Cavalier India Defence Training Academy

This is the kingdom’s first diplomatic foray in seven years; India says Germany is important partner . Bhutan’s Ambassador to India Major General Vetsop Namgyel, right, and Germany’s Ambassador Walter Lindner in New Delhi on Wednesday. CONTEXT Bhutan has announced that it had established diplomatic relations with Germany, increasing the restricted number of capitals that Thimphu has formal ties with to 53 states and the EU.  This is the kingdom’s first diplomatic foray in seven years. BACKGROUND Until 2007, when Bhutan conducted its first election, it had formal relations with just 22 countries, mostly donor countries such as Japan, Australia and several Nordic countries. It also made a firm decision not to open ties with any of the permanent five members of the UN Security Council, despite many requests from them and in particular from the U.S. and China.  After the election of Prime Minister Jigme Thinley in 2008, however, the Bhutanese government rapidly increased its ...

Satellite imagery analysts claimed the village was two kilometres inside Bhutanese territory. The Chinese journalist has since deleted his tweet about the village. Representational image of Chinese soldiers | Photo: D. Myles Cullen | Commons A Chinese journalist has sparked controversy after tweeting, and then deleting, the map of a new village of the country.  Satellite imagery analysts claimed the village was two kilometres inside Bhutanese territory and near the Doklam Plateau , but Bhutan has contested the analysis, asserting that there is no Chinese encroachment on its territory. “There is no Chinese village on Bhutanese territory,” Major General V. Namgyel, Bhutan’s envoy to India, told ThePrint. Asked if the village was on Chinese land, he repeated that all he can say is that there are no Chinese villages on Bhutanese land. To combat this Chinese engineers have constructed a small retaining wall, I assume designed to keep any flood water out of the village. I'm not sure I...

Our deeply divided society has to be patched up with peaceful, reconciliatory and diplomatic means like education, awareness and social safety net.   Social and economic tensions need to be addressed for positivity, mental peace and happiness.   Happiness economics has finally received global recognition. It implies that economic indicators such as the gross national product, per capita income, healthcare facility, employment and wealth must be related with national happiness. The World Happiness Report, 2020 has ranked 156 countries by happiness of their citizens based on six key variables — income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity. Finland, despite not having the highest GDP, tops the list due to its social safety, personal freedom and a work-life balance while materially superior countries are ranked lower. The results mean that growth in happiness is not always accompanied by growth in economic prosperity. A somewhat similar phenomenon...

Indian Air Force's Sukhoi 30 fighter aircraft  (File picture) Two helicopters of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army hovered close to the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh on May 5 and Indian Air Force fighter jets had also been airborne at the same time during a face-off between soldiers near the Pangong lake, sources in the army headquarters said on Tuesday. The latest revelations come at a time there has been an escalation in tension in pockets of the disputed frontier. “The Indian Air Force is regularly carrying out sorties of its Sukhoi 30 fighter aircraft in the Ladakh sector amid the simmering tension with China in the region. During the face-off last week, two Chinese choppers had come close to the border but there was no air space violation. The IAF’s Sukhoi 30 fighter jets were also airborne at the same time but it was routine flying and not in response to Chinese helicopters,” a source said. Chinese PLA Choppers Spotted Near LAC; IAF Rushes Fighter Jets To Ladakh...