Trade ministers from India and Malaysia are likely to meet on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos next week amid a palm oil spat between the two countries, a Malaysian government spokesman told Reuters on Friday. Hindu-majority India has repeatedly objected to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaking out against its recent policies which critics say discriminate against Muslims.

Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation, is the second biggest producer and exporter of palm oil and India's restrictions on the refined variety of the commodity imposed last week have been seen as a retaliation for Mahathir's criticism of New Delhi's actions. India's trade minister Piyush Goyal denied on Thursday that the government was trying to hit out at Malaysia in particular.

The row between the countries, nevertheless, pushed benchmark Malaysian palm futures to its biggest weekly decline in more than 11 years on Friday.

No agenda has been set for the proposed meeting between Goyal and his Malaysian counterpart Darell Leiking on Friday, the spokesman for Malaysia's Ministry of International Trade and Industry said, adding that the request for a meeting had come from India. An Indian government source said a meeting was indeed likely with Leiking. A spokeswoman for India's trade ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Reuters reported on Thursday that Malaysia did not want to escalate the palm spat with India by talking of any retaliation for now, after Mahathir's media adviser called for tighter regulations on Indian expatriates and products. Malaysia instead wants to rely on diplomacy. A separate Indian government source said it was important for New Delhi also to talk things out with Malaysia.

"We too have a lot to lose in Malaysia, there are 2 million Indian-origin people there," the source said.

There were a total of 117,733 Indian nationals registered as foreign labour in Malaysia as at June 2019, accounting for nearly 6 per cent of the total foreign workforce in the country. Ethnic Malaysian-Indians are the third-largest community in the Southeast Asian country. Another reason for frosty ties between the countries is the continued presence of controversial Indian Islamic preacher Zakir Naik in Malaysia, said one of the sources.

Naik, who faces charges of money laundering and hate speech in India, has lived in Malaysia for more than three years and has permanent residency in the country. He denies the Indian accusations. The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorised to talk to the media.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will be invited to India to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) heads of government meeting when New Delhi hosts it later this year, the government said today. According to the government, all eight members and four observer states of SCO will be invited for the regional summit.

"India will be hosting the heads of government summit later this year. As per established practice and procedure, all eight members and four observer states and other international dialogue partners will be invited... all eight members will be invited," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said this evening.

The SCO is a China-led eight-member economic and security bloc to which India and Pakistan were admitted in 2017. The group was founded in 2001 by Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Imran Khan had attended the SCO summit in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek last June, during which PM Modi had said countries sponsoring, aiding and supporting terrorism must be held accountable, in a stern message directed at Pakistan.

Underscoring the aim of the SCO to strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism, PM Modi had also called for a global conference to combat it.

The government's announcement today comes hours after Pakistan's efforts to raise Jammu and Kashmir at the United Nations Security Council through China failed on Wednesday as most members of the UNSC said it was not the place to discuss the issue, sources told. This was China's third initiative to hold a closed-door meeting to discuss Jammu and Kashmir at the UNSC. 

The government has condemned the move by Pakistan, calling its efforts a "misuse of UNSC".

For the first time, Sikhs in the US will be counted as a separate ethnic group in the 2020 census, an organisation of the minority community said on Tuesday, describing it as a milestone moment.

President of the Sikh Society of San Diego Baljeet Singh said the Sikh community's efforts have come to fruition.

"This has paved the way forward nationally not only for the Sikh community but also for other ethnicities in the United States," he said.

Describing this as a milestone, the United Sikhs said that this will be the first time the minority group will be counted and coded in the decennial US Census.

A delegation of the United Sikhs has held several meetings with the US Census in the recent past with the last one being on January 6 in San Diego.

"It's clear that a separate code is needed to ensure an accurate count of Sikhs in the United States, recognising a unique identity," said US Census Deputy Director Ron Jarmin.

"Working with United Sikhs, we understand how this change affects the national Sikh community, leading us to add this code for the 2020 Census," said Shagufta Ahmed with the Census Bureau and Office of Management Budget.

According to the United Sikhs, the current estimates of Sikhs living in the US are at 10 lakhs.

Sikhs meet the criteria for representation in the US Census as a distinct ethnic group and have a distinct unified appearance, culture, language, food and history.

The United Sikhs has advocated for the separate coding for more than two decades and filed commentary with the US Federal Register advocating for Sikhs to be added as an ethnic group, in large part, so that action can be taken to address major Sikh issues such as bullying, intimidation and hate crimes against the community.

"With the 2020 census approaching, many historically undercoded communities will be at-risk for being under-counted and under-served," said Ruben Singh, United Sikhs Census Manager.

"We look forward to collaborating with our census partners and other Sikh organisations and institutions to address the unanticipated challenges of the 2020 Census," he said.

Meanwhile, the Sikh Coalition has partnered with the Census Bureau for the 2020 census.

This is because Sikhs have traditionally been a "hard to count" population in the United States, said Satjeet Kaur, Sikh Coalition executive director.

"Our community matters, and we want to make sure that Sikh families are appropriately counted and accurately resourced wherever they are across our country," she said.

Captain Tania Shergill, an officer with Army's Corps of Signals, will be the first woman parade adjutant for the Republic Day parade, sources said on Monday.

A parade adjutant is responsible for the parade.

Commissioned in March 2017 from the Officer Training Academy, Chennai, Captain Shergill is an electronics and communications graduate, they said.

Her father, grandfather and great-grandfather have also served in the Army.

In last year's Republic Day parade, Captain Bhavna Kasturi was the first woman officer to lead an all-men contingent.

The Republic Day parade will witness Infantry Combat Vehicle BMP-2K of the 18 Mechanised Infantry, Dhanush Gun System and the Army Air Defence on the Rajpath.

Contingents of the Corps of Signals, Sikh Light Infantry, Kumaon Regiment, the Grenadiers, the Parachute Regiment will also take part in the parade.

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a notice to the Election Commission of India, Centre and others on a petition seeking a ban on the use of election campaigning material made of plastic.

A Bench of Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice Hemant Gupta sought their responses on a plea filed by one W Edwin Wilson.

The plea sought a direction to prohibit the use of short-life PVC (polyvinyl chloride), synthetic plastic polymer and chlorinated plastic which includes banners, hoarding, etc. for promotion and advertising during the poll campaign.

The petition claims that canvassing material made of plastic are used during the election and later discarded as waste, which was detrimental to the environment.