Japan and the Tamil Nadu government have signed a memorandum of understanding to take forward the Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridor project.

Since 2000, Japanese companies have invested around US$5.3 billion in Tamil Nadu.

In the past five years, the Sino-India Education and Technology Alliance (Sieta) has worked to place Chinese students into universities in south India, with a special focus on Tamil Nadu’s Vellore Institute of Technology, which admitted at least 360 Chinese students this year alone.

China favours “democratic and patient consultations” on the question of reforming the United Nations Security Council, the government said a day after United States President Barack Obama endorsed a permanent seat for India, The Hindu newspaper reported Tuesday.

US President Barack Obama Monday criticised India for shying away from condemning rights abuses in repressive states, saying those states with global aspirations should not remain silent and ignore "gross violations" in other countries.

"If I can be frank, in international fora, India has often shied away from these issues," Mr. Obama said.

“Speaking up for those who cannot do so for themselves is not interfering in the affairs of other countries. It is not violating the rights of sovereign nations, it is staying true to our democratic principles."

New Delhi has an 'overriding strategic interest' in developing better relations with China, Indian National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon said this week.

As we face the big issues, we do this in a cooperative manner so that we can negotiate solutions to the problems. We have an overriding strategic interest in letting relations grow in a healthy manner,” Menon was quoted as saying by IANS.

Ahead of Tuesday’s mid-term elections in the United States, the question of what the outcome might mean for US foreign policy seems to have a consensus answer: no change. An analysis in the GlobalPost website says most political analysts believe there will likely be no significant change in the direction of the Obama administration’s foreign policy.

A Chinese company, Shanghai Electric Co Ltd, has secured a $10bn contract to supply coal-fired generators to India’s Reliance Power Ltd, in a deal financed by Chinese banks, business press reports said. 

Shanghai Electric is China’s biggest power-equipment maker by market value, and Reliance Power’s order may be the world’s largest for generators, Bloomberg reported.