Category Archives: India

Redesigning Delhi’s Champs Élysées: ‘It represents all that’s complex about urban India’

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From heaving traffic and dense crowds to car-free and tranquil: that’s the vision for Chandni Chowk. But is it achievable?

The Champs Élysées is one of the most famous streets in the world, but you could say the French were beaten to it by the Mughals. About 15 years before the avenue was laid out in 1667 in Paris, India’s Mughal emperor Shah Jehan built a grand mile-long street in his capital to reflect the glory of the empire at its height.

It ran from Fatehpuri mosque at one end to the colossal Red Fort at the other and was lined with trees, elegant mansions, mosques and gardens. Provisions for the Red Fort, the imperial residence, were carried down the boulevard by elephants, camels and horse-drawn carriages.

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India’s strongman PM: Modi to appear on Bear Grylls’ Man vs Wild

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Narendra Modi claims the programme will showcase India’s ‘beautiful mountains and mighty rivers’, in the latest in a string of choreographed media appearances

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, will appear with Bear Grylls in a wilderness survival television programme, the latest in a series of Putin-style media appearances in which the 68-year-old leader projects himself as a man of action and a champion of the environment.

A trailer for the programme, Man vs Wild, which will air in India on 12 August, shows the two men cutting through forests, sniffing animal dung and floating down a river on a makeshift raft. In one scene, Modi holds an improvised spear and tells Grylls: “I’ll hold this for you.”

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Indian navy rescues more than 800 people from train stranded in floodwaters

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Mahalaxmi Express stuck for about 12 hours near Mumbai when river burst its banks after torrential rain

Indian navy helicopters and emergency service boats came to the rescue of more than 800 people stranded on a train in floods near Mumbai on Saturday. Some reports have the number of people affected at over 1,000.

The Mahalaxmi Express left Mumbai late on Friday for Kolhapur but travelled only 60 kilometres (37 miles) before it became stranded after a river burst its banks in torrential rain, covering the tracks.

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Iran tanker standoff: Tehran releases nine crew of Mt Riah vessel

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India urges Tehran to release remaining three crew of tanker seized on 13 July amid Middle East tensions

Iran has freed nine of 12 Indian crew members of MT Riah, a Panama-flagged tanker it seized this month as part of a growing diplomatic crisis in the Middle East, the Indian foreign ministry said on Saturday.

The MT Riah was detained by the Iranian coastguard on 13 July, with 12 Indian crew members on board, the Indian foreign ministry said, and appealed for the release of the remaining crew. No reason has been provided as to why the three are being held.

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Indian villagers beat tiger to death after attacks on locals

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Mobile phone video of incident goes viral as one of nine people attacked dies of injuries

Indian police have arrested four people after a mob of villagers brutally beat to death a tiger that had attacked local people.

Mobile phone footage of the incident went viral on social media, and officials said one of nine people injured by the animal earlier had died in hospital.

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Fury in India over Donald Trump’s Kashmir claims

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US president said during meeting with Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, that India wanted him to mediate

India’s foreign minister has firmly denied Donald Trump’s claim that the US president was invited by the Indian government to mediate in the Kashmir dispute, following a furious response from opposition MPs.

Trump’s remarks, made sitting alongside the Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, on Monday, provoked uproar in the Indian parliament and demands for the prime minister, Narendra Modi, to respond.

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India’s Chandrayaan-2 moon mission lifts off a week after aborted launch

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With first mission to land on lunar south pole, India aims to join club comprising Russia, US and China

India’s mission to the moon has blasted into space one week after a technical glitch forced scientists to abruptly halt its scheduled launch.

Thousands gathered to watch Chandrayaan-2 take off at 2.43pm local time (0913 GMT) on Monday from Satish Dhawan space centre in Sriharikota, north of Chennai.

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India launches mission to explore south pole of moon – video

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India’s mission to the moon has blasted into space one week after a technical glitch forced scientists to abruptly halt its scheduled launch. Thousands gathered to watch Chandrayaan-2 take off on Monday from Satish Dhawan space centre in Sriharikota, north of Chennai. It will travel to the little-explored south pole of the moon

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Lunar eclipse 2019: from Australia to the UK, stargazers enjoy bright side of the moon

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Photographers from Sydney to Brasilia capture July’s stunning partial lunar eclipse

Stargazers around the world have enjoyed a view of a global lunar eclipse, delighting people from Dehli to Dublin.

The partial eclipse was visible in nearly every part of the world except for North America and the polar climes of Greenland and northern Russia.

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Death toll from floods in south Asia rises to more than 100

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Millions displaced in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, with Assam and Bihar among the worst-hit regions

More than 100 people have been killed and millions more affected by devastating floods and landslides across India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

In the Indian state of Assam, among the worst hit areas, agencies were working on a war footing to deal with the situation, the chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, said.

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India’s Chandrayaan-2 moon mission called off minutes before launch

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Nation’s first attempt at a landing on the moon put on hold due to ‘technical snag’

India’s moon mission, destined for the uncharted south pole, has been put on hold less than an hour before take off, following a technical glitch.

The mission, which was scheduled to launch at 02:51 local time from Sriharikota space centre, north of Chennai, is India’s most ambitious to date.

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India’s ‘dosa king’ to begin life sentence for murder of love rival

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Restaurant tycoon P Rajagopal turns himself in after losing last-ditch attempt to avoid jail

The trailblazing Indian founder of a global restaurant chain has surrendered to a court after losing a last-ditch attempt to avoid a life sentence for murdering a love rival.

P Rajagopal rose from rags to riches to create the Saravana Bhavan chain, which has more than 80 restaurants in India and around the world, including London, New York, Singapore, Sydney and Stockholm.

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Social stock exchange idea highlights India’s move away from foreign aid

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Proposal could provide cheaper funding for charities, says finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, but critics warn against greater government control of welfare projects

India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has called for the creation of a “social stock exchange”, allowing ethically minded investors to buy stakes in social enterprises, volunteer groups and welfare organisations.

The proposal would be a radical experiment in a country characterised by stark inequality and rapid economic growth.

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Real sole: recycling project providing shoes for India’s children

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Two Mumbai athletes are converting old footwear into flip-flops for unshod schoolchildren

In the vast Indian interior, it is not unusual to see shoeless infants – whether walking barefoot to school or hopping around on makeshift sports pitches. Injuries are common and lead to infections such as hookworm and elephantiasis.

More than 250 million Indians live below the poverty line and footwear is usually a luxury. Tens of millions of children have no shoes. (By contrast, roughly 300m pairs of shoes are discarded in the US every year).

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The Indian state where farmers sow the seeds of death

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Cancer rates are the highest in the country, drug addiction is rife, and 900 farmers have killed themselves in two years. How did Punjab turn toxic?

The road to Langroya village weaves its way through fields rich with crops that offer a vivid snapshot of India’s kitchens. There is wheat, rice, sugarcane, maize, mustard seed and a rich variety of vegetables that have made this corner of the country India’s most important agricultural region.

Like the majority of their compatriots in Punjab, Langroya’s residents rely on farming for their existence. About three-quarters of the state’s 30 million-strong population is involved in agriculture, with wheat the number one commodity. But while Punjab is known as “India’s bread basket”, there are challenges amid the abundance.

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Congo abuses drive global rise in sexual violence against women

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Study identifies DRC, India and South Sudan among countries where women are at greatest risk of attack

Sexual violence is on the increase both inside and outside of wartime contexts and women remain the primary victims, warns new research.

In their report, researchers from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (Acled) analysed data gathered from 400 recorded sexual violence events that occurred between January 2018 and June 2019.

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Trade war looms over G20 as Trump attacks India over tariffs – business live

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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as US president blasts India for raising tariffs on American goods

Heads-up: One of Donald Trump’s top advisors has warned that America could press on and raise tariffs on Chinese imports.

Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, has said America is insisting on ‘structural changes’ to China’s intellectual property laws, with effective enforcement for any breaches.

“If need be, we may move ahead – we may move ahead on additional tariffs.

We have word from the WH --> Kudlow says there are no preconditions set ahead of any trade talks with China. (per @Reuters, Fox News)

This G20 summit is Theresa May’s last big foreign trip before stepping down as PM.

She’s expected to hold meeting with Australian PM Scott Morrison, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Quite the lineup for Theresa May's one-to-one meetings at this G20 summit in Osaka - Putin, Mohammad bin Salman, Erdogan...And Trump will be here too, of course. So much for that "rules-based global order" she prizes.

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‘It’s stifling at home’: why free metro travel offers a lifeline for Delhi’s women

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City authorities say positive discrimination will make journeys safer and help low-income families

As a politics student, Sonakshi Dogra has given the bold new plan by the Delhi government to let all women ride free on the metro and buses a thorough going-over. “It’s ridiculous. Why favour women this way? What about male students and working men? Women can’t ask for gender equality and then support inequality on public transport,” she said firmly.

Dogra was about to enter Ashram metro station with three male friends, also students at the same university. They spend about 4,000 rupees (£45) each a month on transport.

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India bus crash: more than 40 die as vehicle plunges into gorge

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Women and children among dead in mountainous Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh

At least 44 people were killed when a bus in India’s mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh plunged into a gorge on Thursday, officials said.

Another 28 were undergoing treatment, many of them for critical injuries, after the private vehicle veered off the road and fell into a 150-metre (500-foot) gorge near Banjar in Kullu district of the northern Himalayan state.

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Himalayan glacier melting doubled since 2000, spy satellites show

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Ice losses indicate ‘devastating’ future for region and 1 billion people who depend on it for water

The melting of Himalayan glaciers has doubled since the turn of the century, with more than a quarter of all ice lost over the last four decades, scientists have revealed. The accelerating losses indicate a “devastating” future for the region, upon which a billion people depend for regular water.

The scientists combined declassified US spy satellite images from the mid-1970s with modern satellite data to create the first detailed, four-decade record of ice along the 2,000km (1,200-mile) mountain chain.

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