, Indian police said
they have arrested Sanjay Shah, the manager of a company that made
intravenous fluids suspected of killing 13 pregnant women at Umaid
Hospital in Jodhpur. The deaths occurred over a 13-day period from
February 13.
(AFP, 2/28/11)
2011 Mar 3, India's
graft-tainted government suffered a fresh setback when Central
Vigilance Commissioner P.J. Thomas, its candidate to be the chief
corruption fighter, was rejected by the Supreme Court because of a
pending criminal case. Thomas was appointed in September despite
having been charged in 2000 over his role in allegedly fraudulent
imports of palm oil from Malaysia while he worked as a civil servant
in the Kerala state government in the 1990s.
(AFP, 3/3/11)
2011 Mar 3, In India about a
dozen workers, after learning they were laid off, attacked a vehicle
carrying steel factory executive Radhey Shyam Roy as he was leaving
the factory in eastern Orissa state. They doused the Jeep with
gasoline and set it on fire. Two other people in the vehicle were
allowed to flee but Roy (59) was trapped inside and later died of
severe burns. Two people were detained and faced murder charges.
(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 4, In India police
said a self-styled godman has been arrested in South Delhi for
kidnapping five boys from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Prem Dass (50), a
Hindu priest, was arrested for kidnapping boys as young as 10 years
old to train them to be preachers. Dass was released on bail after
four nights in custody.
(AP, 3/17/11)(http://tinyurl.com/4kxkkmm)
2011 Mar 5, In India the DMK
party, a key member of the ruling coalition, said it was withdrawing
from the Congress-led government, dealing a huge blow to PM Manmohan
Singh as he battles a series of corruption scandals.
(Reuters, 3/5/11)
2011 Mar 6, India's defense
ministry said it successfully shot down a missile in a test of a
homegrown missile interception system.
(AP, 3/6/11)
2011 Mar 7, India's Supreme
Court ruled that in rare cases a terminally ill patient can be
removed from life support, a major shift in a country where such
acts have long been illegal. It rejected, however, a plea to end the
life of a woman who was brain damaged more than 30 years ago.
(AP, 3/7/11)
2011 Mar 9, US auto giant Ford
said it will start exporting its top-selling Figo compact car from
India to Mexico and over 50 other countries as it strives to make
the South Asian nation an export hub.
(AFP, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 9, Zimbabwe won its
biggest foreign investment in a decade with a $750-million steel
deal. The agreement gave India's Essar Group a 54% stake in the
mothballed state steel firm Zisco, in a deal worth 12.5 times
Zimbabwe’s total 2009 recorded foreign investment.
(AFP, 3/13/11)(http://tinyurl.com/4w97xuq)
2011 Mar 10, In India the Dalai
Lama (76) said that he will give up his political role in the
Tibetan government-in-exile and shift that power to an elected
representative.
(AP, 3/10/11)
2011 Mar 10, Sri Lanka’s PM
D.M. Jayaratne said remnants of the island’s defeated Tamil rebels
are undergoing military training in India in a bid to revive their
separatist campaign at home. The Indian government immediately
rejected the claims.
(AP, 3/10/11)
2011 Mar 13, The Indian navy
captured 61 pirates who jumped into the Arabian Sea to flee a
gunfight and fire on the hijacked ship from which they had staged
several attacks. Two Indian navy ships also rescued 13 crew members
from the Mozambique-flagged Vega 5, a fishing boat seized in
December.
(AP, 3/14/11)
2011 Mar 16, Indian businessman
Sadiq Batcha, who had been questioned over a multi-billion-dollar
telecoms fraud, was found dead in the southern city of Chennai after
apparently committing suicide. Batcha was a business associate and
aide to A. Raja, the former telecoms minister at the centre of a
scandal that has rocked the government.
(AFP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 18, In India 2 British
men were sentenced to six years in jail in India for sodomizing
young boys living at the Anchorage Shelter Home in Mumbai. Charges
against Duncan Grant and John Allan Waters were originally filed in
2001.
(AFP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 19, In northeastern
India a fire raged through a refugee camp in Nifingpara camp in
Tripura state, killing 21 people and injuring about 100. The camp
was home to some 5,000 families from the minority Bru ethnic group,
which in 1997 fled alleged persecution in neighboring Mizoram state.
(AP, 3/19/11)
2011 Mar 25, In India Pradeep
Kumar, a government aviation official, and 3 other people were
arrested in a widening investigation of corruption in awarding
flying licenses to airline pilots.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 27, India's navy and
coast guard captured 16 Somali pirates after a three-hour-long
battle in the Arabian Sea. The pirates were trying to seize a
merchant ship, MV Maersk Kensington, using a hijacked trawler. 16
crew members who had been taken hostage by the pirates were rescued
from the hijacked Iranian trawler off India's western Lakshadweep
islands.
(AP, 3/28/11)
2011 Mar 29, India and Pakistan
agreed to set up a "terror hotline" to warn each other of possible
militant attacks, a move to build trust as the two nuclear foes get
their peace process back on track. India and Pakistan said they have
agreed to host Indian investigators looking into the 2008 Mumbai
terror attacks blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
(AFP, 3/29/11)(AP, 3/29/11)
2011 Mar 31, In India
provisional census figures said the population jumped to 1.21
billion in 2011 from 1.02 billion in 2001, making it more populous
than Indonesia, the United States, Brazil, Pakistan and Bangladesh
combined. The nation's cultural preference for male children
continued to shape the population as child sex ratio in the country
declined to 914 females to 1,000 males, the lowest figures since
1947.
(AFP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 2, Indian police
charged a former telecom minister with abuse of power and conspiracy
in an alleged mobile spectrum fraud that cost the country billions
of dollars in lost revenue. A. Raja was also accused of cheating,
forgery and criminal misconduct on a charge sheet and annexed
documents that ran to 80,000 pages and were carried to New Delhi
court in seven steel trunks.
(AFP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 2, In India separatist
rebels in Assam state ambushed paramilitary soldiers on a patrol in
the insurgency-wracked northeast and fatally shot three of them.
(AP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 3, In India 15 female
fetuses were found in jars left on a rubbish dump near a private
nursing home in Kishanganj town, Bihar state. Recent census data
showed the ratio of girls to boys is at the nation's lowest level
since 1947.
(AFP, 4/4/11)
2011 Apr 7, In India Anna
Hazare, a 73-year-old Gandhi devotee who has promised to fast until
death unless the government toughens its anti-corruption laws, piled
pressure on the graft-tainted administration. Hazare began his
hunger strike in New Delhi on April 5. On April 9 the government
conceded to Hazare’s demands and his hunger strike ended.
(AFP, 4/7/11)(Econ, 4/16/11, p.45)
2011 Apr 11, A group of 39
Pakistani prisoners held in India returned home, the second
high-profile prisoner release in days that underscores an easing of
tensions between the two rivals.
(AFP, 4/11/11)
2011 Apr 14, Pakistan freed 89
Indian fishermen imprisoned for fishing and violating its
territorial waters as the nuclear-armed rivals resume a fledgling
peace process.
(AFP, 4/14/11)
2011 Apr 15, In northeastern
India gunmen ambushed and shot dead seven policemen in Manipur
state, but a local politician managed to escape unhurt.
(AFP, 4/15/11)
2011 Apr 15, Somali pirates
took a multi-million ransom and released the Asphalt Venture,
hijacked last Sep 28, and some crew members. 7 Indian crew members
were kept hostage in retaliation for the holding of over 100 Somali
pirates by the Indian Navy.
(AP, 4/16/11)(SFC, 4/16/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 16, In India Brigadier
Sawai Bhawani Singh (79), the last maharaja of Jaipur, died. Singh
served as the maharaja or hereditary ruler of Jaipur after his
father Sawai Man Singh's death in June 1970.
(AP, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 17, In India 180
people from 19 countries began the Rickshaw Run, a more than
3,000-mile (5,000-km) ride that was part of a five-year-old charity
event.
(AP, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 18, India's Supreme
Court banned travelling circuses from employing children and ordered
the government to conduct raids on all performing companies to
rescue minors.
(AFP, 4/18/11)
2011 Apr 19, India's Supreme
Court told state governments to "ruthlessly" stamp out so-called
honor killings and warned that officials who fail to deal with the
practice would be prosecuted.
(AFP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 19, In India a mob
opposing a government plan to build a nuclear plant in the western
state of Maharashtra ransacked a hospital and set buses on fire
during a protest strike.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 19, In India a
helicopter hit a wall and burst into flames as it was trying to land
in the remote northeast, killing at least 17 people.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 22, In India an army
helicopter went down in the state of Sikkim, killing four.
(AP, 5/1/11)
2011 Apr 24, In India Hindu
guru Sathya Sai Baba (b.1926), revered by millions worldwide, died
after nearly a month of hospital treatment near his southern Indian
ashram. Trust members found 98 kg (215.6 pounds) of gold, 307 kg of
silver and 115 million rupees ($2.55 million) in cash afterwards in
his private quarters. The treasure was recorded in the presence of
two retired judges. On June 28 trustees offered to pay tax on the
vast piles of cash and gold.
(AP, 4/24/11)(Econ, 5/14/11, p.110)(AFP, 6/28/11)
2011 Apr 25, Indian officials
arrested the chief organizer of last year's Commonwealth Games and
two other officials as part of a corruption investigation into the
scandal-plagued competition in New Delhi.
(AP, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 26, An Indian court
ordered the chief organizer of the scandal-tainted Delhi 2010
Commonwealth Games to be held in police custody over corruption
allegations in awarding contracts.
(AFP, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 29, In eastern India
villagers protesting a noisy stone crushing plant burned to death
its three owners and four employees in Orissa state's remote
Bandaguda village.
(AP, 4/30/11)
2011 Apr 30, India's premier
Manmohan Singh urged the country's top police agency to investigate
a series of corruption scandals embroiling his government "without
fear or favor."
(AFP, 4/30/11)
2011 Apr 30, In India a
single-engine helicopter, carrying Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister
Dorjee Khandu (56), two other passengers and two pilots, disappeared
in bad weather just 20 minutes after taking off from the Himalayan
Buddhist retreat of Tawang for the state capital, Itanagar. Wreckage
and bodies were found on May 4.
(AP, 5/4/11)(AP, 5/1/11)
2011 May 6, Nearly 800 Air
India pilots demanding more pay ended their 10-day-old strike, which
cost the state-run airline around 12 million rupees ($2.7 million) a
day.
(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 9, India's top court
suspended a ruling that divided between Hindus and Muslims the Babri
Mosque holy site in northern India that had been the cause of deadly
riots.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 10, India's top court
recommended the death penalty for perpetrators of "honor killings,"
calling the practice barbaric and feudal.
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 11, India said it had
lodged a complaint with the Australian government over swimwear
carrying the image of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi that has sparked
protests. Fashion house Lisa Blue promised to halt production
immediately and apologized for any offence the design may have
caused.
(AFP, 5/11/11)
2011 May 12, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh offered Afghanistan $500 million in fresh aid, during his
first visit to the war-torn country since 2005.
(AFP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 13, India’s ruling
Congress party and its allies weathered a string of corruption
scandals to win three major state elections. The state of West
Bengal said goodbye to three decades of uninterrupted rule by the
world's longest-serving democratically-elected communist government.
Communists also lost in Kerala state, where they ruled for the last
5 years. The Trinamool Congress Party and its allies looked set to
take close to 220 of the state assembly's 294 seats, with the
Marxists reduced to less than 70.
(AP, 5/13/11)(AFP, 5/13/11)(Econ, 5/21/11, p.41)
2011 May 15, In India police
said 2 Muslim mothers in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh state, have been
arrested on accusations they killed their daughters for dishonoring
the family by eloping with Hindu men. Newlyweds Zahida (19) and
Husna (26) were strangled last week when they returned home after
getting married to men of their choice.
(AP, 5/15/11)
2011 May 17, In eastern India
seven paramilitary soldiers were killed in a land mine explosion
they believe was triggered by Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 5/18/11)
2011 May 17, India broke with
past practice and called on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of
human rights abuses during the island's civil war, upping pressure
on President Mahinda Rajapakse.
(AFP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 17, Spanish wind
turbine giant Gamesa said it had won a $2 billion (1.4-billion-euro)
deal to supply turbines in India, touting it as one of the largest
contracts of its kind in the world.
(AFP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 19, India's most
powerful politician, Sonia Gandhi, promised to push forward with
legislation to reform land acquisition rules after deadly clashes
near the national capital.
(AFP, 5/19/11)
2011 May 20, Indian police
brought formal charges against the Delhi Commonwealth Games chief
for alleged fraud involving a $31 million deal awarded to Swiss
Timing for timekeeping equipment. The Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) filed a 50-page charge sheet in a New Delhi
court against Suresh Kalmadi and eight others for their role in the
contract.
(AFP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 23, India's PM
Manmohan Singh began a six-day trip to Ethiopia and Tanzania, aiming
to strike deeper economic ties with a continent rich in minerals and
commodities, but where Asia's third-largest economy lags far behind
rival China.
(Reuters, 5/23/11)
2011 May 24, In India
representatives of eight countries with large wild elephant
populations pledged to eradicate poaching of the animals and
smuggling of ivory to ensure their survival for future generations.
The "Elephant 8 Ministerial Meet" included officials from Thailand,
Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Botswana, Congo, Kenya and Tanzania.
(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May 24, In Ethiopia at an
address to an India-Africa summit in Addis Ababa, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh trumpeted his country's historical ties with Africa and
offered $5 billion dollars for the next three years under lines of
credit to help Africa achieve its development goals.
(Reuters, 5/24/11)
2011 May 25, In India the Dalai
Lama turned down pleas from the Tibetan community to accept a
ceremonial role in the Tibetan government-in-exile after giving up
his position as political leader.
(AP, 5/25/11)
2011 May 27, India and the
United States said a new homeland security dialogue will be crucial
to cooperation in counterterrorism, intelligence sharing and
cybersecurity.
(AP, 5/27/11)
2011 May 27, Air India was
forced to cancel some flights after oil companies refused to give
the cash-strapped state-run carrier fuel because of a failure to pay
bills.
(AFP, 5/27/11)
2011 May 28, In India the Dalai
Lama signed amendments to the constitution of the Tibetan
government-in-exile giving up his position as political leader.
(AP, 5/29/11)
2011 May 30, India and Pakistan
worked to reduce tensions in the world's highest battlefield, as
their defense secretaries discussed ways to demilitarize the Siachen
Glacier.
(AP, 5/30/11)
2011 May 30, In India a
would-be groom and several relatives going to a wedding were among
the 28 people killed when a wooden bridge collapsed near Hayo, Assam
state, and sent a bus crashing into a lake in the remote northeast.
(AP, 5/31/11)
2011 May 31, In India medical
services were paralyzed across the eastern state of Bihar by a
one-day strike by thousands of doctors demanding better security
after one of their colleagues was killed by a group of prisoners.
(AP, 5/31/11)
2011 Jun 1, India pledged to
help strengthen the capabilities of Afghanistan's security forces
after a meeting between the defense ministers of both countries in
New Delhi.
(AFP, 6/1/11)
2011 Jun 4, In India yoga guru
Baba Ramdev started an indefinite hunger strike in New Delhi that
critics say undermines the country's democratic institutions, but
that he says will last until the government agrees "100 percent" to
his long list of demands to root out endemic corruption. Tens of
thousands of his followers also went on hunger strikes across India
and in several cities in the United States, Europe and Africa.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 5, Indian police fired
tear gas to break up a hunger strike by charismatic yoga guru Baba
Ramdev demanding an end to endemic corruption, forcibly removing him
and thousands of his followers.
(AP, 6/5/11)
2011 Jun 9, Indian news
reported that 2 wild elephants killed a man and injured other people
in Mysore.
(SFC, 6/9/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 11, In India Jyotirmoy
Dey, an investigations editor at the Mid-day daily tabloid, was
gunned down in a daylight drive-by shooting in a northern suburb of
Mumbai. On Nov 25 Jigna Vora, a journalist with the Asian Age,
was remanded in police custody until December 1 on suspicion of
conspiracy and aiding and abetting the killers of Dey. Police
believe he was killed on the orders of underworld crime boss Chhota
Rajan. On Dec 3 an indictment was filed in a Maharashtra state court
naming Rajan along with 11 other people, including the alleged
gunmen and those suspected of providing material used in the
killing.
(AP, 11/25/11)(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Jun 14, Indian officials
signed an agreement with the World Bank to use a $1 billion loan to
finance a new effort to cleanup of the Ganges.
(SFC, 6/15/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 16, Indian budget
airline GoAir said it had placed a $7.2-billion order for 72 new
Airbus aircraft as local carriers continue an aircraft shopping
spree to meet booming demand on the subcontinent.
(AFP, 6/16/11)
2011 Jun 19, An Indian general
led a delegation to Beijing as the two countries moved to resume
exchanges between their militaries after a yearlong freeze.
(AP, 6/19/11)
2011 Jun 21, Indian police said
they had ordered Google to stop taking photos of the city of
Bangalore for its Street View product because of fears the images
could be used by militants.
(AFP, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 21, The Indian state
of Orissa said it has temporarily halted land acquisition for a
planned South Korean steel plant after mass protests by locals and
rights groups.
(AFP, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 22, In northeastern
India a protest against squatter evictions turned deadly as riot
police fired tear gas and live rounds into the air to disperse
thousands of stone-throwing protesters in Gauhati, Assam state.
(AP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 22, In France European
plane maker Airbus won a slew of orders for its A320 medium-haul
workhorse, including a record deal for 180 from Indian budget
carrier IndiGo at a rainy Paris Air Show.
(AFP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 23, India and Pakistan
held talks on peace and security issues in Islamabad, part of
efforts to stabilize South Asia.
(AFP, 6/23/11)
2011 Jun 24, India and Pakistan
wrapped up a fresh round of peace talks in Islamabad without any
breakthrough other than an agreement to meet again in New Delhi
ahead of ministerial talks next month. They did agree to work on new
nuclear confidence-building measures and expanded trade and travel
across the ceasefire line dividing disputed Kashmir.
(AFP, 6/24/11)(Reuters, 6/24/11)
2011 Jun 24, India’s government
announced a hike in the price of some petroleum products, increasing
inflationary pressures in the fast-growing economy.
(AFP, 6/25/11)
2011 Jun 30, India’s media
reported that at least 17 infants have died in the last 48 hours at
the government-run B.C. Roy Hospital for Children in Kolkata, West
Bengal. In 2006, 22 infants died in three days at the same hospital
because of prematurity or acute forms of either meningitis,
encephalitis or septicemia.
(AP, 6/30/11)
2011 Jun, In India a government
doctor, accused of conspiring to kill two other doctors, was found
shot dead in jail in Uttar Pradesh state. He was said to have been
preparing to name people involved in a widening scandal of
corruption. All three dead doctors had been in charge of spending
Lucknow’s portion of nearly $2 billion in state health funds.
(SSFC, 9/18/11, p.A8)
2011 Jul 1, In India scientists
warned that water off the famed beaches of the Indian holiday state
of Goa was unfit for bathing and fishing due to high levels of
bacteria from untreated sewage.
(AFP, 7/1/11)
2011 Jul 2, British mobile
phone giant Vodafone said it is taking full control of its Indian
joint venture by buying out its local partner Essar Group.
(AFP, 7/2/11)
2011 Jul 2, In India reports
first came out of a treasure trove found in the underground vaults
of a temple in the 16th century Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in
southern Kerala state. A temple official said most of the articles
were offerings made by devotees and wealth the erstwhile rulers of
the Travancore princely state had stored there. Unofficial estimates
pegged the bounty at $22 billion.
(Reuters, 7/3/11)(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 4, In India a group of
ruling party parliamentarians and dozens of state lawmakers resigned
en masse to protest the government's sluggishness in addressing
their demand for the new state of Telengana to be carved out of
Andhra Pradesh.
(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 4, India's Supreme
Court ordered a special investigation into undeclared money stashed
in foreign bank accounts, while accusing the government of "serious
lapses" in handling the issue.
(AFP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 4, The Athletics
Federation of India said two more of its athletes have tested
positive for banned substances, taking the number to eight in the
space of five days.
(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 5, Police in India
arrested a man suspected of killing his 20-year-old daughter,
Mukesh, in an apparent "honor killing" after she walked out on an
arranged marriage with a man 25 years her senior. She had apparently
fled her husband's home in the north Indian state of Haryana and
refused to return to him.
(AFP, 7/5/11)
2011 Jul 6, Police in India
arrested 2 men in a Mumbai suburb with weapons. They allegedly
belonged to the Indian Mujahideen (IM), an Islamist group behind
eight attacks.
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.42)
2011 Jul 7, In northern India a
train hit a stopped bus at a railway crossing, killing at least 35
people returning from a wedding party in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 7/7/11)
2011 Jul 8, In India heavy
monsoon rains caused a stone wall to collapse, killing 10
construction workers, on the outskirts of Mumbai.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 9, An Indian wildlife
official said 3 wild elephants were electrocuted after they toppled
a high-tension electricity line near Dudhwa National Park, Uttar
Pradesh state.
(AFP, 7/9/11)
2011 Jul 10, In northern India
rescuers searched through the wreckage of a packed express train for
people trapped inside after it derailed in Uttar Pradesh state,
killing 68 people and injuring 239 others.
(AP, 7/10/11)(AP, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 12, One of India's
oldest rebel groups announced a unilateral ceasefire to push forward
formal peace talks aimed at ending three decades of insurgency in
the northeast state of Assam.
(AFP, 7/12/11)
2011 Jul 13, In India a triple
bombing killed at least 17 people in Mumbai, India's financial
capital. By July 28 the death toll climbed to 25.
(AP, 7/14/11)(AP, 7/16/11)(AFP, 7/19/11)(AFP,
7/23/11)(AFP, 7/29/11)
2011 Jul 14, Bangladesh and
India launched a census of "enclaves" -- areas where one country's
territory is surrounded by the other -- in an effort to end complex
border disputes.
(AFP, 7/14/11)
2011 Jul 17, In India officers
in the western state of Gujarat, the scene of serial blasts in 2008,
arrested Sahazad Rangrez and recovered eight live bombs from his
possession. Rangrez's wife Reshma reported him to the police after
suffering domestic violence.
(AFP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 18, India signed an
"historic" deal granting autonomy to an ethnic group in the
Himalayan tea-growing area of Darjeeling that has fought for decades
for a homeland.
(AFP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 18, In India
construction began at two new indigenously-designed 700-megawatt
nuclear plants in the western state of Rajasthan.
(AFP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 19, An Indian
government official said the new Tumalapalli mine in Andhra Pradesh
state could contain the largest reserves of uranium in the world.
(AFP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 19, Iran issued a new
warning that it will halt supplies of crude to India unless the
issue of billions of dollars in overdue payments is resolved. New
Delhi has been struggling for more than six months to pay Tehran due
to international banking sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic
over its nuclear program.
(AFP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 24, In India the Darul
Uloom seminary, one of the world's most revered schools of Islamic
learning, ousted Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi (60), its reformist
leader, just months into his term, after he praised a Hindu
nationalist politician loathed by many Indian Muslims.
(AP, 7/24/11)
2011 Jul 25, In India some
3,000 eunuchs met in Kolkata to draft a strategy to highlight the
poverty, discrimination and sexual abuse faced by them. The term
eunuch is used in India to describe transvestites, transsexuals and
others who identify themselves as neither male nor female but as a
members of a third gender.
(AP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 27, An Indian judge
investigating corrupt mining practices in a resource-rich southern
state said that illegal extraction had cost the public $3.6 billion.
He accused politicians in Karnataka, including the state's chief
minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, of causing the losses from 2006 to 2010
through the illicit mining of iron ore, much of which is thought to
have been shipped to China. A day later Yeddyurappa offered to quit
following the charges.
(AFP, 7/27/11)(AFP, 7/28/11)
2011 Jul 27, India and
Pakistan's foreign ministers insisted relations were back on track
after peace talks that highlighted a "new era" of cooperation over
the ruptures of the past. It was the first meeting of the
arch-rivals' foreign ministers for a year.
(AFP, 7/27/11)
2011 Jul 27, An Indian army
officer was shot dead in a battle with rebels along the de facto
Kashmir border. The latest fighting came after Indian foreign
minister S.M. Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani
Khar, outlined in New Delhi the countries' commitment to fight
militancy, boost trade and sustain the peace process.
(AFP, 7/28/11)
2011 Jul 29, India's top court
halted iron ore extraction in Karnataka state, home to some of the
country's biggest deposits, after revelations about a $3.6-billion
mining fraud.
(AFP, 7/29/11)
2011 Jul 31, In India B.S.
Yeddyurappa (68), head of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata
Party government in Karnataka state, resigned. He was accused of
being at the center of a $3.6 billion mining fraud.
(AFP, 7/31/11)
2011 Jul 31, In India hundreds
of protesters took to the streets of New Delhi for India's first
"Slut Walk," to protest at an alarming rise in sexual assault cases
and the growing sense of insecurity among women.
(AFP, 7/31/11)
2011 Aug 1, In India at least
five people died in a bomb blast in the Sangakpham Bazaar in Imphal,
Manipur state, which has been plagued for decades by separatist
militants.
(AFP, 8/1/11)(SFC, 8/2/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 2, In southern India
at least 10 people were beaten to death by a group of angry
villagers who thought they were thieves in the village of Barlahally
Cross, Karnataka state.
(AP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 4, In India a 740-foot
(225-meter) vessel, which had been transporting coal from Indonesia
to the western Indian state of Gujarat, sank off Mumbai. The navy
rescued 30 crew members. The ship was estimated to be carrying 325
tons of fuel oil and 56 tons of diesel. By Aug 7 oil had spread over
an area of 7 nautical miles and cleanup efforts were underway.
(AP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 5, India's top court
allowed limited resumption of iron ore mining in Karnataka state
that was suspended a week ago following revelations of a
$3.6-billion mining fraud.
(AFP, 8/5/11)
2011 Aug 7, Indian army and
police claimed they killed a Pakistani commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba
militants during a gunbattle in Poonch region of Kashmir. An
investigation found the dead man was a local Hindu resident and
mentally unsound. A soldier and police officer were arrested and
investigated for murder.
(AP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 8, In India Lobsang
Sangay, a Harvard-trained legal scholar, was sworn in as new head of
the Tibetan government-in-exile, taking over from the Dalai Lama as
the official leader of his people's fight for freedom.
(AP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 9, Indian police in
new Delhi used water cannon, tear gas and bamboo batons to disperse
thousands of opposition activists protesting against a slew of
corruption scandals racking the government.
(AFP, 8/9/11)
2011 Aug 10, In India a protest
over long-running plans to acquire agricultural land for a water
pipeline happened between the popular hill station resort of
Lonavala and the city of Pune, some 100 km (60 miles) from Mumbai.
Police shot and killed 3 farmers during the protest.
(AFP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 13, In India suspected
rebels fired guns at motorists on a highway in the
insurgency-wracked northeast, killing one person and wounding five
others in Assam state.
(AP, 8/13/11)
2011 Aug 14, An Indian naval
ship closed in on a cargo ship, believed to have been hijacked and
used to smuggle contraband in the eastern Arabian Sea. The
"overwhelmed" crew did not offer any resistance. Automatic weapons
were found on the ship. The crew included five Yemenis, two
Tanzanians, one Kenyan and one Somalian.
(AP, 8/15/11)
2011 Aug 14, Bollywood
superstar Shammi Kapoor (b.1931) died in Mumbai. The Indian movie
star was featured in over 100 films including “Tumsa Nahin Dekha”
(Never Seen Anyone Like You, 1957) and “Junglee” (1961).
(Econ, 8/27/11,
p.76)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shammi_Kapoor)
2011 Aug 16, In India
anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare (74), arrested for planning a
public hunger strike, began his fast behind bars as his supporters
held protests across the country, with thousands detained by police.
The government decided to release as public anger rose, but Hazare
refused to leave jail unless he was given written permission to
resume his fast in a park in central Delhi.
(AP, 8/17/11)(SFC, 8/17/11, p.A3)
2011 Aug 18, In India Anna
Hazare, who has been fasting since Aug 16, reached an agreement with
police to hold a 15-day demonstration fast starting Aug 19 to push
for tough new anti-corruption legislation, after a two-day standoff
at a New Delhi jail.
(AP, 8/18/11)
2011 Aug 19, In India the West
Bengal government, in an all-party meeting, decided to rename the
state Paschim Banga, which means West Bengal in Bengali.
(Econ, 4/21/12, p.60)(http://tinyurl.com/7vutsbu)
2011 Aug 19, In eastern India
suspected Maoist rebels attacked a police patrol, fatally shooting
nine officers and one civilian in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 20, Indian troops in
Kashmir fought a deadly gunbattle with suspected rebels crossing the
military Line of Control from Pakistani-controlled territory. One
soldier and 11 suspected rebels were reported killed.
(AP, 8/20/11)
2011 Aug 20, India’s West
Bengal state government said at least 11 people have died in the
last 24 hours from flood-related causes, including drowning and
injury from collapsed homes.
(AP, 8/21/11)
2011 Aug 21, An Indian
government report said hundreds of unmarked graves in Kashmir hold
more than 2,000 bullet-riddled bodies that may include innocent
victims, despite police claims that they were militants fighting
Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan territory.
(AP, 8/21/11)
2011 Aug 22, In northern India
a flatbed trailer carrying pilgrims to a Hindu temple overturned and
fell into a roadside pond, killing at least 40 people in Uttar
Pradesh state.
(AP, 8/22/11)
2011 Aug 23, The Indian
government opened talks with aides to fasting anti-graft activist
Anna Hazare, as Premier Manmohan Singh offered concessions to
persuade the 74-year-old to end his hunger strike.
(AFP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 24, Indian lawmakers
agreed after frantic talks to discuss a stringent anti-corruption
law proposed by a reform activist whose eight-day fast demanding the
legislation has drawn burgeoning support and tested the
scandal-tainted government. Anna Hazare's fast has drawn tens of
thousands of supporters to a round-the-clock protest rally in the
heart of the capital. Four lawmakers were charged for their role in
an alleged cash-for-votes scandal during a crucial confidence vote
the ruling Congress party faced in 2008.
(AP, 8/24/11)
2011 Aug 27, Indian
hunger-striker Anna Hazare (74), who has led a huge public campaign
against corruption, agreed to end his 12-day fast after forcing new
concessions from lawmakers.
(AFP, 8/27/11)
2011 Aug 28, Indian
anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare (74) ended his 13-day hunger
strike triggering wild celebrations among supporters after
parliament agreed to consider his demands.
(AFP, 8/28/11)
2011 Aug 29, In India car
production was halted at the factory in Manesar after the
Japanese-controlled firm Maruti Suzuki accused some workers of
sabotaging production and "deliberately causing quality problems."
(AFP, 9/3/11)
2011 Aug 31, Three Pakistani
soldiers were killed and one Indian trooper was hurt in an exchange
of fire by the rival militaries across their sensitive border in
divided Kashmir.
(AFP, 8/31/11)
2011 Sep 2, The Indian state of
West Bengal will now be known as "Paschim Banga" after state
lawmakers voted unanimously in favor of the name change.
(AFP, 9/2/11)
2011 Sep 3, The Indian
government signed a pact with the United Liberation Front of Asom
(ULFA) one of its oldest rebel groups to end militant violence in
the restive northeastern state of Assam and pave the way for peace
talks.
(AFP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 4, In northern India
bus fell into the Tons River swollen by monsoon rains, killing 12
passengers in Uttrakhand state.
(AP, 9/4/11)
2011 Sep 6, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh arrived in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on an official visit
aimed at boosting the sometimes fraught relations between India and
its smaller Muslim-majority neighbor. Bangladesh and India signed
two deals to tackle poaching of critically-endangered Bengal tigers
from the world's largest mangrove forest.
(AFP, 9/6/11)(AFP, 9/7/11)
2011 Sep 7, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh said he would "intensify efforts" towards a deal to share
water from the Teesta river after failing to sign the key agreement
during a visit to Dhaka. A deal to share water from the river fell
through after opposition from the chief minister of India's West
Bengal.
(AFP, 9/7/11)
2011 Sep 7, In India a powerful
bomb hidden in a briefcase ripped through a crowd of people waiting
to enter a New Delhi courthouse, killing 13 people and wounding 74
more in the deadliest attack in India's capital in nearly three
years.
(AP, 9/7/11)(AP, 9/8/11)(SFC, 9/9/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 12, Indian officials
said at least 23 children who received blood transfusions have
tested positive for HIV, as authorities launched an investigation
into a government hospital.
(AFP, 9/12/11)
2011 Sep 12, Indian officials
said heavy rains and flooding have killed 16 people in Orissa state
leaving nearly 100,000 others homeless.
(SFC, 9/13/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 16, India welcomed the
previous day’s decision by the US State Department to designate the
homegrown militant group Indian Mujahideen a terrorist organization.
(AFP, 9/16/11)
2011 Sep 16, India's central
bank raised its repo interest rate a quarter point (to 8.25%) for
the 12th time in 18 months on to combat near double-digit inflation,
despite signs of slowing economic growth.
(AP, 9/16/11)
2011 Sep 18, In India a
magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit Sikkim state in the northeast near the
border with Nepal. Some buildings collapsed in Sikkim's state
capital of Gangtok. At least 108 people were killed with more than
100,000 homes damaged. The confirmed deaths included 6 in Nepal and
7 in Tibet.
(AP, 9/19/11)(AP, 9/20/11)(AP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 25, In India 5 young
men traveling on top of an overnight train in Rajasthan state were
killed when they slammed into a bridge.
(AFP, 9/25/11)
2011 Sep 25, In India a Nano
hatchback, billed as the world's cheapest car, caught fire in New
Delhi under unexplained circumstances. The next day Tata Motors
launched an inquiry.
(AFP, 9/26/11)
2011 Sep 26, Indian officials
said monsoon rains have destroyed mud huts and flooded wide swaths
of the north and east, killing at least 48 people in recent days and
leaving hundreds of thousands marooned by raging waters.
(AP, 9/26/11)
2011 Sep 26, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir fierce fighting erupted between rebels and
government forces. 4 days of fighting left at least 9 people dead.
(AP, 9/28/11)(AFP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 27, Indian air force
helicopters dropped food parcels and hundreds of boats shuttled
stranded people to safer ground as surging floodwaters hit eastern
India. 5 people were missing in addition to the 79 killed in Orissa
state since Sep 23. Flooding also killed at least 44 since Sep 23 in
northern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states.
(AP, 9/27/11)(AFP, 9/28/11)
2011 Oct 4, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai met with PM Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. They agreed to
enhance their strategic partnership with India training Afghan
security forces.
(AP, 10/4/11)(SSFC, 10/9/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 5, India introduced a
cheap tablet computer, saying it would deliver modern technology to
the countryside to help lift villagers out of poverty. Developer
Datawind is selling the tablets, called Aakash, or "sky" in Hindi,
to the government for about $45 each. Subsidies will reduce that to
$35 for students and teachers.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 6, The UN said
increased access to technology that allows parents to know the sex
of their fetus has left Asia short of 117 million women, mostly in
China and India.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 7, India's largest car
maker Maruti Suzuki said a fresh strike by workers halted production
at a north India plant, just days after the end of a bitter
month-long dispute.
(AFP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 10, India's largest
car maker Maruti Suzuki called for authorities to evict 1,500
striking workers who have seized control of one of its plants, amid
allegations of sabotage and violence. The workers began staging a
sit-in strike at its Manesar factory in northern Haryana state on
Oct 7.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 12, An Indian-French
satellite that will study monsoon patterns and global warming was
launched from a space center in southern India. Three other smaller
satellites were also released from the rocket.
(AFP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, India and Vietnam
signed an accord to promote oil exploration in Vietnamese waters
that could escalate long-standing tensions with China as it presses
territorial claims to much of the South China sea.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 14, In India Uttar
Pradesh chief minister Mayawati (55), a powerful politician known as
the "Dalit Queen," opened a huge memorial complex to herself and
other low-caste icons as opponents slammed her extravagance. The
vast sums Mayawati has spent on marble, granite and sandstone statue
parks, scattered around the poverty-hit state, has appalled critics.
(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 15, In India the
former chief minister of Karnataka, B.S. Yeddyurappa, surrendered to
authorities in state capital Bangalore after a judge issued a
warrant for his arrest. He faced accusations of taking kickbacks in
exchange for illegally selling government land. The former chief
minister also faced accusations over an alleged $3.6-billion
iron-ore mining fraud.
(AFP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, Indian officials
said at least 430 people, mainly children, have died from an
outbreak of encephalitis in a deeply neglected region of the
northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
(AFP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 21, In India the
latest in a series of strikes at top car maker Maruti Suzuki came to
an end, at a cost of $400 million in lost production and major
damage to the group's reputation.
(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 22, In northeastern
India a wooden bridge collapsed in the Darjeeling district as over
150 villages gathered on it to hear speeches by local officials in
Bijanbari. At least 31 people were killed.
(SFC, 10/24/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 25, India's central
bank announced the deregulation of interest rates on savings bank
deposits, in a landmark decision seen as a key financial sector
reform.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, In India Sushil
Kumar, a poor government clerk, became the first person to win $1
million in an Indian game show in India’s version of “Who Wants to
Be a Millionaire.”
(SFC, 10/28/11, p.A6)
2011 Oct 28, India’s government
said the rate of suicides in the country is increasing and that more
than 15 people kill themselves every hour.
(SFC, 10/29/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 29, In northeast India
a foot bridge spanning the Kameng River collapsed. Arunachal Pradesh
state police said 30 people were feared drowned.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 31, In India Samdup
Taso (83), the last Lepcha priest in Sikkim, died. This left the
Lepchas without a spiritual leader to offer prayers to Kanchenjunga,
the world's third-highest mountain, which is revered as Sikkim's
guardian deity.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Oct, In central India
Lalita Tati (7) disappeared and her dismembered remains were found a
week later in the Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh state. Two men
were arrested in December for allegedly killing the girl and cutting
out her liver in a ritual sacrifice to ensure a better harvest.
(AP, 1/2/12)
2011 Nov 2, The Pakistani
cabinet approved a proposal granting India the status of "most
favored nation" in a move towards normalizing trade relations
between the two nuclear-armed arch rivals. The decision reciprocates
India's move to grant MFN status to Pakistan in 1996.
(AFP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 4, In India senior
police officer D.D. Misra alleged that the government of India's
most populous state, Uttar Pradesh was the "most corrupt regime
ever," before going on to accuse chief minister Mayawati and top
bureaucrats of graft. He was sent to a mental hospital after making
the accusations of corruption.
(AFP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 8, In northern India a
stampede killed 16 Hindu pilgrims and injured about 50 during a
religious ceremony on the banks of the Ganges River at Haridwar in
Uttrakhand state.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 9, In India a court
sentenced 31 Hindus to life imprisonment for killing dozens of
Muslims by setting a building on fire in early 2002 during one of
India's worst rounds of communal violence.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 10, The prime
ministers of India and Pakistan said they expected to open a "new
chapter" at future talks between the rival nations after they met at
a regional summit in the Maldives.
(AFP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 15, India and Pakistan
agreed to normalize two-way trade, signifying a gradual thaw in
relations between the two bitter rivals.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 18, India's Reliance
Industries and British giant BP announced the creation of an equal
joint venture firm to source and market natural gas in India.
(AFP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 19, In Bhutan a
Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas was held in Bhutan's capital
Thimphu. India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan agreed to cooperate on
energy, water, food and biodiversity issues.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, In India a fire
blazed through a makeshift tent in east Delhi where eunuchs, a
community of castrated men, transvestites and transsexuals, had
gathered to honor deceased friends. 15 people were killed.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, In India lawmakers
in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, voted to support a
call for it to be split into four smaller states. State Chief
Minister Mayawati’s idea is to create four new states called
Purvanchal, Bundelkhand, Paschim Pradesh and Awadh Pradesh. The
final decision was up to the Congress party-led central government.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, The New
Delhi-based Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) said in a report
released today that 1,504 people died in police custody and 12,727
in judicial custody across the country between 2001 and 2010.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, Indian IT
entrepreneur Sabeer Bhatia launched a free text messaging service,
JaxtrSMS, promising that it would be as revolutionary as his
previous venture, Hotmail.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, In eastern India 7
people including a four-year-old girl and an Australian woman died
when a fire swept through an overnight train in Jharkhand state.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 24, India's cabinet
cleared a plan to throw open the nation's huge retail sector to
global supermarket chains in a reform that could herald a consumer
revolution. It also raised the foreign investment cap to 100% from
51% at present for single-brand retail operations.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, India’s West
Bengal police killed Koteswara Rao (58), better known as Kishenji,
one of the nation’s most wanted Maoist guerrillas in a major blow to
the armed leftwing insurgency which has spread across a wide swathe
of the country.
(AFP, 11/24/11)(Econ, 12/3/11, p.52)
2011 Nov 30, Indian authorities
said they have broken up a terror cell responsible for a series of
bombings, including a deadly blast at a southern cafe popular with
foreigners. The cell was responsible for the Feb. 13, 2010, blast
that killed 17 people at a cafe in Pune.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Dec 3, A key ally of
India’s ruling coalition said the government has "suspended" plans
to open the nation's huge retail sector to global competition that
have paralyzed parliament.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, Thousands protested
in India against the country's decision to compete in the London
Olympics despite sponsorship of the Games by Dow chemical, a US firm
linked to the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. Thousands of survivors of the
tragedy blocked trains demanding more compensation.
(AFP, 12/3/11)(SSFC, 12/4/11, p.A8)
2011 Dec 3, Pakistani actress
Veena Malik said a nude photo has been published in violation of her
agreement with FHM India and she was considering legal action
against the magazine. She had posed in the nude for the Indian
magazine with the initials of Pakistan's feared and powerful
intelligence agency on her arm and triggered fury across her
conservative nation.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 4, In eastern India a
landmine attack by Maoist rebels struck the convoy of a senior
politician, killing ten policemen and a young boy in Jharkhand
state.
(AFP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, Australia’s Labor
party passed PM Julia Gillard's proposal with 206 votes to 185,
reversing a decades-old policy excluding New Delhi from Australia's
uranium trade because it is not a signatory to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
(AFP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 6, India’s police said
Maoist rebels have raided police posts, engaged in shootouts and
bombed government buildings and railway lines in eastern India in a
two-day campaign of violence protesting their leader's killing on
Nov 24.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 7, India’s finance
minister Pranab Mukherjee confirmed that retail reform to allow
foreign supermarkets into India would be indefinitely suspended.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.47)
2011 Dec 9, In India at least
89 people were killed when a fire engulfed patients at a hospital in
the city of Kolkata. Police arrested 6 hospital officials on charges
of culpable homicide.
(AFP, 12/9/11)(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 14, An Indian
newspaper reported that plans were being finalized for a Taliban
office in the Gulf state of Qatar.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 15, Indian officials
said at least 143 people have died after consuming toxic home-made
liquor in West Bengal state. Police arrested 10 suspected
bootleggers. Khonra Badshah, the suspected kingpin behind the
illegal liquor racket that left 172 people dead, surrendered to
police on Jan 16.
(AP, 12/15/11)(AFP, 1/16/12)
2011 Dec 16, Indian student
Jyoti Amge (18), measuring just 62.8 centimeters (less than two
foot, one inch), was confirmed as the world's shortest living woman.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 22, Berlin-based
Transparency International published a survey: "Daily Lives and
Corruption: Public Opinion in South Asia," which found 62% of south
Asians believed corruption had got worse over the past three years,
with Indians and Pakistanis the most pessimistic.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 26, India's Tata
Motors offered to replace the starter motor on all old Nano models,
but said the move was not related to safety concerns surrounding the
world's cheapest car.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 27, India and Pakistan
tentatively agreed to renew an agreement designed to reduce the risk
of an accidental nuclear war.
(SFC, 12/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 30, In India a severe
cyclone packing winds of 135 km (83 miles) an hour tore into the
southeastern coast. At 42 people died when Cyclone Thane hit coastal
southern India near the former French colony of Pondicherry.
(AFP, 12/30/11)(Reuters, 12/31/11)(AP, 1/1/12)
2011 Sonia Faleiro, Indian
writer, authored “Beautiful Thing” based on the story of Leela, a
highly paid dancer at a Mumbai club, and her own five years immersed
in the brothels of Mumbai, befriending bar dancers, transsexuals and
policemen.
(Reuters, 11/3/11)
2011 Patrick French authored
“India: A Portrait.”
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.97)
2011 Joseph Lelyveld authored
“Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India.”
(SSFC, 4/10/11, p.G1)
2011 David M. Malone authored
“Does the Elephant Dance? Contemporary Indian Foreign Policy.”
(Econ, 6/11/11, p.85)
2011 Rani Singh authored “Sonia
Gandhi: An Extraordinary Life, An Indian Destiny.”
(Econ, 10/15/11, p.94)
2011 In India an estimated 17%
of the population held half of the country’s spending power.
(Econ, 10/22/11, SR p.16)
2012 Jan 1, Pakistan and India
exchanged lists of their nuclear sites under an accord which
prohibits both sides from attacking these locations.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 3, Indian activists
reacted angrily after 12 doctors were fined less than $100 each for
conducting secret drug trials on children and patients with learning
disabilities.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 4, US car giant Ford
said it is opening a new dealership in India every 10 days to feed
demand in a market it expects to be the third-biggest worldwide by
the end of the decade.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 6, US hotel chain Best
Western announced plans to build 66 new hotels in India, part of a
nearly $300 million investment in the country's hospitality
industry.
(AFP, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 7, Pakistan freed 179
Indian fishermen who were imprisoned for violating territorial
waters.
(AFP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 9, Indian software
outsourcer Mahindra Satyam said it has filed a case against past
directors and a former auditor, seeking damages over a $1 billion
accounting scam.
(AFP, 1/9/12)
2012 Jan 10, India's Premier
Manmohan Singh called malnutrition in the country "a national shame"
as he released a major survey that found 42% of children under five
were underweight.
(AFP, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 10, A survey across 33
states by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, a
government watchdog, found that 68.4% of 1,791 milk samples
contained adulterants. Detergent was found in 8.4% of all samples.
(AFP, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 11, India's Tribal
Affairs Minister V. Kishore Chandra Deo said an investigation had
been ordered as rights campaigners and politicians condemned a video
showing women from a protected and primitive tribe dancing for
tourists reportedly in exchange for food on India's Andaman Islands.
(AFP, 1/11/12)
2012 Jan 11, It was announced
that China and India are signing on as partners in the Thirty Meter
Telescope when it’s built on the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea
volcano in 2018.
(SFC, 1/12/12, p.A6)
2012 Jan 12, Malian President
Amadou Toumani Toure ended a 2-day visit to India. At the end of the
visit a joint statement announced that India extended a $100-million
loan to Mali for a power project, while Bamako promised to support
the Asian giant's bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat.
(AP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 16, In India Khonra
Badshah, accused of making toxic home-brewed alcohol that killed 172
people, surrendered to authorities after a month-long hunt by
police.
(AFP, 1/16/12)
2012 Jan 17, India, the world's
biggest bullion consumer, sharply hiked import duties on gold and
silver in a move that will raise domestic prices of the precious
metals.
(AFP, 1/17/12)
2012 Jan 17, India said it was
continuing to buy oil from Iran, despite an intensifying US campaign
to smother Tehran's vital oil exports until it abandons its nuclear
program.
(AFP, 1/17/12)
2012 Jan 17, It was reported
that a new online game in India called "Angry Brides," available as
a free application on Facebook, has attracted more than 270,000
fans. It seeks to highlight the problem of illegal dowry demands for
women.
(AFP, 1/17/12)
2012 Jan 17, The Indian
government dispatched a team of medical experts to the financial
capital, Mumbai, to assess reports of a handful of cases of
apparently untreatable tuberculosis.
(AFP, 1/17/12)
2012 Jan 19, India's largest
lender to the poor, SKS Microfinance, posted its third straight
quarterly loss, hit by bad loans and dwindling investor confidence.
(AFP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 21, In eastern India a
landmine attack by Maoist rebels killed at least 12 policemen and
injured three others in Jharkhand state.
(AFP, 1/21/12)
2012 Jan 21, Pakistan detained
31 Indian fishermen and seized their 14 boats for fishing in its
territorial waters in the Arabian Sea.
(AFP, 1/22/12)
2012 Jan 22, Indian authorities
said at least 26 infants have died in the past five days in a
state-run hospital in West Bengal state. Most of them were
underweight and had been suffering from birth asphyxia.
(AFP, 1/22/12)
2012 Jan 22, British author
Salman Rushdie accused Indian police of making up an underworld plot
to assassinate him that forced him to pull out of a literary
festival this weekend.
(AFP, 1/22/12)
2012 Jan 23, Indian police said
they had arrested two people in connection with triple blasts in
Mumbai in July last year which claimed 27 lives. The two suspects
from the eastern state of Bihar are accused of taking orders from
the alleged mastermind Yasin Bhatkal.
(AFP, 1/23/12)
2012 Jan 23, Indian navy
personnel took command of the country's first nuclear-powered
submarine in two decades after collecting the vessel near the
Russian port of Vladivostok. India decommissioned its last
Soviet-built vessel in 1991.
(AFP, 1/22/12)
2012 Jan 24, India's central
bank moved to release billions of dollars to commercial lenders in a
policy shift designed to boost slackening growth in Asia's
third-biggest economy.
(AFP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 24, Nearly 700 Indian
separatist rebels laid down their arms at a ceremony that the
government hailed as a major step towards bringing peace to the
restive northeast region.
(AFP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 25, In western India a
bus driver went on a rampage in central Pune, killing at least nine
people and injuring dozens during rush-hour.
(AFP, 1/25/12)
2012 Jan 27, In India a leopard
badly mauled two people including a pregnant woman after straying
into Guwahati, the largest city in northeast Assam state. It was the
third such attack there in as many weeks.
(AFP, 1/27/12)
2012 Jan 28, In northeast India
a suspected Naga rebel opened fire at a police station packed with
voters on a tense election day in Manipur state, killing 4 people
before he was shot dead.
(AP, 1/28/12)
2012 Jan 31, Rafale, made by
Dassault, emerged as preferred bidder in the contest to supply India
with 126 warplanes in what will be a $15 billion (9 billion pounds)
deal. Its competitor, the Eurofighter Typhoon, is developed by a
consortium comprising the German and Spanish branches of EADS,
Britain's BAE Systems and Italy's Finmeccanica.
(Reuters, 2/1/12)
2012 Feb 2, India’s Supreme
Court cancelled second-generation (2G) mobile licenses issued in
2008. The court cancelled 122 licenses. The ruling affected about 70
million subscribers -- out of India's 894-million odd mobile users
-- who were clients of the operators which lost their licenses.
(AFP, 2/3/12)(Econ, 2/11/12, p.67)
2012 Feb 4, An Indian judge out
a petition to prosecute powerful home minister Chidambaram over a
huge telecom corruption scandal, bringing some relief to the
embattled government.
(AFP, 2/4/12)
2012 Feb 8, Uttar Pradesh,
India's most populous state, went to the polls in a contest pitting
Rahul Gandhi (41), the scion of the Gandhi political dynasty,
against the ruling party of local low-caste leader Mayawati.
(AFP, 2/8/12)
2012 Feb 8, In India officials
said at least 30 people have died and more are sick after drinking
toxic bootleg liquor made from cough medicine in Orissa state.
(AP, 2/8/12)(AFP, 2/9/12)
2012 Feb 13, In India and
Georgia assailants targeted Israeli diplomats in near-simultaneous
strikes that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu blamed on archenemy Iran,
and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah. The attacks wounded four people.
A hitman on a rented motorbike attached a magnetic bomb to the back
of an Israeli embassy car carrying the 42-year-old diplomat as she
went to pick up her children from school in New Delhi. The woman,
also the wife of the defense attache at the embassy, was left in a
critical condition with spinal injuries and was flown to Israel for
further treatment. 3 men of Iranian origin were later identified as
suspects.
(AP, 2/13/12)(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Feb 15, Guards on an
Italian cargo ship, the Enrica Lexie, fired at an Indian fishing
boat off Kerala state that it mistook for a pirate vessel, killing
two fishermen. Indian police took two Italians into custody on Feb
19. Rome warned that the two were soldiers who enjoyed immunity.
(AP, 2/16/12)(AFP, 2/19/12)
2012 Feb 16, Indian police
detained 35 Tibetan students at a protest outside the Chinese
embassy in New Delhi against Beijing's rule over Tibet.
(AFP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 17, It was reported
that Kolkata, once the capital of British India, is slowly being
painted blue -- the favorite color of Mamata Banerjee, the fiery new
chief minister of West Bengal, who has ordered a makeover.
(AFP, 2/18/12)
2012 Feb 18, In India a school
bus plunged into a river and at least seven people, including 6
children, were killed in the west-coast resort state of Goa. The
driver and conductor both jumped from the vehicle as it was falling
and were unharmed.
(AP, 2/18/12)
2012 Feb 21, A senior Tata
executive said India’s Tata Motors has selected a partner to build
an assembly plant for its luxury British car brands Jaguar and Land
Rover in China.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 21, The Times of India
said Tsutomi Omori (49), managing director of Olympus Medical
Systems in India, was found hanging from iron railings within his
luxury apartment complex in Delhi's satellite city of Gurgaon.
Police said Omori appeared to have committed suicide late on Feb 19.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 22, Researchers in
northeast India released a report on the discovery of a new
family of legless amphibians, named Chikilidae, in a rare scientific
breakthrough.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, In Kashmir at
least 16 Indian soldiers on duty in the mountains were killed and
three others were missing in massive avalanches.
(AFP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 25, India was taken
off a list of polio endemic countries by the World Health
Organization, marking a massive victory for health workers battling
the crippling disease.
(AFP, 2/25/12)
2012 Feb 29, India's home
minister said that police had foiled a major attack by suspected
militants from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group who
were caught with explosives at a rail station. It was not disclosed
when the men were detained.
(AFP, 2/29/12)
2012 Mar 2, In India rampaging
lawyers at a court complex in Bangalore, India's software hub,
assaulted TV camera crews and pelting onlookers and police with
furniture and bottles during a brawl. The journalists said they were
attacked because of their coverage of a lawyers' street protest last
month against an alleged police assault on a fellow advocate. The
brawl erupted during a trial involving a mining fraud in Karnataka,
of which Bangalore is the state capital.
(AFP, 3/3/12)
2012 Mar 5, India’s commerce
ministry banned the export of cotton.
(Econ, 3/10/12, p.78)
2012 Mar 6, India's ruling
Congress party and its famed Gandhi political dynasty suffered a
stinging election setback in crucial state polls. Figures showed
Congress winning clearly in only one of five states and suffering a
landslide defeat in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India's most populous and
politically significant state. Mayawati (56), India's low-caste
"Dalit queen" who once saw herself as a future prime minister, was
dethroned after a scandal-tainted term running UP.
(AFP, 3/6/12)
2012 Mar 7, Indian police said
they had arrested Syed Mohammed Kazmi (50), an Indian journalist
working for an Iranian media organization in connection with a bomb
attack last month targeting an Israeli diplomat.
(AP, 3/7/12)
2012 Mar 10, In India
charismatic politician Akhilesh Yadav (38) was chosen to take power
in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous and politically key state,
after dealing a stinging electoral humiliation to the Nehru-Gandhi
dynasty scion Rahul Gandhi.
(AFP, 3/10/12)
2012 Mar 11, India reversed its
ban on cotton exports in a swift U-turn just six days after the
policy announcement was greeted with outrage from farmers.
(AFP, 3/11/12)
2012 Mar 12, India's
cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines cancelled nearly a fifth of its
flights, including at least one international route, after its staff
staged a strike over unpaid wages.
(AFP, 3/12/12)
2012 Mar 14, In eastern India
Maoist rebels kidnapped two Italian tourists in central Orissa, in
what is believed to be the first abduction of foreigners by the
left-wing militants. Officials identified the kidnapped Italians as
Paolo Bosusco and Claudio Colangelo. The rebels released Colangelo
on March 25. Bosusco was released on April 12 after local officials
agreed to release five rebels from prison.
(AFP, 3/18/12)(AFP, 3/25/12)(AP, 4/12/12)
2012 Mar 14, India's
beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines said it had curtailed its overseas
flights to avoid losing further cash as it struggles to keep flying
amid mounting operational difficulties.
(AFP, 3/14/12)
2012 Mar 16, India boosted
military spending by 17% to $40 billion for the coming year as it
seeks to counter China's rapid military build-up and its traditional
rival Pakistan.
(AFP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 19, In southern India
police arrested nearly 200 activists who were protesting the start
of work at a long-stalled nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu's
Koodankulam region. Engineers resumed working the next day on one of
two 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors after the local government gave
the green light for the resumption of the Russia-backed project.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 19, In India G.D.
Agrawal (80), a former professor of environmental engineering who is
also known as Swami Gyan Swaroopanand, was hospitalized in Varanasi
during a hunger strike to protest against pollution and dams in the
holy Ganges river. He has refused food and water since March 8.
(AFP, 3/19/12)
2012 Mar 22, India said it has
barred its airlines from complying with the EU’s carbon taxation
scheme, with the government saying no Indian carrier would share
emissions data with the EU. The EU has directed Indian carriers to
submit emission details of their aircraft by March 31, 2012. China
decided last month to ban its airlines from complying with the EU
directive. Over two dozen countries, including Russia and the United
States, have opposed the EU move, calling it a violation of
international law.
(AFP, 3/23/12)
2012 Mar 23, In India Maoists
seized Orissa politician Jhina Hikaka (37) as he was being driven
through a hilly area, 450 km (280 miles) from state capital
Bhubaneswar and stuffed his car with Maoist propaganda posters.
(AFP, 3/24/12)
2012 Mar 23, In India health
activists blamed the government for inadequate tuberculosis
treatment and the spiraling number of drug-resistant cases. An
estimated 99,000 cases of drug-resistant TB were being added each
year.
(SFC, 3/24/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 26, India's defense
minister ordered federal investigators to probe revelations by the
country's top military officer that he had been offered a $2.8
million bribe to clear a procurement deal. Army Chief General V.K
Singh told the Hindu newspaper that a lobbyist for an unnamed
military equipment supplier had offered him the cash incentive to
approve the purchase of 600 sub-standard vehicles.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In India Tibetan
exile Jamphel Yeshi lit himself on fire and ran shouting through a
demonstration in New Delhi, just ahead of a visit by China's
president. Yeshi sustained burns on 98 percent of his body and his
condition was critical. Jamphel Yeshi died on March 28.
(AP, 3/26/12)(AFP, 3/28/12)
2012 Mar 27, In India Maoists
insurgents killed 12 paramilitary officers and injured 28 others in
a landmine blast in Maharashtra state, marking the rebels' third
high-profile strike this month.
(AFP, 3/27/12)(SFC, 3/28/12, p.A2)(Econ, 3/31/12,
p.50)
2012 Mar 27, Pakistan was
reported to have banned India's James Bond, outlawing a high-octane
Bollywood action flick in which an Indian secret agent thwarts
Pakistani spies from detonating a nuclear bomb in Delhi. Agent Vinod
grossed $9.7 million on its opening weekend. It showed an Indian
agent jetting around the world, dodging assassins to save his
country from nuclear armageddon plotted by rogue Pakistani spies and
terrorists.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 Apr 2, The United States
announced a $10 million bounty on Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder
of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Islamist terror group blamed for the
2008 Mumbai attacks. He lived openly in Pakistan. Washington also
posted a $2 million reward for Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, described
as LeT's second-in-command.
(AFP, 4/3/12)
2012 Apr 5, Jaguar Land Rover,
owned by India's Tata Motors, announced that it plans to build its
new Jaguar F-Type sports car in Britain.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
2012 Apr 6, Indian police said
a French school teacher (25-30) has been found murdered in a New
Delhi guesthouse located in a rundown district popular with
backpackers in the heart of the capital. New Delhi is widely
perceived as an unsafe city for women. Among the 35 biggest cities
in the country, it had the largest numbers of crime cases against
women. A suspect was arrested on April 8.
(AFP, 4/6/12)(AFP, 4/9/12)
2012 Apr 8, Pakistan’s
President Asif Ali Zardari became the country’s first head of state
since 2005 to visit India. Zardari and India’s PM Singh agreed to
adopt a gradual approach to resolve their differences.
(AFP, 4/8/12)(SFC, 4/9/12, p.A2)
2012 Apr 9, An Indian court
convicted 23 people over the “Ode massacre” of nearly two-dozen
Muslims during religious rioting in Gujarat state on March 1, 2002.
Another 23 people were acquitted for lack of evidence in the case.
Rioting at the time left more than 2,000 dead. On April 12 the court
sentenced 18 of the men to life imprisonment. Five other men were
handed seven-year jail terms.
(AFP, 4/9/12)(AFP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 11, A global tax group
added its voice to protests against an Indian plan to retroactively
tax business deals, saying it could deter foreign investment in
Asia's third-largest economy. New Delhi's planned change to the
Income Tax Act announced in last month's budget would be retroactive
to 1962 and would oblige domestic and foreign firms alike to pay tax
on any transaction involving an Indian asset.
(AFP, 4/11/12)
2012 Apr 12, Pakistan released
26 Indian fishermen held in prison for more than two years for
violating territorial waters. Officials said at least 450 Indian
fishermen are still in Pakistani jails, while India has over 150
Pakistani fishermen in its prisons.
(AFP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 13, India's Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee described as "totally baffling" a huge
downward revision in industrial output data that undermined hopes
the nation's economy was recovering. January industrial output
growth a day earlier was revised downward to 1.1 percent from an
initial 6.8 percent estimate.
(AFP, 4/13/12)
2012 Apr 15, In southern India
a beef-eating festival at Osmania University triggered clashes
between rival students as Hindu activists fought with low-caste
Dalit groups who had organized the event in Hyderabad.
(AFP, 4/16/12)
2012 Apr 17, India's central
bank lowered interest rates for the first time in three years,
springing a bigger-than-forecast cut of 50 basis points along with a
warning that further easing will be difficult. The benchmark repo
rate would fall to 8.0 percent and the reverse repo rate, which it
pays banks for deposits, would fall to 7.0 percent.
(AFP, 4/17/12)
2012 Apr 18, Pakistan called
for negotiations with rival nuclear power India over the disputed
Siachen Glacier to the north of Kashmir, an apparent softening in
attitude toward a neighbor with which it has fought three wars since
1947.
(AP, 4/18/12)
2012 Apr 19, India successfully
tested a powerful new missile that can carry nuclear weapons 5,000
km (3,100 miles). The Agni-V took off from a small launcher on what
appeared to be railroad tracks from Wheeler Island off India's east
coast.
(AP, 4/19/12)
2012 Apr 19, In India 3
commuters hanging onto the outside of a train in Mumbai were killed
when they were hit by an iron pole in the latest accident on India's
overcrowded railways.
(AFP, 4/19/12)
2012 Apr 21, In India Maoist
guerrillas shot the two guards dead and captured Alex Paul Menon
(32), a district collector, as he toured a village in Sukma
district, 320 km (200 miles) from the state capital Raipur. Menon
was freed on May 3.
(AFP, 4/22/12)(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 Apr 21, In India 10 French
nationals, including 6 women were thrown out of the Indian state of
Bihar after they were alleged to be working with a charity linked to
Maoist rebel fighters.
(AFP, 4/23/12)
2012 Apr 24, An Indian couple
who "married" when aged just one and three had their wedding
annulled in Jodhpur in a ground-breaking case that activists hope
will challenge the culture of child marriages.
(AFP, 4/25/12)
2012 Apr 30, In India a ferry
packed with 280 passengers capsized on the Brahmaputra River in
Assam state. 103 bodies were soon recovered, but dozens of others
were feared swept by the current to neighboring Bangladesh. Over 160
people were feared drowned or missing.
(AP, 5/1/12)(SFC, 5/2/12, p.A3)
2012 Apr 30, Norwegian telecom
giant Telenor wrote off the rest of its mobile business in India
worth 3.9 billion kroner (513 million euros, $680 million) after New
Delhi scrapped licenses in a massive fraud probe. In 2009 Telenor
acquired a 67.25 percent stake in Uninor which holds 22 of the 122
licenses cancelled by India’s Supreme Court.
(AFP, 4/30/12)
2012 May 4, In India a Reliance
company executive said the government has asked the energy giant to
pay a $1.25 billion penalty for a fall in gas production from its
main oil fields.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 8, At least 100 pilots
from India's debt-laden national carrier Air India failed to turn up
to work in a move the civil aviation minister described as an
"illegal" strike. The pilots were protesting against former Indian
Airlines flyers -- who moved to Air India when the two firms merged
-- also being trained for new Boeing 787 Dreamliner airplanes,
claiming that would threaten their own career prospects.
(AFP, 5/8/12)
2012 May 9, In India the number
of pilots involved in a wildcat strike at national carrier Air India
rose to 150, as the walkout forced the cancellation of more
international flights.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 11, India agreed to a
$560-million deal to buy 145 howitzer guns from BAE Systems of the
United States as it upgrades its antiquated military hardware.
(AFP, 5/12/12)
2012 Katherine Boo authored
“Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai
Undercity.
(Econ, 2/18/12, p.83)
2012 Akash Kapur authored
“India Becoming: A Portrait of Life in Modern India.”
(Econ, 3/3/12, p.96)
2012 Manosi Lahiri authored
“Mapping India.”
(Econ, 3/24/12, p.87)
2040 In 2006 it was projected
that the total number of cars in India and China could rise from
some 30 million to 750 million.
(Econ, 9/16/06, Survey p.20)
2044 The major rivers of India
could be wiped out by this time based on 2004 estimates from
receding Himalayan glaciers.
(ST, 4/30/04, p.A3)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = India
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