Boosting trade ties to be focus of German Chancellor Merz's visit India next week
New Delhi (PTI): German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will undertake a two-day visit to India next week that is expected to focus on shoring up bilateral cooperation in a range of areas, including trade, investment, defence and technology.
Merz's first trip to India as the chancellor from January 12-13 is taking place as New Delhi focuses on boosting its overall economic engagement with Europe against the backdrop of Washington's punitive tariff on Indian goods.
The German leader will arrive in Ahmedabad on January 12. He will travel to Bengaluru after concluding his engagements in Ahmedabad, including talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"The prime minister will receive Chancellor Merz on January 12 in Ahmedabad. The two leaders will take stock of the progress made in diverse aspects of the India-Germany Strategic Partnership, which completed 25 years last year," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
"The discussion will also focus on further intensifying cooperation in trade and investment, technology, education, skilling and mobility, while also advancing collaboration in important domains of defence and security, science, innovation and research, green and sustainable development, and people-to-people relations," it said.
The German Chancellor's visit to India is taking place days before top leaders of the European Union arrive in Delhi for finalising the much-awaited India-EU free trade agreement.
India will host French President Emmanuel Macron next month. Macron is visiting India to participate in the AI Summit.
The MEA said Prime Minister Modi and Chancellor Merz will also engage with business and industry leaders and exchange views on issues of regional and global importance.
"The visit will build on the momentum generated by regular interactions at the highest political level," it said.
"It will provide a valuable opportunity to reaffirm the shared vision of India and Germany to build a forward-looking partnership for the benefit of the people of both countries and the wider global community," the MEA said in a statement.
People familiar with Merz's visit to India said boosting trade and investment ties will be a major focus area of the German leader's trip.
The talks between Modi and Merz will be held under the framework of India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations.
The German chancellor is visiting India amid a fractious geopolitical environment, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the US capturing Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.
It is expected that the Russia-Ukraine conflict may figure prominently in Modi-Merz talks.
The two leaders may also review progress in bilateral cooperation in the area of clean energy.
In 2024, the two sides launched the Indo-German green hydrogen roadmap that was aimed at supporting India's ambition for production, usage and export of green hydrogen.
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HC directs Cong, AAP to remove posts linking Dushyant Kumar Gautam to Ankita Bhandari case
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party to remove within 24 hours social media posts linking BJP leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam to the 2022 Ankita Bhandari murder case.
In an interim order passed on a defamation lawsuit by Gautam, Justice Mini Pushkarna also restrained the two political parties from posting any content targeting the BJP national secretary as the alleged "VIP" in the murder case.
The judge said if the content was not taken down within 24 hours, the social media platforms would remove the same as per the rules.
The court also passed the directions against other persons and entities, including actor Urmila Sanawar and Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee.
"Till the next date of hearing, the following directions are passed: Defendants 1 to 9 (Congress, AAP and others)... are restrained from hosting, uploading, publishing, circulating .. any content which names, targets, or imputes that the plaintiff is the alleged VIP in the Ankita Bhandari matter. Defendants 1 to 9 are directed to remove the various posts and videos uploaded on social media platforms, namely, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and X," the court ordered.
"In the event the defendants 1 to 9 fail to comply with the directions within 24 hours of pronouncement of this order, defendants 10 to 12 (X, Meta Platforms Inc and Google LLC) are directed to take down the aforesaid posts as per the rules," it further said.
Justice Pushkarna said Gautam had made out a prima facie case in his favour and if the interim order to restrain the hosting of the "defamatory" content was not passed, irreparable injury would be caused to him.
The court asked the social media platforms to also take down any "identical" content once it was flagged by the BJP leader.
In 2022, 19-year-old Bhandari, a receptionist at the Vanantra Resort in Pauri district, was murdered. The resort owner, Pulkit Arya, and two employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta were subsequently arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court for the crime.
An audio clip recently released by Sanawar, who claims to be the wife of former MLA Suresh Rathore, allegedly mentioned a 'VIP' allegedly linked to the case.
In his lawsuit, Bhandari has sought Rs 2 crore as damages from the Congress and AAP as well as Sanawar, Rathore, Uttarakhand Predesh Congress Committee and its President Ganesh Godiyal and Congress' national media panellist Alok Sharma.
Relief is also sought against X users Mohit Chauhan and '@PMNehru'.
On Wednesday, the senior counsel appearing for Gautam argued that his "impeccable reputation" of five decades was being tarnished by the Congress, AAP and others by linking him to a murder case in which conviction had already happened after a trial.
Calling it "outright defamation", he emphasised that Gautam's name never came up in the investigation and the defendants' social media posts were damaging his reputation "without an iota of evidence".
The senior counsel further claimed that Sanawar was a "habitual offender" who has many criminal cases against her, and the Congress and AAP propagated her false narrative.
"It is a matter of grave concern that political parties are carrying out press conferences and circulating video clips and defamatory posts without verifying facts and making further malicious allegations in complete absence of any substantial material," the lawsuit said.
The matter would be heard next on May 4.
