In a bid to avert yet another strike, Air India has deferred pilot training for Boeing 787 Dreamliner by about a month.

A set of pilots of erstwhile AI, a commander and his co-pilot who were to reach UK on Tuesday for getting trained at a facility near London Gatwick, are being asked to return to Delhi. Now only two of their colleagues are undergoing 787 simulator training in Singapore. They have not been recalled as the training slots have started and leaving them mid-way to join later would mean unnecessary expenditure.

It’s been a while since Robin Uthappa batted with authority and audacity. On Tuesday at the Vidarbha Cricket Association’s Jamtha stadium, though, he was taking India Red bowlers to the cleaners till a bad shot changed the course of the game.

Uthappa’s entertaining 47-ball 56 (8×4, 1×6) for the India Greens was followed by some remarkably poor batting from his teammates as the team slumped from 100 for no loss to 170 all out within 38 overs.

India and Afghanistan signed a strategic-partnership agreement under which New Delhi will increase its training of Afghan army and other security personnel, a move likely to increase tensions with Pakistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed the agreement in the Indian capital on Tuesday, the first day of Mr. Karzai’s two-day visit to India, a trip meant to showcase an increasingly close relationship between the two nations at a time of increased strain in Kabul’s ties with Pakistan, India’s neighbor and historical rival.

India will try to put the humiliating whitewash in the Test series behind them when they take on England in the one-off Twenty20 match on Wednesday, hoping that their young batting brigade will be able to counter the seaming conditions.

After the Test series debacle, India began well on the path of redemption by scoring three consecutive victories in the warm-up games but they face an uphill battle against England, who are reigning Twenty20 World Champions.

An anti-corruption protest leader whose arrest on Tuesday morning reverberated across India, sparking outrage at the government, ended the day with a very different twist: He refused an offer to be released from jail.

Bylate Tuesday, the scene outside Tihar Jail was playing on all-news channels across the country. More than 1,000 supporters waved flags and banners, chanting slogans, as the protest leader, Anna Hazare, rejected a police release order because it contained a condition he could not accept — that he agree not to stage an indefinite hunger strike. He began one in jail anyway.

India captain Mahendra Dhoni faces some selection issues before Friday’s second Test against England at Trent Bridge.

Seamer Zaheer Khan, who took nine wickets in the 2007 Test on that ground, broke down with a hamstring problem on the first day of the Lord’s Test, which England won by 196 runs.

“We have three days, but I’m not 100% sure if we will play him. We don’t want to risk anyone who is 90%,” Dhoni said.

“It was tough. Most of the things that could have gone wrong, went wrong.”

Visiting US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Tuesday reiterated support for the India-US civil nuclear deal but in doing so she also gave vent to the US displeasure over India’s nuclear liability law which makes it possible to seek compensation from suppliers.

Clinton made it clear that it was absolutely important for India to ratify “this year” the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, which decides on a nuclear operator’s financial liabilities, and ensure that its liability law conforms to international requirements under the convention.

Indian train drivers complain of exhausting working hours and a lack of basic safety equipment — some of the numerous hazards facing one of the busiest and most deadly rail networks in the world.

At the weekend, two separate crashes left 69 dead and about 200 injured after a derailment in northern Uttar Pradesh state and a bomb explosion on tracks in the restive northeastern state of Assam.

While new shiny airport infrastructure is springing up across the country, the Indian railways — a much romanticised legacy of British colonial rule — often appear stuck in a time-warp.

Pakistan wants India to withdraw its objections at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to enable it to seek trade concessions from the European Union for its flood-hit people, a daily said.

“Indian approval is vital for future trade talks between the two countries,” said Pakistan’s Commerce Secretary Zafar Mehmood at the opening session of a seminar on “Pakistan-India Trade: Prospects and Challenges”.

“The approval will also boost the confidence of business community and it will result in enhancement of trade between the two countries,” the News International quoted him as saying.