Arun Jaitley short China visit and India joins MTCR and more stories

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has cut short his visit to China by a day and returned here in the wake of attacks on him and top officials of his ministry by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy. Officials did not give any reason for Jaitley cutting short his visit by a day. But it came amid reports that he was unhappy with Swamy’s attacks that had also covered Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das and was keen that the party act to rein him.

Narendra Modi gives his first interview since he took over as the Prime Minister of India. In this exclusive interview for the first time he has broken his silence on various relevant issues including NSG, Rexit, Indo-Pak relations and many more. He says RBI Chief Raghuram Rajan's patriotism is 'no less than any of ours'. He adds in his interview to Times Now, “Wherever Rajan is and whatever post he holds he will continue to serve the country. Those who create controversies are being unjust to Rajan.”

India on Monday formally joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) as a full member and said its entry would be mutually beneficial to enhance global non-proliferation norms. India’s entry into MTCR comes days after it failed to get NSG membership due to stiff opposition from China and a few other countries. Significantly, China, which stonewalled India’s entry into the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) at the just-concluded Seoul plenary, is not a member of MTCR.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday expanded his cabinet for the seventh time, inducting three new faces and reinstating sacked minister Balram Yadav, while showing the door to cabinet minister Manoj Kumar Pandey. However, senior cabinet minister Shivpal Singh Yadav was conspicuous by his absence. Balram Yadav, who was dropped Tuesday last apparently for facilitating merger of Quami Ekta Dal (QED) of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari with the ruling Samajwadi Party, has been re-inducted as cabinet minister.

Lionel Messi has announced retirement from the international football after Argentina faced defeat against Chile in the Copa America Centenario final. This was the first time ever Messi had missed a penalty shootout in his career and this came at worst time. Messi had made his international debut for the senior Argentina in 2005