He was in power during India's worst religious riots since independence and remains a hate figure for many of the country's Muslims.

But Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat state, insists his region is now a role model for the rest of India as he positions himself for a widely expected tilt at the premiership.

A senior Indian politician has dismissed claims that a colleague embezzled $134,000, saying the sum was too small to be taken seriously.

Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma spoke out in defense of Salman Khurshid, the law minister who has been accused of siphoning off government money allotted to a trust that he heads to help disabled people.

Indian police on Thursday said they had arrested three Islamist militants suspected of planning bomb attacks in New Delhi during the upcoming Hindu festival season.

The men were members of the home-grown Indian Mujahideen outfit and were behind a series of blasts in August in the western city of Pune that left one person injured, New Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar said.

U.S. drug giant Pfizer said Friday it will appeal against an Indian ruling overturning a patent for a cancer drug, saying the decision raises questions about intellectual property protection in India.

Indian generics heavyweight Cipla opposed the granting of the domestic patent for Prizer's Sutent, which is used to combat liver and kidney cancer.

As the platform-heeled models sashay past the flash of cameras to the sound of U2, Sabyasachi Mukherjee surveys the progress of his campaign to drag the sari from the back of the closet onto the catwalk.

"Too many women think of the sari as something that is very backward and not cool," the award-winning Indian designer told Agence France Presse.

On a muggy evening in the north Indian city of Amritsar, Sunil Sharma prepares for another heroin hit in a decrepit, abandoned building.

Before inhaling the fumes of his brown paste heated on a piece of tinfoil, the 23-year-old explained he had tried heroin for the first time six months ago when his girlfriend left him to marry another man.

India's leopard population is at risk of being decimated as a result of rampant poaching fuelled by a thriving black market for its skins, a study by animal conservationists said on Friday.

The report by a network of wildlife groups known as TRAFFIC said at least four leopards have been killed every week by poachers in India in the last decade, and their plight mirrored that of the tiger, which is now an endangered species.

Rains hampered a military air operation to help flood victims in northeastern India, where more than two million people have been forced from their homes, officials said Wednesday.

Disaster management chiefs overseeing the aid effort in Assam state also said the number of people killed in flood-related incidents had reached 18 with five more casualties reported in the last 24 hours.

Air force helicopters and soldiers in rubber dinghies helped deliver fresh water and food to flood victims in northeast India on Tuesday as the number of displaced rose to 1.8 million.

Nineteen of 27 districts in the state of Assam have been hit by floods and 13 people have been killed over the past week, according to the latest figures from the local disaster management authority.

Floods have forced nearly 1.5 million people to flee their homes in northeastern India where authorities have declared a health alert, officials said on Monday.

"Eighteen of 27 districts of Assam have been hit by floods with 1.4 million displaced and 11 people drowned in separated incidents in the past week," the Disaster Management agency said in a statement.