President Obama welcomed Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a state last Tuesday at the White House.

Fareed Zakaria | BIO
CNN Anchor

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came away from talks at the White House reassured about U.S. policy in Asia, according to foreign affairs analyst Fareed Zakaria.

Singh and President Obama capped their talks with an elaborate state dinner in a tent at the White House Tuesday night, the first such occasion in Obama's presidency.

Zakaria, who attended the formal event, told CNN the dinner was a success: "My sense is there was a very warm feeling. The Indian prime minister was gushing and he's not a man who gushes."

U.S. and Indian officials spoke about the war in Afghanistan, just as Obama is expected to announce - on Tuesday - increased U.S. troop levels in the region.

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Smoke billows out of the Taj Majal hotel in Mumbai, India, during a siege in November 2008.

Reza Sayah
CNN

Seven suspects arrested in connection with last year's attacks on the Indian financial capital of Mumbai were charged in connection with the siege Wednesday, a defense attorney for one of the men told CNN.

The suspects are Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, Umar Abjul Wajid, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jameel Ahmed, Mohammad Younas Anjum, Mazhar Iqbal and Hammad Amin Sadiq.

Alyas Saddiqi, the defense attorney representing suspect Jameel Ahmed, said the defendants were charged with acts of terrorism, money laundering, supplying funds for terrorism, and providing tools for terrorism. Saddiqi said all the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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President Obama hosts Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a state visit Tuesday at the White House.

Fareed Zakaria | BIO
CNN Anchor, “Fareed Zakaria – GPS”

Barack Obama has been criticized for kowtowing to the Chinese and the Russians over the last few months. But so far, this is all about atmospherics. The administration has not made any unilateral concession of substance to either country. It is taking a strategic view that developing strong relationships with both countries, particularly China, will yield long-term benefits. Strangely, however, that strategic focus has been lost in dealing with Asia's other rising giant, India.

At one level the administration is being extremely friendly. India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh comes to Washington this week for the first official state visit of the Obama presidency. There will be toasts and celebrations and many nice words said in public about the ties between the two great democracies. But underneath this lies an unease about the state of the relationship.

Indian officials worry that the Obama team does not have the same fundamental orientation as the Bush administration regarding India's role in the 21st century. Some Obama officials publicly criticized the nuclear deal championed by George W. Bush, a deal that the Indians regard as basic recognition of their status as a major power. They worry that a Democratic administration could succumb to protectionism. They worry that it is too cozy with China.

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Editor's Note: This article continues our series excerpted from AC360°'s contributor David Gewirtz's upcoming book, How To Save Jobs, which will be available in December. Over the next few months, we'll be excerpting the first section of the book, which answers the question, "How did we get here?".Last time, we looked at how China has been transforming itself into a powerhouse nation This time, we'll begin our look at changes in India and what that might mean for Americans. To learn more about the book, follow David on Twitter @DavidGewirtz.

David Gewirtz | BIO
AC360° Contributor
Editor-in-Chief, ZATZ Publishing

For much of the 20th century, India followed an extremely socialist economic policy.  Its economy was excessively regulated, protectionism was rampant, corruption was everywhere, and growth was slow.

But in 1991, India changed its policy. Throughout the 1980s, India made it somewhat easier for businesses to grow. Rajiv Ghandi, India's Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989, removed price restrictions, and dropped corporate taxes to a much lower level than they'd ever been before. While growth increased, so did deficits (less taxes meant less money in the government's treasury).

India's primary trading partner was the Soviet Union and, in 1991, the Soviet Union fell. For all intents and purposes, India lost its best customer. And then oil prices went up during the first Gulf War.

All of this lead to a serious monetary crisis for the Indian government, which also suffered from a leadership vacuum. Rajiv resigned after losing an election in 1989 to Vishwanath Pratap Singh. Singh lasted in office for less than a year. Next came Chandra Shekhar who became Prime Minister on November 10, 1990 and resigned on June 21, 1991. Finally, Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao took office in June, 1991 and served until May of 1996.

India was in deep trouble. There were serious concerns that the government would need to default on its loans. India eventually requested a $1.8 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

The bailout came with strings attached. The IMF demanded reforms. Rao's government initiated a program of economic liberalization, ending many public monopolies and allowing direct foreign investment in many of the country's industries.

Since then, like China, India has been riding the growth rocket, growing an average of 7.5 percent each year. Even more astounding is India's level of "economic engagement," a measure of India's goods and services trade in the world market. Between 2004 and 2006, India's level of economic engagement grew an astonishing 72 percent, from $235 billion in 2004 to $437 billion in 2006.

Economists now estimate that India's GDP will quadruple by 2020 and India's economy will pass America's by 2043.

Living on $2 a day

India isn't doing as well as China in fighting poverty. More than 80 percent of Indians live below that $2 a day line, while only 40 percent of Chinese do. But that still leads to some astounding numbers. In countries experiencing astonishing economic growth, there are more than 912 million Indians and more than 528 million Chinese living on less than $2 a day.

Almost five times as many Chinese and Indian citizens live on less than $2 a day than there are people in the United States. According to Stanford University, the average person in India makes about $500 a year, and what they call the "composite urban" Chinese makes about $828 a year.

When you contrast these numbers to the United States median income of about $50,000 a year, you can begin to see why many American companies are so interested in the potential of outsourcing - and why the governments of India and China are so interested in encouraging the practice.

And all that, strangely enough, brings us to an untold story from the so-called "dot-com" Internet bubble...

Editor's Note: This article continues our series excerpting AC360 contributor David Gewirtz's upcoming book, How To Save Jobs, which will be available in December. Over the next few months, we'll be excerpting the first section of the book, which answers the question, "How did we get here?". Last time, we looked at our changing relationship with work This time, we'll begin our look at how changes China and India will be impacting our workforce for years to come. To learn more about the book, you should follow David on Twitter @DavidGewirtz.

The Washington Post
Interfaith Youth Core
Eboo Patel

The first thing Allah Rakha (A R) Rahman did when he arrived back on Indian soil after picking up two Oscars in Hollywood was to offer prayers at a Sufi shrine. Rahman, who won two Oscars for the music he created for "Slumdog Millionaire", accepted Islam in the late 1980s, after experiencing a dream sequence calling him into the faith. He has been on Haj multiple times and is regular in his five daily prayers. That he makes dance music for Indian beauties and seeks guidance at the mausoleums of Muslim saints only affirms his place in the mainstream of Indian Islam.

India has long been at the center of Muslim pluralism, a movement with three core elements:

1) A spiritual ethic defined by the Islamic concept of Tawheed, the idea that God is all-pervasive;
2) A social ethic that views those of other creeds as partners in the journey to serve God and humanity;
3) A cultural ethic that seeks to absorb the multiple identities of faith, nation, ethnicity and language, understanding this multiplicity as mutually enriching rather than mutually exclusive.

Read more...

Eboo Patel
Washington Post
Interfaith Youth Core

In the middle of the Q and A section of my talk on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in this heartland city of Bhopal, a student from the local technical college stood up and said, "Sir, I have prepared a 15-minute lecture on Martin Luther King Jr. that I would like to read to you. Sir, would you like to hear it?"

He wasn't kooky activist, he wasn't kidding and no one in the audience laughed at him. He is part of middle India, earnest and aspirational India, ready to-do-whatever-it-takes-to-make-it India. After the program was over, he ran up to me excitedly and thrust the text into my hands. It was written in a schoolboy's cursive, in blue ballpoint pen. "I don't want to take your only copy," I told him. "Don't worry, sir, I have memorized the speech." I don't doubt it.

I'm on a brief speaking tour of India sponsored by the U.S. State Department, using the legacy of King and Gandhi as a springboard to explain why the world's oldest democracy and the world's largest should lead the world on the critical issue of interfaith cooperation.

If there is one term that describes contemporary India, it is aspiration. What is particularly refreshing to me is to watch that striving not just in India's economy, but also in other parts of its democracy.

The Chair of the country's first journalism department told me that there are somewhere between 35,000-40,000 newspapers in India - about a thousand of them in English - with new ones sprouting up all the time.

Read more...

While on assignment in India, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta helps a little girl who is injured in the town of Sonepat.

Cate Vojdik
AC360° Writer

We’re following breaking news on the auto bailout. We’re getting reports that Senate Majority leader Harry Reid says the Big Three bailout is in jeopardy. Democrats apparently don’t have enough votes to give the Big Three the money they want from the $700 billion rescue plan pot. We’ll have more details by air time.

According to new CNN polling, the bailout is already a bust among Americans. Six in 10 oppose rescuing the Big Three with taxpayer money. In early November, nearly half the public supported federal help for Detroit. So what’s changed? We’d love to hear your take.

Some more baffling math from the poll: Three-quarters of respondents said they think they’ll personally feel the impact if the auto makers go bankrupt. We’re intrigued that so many Americans support letting the auto makers go belly up, while admitting their families will suffer from the consequences. Again, we’d love your input.

There are also new and chilling details about the Mumbai terror attacks. The sole surviving attacker is singing like a canary – and it’s a sobering tune, to say the least. We’ll also have shocking new video of the bombing to show you.

And speaking of chilling.. Some of the passengers aboard that U.S. cruise ship that narrowly escaped a pirate attack are also talking. Tonight we’ll have first-hand accounts from Americans about their terrifying encounter on the high seas.

See you at 10 pm ET.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and boys pray next to the bodies of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

All terrorism is monstrous, but the murder of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg by ‘religious Islamic extremists’ stands out for its unspeakable infamy. The deliberate targeting of a small Jewish center and its married young directors, whose only purpose it was to provide for the religious needs of a community and feed travelers, proves that those who perpetrated this crime are bereft not only of even a hint of humanity, but every shred of faith as well. The world’s most aggressive atheists are more religious than these spiritual charlatans and pious frauds. When Osama bin Laden, whose beard masks the face of the ultimate religious hypocrite, attacked the World Trade Center in New York, the target was purportedly chosen as the very symbol of American materialism and excess. But what could these ‘religious’ people have been thinking in exterminating a twenty-something couple with two babies who moved from the world’s richest country to India to provide religious services and faith to the poor and the needy? What blow against Western decadence were they striking by targeting a Chabad House whose entire purpose it is to spread spirituality to people whose lives lack it? Now is not only a time to remember the victims but to hate their killers. One cannot love the innocent without simultaneously loathing those who orphan their children.

I know how uncomfortable people feel about hatred. It smacks of revenge. It poisons the heart of those who hate. But this is true only if we hate the good, the innocent, or the neutral. Hating monsters, however, motivates us to fight them. Only if an act like this repulses us to our core will we summon the will to fight these devils so that they can never murder again.

I am well aware that my hero Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” But surely the great man never meant for this to apply to people like Hitler who was never going to be stopped by love but only by an eloquent loathing as articulated by Winston Churchill which summoned an allied campaign to carpet-bomb his war-making apparatus into oblivion. Indeed, had King’s non-violent movement not been protected, at crucial times, by Federal Marshalls and the National Guard, the terrorist thugs of the Ku Klux Klan might have killed every last one of them.

As for my Christian brethren who regularly quote to me Jesus’ famous saying, ‘Love your enemies,’ my response is that our enemies and G-d’s enemies are different parties altogether. Jesus meant to love those steal your girlfriend, cut you off on the road, or swindle you in a business deal. But to love those who indiscriminately murder G-d’s children is an abomination against all that is sacred. Is there a man who is human whose heart is not filled with moral revulsion against terrorists who target a Rabbi who feeds the hungry? Would G-d or Jesus ask me to extend even one morsel of my limited capacity for compassion to fiends rather than saving every last particle for their victims instead? Could G-d really be so unreasonable, could Jesus be so cruel, as to ask me to love baby-killers? And would such a G-d be moral if He did? Could I pray to a G-d who loves terrorists? Could I find comfort in Him knowing that He offers them comfort as well? No, such a god would be my enemy. He would abide in Hades rather than heaven. And I would be damned before I would worship him. I will accept an eternity in purgatory rather than a moment of celestial bliss shared with these beasts.

Now is the time for our Muslim cleric brethren to rise in chorus and condemn the repulsive assassins who use Islam to justify their hatred. One such courageous Imam, and one of the North America’s most prominent, is my friend Imam Shabir Ali of Toronto who courageously responded to my call with a public statement the day after the murders: “Such terrorist attacks are not justifiable on any grounds. Islam cannot condone such murder of innocent civilians. From what you have described, Rabbi and Mrs. Holtzberg are of great service to humanity. Our knowledge of their service adds to our sense of loss and grief that such bad things can happen to such good people. Islam is built on the monotheist foundations which the Jewish people struggled for many centuries to maintain in the face of much severe opposition. Muslims and Jews should work together for a better world in which the terrorist acts we have seen in Mumbai this week are a thing of the past. I pray that the perpetrators will be brought to justice, and that the Lord with compensate the victims with a handsome reward in this world and the next.”

But as the next world is reserved for G-d, who also has much to answer for as to how He can allow righteous people like the Holtzbergs and all the other Mumbai innocents to die, it is for us the living to recommit to their work. I suggest that best possible response by the world Jewish community to this travesty is to implement a program of a Jewish peace corps to Chabad Houses the world over. Young people, especially students age 16 to 30, should offer to spend two weeks of each summer volunteering for a Chabad House somewhere in the world to help the emissaries with their very difficult and important work. This past summer three of my teen children volunteered to work for Chabad in Cordova, Argentina and it was one of the most rewarding experiences of their lives, as they shared in the isolation of a dedicated Chabad family who have lived there for 20 years to cater to the spiritual needs of the local community.

Finally, the world witnessed how the Holtzberg’s non-Jewish nanny, Sandra Samuels, saved their two-year-old Moshe’s life, running out with the child while risking being mowed down by machinegun fire. In that instant, we saw how the religious differences between pale beside the higher of us all being equally G-d’s children, Indian and Jew, Muslim and Christian, and how acts of courage and compassion are that which unite us. As I write these lines the State of Israel is being lobbied by the Hotlzberg’s remaining family to grant Ms. Samuels immediate citizenship. A hero of her caliber would be an honor to the Jewish State and the request should not be delayed by even a single day.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is the founder of This World: The Jewish Values Network. His upcoming book, The Kosher Sutra, will be published in January by HarperOne. His website is www.shmuley.com

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Listen to Rabbi Shmuley's radio show on Oprah & Friends, XM Channel 156 from 12 to 1 PM and 5 to 6 PM.
See Shmuley on the web at http://www.Shmuley.com
Friend Shmuley on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=523031396

The Hindu

A. Vaidyanathan , eminent economist and a member of the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India, was in his room in the heritage wing of Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace and Towers when the terrorists struck on the night of Wednesday, November 26. After his return to Chennai, he spoke to The Hindu on his experience. Here is his first-person account, given to Meera Srinivasan in Chennai on Friday:

I was there for a meeting on the 26th. The meeting was in the afternoon. They usually put me up at the Taj, so I went there. Some of my friends, whom I normally spend time with, were not in town. So I decided to stay back in the room. I ate in the room and was just watching cricket.

Then at 9.30 p.m., things began popping. My room was in the second floor of the Palace, very close to the stairwell of the central dome. That’s where the thing apparently started. It went padapadapda...single shots and then bursts of fire. I was wondering why they were bursting crackers. There was no particular celebration at that time, there was no festival. And certainly inside the Taj wasn’t the place.

Read more...

Gary Tuchman
AC360 Correspondent

The terrorists who killed so many innocent humans in India are thugs. They are not any smarter, any better, any more noble, or any more thoughtful than the thugs who murder people during bank robberies in Miami, convenience store hold-ups in Los Angeles, or carjackings in Chicago.

There's a tendency among some to marvel at how "well coordinated" an attack like this India one was. Well, don't marvel. If you no longer held a real job, were given bucket loads of money, and had a multitude of time on your hands, you too could "well coordinate" such a plan.

Fortunately, most people have consciences. Let's not allow society to romanticize and marvel over the planning of terrorists' soulless and monstorous escapades.

They are no different from your average street thug.

David Schechter
CNN Senior National editor

Some people have been puzzled or surprised that a Jewish Center, called a Chabad house, was attacked in Mumbai. It's true that the Jewish population in India numbers just a few thousand - in a country of billions. But Jews have a long history in India, maybe 2,500 years; and some say they are descended from one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel.

Most of India's Jews live in Mumbai, making it a natural place to find Chabad, a movement within Orthodox Judaism that sends emissaries world-wide from its headquarters in the Crown Heights section of New York City.

Mumbai also is a center of international business and a city frequented by young Israelis, who set off to see the world after completing their military service obligation and before entering university. Chabad is even big in Katmandu.

Chabad is an acronym of the Jewish words for wisdom, understanding and knowledge. Though rooted in the oldest of Jewish beliefs, Chabad also spreads its message online at www.chabad.org. And if you'd like to know more, a good read about Chabad is "The Rebbe's Army" by Sue Fishkoff.

Watch Nic Robertson's report on the stand-off at a Chabad in Mumbai.

Security forces outside the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Kelli Arena
CNN Washington Correspondent

The FBI has a team ready to fly to Mumbai and join the investigation. Officials are working with Indian diplomats to get them there. They need an invitation from the Indian government. And the State Department is still discussing Indian officials how the FBI would operate once it hits the ground.

That can be a delicate negotiation with any country. But U.S. ties to Pakistan, India's longtime enemy, make it more complicated.

Whenever Americans are injured or killed anywhere in the world by a terrorist attack, the FBI opens a case. But it can only operate in another country with that government's permission.

After the U.S. embassy Bombings in Nairobi, there was full and total cooperation. After the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, there were more guarded dealings with the host government.

In India's case, you have a strong, sovereign, and fairly well organized government that has investigators from Canada, Great Britain, Australia and other countries all asking for access because their citizens were victims here.

The Indian government will have to arrange whatever access they will grant for each country's agencies. For the FBI, the State Department will have to negotiate that carefully.

An unidentified guest gives a thumb's up sign Friday inside a bus after being rescued from the Oberoi Hotel.

Sadanand Dhume
The Wall Street Journal

As the story of the carnage in Mumbai unfolds, it is tempting to dismiss it as merely another sorry episode in India's flailing effort to combat terrorism. Over the past four years, Islamist groups have struck in New Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad, among other places. The death toll from terrorism - not counting at least 119 killed in Mumbai on Wednesday and Thursday - stands at over 4,000, which gives India the dubious distinction of suffering more casualties since 2004 than any country except Iraq.

The attacks highlight India's particular vulnerability to terrorist violence. But they are also a warning to any country that values what Mumbai symbolizes for Indians: pluralism, enterprise and an open society. Put simply, India's failure to protect its premier city offers a textbook example for fellow democracies on how not to deal with militant Islam.

Read more...

Indian army commandos are shown on the rooftop of the Jewish center in Mumbai.

Savi Hensman

The carnage in Bombay (officially known as Mumbai), in which gunmen have killed over a hundred people, injured many more and taken hostages, has shocked the world. It has thrown a spotlight on religious extremism of various kinds.

While a group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility, the most high-profile victim was anti-terrorist unit head Hemant Karkare, who just two days before had received a death threat for his investigation of violent Hindu supremacists. His death, along with two other senior police officers, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar, is a blow to efforts to make Bombay safe for residents and visitors from all creeds and communities.

Read more...

Editor’s Note: CNN's Andrew Stevens happened to be staying in one of the hotels attacked in Mumbai, India. Below is his report on AC360°. Click here for all AC360° reports on the attack on Mumbai.

Andrew Stevens | Bio
CNN International Anchor, World News Asia

Bombs, gunfire, chaos, carnage. Mumbai, popular with Americans and the commercial capital of India, erupted in a coordinated terror attack.

It began around 10:00 p.m. local time, armed with grenades, automatic weapons and explosives, an unknown number of extremists killed scores including the city's anti-terrorism chief and wounded hundreds.

At least ten sites were targeted including two luxury hotels, cafes, a hospital for women and children, a movie theater, and a train station. At the historic Taj Mahal hotel where a large plume of smoke rose hours after the attacks began, witnesses say gunmen were looking for U.S. and British citizens. An untold number of people have been taken hostage.

The army has moved into the hotel and across the city. Several terrorists have been killed or arrested. Others remain on the loose.

Both President Bush and President-Elect Barack Obama issued statements, each strongly condemning the attack. Who's behind this? Local reports say a group named the Deccan Mujahedeen claimed responsibility. Some officials say it bears all the hall marks of Al Qaeda. Mumbai is the mecca for western business men and women, many from America. It's believed thousands of U.S. citizens own a city that is now under siege.

Just in the last few minutes we've been pushed pushed back and back and back. We were originally up where the fire engines are. We've been pushed back and back and back. What I'm hearing is there could be a new assault about to start. I can't confirm this at the moment but this is what we've been told. There are perhaps 100 people still in this Taj Hotel here behind me. They would be guests. They would be hostages and they would also be hostage takers.

With every one of these, I just cannot confirm the actual numbers at the moment but this is what we're being told. As you can see they are now dousing what became quite a significant fire only about half an hour ago. Flames 20, 30 feet leaping out of those top balconies there where you can see the jets of water now being directed.

We understand that the hostage takers are still in there. The earlier reports have been saying there are between 7 and 15 hostages both Indian, also of European and perhaps North American passport holders as well. What we've heard during the course of the last ten hours or so when this started was - excuse me. I'm just being told - there are people - if you can pan over you can see there's people walking to the annex wing. This tower here is also part of the Taj as well. There were people trapped in that building all night as well. We're seeing people down there near the front gate. I can't tell you what's happening at the moment but if you just come close by the fire engines you'll see army guys in fatigues are taking a position there covering that entrance. So obviously this is reaching some sort of new level, the hostage crisis here at the taj hotel.

As I was saying earlier, there were gunmen - when they went in, this is probably about ten hours ago. This happened at 10:00 p.m. local time. The time is now 8:30 in the morning, they went in there and they rounded people up and they asked for people with British and U.S. passports and these are the ones they were after. We don't know how many or if any British nationals or U.S. nationals were taken or are hostages at this stage but we understand that it is a possibility.

We're now just waiting to see what happens. It's obviously very tense here at the moment.

We think that there is the likelihood - the strong likelihood now there may be a renewed assault, military maneuver into the hotel in front of us there. We're not hearing any nonspecific threats from any other parts of the city at this stage.

Remember ten targets were attacked over the past ten hours. There's been a very well-organized and many are saying now sophisticated, coordinated attack on very, very high-profile targets throughout this city particularly the vast majority of them coming from south Mumbai where I am now.

South Mumbai is the commercial heart of India’s commercial city. This is a wealthy area. This is where a lot of foreign businessmen, indeed, foreign travelers come. They stay at this hotel. This is a favorite. There is one more hotel. The Oberoi hotel, which i haven't mentioned. There is also a hostage crisis there. That is about ten minutes here by car. We're getting less information on that. And there could also be gunmen still in a hospital, a women and children's hospital. Again, not far from here. There are also women and children in that hospital.

It's a very, very fluid situation. The hard facts at this stage are hard to come by. I can tell you the official death toll now stands at 87 people. Those ten attacks included those two hotels. They included the hospital. They also included the main railway station which is an enormous hub for rail passengers in the city of Mumbai. This is a city of 19 million people. It's being reported that gunmen burst into the railway station, opened fire with assault weapons and also let off hand grenades. This is being reported in the Times of India newspaper as well as a couple of others. There are pictures on the front pages of papers showing both the carnage on the floor inside the railway station and also pictures showing what looked like to be the terrorist. We're seeing ambulances arrive as well so we obviously are staying right on top of this.

The American Citizen Services Unit provides emergency services to Americans in the event of death, arrest, illness, missing persons, destitution and other circumstances. However, the type of services provided are limited. For information on those services, please refer to the State Department's website for travelers.

A U.S. citizen who wishes to request emergency assistance can call the American Citizen Services Unit 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at (91-22) 2363-3611. Outside business hours, the person should call the Embassy switchboard at (91-22) 2363-3611, dial “0” and request to speak with the "Duty Officer." When calling from the United States, begin by dialing 011-91-22-. When calling from within India but outside Mumbai, please dial 022-2363-3611.

For more information, click here.

Cafe Leopold in Mumbai, India.

One of the places targeted in the devastating Mumbai terrorist attacks was the Leopold Café. Anyone who has traveled abroad has been to beloved spots like the Leopold…maybe not in Mumbai…maybe in London, or Mexico City, or Rome…but it’s a familiar place…the type where you can be thousands of miles from home, but feel like you’re in your own favorite neighborhood café.

The Leopold has its own fan club with over 400 members from across the globe on the popular social networking site facebook. The scale of the Mumbai attack is not yet fully known, but this event will no doubt hit home for many people around the world who've been there:

Here's a description on a Facebook.com page devoted to the Leopold Cafe:

“It's not uncommon to walk into this Colaba institution and not see a single Indian face around. Why it's such a hit with foreigners is a mystery, since the food is good but not exceptional, and the atmosphere can be noisy and rather smoky. All the same, it is consistent, and because it's one of those popular places where tourists like to share stories with other tourists over a beer, it deserves mention. It caters to Western tastes by providing items like cereals, eggs and toast, fish and chips, and club sandwiches side by side with chicken biryani and Indian-Chinese fare. The fresh fruit juices and lassis (yogurt drinks) are always a good bet if you're looking for a light pick-me-up during shopping forays on the causeway. And if you're keen to get the inside scoop on how Bollywood films are made, hang out here; casting agents looking for foreigners to work as extras on current productions frequently scan the clientele for able bodies at this favored travelers' hangout.

Tip: Check your bill before you pay it to make sure it doesn't contain anything you didn't order.”

Blood stains the floor of the railway station.

The Times of India

In one of the most violent terror attacks on Indian soil, Mumbai came under an unprecedented night attack as terrorists used heavy machine guns, including AK-47s, and grenades to strike at the city's most high-profile targets - the hyper-busy rail terminus; the landmark Taj Hotel at the Gateway and the luxury Oberoi Trident at Nariman Point; the airport at Santa Cruz; the Cama and GT hospitals; the Metro Adlabs multiplex and Mazgaon Dockyard - killing at least 100 and sending more than 900 to hospital, according to latest reports.

The attacks have taken a tragic toll on the city's top police brass: The high-profile chief of the anti-terror squad Hemant Karkare was killed; Mumbai's additional commissioner of police (east) Ashok Kamte was gunned down outside the Metro; and celebrated encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar was also killed.

Read more...