logo
Argentina: PM Modi pays tribute at San Martin Memorial in Buenos Aires

Argentina: PM Modi pays tribute at San Martin Memorial in Buenos Aires

India Gazette16 hours ago
Buenos Aires [Argentina], July 5 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute at the San Martin Memorial in Buenos Aires on Saturday morning (local time) after arriving in Argentina on the third leg of his five-nation tour.
The Monumento al General San Martin is an imposing equestrian monument honouring Jose de San Martin, the revered liberator of Argentina, Chile, and Peru. It stands as a symbol of Latin American independence and is a significant site of national pride in Argentina. PM Modi's visit to the memorial underscores India's respect for global freedom fighters and shared values of liberty and sovereignty.
Modi landed at Ezeiza International Airport earlier on Friday and is on an official visit at the invitation of the President of the Republic of Argentina, Javier Milei.
His itinerary includes holding bilateral talks with Milei to review ongoing cooperation and explore ways to deepen the India-Argentina partnership in key sectors such as defence, agriculture, mining, oil and gas, renewable energy, trade and investment, and people-to-people ties.
Following his arrival, the Prime Minister was warmly received by members of the Indian diaspora outside his hotel. He witnessed a traditional Indian dance performance and interacted with the enthusiastic crowd, who chanted 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and 'Modi-Modi' to welcome him.
Expressing his gratitude, PM Modi said in a post on X, 'Distance is no barrier when it comes to cultural connect! Honoured by the gracious welcome from the Indian community in Buenos Aires. It is truly moving to see how, thousands of kilometres away from home, the spirit of India shines brightly through our Indian community.'
He also wrote, 'Landed in Buenos Aires for a bilateral visit which will focus on augmenting relations with Argentina. I'm eager to be meeting President Javier Milei and holding detailed talks with him.'
Members of the Indian community and local artists hailed Modi's efforts to promote India's cultural and global stature, making his visit a moment of pride and celebration for the diaspora.
Prime Minister Modi's engagements in Buenos Aires not only reflected India's commitment to strengthening bilateral ties with Argentina but also showcased the enduring spirit of the Indian diaspora. Their heartfelt reception, marked by cultural performances and chants, underscored the deep bonds that connect Indian communities across the world with their roots. (ANI)
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

What racists don't understand about Zohran Mamdani, biryani and the West's ‘uncivilised' culinary history
What racists don't understand about Zohran Mamdani, biryani and the West's ‘uncivilised' culinary history

Indian Express

time26 minutes ago

  • Indian Express

What racists don't understand about Zohran Mamdani, biryani and the West's ‘uncivilised' culinary history

Award-winning film director Mira Nair's son, 33-year-old progressive Zohran Mamdani, is shaking up Trump's America as few could. He swept the Democratic Party's primary nomination process, defeating the redoubtable Andrew Cuomo and is contesting the New York city mayoral elections. This is historic, as he keeps shattering at least three of Donald Trump's most aggressive planks — toxic anti-immigration hounding, his belligerent (Islamophobic) support to the Benjamin Netanyahu government as it kills thousands of people in Gaza and the devastation of welfarism and minimal equity for the needy. So stung is Trump with the young challenger that he has inflicted the most vitriolic McCarthyistic abuse on him, calling him a 'communist lunatic'. What is more worrisome is the avalanche of racial censure that Mamdani invited — for eating his biriyani with his fingers. This is exactly the way it should be and is eaten by all south Asians and many others. Republican member of Congress, Brandon Gill and professional India-baiter, far-right activist Laura Loomer, called this 'uncivilised'. The fact that most Americans eat their pizza slices and burgers by hand and dream of 'finger licking good' Kentucky Fried Chicken was conveniently forgotten. Forgotten also was the fact that for some 15 centuries after Christ, commoners in the west ate from wooden plates and bowls and used pieces of bread to pick up the sauce or gravy that remained, even after their knives had poked and picked whatever food they could. Till the late medieval period, water in Europe was not only repellingly cold but rather hazardous to drink, especially from contaminated rivers and pools. It was more so in crowded, unsanitary urban areas, though the poor hardly had any choice. Those who could afford it drank only beer, ale, wine or other spirits and many hardly ever came in contact with water — even for cleansing or hygienic purposes. Undergarments were stitched on to bare bodies for several months a year right up to recent times, which explains the western craze for perfumes and sweet-smelling flowers. In fact, those who are convinced that using fingers to eat is uncivilised would baulk at the very idea that the civilised fork was unknown to the west, until an eastern Byzantine princess brought it to Venice in the medieval period. She was married to the city's Doge — the duke or the ruler, who has nothing to do with Elon Musk's whirlwind slaughter of public posts and welfare schemes. More interesting is the fact that the princess carried this quaint piece of cutlery, a two-tined gold fork, from the Byzantine Empire, basically to pick fruits that were preserved in syrup and sugar, known as suckets. The pretty lady felt it was logically the most efficient and clean method of eating a sticky sweetmeat, but the Church was scandalised. Sarah Coffin explained in the Scientific American (touché) that 'The fork was associated with the life of luxury and sweets. This somehow got translated by the Church as being a negative form of decadence. It wasn't associated with Christian values on the grounds that it wasn't essential to life. Instead, it was perceived as something that would be used by a seductress of the East.' By the way, Coffin has authored six award-winning cookbooks and is the founding editor of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, that was named the 2012 Publication of the Year. Most recently she was named Editor-in-Chief of the digital resource Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Food Studies. Coffin goes on to explain that the fork was late to join the knife and spoon to complete the West's cutlery trio. 'The fork started its existence as a utensil to hold a piece of meat or to hold something while you carved it. Its entrance into individual usage comes really as a dessert object.' Sweets from the Byzantine and the very-Muslim Ottoman empires; there were several other foods from the Orient that left their mark on the cuisine of Europe — from which arrived Trump's legit Americans. Noodles came from China and was loved by Italians, leading to further development as different delicious pasta preparations of Italy. Coffin suspects, however, that 'instead of learning how to use chopsticks, Italians preferred to repurpose an implement they already had. In order to eat long noodles, they used a toothpick-like utensil called a punteruolo. It was made more efficient by the addition of another prong.' It was not before the 15th century that the wealthy merchant class in Italy and the upper crust of Europe started using forks regularly, even though the less fortunate looked at it as ridiculous and lampooned its use by the rich. In fact, northern Europe refused to use this cutlery for centuries and accepted it only in the eighteenth century. This was when the Industrial Revolution produced forks in bulk and at affordable prices. Even so, Europeans carried their own cutlery set for personal use to dinners and invitations. South Asians and people of the Middle East considered water-cleaned hands to be purer to pick up their food which invariably had more variety and came with their own gravy. This necessitated the use of fingers that are far more adroit in picking up dispersed food on plates on or clean leaves than knives or forks. The high-gluten and low amylose (high amylopectin) wheat of China and Southeast Asia was more elastic and sticky and led naturally to their noodles (lamian) and dumplings. These are/were best held and picked up by chopsticks. Similarly, their glutinous rice (nuòmi) or Japonica rice (jingmi) have almost no amylose and are naturally so sticky and cohesive that chopsticks are indispensable. On the other hand, most South Asian rice varieties fall under Oryza Sativa subspecies Indica that have some 30 per cent amylose. They are thus less, sticky and more fluffy, lending themselves to fingers for picking up and eating. So, what uninformed racialists need to understand is that different people use their best-suited methods to navigate through their specific bounties of nature and their own methods of cooking. The writer is a former Rajya Sabha MP

Active negotiations under way with over a dozen countries to finalise BIT
Active negotiations under way with over a dozen countries to finalise BIT

Business Standard

time27 minutes ago

  • Business Standard

Active negotiations under way with over a dozen countries to finalise BIT

India is actively negotiating bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with over a dozen countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, Oman, European Union, Switzerland, Russia, and Australia, a government official said. Besides these nations, talks are underway with Tajikistan, Cambodia, Uruguay, Maldives, Switzerland, and Kuwait. These investment treaties help in protecting and promoting investments in each other's countries. With India approaching to become the third-largest economy and a hub for global manufacturing, the government is taking a series of measures to further improve its investment regime that encourages investors. "It is expected that in the next 3-6 months, BIT with some of these countries will be finalised and announced," the official added. The government in the last Budget has announced revamping the current model Bilateral Investment Treaty to make it more investor-friendly and attract foreign players. The country signed BITs with two countries in 2024. Last year, the Centre announced implementation of these treaties with the UAE and Uzbekistan. Unlike a chapter related to investment promotion or facilitation in free trade agreements recently concluded, the investment protection element under a BIT provides a wide range of obligations and commitments bestowed upon foreign investors, which are expansive in nature. In a BIT, the provision of mandatory exhaustion of local legal remedies for a period of five years before resorting to international arbitration is beneficial for both the investor and the state involved in a dispute. India's approach of requiring local remedies aligns with its stance to protect taxpayer money and avoid prolonged and costly legal battles, while simultaneously providing arbitration as an alternate dispute resolution mechanism to investors. Recently, India reduced the time period of local remedy to three years under the India-UAE BIT 2024. "India remains committed to negotiating agreements that safeguard its economic interests while balancing investor confidence and domestic policy space," another official said. There is an ambitious effort of reconstructing India's BIT network to pre-2015 levels on renewed terms and consistent negotiations with a wide range of partners, with balance of interests between investors and the host state. At the same time, India has committed to well-recognised international standards of protection and beyond to afford a stable investment protection framework for foreign investors. Commenting on BITs, Rumki Majumdar, Economist, Deloitte India, said these pacts will offer the country a unique advantage by enabling India to craft highly customised partnerships based on mutual strengths. "Unlike multilateral frameworks, which often require compromises to suit a broad group of nations, bilateral treaties will allow India for case-by-case negotiation, ensuring that the terms reflect the specific economic complementarities between itself and its partner countries," she said. Majumdar added that India should focus on BITs as not just legal instruments, they must be strategic economic enablers, helping India jointly unlock higher value from its comparative and competitive advantages. According to the Economic Survey 2024-25, India must "pull out all the stops" and improve tax certainty and stability to attract more foreign direct investments into the country. FDI inflows into India crossed the $1 trillion milestone in the April 2000-March 2025 period, firmly establishing the country's reputation as a safe and key investment destination globally. Last fiscal year, it stood at $81 billion. About 25 per cent of the FDI came through the Mauritius route. It was followed by Singapore (24 per cent), the US (10 per cent), the Netherlands (7 per cent), Japan (6 per cent), the UK (5 per cent), the UAE (3 per cent) and Cayman Islands, Germany and Cyprus accounted for 2 per cent each. The key sectors attracting the maximum of these inflows include the services segment, computer software and hardware, telecommunications, trading, construction development, automobile, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.

Dalai Lama's 90th birthday: Rituals, VIPs in Dharamshala; highlights from celebration
Dalai Lama's 90th birthday: Rituals, VIPs in Dharamshala; highlights from celebration

Time of India

time27 minutes ago

  • Time of India

Dalai Lama's 90th birthday: Rituals, VIPs in Dharamshala; highlights from celebration

AP photo NEW DELHI: The 14th Dalai Lama , Tenzin Gyatso, marked his 90th birthday on Sunday with a large celebration in Dharamshala, his home in exile since 1959. Despite heavy rain, monks, nuns, and followers from across the world gathered at the Tsuglagkhang temple complex to honour the Tibetan spiritual leader. The courtyard was filled with red-robed monks, traditional music, and heartfelt tributes. Tibetan artists played drums and bagpipes, and senior lamas struck cymbals as the Dalai Lama arrived dressed in a traditional maroon and yellow robe. 'I live my life in the service of other sentient beings,' he told the audience, reflecting on his journey. 'When I look back on my life, I see that I have not wasted it at all.' Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju and Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh represented the Indian government. Among international guests was Hollywood actor Richard Gere , a long-time supporter of the Tibetan cause, who called the Dalai Lama 'the most extraordinary man to ever walk on this planet.' Messages also poured in from global leaders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi described him as a symbol of 'love, compassion, patience, and moral discipline.' US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Dalai Lama continues to inspire unity and compassion, while former US presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton also shared personal tributes. Celebrations in Dharamshala followed a week of events, including the Dalai Lama's announcement that the spiritual lineage would continue after his death, ending years of uncertainty. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Free P2,000 GCash eGift UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo Across Himachal Pradesh, tributes continued. In Shimla, monks at the Dorjidak Monastery offered long-life prayers, led by Nawang Tashi Rapten, a young monk recognised as the reincarnation of Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche. He also cut a ceremonial cake. Tibetan monk Kunga Lama called the birthday 'a celebration of identity and unity,' saying the Dalai Lama is not only the spiritual head but also 'the guide for the entire Tibetan culture of peace and compassion.' Celebrations were also held in Nepal and in Tibetan settlements around the world, with prayers, chanting, and traditional dances. Born Lhamo Dhondup in 1935 in northeastern Tibet, the Dalai Lama was recognised as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama at age two. He took full spiritual and political authority by 1950 but fled to India after Chinese crackdown in 1959. He has since become a global advocate for non-violence, interfaith harmony, and human rights.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store