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Delhi and Ottawa may be locked in a diplomatic standoff, but when it comes to immigration, they are in a jugalbandi. Indians, who top the charts in migrating to OECD countries, also lead in acquiring foreign citizenship (with American citizenship continuing to dominate). Canada has shown the steepest growth in granting citizenship to foreign nationals.

According to an OECD report released in Paris-International Migration Outlook: 2023-Indians form the largest national group acquiring rich-country citizenship and Canada logged the biggest proportionate increase-a 174% jump between 2021 and 2022-among host countries.

In another sign of India's evolving position on the Israel-Hamas war, PM Narendra Modi called for concerted efforts for "early resolution of the security and humanitarian situation'' in a conversation with Jordan's King Abdullah II, the third West Asian leader he has spoken to since the October 7 terror attack by Hamas on Israel and the latter's retributive bombing of Gaza.

The assertion by Modi after the talks, in which he also underlined India's concerns over terrorism, is significant as it's the closest that India has come to calling for a ceasefire and came a day after India despatched aid for civilians in Gaza. The US had last week vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that called for "humanitarian pauses'' in the conflict but the EU on Monday indicated it might back such a pause to facilitate distribution of aid in Gaza.

The government looked to fend off the visa blowback from the diplomatic row with Canada as it signalled Sunday it might resume visa services for Canadian nationals. After foreign minister S Jaishankar said this could happen "very, very soon", government sources here said India was reviewing the security situation that forced it to suspend visa services in Canada exactly a month ago.

Former Vice President of India Hamid Ansari on Sunday said the relief aid by India to Gaza should have been sent earlier.

"It is a good thing and should have been done earlier," Ansari was quoted by PTI as saying. The ex-vice president's remark comes on a day when India's humanitarian aid to Palestine reached Egypt. The IAF C-17 aircraft had taken off from Ghaziabad's Hindon airbase with nearly 6.5 tonnes of medical aid and 32 tonnes of disaster relief material including life-saving medicines, surgical items, tents, sleeping bags, tarpaulins, sanitary utilities, water purification tablets among other necessary items.

Mahua Moitra has been one of Trinamool Congress's most prominent Lok Sabha members. But the party had gone silent after the investment banker-turned-politician was caught in the middle of a 'cash for query' controversy. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey has alleged that Moitra took cash and gifts from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament. Moitra, on her end, has rejected the allegations and invited all investigation.