PAKISTAN’S prime minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday (22) he would like to have a televised debate with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, to resolve differences between the two neighbours.
"I would love to debate with Narendra Modi on TV," Khan told Russia Today in an interview, adding that it would be beneficial for the billion people in the subcontinent if differences could be resolved through debate.
India's Ministry of External Affairs did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
"India became a hostile country so trade with them became minimal," Khan said, stressing his government's policy was to have trade relations with all countries.
Khan's remarks follow similar comments recently by Pakistan's top commercial official, Razzak Dawood, who, according to media, told journalists he supported trade ties with India, which would benefit both sides.
Khan said Pakistan's regional trading options were already limited, with Iran, its southwestern neighbour, under US sanctions and Afghanistan, to the west, involved in decades of war.
Pakistan shares strong economic ties with its northern neighbour, China, which has committed billions of dollars for infrastructure and other projects under its Belt and Road Initiative.
Khan's interview came on the eve of a visit to Moscow, where he will meet president Vladimir Putin - the first visit by a Pakistani leader to Russia in two decades.
The two-day visit for talks on economic cooperation was planned before the current crisis over Ukraine.
"This doesn’t concern us, we have a bilateral relation with Russia and we really want to strength it," Khan said of the Ukraine crisis.
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Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall will outline welfare reforms in a green paper next week, followed by chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement on 26 March.
Ministers may drop plan to freeze disability benefits: Report
Mar 16, 2025
MINISTERS are considering dropping plans to freeze Personal Independence Payments (PIP) for a year, according to a report.
Initial proposals suggested PIP would not rise in line with inflation, but strong opposition from Labour MPs has prompted a review.
The government is still expected to tighten eligibility criteria as part of a broader effort to cut welfare spending, reported the BBC.
Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall will outline welfare reforms in a green paper next week, followed by chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement on 26 March, where she will detail reductions of £5 billion to £6bn in welfare spending.
As part of the reform, a "right to try" guarantee will allow people with disabilities to seek employment without risking their benefits if it does not work out, according to the BBC.
Spending on health and disability benefits is projected to rise from £64.7bn in 2023-24 to £100.7bn by 2029-30, with PIP increasing from £18 billion to £34bn over the same period, the Office for Budget Responsibility states.
The number of PIP claimants is expected to grow from 2.7 million to 4.2m.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson told the BBC that the welfare system needs reform to help those who can work find employment while ensuring adequate support for those who cannot.
Meanwhile, health secretary Wes Streeting has indicated further cuts to NHS England, aiming to improve efficiency and reduce bureaucracy.
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BBC settles age and sex discrimination case
Mar 15, 2025
THE BBC on Friday (14) said it had settled a case with four female journalists who claimed they lost their jobs because of their sex and age.
Martine Croxall, Annita McVeigh, Karin Giannone and Kasia Madera, who have all presented on the BBC's television channels, claimed they lost their jobs following a "rigged" recruitment exercise.
The broadcaster said that "after careful consideration we have a reached a resolution which brings to an end protracted legal proceedings.
"In doing so we have not accepted any liability or any of the arguments made against the BBC," added the BBC.
The four women claimed that they were paid less than men in equivalent roles and that they unfairly lost their jobs at the BBC News channel.
The BBC announced in 2022 that it planned to merge its domestic and international news channels.
The claimants said the BBC privately told four other presenters -- two men and two younger women -- that they would keep their jobs.
"We were put through a pre-determined job application process in February 2023," the presenters told a hearing last year.
They were instead offered jobs as correspondents, an effective demotion that came with a pay cut. The BBC said that at least five other applicants achieved better scores during the recruitment process.
All four presenters also claimed they have not been paid the same as equivalent male counterparts since February 2020.
(Reuters)
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In this screenshot from a video posted by @Sec_Noem via X on March 14, 2025, Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen who participated in pro-Palestinian protests at United State’s Columbia University, leaves the country after her visa was revoked by the Department of State. (@Sec_Noem via PTI Photo)
Indian student in US self-deports after visa revocation
Mar 15, 2025
AN INDIAN student at Columbia University, whose visa was revoked for allegedly supporting Hamas, has self-deported, says the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen, came to the US on an F-1 student visa as a doctoral student in Urban Planning at Columbia University, and her visa was revoked on March 5.
The DHS said in a statement on Friday (14) that Srinivasan was “involved in activities supporting” Hamas, a terrorist organisation, and it has obtained a video footage of Srinivasan using the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Home App to self-deport on March 11.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in the statement that it is a “privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America”.
“When you advocate for violence and terrorism, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country. I am glad to see one of the Columbia University terrorist sympathisers use the CBP Home app to self-deport,” Noem said.
The Department of Homeland Security had, on March 10, launched the CBP Home app with a self-deportation reporting feature for those illegally staying in the country.
Individuals illegally staying in the country can use the CBP Home mobile phone application to submit their intent to depart the country.
The CBP app gives such individuals the option to “leave now and self-deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream.
“If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return”, the Homeland Security Department said.
Another student, Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from West Bank, was arrested by ICE HSI Newark officers for overstaying her expired F-1 student visa.
Her visa terminated on January 26, 2022 for lack of attendance. Previously, in April 2024, Kordia was arrested for her involvement in pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University in New York City, the department said.
Last week, the Trump administration had announced the immediate cancellation of approximately $400 million (£304.30m) in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University due to the “school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students”.
The Education Department said in a press release that Columbia University currently holds more than $5 billion (£3.8bn) in federal grant commitments.
President Donald Trump has asserted that any college or university that allows illegal protests and repeatedly fails to protect students from anti-Semitic harassment on campus will be subject to the loss of federal funding.
In the spring of last year, large-scale pro-Palestinian protests by students against the war in Gaza erupted across US campuses as well as at Columbia University that saw encampments on the West Lawn of Columbia’s Morningside campus since April 19.
The Trump administration has arrested Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil for his role in leading campus protests at Columbia against Israel.
Khalil, who is of Palestinian heritage, was detained by immigration authorities and has been sent to a detention centre in Louisiana.
This week, the Columbia University Judicial Board issued “sanctions” to students ranging from “multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions” related to the occupation of Hamilton Hall last spring during the Gaza protests.
“With respect to other events taking place last spring, the UJB’s determinations recognised previously imposed disciplinary action. The return of suspended students will be overseen by Columbia’s University Life Office.
“Columbia is committed to enforcing the University’s Rules and Policies and improving our disciplinary processes,” the university said.
(PTI)
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'Companies with diverse leadership are better positioned for growth'
Mar 15, 2025
COMPANIES with diverse leadership are better positioned for sustainable growth, improved decision-making, and will connect better with multicultural markets, equalities minister Seema Malhotra has said.
She added that the government will soon launch a public consultation on their approach to mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting.
Speaking at the Change the Race Ratio and the Parker Review reception, hosted by Lord Karan Bilimoria at the House of Commons last Wednesday (12), the minister stressed that greater diversity of thought on boards was beneficial to organisations and helps deliver their plans to grow the economy.
The Parker Review focuses on ethnic diversity on company boards and the Change the Race Ratio campaign urges businesses to take action to improve racial and ethnic minority representation in their leadership teams.
“The government has placed equality and opportunity at the heart of its ambitions. In the King's speech last July, the government announced plans to introduce mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting for large employers as part of the upcoming Equality (Race and Disability) Bill,” Malhotra said.
“While pay gaps don't necessarily indicate discrimination, they provide transparency and highlight areas where opportunities may be limited.”
The minister called on stakeholders to respond to the upcoming consultation so their views can be incorporated into the legislation.
Malhotra said, "Removing barriers to progress is central to the government's mission of creating opportunities for everyone, regardless of their background. The Parker review, in partnership with business leaders across the country, has achieved extraordinary success in increasing ethnic minority representation at board level across FTSE 100 and 250 companies, and the government is keen to support its work. While the progress companies have made has been excellent, there is still a long way to go.
“Success is not spread evenly across ethnic minority groups, and black directors are still significantly underrepresented in FTSE 100 directorships.”
Lord Bilimoria recalled that when he arrived in the UK in the 1980s, there was a "glass ceiling in every aspect" for ethnic minorities who were told they "would never get to the top."
Lord Karan Bilimoria speaks during the event
His personal experience motivated him to promote ethnic minority participation in British businesses, he said.
The peer also stressed the business case for diversity, citing McKinsey research showing that diverse companies are more profitable, and Deloitte studies demonstrating they are more innovative.
Parker Review chair David Tyler noted an improvement in the number of ethnic minority directors and senior managers across the FTSE 350 companies in the past 10 years.
"A decade ago, more than half of these companies had no ethnic directors at all. There were 53 companies with all white boards when they first measured. Today, there are only five white boards. All this has been achieved without any resort to mandatory requirements," he said.
Recently, the business-led and government-backed review urged these companies to set their own targets for 2027 for a percentage of UK-based senior management members from an ethnic minority background.
Now 82 per cent of FTSE 250 companies have at least one ethnic minority director, representing a 17 per cent jump in just one year. Across the FTSE 250, 15 per cent of all directors are from ethnic minorities – up from 13 per cent last year and 11 per cent the year before.
However, Tyler noted that ethnic minority executives comprise 11 per cent of FTSE 100 UK-based senior management teams, with companies expecting this to grow to 15 per cent by 2027. Yet this still falls short of the 17 per cent these groups represent in the population according to the 2021 census.
He said only 1.2 per cent of UK-based FTSE 100 senior managers are black, while they represent 3.9 per cent of the population in the relevant age group.
Auto Trader CEO Nathan Coe acknowledged that around the world, including in the UK, it has been a challenge to commit to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
This wasn't entirely unexpected, he said, adding that such conversations either united or divided people.
In his view, many businesses were quick to adopt targets and commitments, but didn't necessarily follow through with the plans and changes required to deliver progress.
Despite these challenges, Coe spoke out against businesses rolling back their diversity efforts. In Auto Trader, an emphasis on diversity allowed the company to attract talent from all backgrounds.
He said, "If there are people not turning up to your organisation when a role is advertised, in our case for a software engineer, then there is no guarantee you're choosing the best people at all."
When companies take this approach, especially in early careers, the organisation starts to look like the society in which it operates, he said.
Sir Trevor Phillips, chair of Change the Race Ratio campaign, said, "If you have a board which has no ethnic diversity, there is something wrong with your outfit. Particularly when it comes to cultural and ethnic diversity in the workplace, this is a train that has come into the western world that cannot be derailed.
"If we want to survive as a country, as a prosperous nation, as one that does work, that competes, there will be a diverse workforce. Let's focus on what makes our organisations better, more productive, more able to contribute to the prosperity of our nation."
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S Jaishankar: ‘Delhi’s global interests shape its regional ties'
Mar 15, 2025
INDIA today sees itself as a global power or, at least, a country with global interests, which is why Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has spoken of its equation with Russia, China and notably the Middle East.
India’s external affairs minister was in conversation last Wednesday (5) in London with Bronwen Maddox, director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House.
India generally refers to the Middle East as “West Asia” because the term denotes its civilisational and trade ties with this region. And these, as Jaishankar emphasised, are deep.
Following the attack on non doms by the Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves, many Indian (and other) investors are leaving the UK for Dubai. That India has extensive interests in the Gulf makes their transition easier. It is said that while political leadership remains with the Arabs, the management of the region has long been with the Indians.
Jaishankar said: “Obviously, we have significant interests, depending on how you define the Middle East. If you were to include the Gulf, we have more than 10 million Indians actually (resident there). Our exports to the Gulf alone would be close to $100 billion (£77.3bn).
“Our trade with the Mediterranean is close to $80bn-$85bn (£61.8bn-£65.7bn). The Mediterranean has almost half a million Indians living in the littoral states. If one looks at the economic footprint, whether it’s in the Mediterranean countries, whether it’s in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries, whether it’s in the Gulf, there isn’t a country where there isn’t some kind of significant Indian project, business, (or) infrastructure activity.”
Jaishankar talked of the Gaza war: “We have a position which is very objective and balanced. We do condemn terrorism and hostage taking. We do believe that countries have a right to respond to that, but we also believe that humanitarian law should be observed in undertaking operations. We do think there’s an urgent need to get relief and rehabilitation done in Gaza, and we will remain a strong advocate for a twostate solution.”
There are Indian peacekeeping forces deployed by the UN in “both in Lebanon and in the Golan Heights. We have been engaging pretty much all the players – Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf countries – but our sense right now is it’s largely the countries in the region and the United States who have the initiative. Our interests are there’s some kind of lasting solution.”
Asked about the lack of direct flights between India and China and allowing journalists in each other’s countries, he said the relationship depended on whether there was peace and tranquillity in the border areas. “If the border is unstable or is not peaceful, obviously, it will have consequences.”
He explained how the relationship was “badly disrupted” by “what China did along the line of actual control in 2020.
“In October 2024, we were able to resolve many of the urgent issues pertaining to that, what we call disengagement of groups who had been deployed. There was a meeting between prime minister (Narendra) Modi and president Xi (Jinping) in Kazan and I myself have met (Chinese) foreign minister Wang Yi. Our national security advisor visited China, and we are discussing with China some steps to see how the relationship can go in a more predictable and stable and positive direction.”
Jaishankar mentioned a positive step – “the resumption of pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, which is in Tibet. Hindu pilgrims have been going there for ages”.
“What kind of relationship do we want with China? We actually have, by any standard, a very unique relationship. First of all, we are the only two billion plus population countries in the world. Both of us have very long history. We’ve had the ups and downs in our history. You have today both countries on an upward trajectory.
“Now, when two countries of this size, this history, this complexity, this consequence, rise broadly in parallel, obviously they have an interplay with each other. The issue is, how do you create stable equilibriums? We want a stable relationship. But we want a relationship where our interests are respected, where our sensitivities are recognised, where it works for both of us. That has really been the challenge in the relationship.”
On the Ukraine-Russia war, “we have spoken our mind to both countries, both leaders,” he said. “Our view has been that they need to do direct negotiations.”
But India had twice acted as gobetween – when nuclear reactors and grain shipments were threatened. “Every time we’ve had a significant and useful conversation with either of them, we have taken the approval of (Russian) president (Vladimir) Putin to share this with the Ukrainians and president (Volodomyr) Zelensky to share it with the Russians. We haven’t done a peace plan. We don’t think that is appropriate. We have done whatever was the right thing to do in a helpful manner.”
In 80 countries in the global south, India had delivered “about 600 significant projects” in recent years, the minister revealed. “India’s position in a multi-polar world is helpful for the global south as well.”
And in its own region, when Sri Lanka faced a serious financial crisis, “we came forward with a package of more than $4bn (£3.09bn), which was almost twice the size of the IMF package”.
And with other countries in the region, “whether it’s Bangladesh, Nepal, even Myanmar”, there has been greater connectivity – “and by connectivity, I’m talking here of roads, waterways, electricity, grid connections, fuel supplies, movement of people. In the last 10 years on the ground, the real economy is experiencing a very, very profound kick.”
On human rights and the treatment of minorities, he said: “We have been, for political reasons, at the receiving end of expressions and sometimes even campaigns on human rights. We listen to it. We’re not perfect. Nobody is perfect. There can be situations which require redress and remedy. But I would argue that if one looks around the world, we have a very strong human rights record. Any sort of sweeping concern on human rights is really misplaced.”
He set out how India saw the world and sought to “customise” its relationship with individual countries: “Our endeavour, at least, for the last decade, has been to try to see if you can develop the big relationships and the non big relationships as well in parallel. We understand that each one of them is different. Sometimes the issues are different.
“I think in each case, it has to be customised. It has to be assessed. You look at what are the advantages, and what are the challenges, and you arrive at a certain position of equilibrium. And the country which has the maximum flexibility and the least problems is obviously better off. That’s where India is.” (See related report on page 17)
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