Skip next section What you need to know
What you need to know
Here are the latest developments from India on Friday, October 16:
- The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) had called for a ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ (Wave The Tricolor) rally in Connaught Place in central Delhi
- Movement founder Abhijeet Dipke was detained by police as he tried to access the area
- Officers cited a court order restricting protests in the commercial center on security grounds
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Canada from December 11-12
- Indian Embassy calls on nationals in Saudi Arabia to remain calm and alert amid intensifying Houthi strikes
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Skip next section Cricket: Veteran seamer Bhuvneshwar recalled to India squad amid injury10/16/2026October 16, 2026
Cricket: Veteran seamer Bhuvneshwar recalled to India squad amid injury
The BCCI cricket board had added 36-year-old pace bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar to the squad for the fifth and deciding Twenty20 intenational against the West Indies on Saturday.
India is calling in reinforcements as regular Arshdeep Singh recovers from a blow to his bowling shoulder during the fourth game in Hyderabad that forced him to leave the field. He was struck by a ball while batting as the West Indies leveled the series at 2-2.
A decision on Arshdeep’s availability will be made ahead of the game in Bengaluru on Saturday.
It’s the first time in almost four years that Bhuvneshwar, 36, has been brought into India’s T20I setup.
The medium pace swing bowler, who also poses more than a modest threat with the bat, had another successful season in the Indian Premier League with the championship-winning Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
He has been named for the upcoming series in New Zealand, which follows soon after the West Indies games and begins on October 22, as well.
https://p.dw.com/p/5OKiHSkip next section Foreign minister to hold talks with US’s Rubio next week10/16/2026October 16, 2026
Foreign minister to hold talks with US’s Rubio next week
Foreign Minster S. Jaishankar will meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for talks next week, a ministry spokesperson told reporters on Friday.
The pair will meet in India’s financial capital Mumbai on Tuesday, Randhir Jaiswal said during a briefing.
He said the talks were expected to cover key areas of bilateral cooperation, including energy, trade and investment, defense, and critical and emerging technologies.
The announcement comes a day after Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said that the “first tranche” of a trade deal first touted by Narendra Modi and Donald Trump in 2025 had been “finalized,” and was going through the “final contours” and “legal drafting.”
US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor was slightly less explicit but he also said that negotiations were moving at an “incredible pace” and that the “big items” were “done.”
The talks have at times been overshadowed by Trump’s notoriously erratic tariff policies, which have often affected India.
Rubio also visited India in May this year.
https://p.dw.com/p/5OKYVSkip next section CJP’s Dipke detained amid Connaught Place protest call10/16/2026October 16, 2026
CJP’s Dipke detained amid Connaught Place protest call
Video footage from central Delhi showed police detaining the “cockroach” movement founder Abhijeet Dipke ahead of a protest he’d called for in the Central Park of Connaught Place, the heart of the capital’s business district.
On the footage, shared by media such as ANI and Dipke’s CJP, a police officer could be seen among a media scrum telling the 31-year-old: “We are placing you under preventive detention.”
The officer said “Section 163” was in effect in the area, a reference to a contentious provision in India’s primary criminal code that empowers executive magistrates to issue orders prohibiting public gatherings if they deem it in the interest of preventing danger or maintaining peace.
Shortly beforehand, Dipke had posted a brief video of his own from what appeared to be the same scene, noting a heavy police presence that he said was deployed just to prevent the waving of India’s tricolor flag, or Tiranga.
https://p.dw.com/p/5OKWvSkip next section Police ask CJP’s Dipke to call off Delhi march10/16/2026October 16, 2026
Police ask CJP’s Dipke to call off Delhi march
Delhi police reached the house where Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), is staying in the capital and served him a notice barring him from holding the planned “Tiranga” rally just hours before the protest was set to begin, Indian media reported.
The police told Dipke that prohibitory orders were already in force for the Connaught Place area, where the Cockroach movement has asked people to gather with the Indian national flag.
Videos circulating on India media channels showed Dipke sitting with uniformed police official, as an Indian flag is seen draped on his shoulders.
Dipke was reportedly told that waving the flag was not against the law, but a march without permission and an assembly of people would be a violation of the restrictions in place — making them susceptible to legal action.
https://p.dw.com/p/5OK2ASkip next section Reliance ‘welcomes’ Starlink competition amid Elon Musk’s ‘monopoly’ salvo10/16/2026October 16, 2026
Reliance ‘welcomes’ Starlink competition amid Elon Musk’s ‘monopoly’ salvo
Indian business mogul Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries on Friday dismissed allegations that it was blocking Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service in the country, saying its own satellite services were awaiting clearance.
“At Reliance, we have never feared competition. We see it as the truest test of who serves the customer best,” the company said as it went on to “welcome competition in satellite communications, including Starlink.”
Starlink is operated by Musk’s SpaceX and provides high-speed internet access to remote locations through low-orbit satellites.
Despite securing key licenses and signing distribution agreements with telecom giants Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, Starlink remains in a regulatory limbo and is yet to begin commercial operations in the country.
The statement is Reliance’s first reaction, following a public tirade on X by US trillionaire Musk, who claimed Ambani was hindering Starlink’s years-long efforts to rollout in India.
Last week, Musk accused Ambani of a “monopolistic exploitation” of Indians and sarcastically called the Indian billionaire “Prime Minister Ambani.”
“Please accept my humble apologies for not realizing that you are the real boss of India,” Musk said as he addressed Ambani, directly.
“Would you nonetheless consider allowing Starlink to compete?” he asked.
Reliance’s Friday statement does not name Musk. The company said it wanted to place “the facts on record” in light of “recent remarks about Reliance and the Indian market.”
After Musk’s remarks, India’s Ministry of Communication said the government maintained a” fair and non-discriminatory authorization framework” for all telecom services, without naming the SpaceX boss.
https://p.dw.com/p/5OJm8Skip next section CJP scheduled to hold ‘Tiranga’ rally at Delhi’s Connaught Place with Indian flagPublished 10/16/2026Published October 16, 2026last updated 10/16/2026last updated October 16, 2026
CJP scheduled to hold ‘Tiranga’ rally at Delhi’s Connaught Place with Indian flag
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) is set to hold a march on Friday in the Indian capital named “Lehra Do Tiranga,” which translates to “wave the tricolor.” Tricolor refers to the Indian national flag, which has saffron, white and green bands.
The rally comes in support of two of the movement’s leaders — Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das — who were sent to a five-day detention in prison on Wednesday on charges including alleged trespassing, violation of prohibitory orders and breach of a peace bond.
A video shared by the CJP on Tuesday showed Das and Ranka, along with other activists from the collective, climbing a gate cordoned off with yellow police barricades.
As they jumped to the other side of the gate, they were seen holding up the Indian flag and shouting slogans against India’s election chief. The group is then seen being chased by police officials.
“Imagine being jailed in your own country for waving your own national flag,” CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke wrote on X on Thursday.
CJP’s Tuesday demonstration attempt took place at Jantar Mantar in central Delhi, a day after the site was removed as the official protest venue of the capital.
It was also the same site where thousands of protesters attempted to march on October 10 to demand electoral reforms before being thwarted by Indian authorities.
Thousands of youth protesters, including CJP and student leaders, were detained after police denied permission to protest. The demonstrators have said that protest is a fundamental right.
The demonstrations are a part of a broader push — including by opposition parties — for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the purging of tens of millions of names from India’s electoral rolls.
https://p.dw.com/p/5OJNoSkip next section Rogue AI agents accessed ‘confidential’ data of Indian firms, government says10/16/2026October 16, 2026
Rogue AI agents accessed ‘confidential’ data of Indian firms, government says
Artificial Intelligence (AI) models under “research and evaluation” broke into Indian firms’ live systems and read business records, including confidential material, the country’s cybersecurity agency has revealed.
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) highlighted the incidents in an advisory titled “AI Agents as Attack Vectors.”
It is the first such official account in India and follows a series of incidents reported around the world this year that saw AI agents breaching real commercial and government systems from their test sandboxes.
“The recorded activity involved reading business records, including personal data and confidential material,” CERT-In said, adding that none of the organizations affected had detected the access.
The Indian agency said the breaches were revealed in voluntary disclosures by AI model providers.
“In the disclosed cases, the models’ actions exceeded the authorization of their assigned tasks,” the advisory said.
It did not name the providers or the organizations affected.
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https://p.dw.com/p/5OJaiSkip next section Air India cancels Saudi Arabia flights until October 2010/16/2026October 16, 2026
Air India cancels Saudi Arabia flights until October 20
Air India has canceled its flights to and from the cities of Riyadh and Dammam in Saudi Arabia until October 20 amid escalating attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels — including the recent aerial strikes on the Middle Eastern kingdom’s airports.
“We are closely monitoring developments and continuously assessing the situation to ensure the safe resumption of operations,” India’s flagship carrier announced Friday on X, adding that passengers affected by the cancellations were being offered a full refund.
Earlier, IndiGo, India’s largest airline, announced that it was canceling flights to and from Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and also Medina until October 24.
Meanwhile, India has called on its nationals in Saudi Arabia to not panic and follow instructions from local authorities.
“In the current situation, we have to stay calm and alert and especially in case of an aerial attack, we have to stay indoors,” India’s envoy to Saudi Arabia, Vipul, said in a video message posted by the embassy.
The ambassador said that one Indian was killed, while 10 others were injured, in an attack on Riyadh airport last Saturday.
https://p.dw.com/p/5OJQrSkip next section PM Modi to visit Canada in December 10/16/2026October 16, 2026
PM Modi to visit Canada in December
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Canada from December 11 to 12, the Indian Embassy in Ottawa has announced.
The development comes after Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had a phone call discussing ties between their countries.
“Both the leaders agreed to build on the positive momentum in ties and work towards concrete outcomes in trade, energy, technology, security and people-to-people ties,” the Indian high commission in Canada said, referring to the conversation.
Modi had earlier described his talk with Carney as a “warm and productive” one.
“Together, India and Canada are contributing towards a more stable and prosperous world,” the Indian leader said.
Earlier this week, Modi also met Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand, who was visiting New Delhi.
https://p.dw.com/p/5OJP2Skip next section What do we know about CJP’s planned ‘Tiranga March’?
10/16/2026October 16, 2026
What do we know about CJP’s planned ‘Tiranga March’?
With its previous mass demonstration foiled, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) is now campaigning to claim a right to protest — about 600 meters (1,970 feet) away from Jantar Mantar.
Friday’s planned protest, featuring the national flag, is scheduled to be held at 5 p.m. local time (1130 UTC) at Central Park in Connaught Place, a prime commercial hub in central Delhi.
“Let’s Gather In Large Numbers And Wave Our National Flag. Let’s Stand In Support Of Ashutosh and Saurav!” the CJP said, referring to two of the movement’s leaders currently being held in detention.
The New Delhi Municipal Corporation, meanwhile, has shut down Central Park for two days, citing “administrative reasons.”
Delhi Police said in a statement that prohibitory orders, aimed at maintaining peace and ensuring public safety, were in force in and around Connaught Place.
It called on protesters to not participate in any gathering that violates the orders.
“However, the Delhi Police may consider making arrangements to permit a select group of individuals to gather at a suitable location for the purpose of carrying the national flag and singing the national anthem,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Neha Yadav said.
Reports on Friday morning said that security at Connaught Place remains tight. A traffic advisory has been issued for the area.
On Thursday, the Delhi High Court declined to stop the CJP’s Connaught Place protest.
“Do we need to take permission to wave our Indian flag?” the ‘Cockroach’ movement said in a post on X. The CJP posted an emoji of the Indian flag, saying it “belongs to the 1.3 Billion people of this country and not the Delhi police. We will wave it where we want!”
Meanwhile, another “Lehra Do Tiranga” rally called by the CJP in India’s financial capital of Mumbai on Friday has received a go-ahead from the city police. The protest is expected to take place at Azad Maidan.
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https://p.dw.com/p/5OJNsSkip next section Welcome to our coverage
10/16/2026October 16, 2026
Welcome to our coverage
This is Dharvi Vaid Dhulia from DW’s studio in New Delhi, bringing you our daily digest of all the biggest headlines that have got India talking.
India’s ‘Cockroach’ party is returning to central Delhi with another march almost a week after a protest rally by the youth-led movement was balked by a rare deployment of thousands of security personnel — culminating in mass detentions.
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has called on people to gather in large numbers and wave the national flag in Connaught Place in support of its leaders, who were sent to judicial custody for allegedly trespassing at a freshly delisted designated protest site.
The Delhi Police has reiterated that prohibitory orders are in place at the key district and it could allow only a select group of people to gather at a suitable location for the purpose of carrying the flag.
In other news, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Canada in December as the two countries look to shore up bilateral relations.
And India has urged its nationals in Saudi Arabia to stay indoors and follow instructions from local authorities amid a spate of deadly aerial attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels.
Stay tuned for all this and more.
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