Worldcrunch
DIBRUGARH — A blazing sun is shining on Jyoti Khaund’s plantation, where rows of green foliage stretch as far as the eye can see. This hot and damp district in the Brahmaputra Valley, in the northeastern state of Assam, is where India’s best tea is produced. But Khaund is frustrated this morning looking over his […]
India’s Supreme Court made it compulsory to play the national anthem in cinemas. And you better stand up when the music starts.
In India’s patriarchal society, there’s a cultural tendency to favor boys, which leads to too many parents each year abandoning their baby girls. At least there is a way to avoid the worst outcome.
I’m an analog kind of photographer: I started taking pictures in the 1950s, when film was still somewhat expensive — meaning that even though I now own a digital camera, I’ve never really gotten used to taking lots of shots of the same subject. But some of the world’s wonders, like the Taj Mahal, are […]
India’s startling announcement last month to swap out most banknotes in circulation — possibly the biggest currency change in decades anywhere in the world — went largely unnoticed outside the country. It was Nov. 8 and most people were captivated by a little election taking place on the other side of the planet. But the […]
-Farewell- Foreigners who visit Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India that’s home to stunning Hindu temples and a robust economy, would often puzzle over the matronly woman draped in a sari watching over them from posters and billboards seemingly splashed on every street. There’s even a statue of her in blood. She was born […]
NEW DELHI — I am outside the Reserve Bank of India building in New Delhi. It’s 8 a.m. The bank opens at 9 a.m. but more than 300 people have already queued up here. Among them is 60-year-old Mohammad Mustaqeem. He runs a garment shop but hasn’t been able to open it for the last three days. “There’s no business in the market. The only thing for us to do now is to stand in these queues for money because without it we can’t even get food.” “The grocer is now refusing credit so we can’t get milk, we can’t […]
SEEMAPURI — In this neighborhood on the outskirts of Delhi, electronic scrap keeps growing. Piles and piles of electronic waste or “e-waste” litter the narrow alleys here from old computer circuit boards and cables to discarded keyboards and phone handsets. Mohammad Salman, 25, deals with such e-waste. “We collect it from all over the country, from waste pickers and other scrap dealers and then look for items that can be fixed,” he says. Salman says he sells the precious metals that can be found in e-waste. “We give it to bigger dealers and what they do with it is their […]
You’d want to be just about anywhere but the Indian capital of New Delhi today. Smog choked the city and triggered warnings that even healthy people were at risk of respiratory problems. Air pollution typically peaks in Delhi at this time of the year, driven in part by firecrackers burned to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu […]
Droughts, demographics, industrialization, pollution, climate change … The need for more clean and accessible water is growing urgent in many places around the world. But beyond praying to the rain gods, what real-life responses are out there? Innovation is key both to help preserve clean water sources, as well as finding new ways to purify […]
You’re never quite sure of what’s in the wicker baskets of the street peddlers in Jaipur. It could be some fresh fruit or vegetables — or a cobra!
India’s northern state of Bihar recently imposed a complete ban on alcohol in the state, driven largely by women’s rights groups. The prohibition is now blamed for a dozen recent deaths from bad booze.
In the Bharatpur bird sanctuary, these long-billed vultures had built their nests in the trees. These vultures are more widely found around the cities of Mumbai and Karachi, where the Parsi community’s rituals include leaving its dead outside to be eaten by the scavenger bird species.
Most Indians are vegetarians. But omelets, a colonial legacy, remain popular in India.
To deal with daily traffic jams in the Indian city of Jaipur, locals and tourists alike turn to fast and cheap rickshaws that can weave through clogged city streets.
Moviegoers are turning out in droves to see Kabali, a new Indian film featuring superstar Rajinikanth. What’s all the excitement about? KBR journalist Jasvinder Sehgal attends a pre-dawn premiere to find out.
Qawwali is Sufi devotional and mystic poetry that promotes a tolerant form of Islam. It dates back centuries, but is losing ground to popular rock and Bollywood music.
Just go, leave everything behind and relax. We sent our reporter to Jodhpur, India’s blue city, where he is desperately trying to disconnect with all his worldly stress.
India’s capital, New Delhi, has long been known for its over-the-top traffic jams and erratic drivers — here’s how it looked 22 years ago.
In the western state of Rajasthan, a group of about 70 village girls, some of them already married, are receiving a full education, a break from their families, and a chance at independence.
NEW DELHI — The journalists gathered for an editorial meeting at their newspaper in the Indian capital. Their work includes hard-hitting reportage and investigative scoops that other publications in the country followed up on. The group of journalists are unlike most others. They live on the streets. And they are all under the age of 18. Their paper, a New Dehlhi monthly called Balaknama or ‘Voice of Children,’ publishes stories of children living and working on the streets. Exploring topics such as child sexual abuse, child labor and police brutality, the newspaper has doubled in size from its original four […]
Airline passenger traffic is not slowing down, registering worldwide growth of 6.8% in 2015. The growing demand means more opportunity but also more competition, and airports need to be innovative to attract both business and pleasure air travelers. Long layovers can be tiresome, but not necessarily in Changi, Singapore. With free video games, film screenings, […]
TRUMP TRIUMPHS, CRUZ QUITS The improbable and, in the view of some prominent Republicans, unacceptable, has come to pass: It will be Trump. The Washington Post reports that short of some unforeseen twist, the controversial real estate tycoon Donald Trump will become the GOP’s presidential nominee after a landslide victory in Indiana yesterday pushed his […]
MUMBAI — In the western state of Maharashtra, dozens of men, women and children surround a water tanker on the main road. They hold pitchers, buckets and other containers, and are trying to fill as many as they can. Renuka, 35, pushes her way to the top of the tanker and is able to fill her five pitchers. “I waited 15 days to get this much water. But how long will it last?” she says. “We haven’t had tap water for the last two years. Our ponds and wells have dried up. There’s no water at all.” Manohar was less […]
Under the watchful eye of the Indian government, yoga master Sri Sri Ravi Shankar wants to resolve the world’s conflicts through a breathing technique. At a gathering last month, he attracted 3.5 million followers in New Delhi.
DEATH TOLL FROM DAMASCUS AIR STRIKE NOW AT 33 The death toll from airstrikes carried out yesterday in the Deir al-Asafir district southeast of Damascus has risen to 33, mostly women and children, Reuters reports this morning. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the strikes were carried out by Syrian aircraft and […]
Air pollution has reached record levels in the Indian capital. In some areas, it’s at least 10 times higher than the World Health Organization acceptable norms. But it appears some action is finally taking place … Read the full article Les Echos/Worldcrunch article: New Delhi Pollution, A Roadmap To Disaster.
HILLARY V. DONALD SHOWDOWN NEARS Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have expanded their respective leads after 14 million voters cast their ballots yesterday in Democratic and Republican primaries in five states, with The Washington Post reporting that it is now increasingly improbable that rivals stand a chance of catching up to the frontrunners in the […]
The Indian city is among the worst in the world for air quality. Automobiles share much of the blame, with some 1,400 cars a day joining the estimated 8.5 million vehicles already circulating there. But there are other factors too.
A woman’s movement challenging a centuries-old practice of denying women entry into the most sacred areas of worship in Hindu temples and Muslim shrines is generating a heated debate across India.
A SYRIAN TRUCE, ISIS EXCLUDED The Syrian government and the umbrella group for the main opposition agreed this morning to the terms of a ceasefire that was negotiated yesterday between the United States and Russia, the BBC reports. But the truce, set to begin midday Saturday, excludes ISIS, al-Qaeda and affiliated groups, Al Jazeera reports. […]
ISIS TARGETS SYRIA’S MUSLIM MINORITIES Despite losing ground across much of Syria, ISIS remains a dangerous threat in the western part of the country under the Syrian government’s control. A series of explosions in the cities of Homs and in the capital Damascus yesterday killed at least 140 people and wounded dozens more. ISIS claimed […]
Anti-colonialism’s echo: India balks at Mark Zuckerberg’s plans of offering free but limited Internet access, which is ultimately aimed at boosting Facebooks’ numbers. Will the rest of the world follow?
In October, India issued a ban on foreign couples seeking surrogacy there. Now, a proposed law wants to make the entire industry illegal, even for Indian couples. Surrogates and their advocates say it would be a dangerous mistake.
This Indian camel (or dromadaire, as we call them in French) had just been for a refill at the watering trough, drinking its usual 20 gallons at a time. Just so you know, contrary to popular belief, the water is not stored its hump, but in its bloodstream.