PM Modi launches UPI in Trinidad, honours Girmitiya legacy, extends OCI for 6th-gen diaspora
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New Indian Express
42 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
BRICS Summit: Focus on India-Brazil strategic partnership for a multipolar world
With the arrival of Prime Minister Modi in Rio de Janeiro to take part in the 2025 BRICS Summit & Brasilia for a bilateral State visit, a first by an Indian PM in nearly six decades, the gaze is now on the India-Brazil Strategic Partnership. Far too long viewed essentially as South-South solidarity or symbolic multilateralism, this axis of rising power has in recent years achieved bolder geopolitical recognition. While India enhances its international footprint and Brazil restores its regional leadership, the convergences between the two democracies are no longer rhetorical; they increasingly become strategic driven by the shared vision of an equitable multipolar world order. In the midst of an expanded BRICS and rising challenges to the international system, Brazil has proved an invaluable interlocutor of India in the BRICS and the UN and in voicing the hopes and ambitions of the Global South. Brazil today matters to India not only as the largest economy of Latin America but also as a like-minded democratic country with whom India wishes to 'co-write' the rules of international governance. This convergence has been reflected also in the growing frequency and intensity of high-level interaction between the two countries. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Prime Minister Modi have also been spotted several times since Lula's 2023 re-election as the two leaders have committed to upgrading the Strategic Partnership to the next level. But the current era of geopolitics gives special meaning to their convergence. The Rio BRICS Summit, its first since the grouping expanded in 2024, occurs against the backdrop of a fracturing international order where the return of multilateralism is increasingly questioned. Western institutions increasingly appear self-absorbed and the global South is speaking out more vocally than before. In this fluid world, India and Brazil offer the world a development-focused and democratic alternative. Their collaboration in BRICS seeks to turn the grouping into more than the symbol of rising power solidarity that it is today. India and Brazil aim to make it the forum for offering tangible deliverables for the Global South in the form of alternate sources of finance like the New Development Bank or new models of trade, digital connectivity, and climate finance. Indeed, the current Brazilian presidency of BRICS this year and the upcoming Indian chairmanship in 2026 is a rare diplomatic relay. Under Lula's administration, Brazil has emphasized a more politically integrated BRICS, one advocating for democratic values and challenging the imbalances of the current world order. Modi has echoed this priority, arguing that BRICS must induce international institutional change. The two leaders ratify the idea that the Global South should no longer only be the target of international decision, but the co-author of international rules. This convergence is not limited to BRICS. The two countries are equally committed to restructuring the UN Security Council and are the most vocal members of the G4 grouping (India, Brazil, Germany, Japan) pushing for permanent representation for emergent powers. Both find the present configuration of the UNSC as archaic and unrepresentative. In their latest bilateral, Modi and Lula renewed their backing for each other's candidacies and called for time-bound negotiations in the UN. Brazil has used its presidency of the G20 in 2024 to showcase global governance reform and India has been forthright in its support of this agenda. Together, they have been able to give new impulse to what has thus been an extremely stalled process of reform. Another area of great geopolitical convergence is in their approach towards the Global South. India and Brazil have been voices of Southern solidarity, with one difference: they offer pragmatic implementable solutions. India's 2023 and Brazil's 2024 G20 presidencies were built around development agendas, of inclusive finance and food security to digital public goods and climate justice. Lula openly acknowledged the reality of the fact several of Brazil's G20 agendas borrowed from India's G20 Presidency. Modi himself has praised Brazil for continuing the momentum and ensuring continuity in the upholding of voices of the developed world. As the baton comes up to South Africa to preside over the G20 presidency next year, the IBSA trio (India-Brazil-South Africa) would have achieved the rare distinction of back-to-back leadership of the world's most powerful economic forum and offer a unique moment of Southern convergence. The bilateral is also expanding with new content. Commerce between India and Brazil has exceeded $12 billion, and complementarities in energy, agro-products, and pharma are driving the push. Indian companies like UPL, Wipro, and Tata Motors have increasingly expanded operations in Brazil, and Brazilian enterprises in mining and airlines are considering Indian marketplaces. Modi's visit is expected to deliver new deals in green energy, food processing, and defence cooperation. These steps are the bigger picture: India no longer regards Latin America as the faraway theatre of power politics and Brazil increasingly regards India as the gateway to the Indo-Pacific and the hub of the economic rise of Asia. In the coming years, India and Brazil could really transcend being co-passengers of the multilateral system and turn out to be co-designers of a new equilibrium of power internationally. As bridge-builders between the Global South and the North, between the world of the democracies and the world of the developing nations, between development and growth, their bilateral ties are now a global good. For India, Brazil is as big of a partner of BRICS as it is a center-piece of a larger diplomatic offensive aimed at democratizing international institutions and transferring normative power. When PM Modi and President Lula get together side by side at the Rio Summit, the conversation must be bold: the India-Brazil relationship is no longer peripheral but at the very core of the way the two countries see the future of world order. The strength of the relationship will be less in terms of common desire and more in terms of collaborative action, from G4 to BRICS, from the UN to the G20. In a world as desperately in need of new coalitions for reform as for peace and inclusive growth, the coming together of Delhi and Brasilia gives the world a strong, democratic, and developmental vision of the multipolar world to come. (Manish Dabhade is an Associate Professor of Diplomacy in the School of International Studies, JNU& founded The Indian Futures, an independent think tank in New Delhi; X: @imanishdabhade)
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Mussoorie plans mandatory pre-registration for tourists to manage peak season crowd
Dehradun: Authorities are planning to launch a pre-registration system for tourists visiting Mussoorie during peak travel seasons to tackle overcrowding and manage traffic after footfall doubled between 2022 and 2024. Tourists who fail to register may be denied entry at key checkpoints under the proposed system. More than 21 lakh visitors had reached the hill town in 2024, up from over 11 lakh in 2022, officials said. Secretary (tourism) Dhiraj Singh Garbyal told TOI the first step would be to estimate the number of tourists and vehicles arriving during peak periods — summer and winter holidays and long weekends — by installing cameras at three entry points: Kimadi, Kempty Fall and Kuthal gate. "The problem of overcrowding and long traffic jams is only during the peak season, so there's no point having a year-round pre-registration system. Our teams are working on introducing the concept during those times," he said. Long traffic jams of several hours have become a frequent problem during tourist weekends, especially from Gandhi Chowk to Mall Road. In June this year, a Delhi tourist died after being stuck in congestion and failing to reach hospital care. The proposed registration form would collect details like number of tourists, contact and vehicle numbers, tour duration and accommodation. Garbyal added that tourism department officials met stakeholders on Friday and discussed key aspects of the plan. "Through this exercise, we intend to study, assess the situation and then take effective steps like pre-registration or having one-way roads for entry and exit," he said. The online registration will be OTP-based. Indian tourists will get their OTP on their phones, while foreigners will receive it by email. Once completed, the registration will generate a QR code. Vehicles entering Mussoorie will be screened through Automated Number Plate Recognition systems, and tourists without a valid QR code may be turned away at the entry points. The tourism department also plans to install Automated Number Plate Recognition systems at the three identified entry points. The QR codes will be verified by staff before allowing entry. Officials have also halted construction on Mall Road after a court order, citing concerns that ongoing work may worsen traffic congestion. Sandeep Sahni, president of Mussoorie Hotel Association, and others present at the meeting, raised concerns over the recurring problem.
The Print
an hour ago
- The Print
Nirav Modi's brother Nehal held in US on CBI, ED extradition requests; Justice Dept to oppose bail
Nehal, a Belgian national, has been named as an accused in charge sheets filed by both CBI and ED in the bank loan fraud, amounting to an excess of Rs 13,000 crore, which was borrowed fraudulently from the Punjab National Bank. His elder brother Nirav Modi and uncle Mehul Choksi have been named as the prime accused in the case. The Indian agencies have been informed by their American counterparts about the arrest, as well as given assurances from the US Justice Department that his bail plea will be opposed during the next date of hearing in the extradition proceedings. The next hearing is scheduled for 7 July, sources privy to the developments told ThePrint. New Delhi: Authorities in the United States Friday arrested Nehal Modi, brother and alleged co-conspirator of fugitive diamond businessman Nirav Modi, on the request for extradition submitted by India's agencies, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which have been probing the 2018 PNB loan fraud case. Notably, Nirav Modi has been in custody in the United Kingdom since March 2019, on account of pending extradition proceedings, while Mehul Choksi was detained by authorities in Belgium, where his extradition is also pending. Indian agencies managed to obtain a Red Corner Notice against Nehal in July 2019, based on which Interpol requested all its 192 member states to arrest or detain him upon spotting him in their countries, after which extradition or deportation proceedings could begin. In its charge sheet, the CBI has alleged that Nehal Modi attended a meeting with senior managers of the Punjab National Bank on 26 January, 2018, days before the CBI booked Nirav Modi, his family, Choksi, and retired deputy manager of the bank Gokulnath Shetty. Additionally, the agency found in the probe, through statements from individuals associated with Modis' firms, that after the registration of the CBI's case, Nehal Modi took overall control of the various companies' affairs. In the probe, agencies also allegedly found that Nehal Modi directed and facilitated the movement of funds and dummy directors of the firms of Nirav Modi from Dubai to Cairo, in an attempt to avoid arrest or criminal proceedings. He also allegedly instructed those directors to make false statements in the event of arrest by agencies, including claiming that they did not work for Nirav Modi. The ED also highlighted that Nehal allegedly took around 50 kg of gold and AED 3.5 million from a Dubai-based firm, Firestar Diamond FZE, as well as 150 boxes of pearls worth USD 6 million from Hong Kong, following investigations in India. Additionally, the agency alleged he was personally overseeing attempts to erase accounts and records that established the money trail of firms established by his brother, Nirav Modi, and his associates. 'He intimidated witnesses and sent them to Cairo, where their passports were taken over, and they were forced to sign some false papers. He offered a witness Rs 20 lakh for tendering false testimony before the judicial authorities of Europe,' the agency has alleged. (Edited by Viny Mishra) Also read: Rs 22,280 cr black & laundered money recovered, including from Mallya & Nirav Modi, says Sitharaman
