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Mohali, Feb 12 (PTI) The country has turned bankrupt under the Modi government and its image has been dented on social, political and international fronts, Congress MP Manish Tewari alleged here on Friday.

Addressing a rally in support of party candidates for Mohali municipal body elections slated for February 14, he said there is a debt of Rs 18 lakh crore now on the central government.

"The country's economy that grew at 8 percent every year during Manmohan Singh as PM has now fallen to minus 7.7 percent," he said.

New Delhi, Feb 13 (PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the Union Budget 2021-122 has set the pace for India to become Aatmanirbhar.

Replying to debate on the Budget in Lok Sabha, the minister also said the challenges of pandemic did not deter government from undertaking reforms for maintaining long term goals of the country.

The reforms undertaken will lay the path for India to become one of those fastest-growing economies in the world, she said, adding the Budget has set the pace for India to become Aatmanirbhar or self-reliant.

12 Feb 2021; MEMO: Oman is satisfied with its current relationship with Israel, the foreign minister said yesterday, Reuters reported.

"As regards Israel we are content so far with the level of our current relations and dialogue, which involves the appropriate channels of communication," Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi said. Oman, he added, was committed to peace between Israel and the Palestinians based on a two-state solution.

12 Feb 2021; MEMO: The foreign ministers of seven countries (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Greece and Cyprus) are scheduled to meet for a summit termed the "Friendship Forum" in Athens on Thursday, to discuss developments in the Mediterranean and Middle East regions.

Washington, Feb 12 (PTI) The US has welcomed the ongoing efforts by India and China to de-escalate the situation in eastern Ladakh and said it would continue to monitor the situation closely as both sides work toward a peaceful resolution.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday announced in Parliament that India and China have reached an agreement on disengagement in the North and South banks of Pangong lake in eastern Ladakh that mandates both sides to cease forward deployment of troops in a "phased, coordinated and verifiable" manner.

Tehran, Feb 11, IRNA – Minister of Health and Medical Education Saeed Namaki said on Thursday that Iran will turn into a major hub of manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines in the region and one of the main exporters of vaccines in the next two or three months.

Upon the order by President Hassan Rouhani, Iran began vaccination against COVID-19 with a Russian-developed vaccine – Sputnik V – on Tuesday.

The son of Health Minister Saeed Namaki was the first Iranian person to receive the vaccine.

10 Feb 2021; MEMO: Qatar's authorities Wednesday said the country will resume commercial traffic with Saudi Arabia on Feb. 14, adhering to the coronavirus protective measures, Anadolu reports.

New Delhi, Feb 11 (PTI) Congress leader P Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the government has failed to stimulate demand for growth in the country and the GDP will go back to the figures of three years ago because of "incompetent economic mismanagement".

He claimed that the budget for 2021-22 has failed as even a small amount of cash transfer has not been given to the poor and the rations are not being continued with.

(AP) --- The Biden administration is backing off former President Donald Trump’s attempts to ban the popular video app TikTok, asking a court to postpone a legal dispute over the proposed ban as the government begins a broader review of the national security threats posed by Chinese technology companies.

A court filing Wednesday said the U.S. Commerce Department is reviewing whether Trump’s claims about TikTok’s threat to national security justified the attempts to ban it from smartphone app stores and deny it vital technical services.

10 Feb 2021; MEMO: Iran's foreign minister has insisted that there is no place for French President Emmanuel Macron in any Iranian-Gulf dialogue. Mohammad Javad Zarif told official Iranian TV yesterday that France was not forced to be a member in the nuclear deal negotiations, although it is "natural for Macron to have concerns" about some of the terms of the agreement.