Narendra Modi

Several villages in the western Indian state of Gujarat have banned girls and single women from owning mobile phones, saying the devices distract them from their studies. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi renewed his call on Feb. 13 for firms to invest in India and turn it into a global manufacturing hub, painting the country as a bright spot for investment in an uncertain world economy.

The Indian government children's minister has proposed the introduction of mandatory tests to determine the sex of an unborn child in a bid to counter the disturbing levels of female foeticide.

Prenatal sex tests are officially illegal in India, a policy designed to stop so many unborn girls being aborted by parents desperate for a boy.

A powerful earthquake struck northeastern India before dawn on Jan. 4, killing at least four people and injuring nearly 100, though the toll was expected to rise, with rescue efforts hampered by severed power supplies and telecommunication links.

A fresh gunbattle erupted on Jan. 3 at the Indian air force base attacked by suspected Islamic militants a day earlier with the loss of 11 lives, police said.

Officers said they believe up to two gunmen were still hiding inside the base.

Russia will supply 10 million tons of oil annually to India for the next decade, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, with the mutual deals between the two countries also extending to nuclear power generation. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise stopover in Pakistan on Dec. 25 to meet his counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, the first time an Indian premier has visited the rival nation in over a decade. 

Japan will build India's first bullet train under a sweeping tally of agreements made following talks in New Delhi on Dec. 12, deepening a partnership Prime Minister Narendra Modi said would "shape the course of Asia."

The photograph featuring India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi surveying flood damage to Chennai appears to have been crudely photoshopped by a government website. Evidently doctored, the international media is having a field day

A total of 196 countries are expected to sign a new agreement on climate that will determine the fate of the world in the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, which will be held between Nov. 30 and Dec. 12 in Le Bourget, a commune in the northeast suburbs of Paris.