Aug. 19 - President Parvez Musharraf's departure from the Pakistani Politibureau leaves an unpleasant power vacuum between India and Pakistan - arch rivals and nuclear powers. Indian Foreign policy experts believe that Musharraf's resignation effectively eliminates India's one point man on the kashmir issue - the main bone of contention between the two countries.

New Delhi's fear is that a weak civilian government in Islamabad will be unable to exert the same muscle that Musharraf did over Pakistan's army and the powerful military spy agency, the ISI, which India suspects has a hand in most attacks in Kashmir.

Aug. 18 - India's automobile sector is the tenth largest in the world with an annual car production of approximately 2 million of the world's 73 million. India is the largest motorcycle manufacturer and the fifth largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, Industry experts only expect these statistics to increase. A report by the Asia Economic Institute expects India's automobile sector to become one of the global leaders by 2012.

Aug. 15 - "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance..... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again" - These were the first words India's first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru delivered to the people of India from New Delhi's Red Fort, 61 years ago, today, on Indian Independance Day.

Aug. 14 - On the eve of the sovereign, secular, republic of India's 61st Independance day, fresh violence has broken out across the Kashmir valley.

A simmering land dispute has polarised Indian Kashmir, split between the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley and the Hindu-dominated region around Jammu city, severely curbing trade between the two areas. The unrest was triggered by a Kashmir government decision in June to donate local land to a Hindu pilgrimage trust. The violence has also fanned fears that communal tensions could spread beyond Kashmir.

Aug. 11 - Indian shooting champion Abhinav Bindra won India's first gold medal for the 10m air rifle competition at the Beijing Summer Olympics on Monday morning. He defeated China's Zhu Qinan, the defending Olympic champion and Finland's Henri Hakkinen, who clinched silver and bronze respectively.

This is India's first gold in 28 years, and first ever individual gold medal.

Aug. 11 - India's trade with Southeast Asian nations is expected to boom once India signs a free trade pact with ASEAN at the end of this year. The Southeast Asian trade body, consists of 10 member countries - Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Singapore.

The deal covering billions of dollars of trade in goods, but not services, is expected to be signed during the ASEAN-India Summit in December, officials told AFP, and will come into effect by the middle of next year.

Total trade between ASEAN and India amounted to US$28.7 billion in 2006, putting India eighth on the list of the bloc's trading partners behind countries like Australia and South Korea, according to ASEAN figures.

Aug. 7 - Indian politicians and business barons are expected to fly into Beijing today in time for the Opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics at 08-08-08-08-08-08. Amongst the politbureau, ruling party leader, Sonia Gandhi will be in Beijing with her family; son Rahul Gandhi, daughter Priyanka Vadra, son-in-law Robert Vadra and their two children. Sports minister M. S. Gill will also be present.

Business tycoon, and India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani will also be present during the opening ceremony. Flying in on his own jet, he will be arriving in Beijing with his family, wife Nita Ambani and their two children, to witness the Olympic ceremony.

Aug. 6 - Indian athletes have arrived at Beijing's Olympic Games village with the first batch of shooters, boxers and swimmers, along with their coaches, arriving in Beijin on Monday.

Deputy Chef de Mission Baljit Singh Sethi told the Hindu that all nine shooters, five boxers and four swimmers have reached the village while the remaining of the 57-member contingent and its support staff of 42 will reach there in separate batches before the opening ceremony on 08-08-08.

Indian hopes are pinned on Athens Olympics Silver medalist shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and world champion Manavjit Singh who were the first Indians participants to enter the village to practise. The Indians are chiefly resting their hopes on shooters, boxers and the star tennis duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi for Olympic glory.

Aug. 5 - Indian businesses such as the Tata and Essar groups have expressed interest in investing in Vietnam for the market’s “political stability, high economic growth, healthy investment climate and numerous stimuli,” said Vietnamese General Consul Nguyen Viet Hung in Mumbai.

As further evidence of this interest in Asia's newest emerging tiger, India's Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL), a state-owned company, said it won a two billion-rupee (US$47 million) contract from Vietnam's Nam Chien hydropower company. BHEL said this is its first order from the Vietnamese power sector.The project is located in Muong La, 350 kilometers north of Hanoi, and is slated to be completed by the end of 2010.

Aug. 4 - Do you like Bollywood movies? Why not buy shares? Hindi film companies being traded on the London Stock Exchange's AIM (Alternate Investment Market) are realizing multi-million dollar returns on investments.

Three Bollywood majors — Eros, UTV Motion Pictures and Indian Films — have already had a huge success in their initial run on the AIM. And now many more Bollywood biggies are looking to raise funds through this route, the Economic Times reported.