RAE BAREILLY, India (Reuters) – India’s Priyanka Gandhi joined the election campaign in the country’s most politically important state on Tuesday, injecting sparkle into a tightly fought race and overshadowing her brother Rahul, heir-apparent of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

Vivacious and bearing a striking resemblance to her grandmother and former prime minister Indira Gandhi – who was known as “India’s iron lady” – 40-year-old Priyanka has until now stayed mostly in the wings of the political fray.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The Indian government on Friday threw its weight behind a case against internet giants including Google and Facebook, who are embroiled in a battle over offensive content after a judge warned websites may be blocked “like in China.”

The case, which has stoked worries about freedom of speech in the world’s largest democracy, was brought by a private petitioner seeking to remove images considered offensive to Hindus, Muslims and Christians from websites.

NEW DELHI, Jan 13 (Reuters) – The Indian government
on Friday threw its weight behind a case against internet giants
including Google and Facebook, who are embroiled in a battle
over offensive content after a judge warned websites may be
blocked “like in China”.

The case, which has stoked worries about freedom of speech
in the world’s largest democracy, was brought by a private
petitioner seeking to remove images considered offensive to
Hindus, Muslims and Christians from websites.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Internet giants including Google and Facebook are embroiled in a growing battle in India over offensive content with a judge warning websites may be blocked “like in China”, stoking worries about freedom of speech in the world’s largest democracy.

The Delhi High Court resumes a hearing on Monday of an appeal by Google (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research), Facebook and others against a lower court case by a private petitioner seeking to remove images considered offensive to Hindus, Muslims and Christians from websites.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Internet giants including Google and Facebook are embroiled in a growing battle in India over offensive content with a judge warning websites may be blocked “like in China,” stoking worries about freedom of speech in the world’s largest democracy.

The Delhi High Court resumes a hearing on Monday of an appeal by Google, Facebook and others against a lower court case by a private petitioner seeking to remove images considered offensive to Hindus, Muslims and Christians from websites.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A memo that triggered a U.S. investigation into a possible cyber-attack by Indian military intelligence is probably a fake, but it is clear from leaked documents that serious security breaches did take place.

A little-known hacker group, ‘Lords of Dharmaraja’, began posting the documents last year, but only drew widespread attention after the anti-virus software firm Symantec confirmed on Saturday that a segment of its source code had been accessed by the group.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A weak economy exposed to an extended euro zone crisis, growing strain on the government coalition, and looming state elections that mean progress on tough reforms are unlikely are some of the risks to watch in 2012 in the world’s largest democracy.

RATINGS (Unchanged since December unless stated):

S&P: BBB-

MOODY’S: Baa3

FITCH: BBB-

The cost of insuring against default on 5-year sovereign debt, in common with debt markets elsewhere in the world see-sawed violently in the second half of 2011, closing the year at 108.5 basis points, up 41.5 since January.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s foreign ministry complained to Beijing at a high level Monday, saying a diplomat was denied medicine to control severe diabetes and collapsed while offering consular assistance to two Indian citizens on trial in China’s Yiwu city.

The diplomat, S. Balachandran from the consulate in Shanghai, was not allowed to leave the courtroom to treat his diabetes during a hearing that lasted for five hours. He then collapsed and was taken to a hospital for treatment, said an Indian government source who declined to be named.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India and Japan have agreed to a $15 billion currency swap line, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Wednesday, in a positive move for the troubled Indian rupee, Asia’s worst-performing currency this year.

A previous $3 billion dollar to local currency arrangement between the two countries expired in June.

NEW DELHI, Dec 28 (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister
Yoshihiko Noda called for greater economic relations between two
of Asia’s largest economies on Tuesday, after India’s trade
minister said bilateral commerce would only reach $25 billion by
2014.

India and Japan enjoy warm diplomatic ties, but at a paltry
$15 billion, bilateral trade in 2010 was less than 5 percent of
Japan’s commerce with China.