Indian capital imposes emergency measures including closing schools and offices and barring heavy vehicles
Pollution levels in India’s capital, Delhi, have soared to their highest levels this year, forcing schools and offices to close and cloaking the city in thick brown smog.
In some parts of the city, a live air quality ranking by IQAir put pollution levels at more than 30 times the maximum level deemed healthy.
Continue reading...As air pollution hits toxic levels, one proposal is to introduce a ‘smog diplomacy’ initiative between Pakistan and India
As the smog descended over Lahore, people began to feel the familiar symptoms. First came the scratchy throat and burning eyes, then the dizziness, tightness in the chest and the dry racking cough.
“It’s become a physical ordeal just to go outdoors,” said Jawaria, 28, a master’s student living in the Pakistani city.
Continue reading...Delhi chief minister had been in jail since being arrested in March in corruption case he says is politically motivated
One of India’s most prominent opposition leaders has been granted bail after spending almost six months in jail for a corruption case he alleged was politically motivated.
On Friday, India’s supreme court ruled that, Arvind Kejriwal, who is the chief minister of Delhi, should be immediately released from jail in Delhi, where he has been held since his arrest in March.
Continue reading...Almost 200 killed as deluge sweeps northern India, while rain gives way to high humidity at Paris Olympics
Between Wednesday and Thursday morning, 147mm of rain was recorded in eastern parts of Delhi by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), breaking a 14-year record for the highest single day total in July.
Delhi received more than half its monthly rainfall on Wednesday. This torrential rain damaged infrastructure throughout northern India as waterlogged drains led to flash floods.
Continue reading...Temperatures of more than 45C have left population of 29 million exhausted – but the poorest suffer most
As the water tanker drove into a crowded Delhi neighbourhood, a ruckus erupted. Dozens of residents ran frantically behind it, brandishing buckets, bottles and hoses, and jumped on top of it to get even a drip of what was stored inside. Temperatures that day had soared to 49C (120F), the hottest day on record – and in many places across India’s vast capital, home to more than 29 million people, water had run out.
Every morning, Tripti, a social health worker who lives in the impoverished enclave of Vivekanand Camp, is among those who has to stand under the blazing sun with buckets and pots, waiting desperately for the water tanker to arrive.
Continue reading...Meteorological department examining data from Mungeshpur station amid soaring temperatures that came close to 50 degrees Celsius
Authorities in India are investigating whether a faulty sensor may have been behind a reading that showed temperatures in Delhi soaring past 50 degrees for the first time, amid a scorching heatwave in the capital.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said it was examining the data and sensors at the Mungeshpur station after an unusually large variation in temperatures was recorded at the station compared to others.
Continue reading...Calls for fair legal process for opposition figure Arvind Kejriwal amid claims rivals to Modi are being targeted before elections
Arvind Kejriwal: the Delhi chief minister jailed by Modi’s government
The chief minister of Delhi has been remanded in custody for a further four days amid international criticism of his arrest on corruption charges last week.
A Delhi court ruled on Thursday that a powerful central government agency could keep Arvind Kejriwal in jail until 1 April as part of a corruption investigation his party decried as a “political conspiracy” before national elections beginning next month.
Continue reading...Judge says Arvind Kejriwal can be held until next Thursday, as his party’s leaders condemn accusations as politically motivated
An Indian court has ruled that Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, will be kept in custody for six days after his dramatic arrest on corruption charges.
Kejriwal, the top elected official for the Indian capital, was taken in by police on Thursday night as part of an investigation into an alleged scam involving kickbacks for alcohol licensing deals.
Continue reading...Fear of crime in UK capital is one of biggest concerns of rich Indians, says entrepreneur
Indian business people are avoiding being out and about in Mayfair over fears they could be mugged for their expensive watches after a 27% rise in “theft from a person” in London, an entrepreneur has said.
Devin Narang, an entrepreneur, told a meeting attended by David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, that fear of crime in London was one of the biggest concerns of India’s rich elite.
“People are being mugged in the heart of London – in Mayfair,” Narang, a member of the executive committee of the federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industry, said at a meeting in New Delhi, according to the Financial Times. “All CEOs in India have had an experience of physical mugging and the police [in London] not responding.”
Season of smog begins with air quality index near worst possible level of 500 and little apparent progress in controlling annual poisonous blight on life
Air quality in Delhi hit severe levels on Friday and a thick toxic smog cloaked the city, marking the beginning of a pollution season that has become an annual catastrophe for India’s capital.
Schools were shut and non-essential construction was banned around Delhi as the air quality index in the city hit 500 – the highest the measurement will go and 100 times the limit deemed to be healthy by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Continue reading...Search also carried out on office of news website under investigation for allegedly receiving funds from China
Police have carried out early morning raids on a news portal office and the homes of almost 50 journalists, activists and comedians across India under anti-terrorism laws, deepening concerns over a crackdown on freedom of expression in the country.
Delhi police carried out the searches on numerous locations on Tuesday morning. Several journalists were detained, with their phones and laptops confiscated, and some were taken in for questioning. Delhi police confirmed that two journalists had been arrested in the case.
Continue reading...The neglected but sustainable cereal crop is on every hotel menu in town as India’s government tries to spark a global craze
As the leaders of the world’s largest economies descended on Delhi this weekend, there were two things on the menu: geopolitics and millet.
India is seeking to use its G20 presidency to push a narrative of the country as an economic powerhouse and leader of the global south, but also as a platform to elevate humble millet, a long-neglected but environmentally sustainable cereal that the country’s government is on a campaign to promote. Having already persuaded the UN General Assembly to declare this year as “international year of millet”, on Saturday the foreign leaders were treated to a specially curated summit lunch designed to show that millet is undeserving of its lowly reputation.
Continue reading...Party leader seeks to win back British Indian voters after anger over party’s perceived support for Pakistan in Kashmir dispute
Keir Starmer has promised to reset relations between the Labour party and India after years of tension between the two.
The Labour leader said on Monday that his party had made mistakes in its approach to relations with the world’s most populous country, and that it would seek closer ties if elected to power next year.
Continue reading...Ankush Dutta was meant to check out after one night but reportedly stayed for nearly two years
Indian police are investigating a suspected fraudster who spent nearly two years in a five-star hotel without paying, local media have said.
Ankush Dutta booked a room at Roseate House hotel in Delhi on 30 May 2019 and was supposed to check out the next day. But he extended his stay for 603 nights until 22 January 2021, leaving behind unpaid bills of $70,000 (£55,000).
Continue reading...Opposition groups push Modi to investigate allegations by US short-seller as firm suffers market rout
The crisis engulfing the Adani Group has intensified as hundreds of members of India’s opposition parties took to the streets to press for an investigation into allegations by a US short-seller against India’s second-biggest business group which triggered its market rout.
The Adani Group said on Monday that its major investors, known in India as “promoters”, had pledged to prepay $1.1bn (£916m) in share-backed loans due for repayment by September 2024. The repayments include shares in Adani’s ports business, Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission.
Continue reading...Police in spotlight after claims they failed to respond to reports car with five men had not stopped
The death of a 20-year-old woman who was reportedly dragged for almost an hour by a car after a vehicle collision in Delhi has provoked outrage and calls for justice.
The woman was driving home from work in the early hours of New Year’s Day when her scooter and a car collided. News reports say the car driver and four passengers, all male, did not stop, dragging her body for miles through the streets of outer Delhi.
Continue reading...Dozens injured as official says building had no fire exit and most died ‘due to asphyxiation’
At least 27 people have died and dozens more were injured in a huge fire in a commercial building in India’s capital, Delhi.
The large fire broke out at the four-storey building near a railway station in the western suburb of Mundka in the late afternoon on Friday, but its cause was not immediately clear.
Continue reading...Country appears more divided than ever along Hindu-Muslim lines – and for many, Modi’s BJP is to blame
The procession had begun peacefully. Marching through the streets of Delhi’s Jahangirpuri district on Saturday, the devotees had gathered to celebrate the Hindu festival of Hanuman Jayanti. But the peace did not last long. As the evening drew in, an unauthorised parade began to gather. This time, men clad in saffron, the signature colour of Hindu nationalism, filled the streets brandishing swords and pistols, and started to shout provocative communal slogans.
Ignoring previous agreements between Hindu and Muslim residents for the procession to avoid passing by a local mosque, they charged toward it.
Continue reading...Break into male-dominated public-transport helps tackle city’s pollution crisis and safety concerns
Monika Devi is thrilled to be driving her autorickshaw. The 35-year-old has two reasons to be particularly proud as she winds her way through New Delhi’s insanely congested streets.
She is one of the first women to be driving one of the three-wheeled taxis that swarm the roads of the Indian capital. And she is driving one of Delhi’s first e-rickshaws – part of the city’s drive to tackle its notoriously filthy air.
Continue reading...Blaze at 65-metre high ‘mountain of shame’ in Ghazipur still not completely put out
Parts of a fire that broke out on Monday at a gigantic landfill site on the outskirts of Delhi known as the “mountain of shame” were still smouldering 24 hours later, choking local residents who have complained of breathing in toxic fumes.
Dozens of firefighters struggled to douse the flames at the landfill site in Ghazipur, due to its height and a lack of access roads.
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