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☆ Indian Official Who Drained a Reservoir to Retrieve His Phone Is Suspended
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Sameer Yasir | Mike Ives | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Say you drop your brand-new smartphone into a reservoir while posing for a selfie during a picnic. Would you consider it lost and buy a replacement, or drain the reservoir to retrieve it? An Indian official who chose the latter option has been suspended from his job. Initially, some villagers he knew spent two days diving in the reservoir in an attempt to retrieve the phone, Mr. Vishwas told The Indian Express newspaper. So he rented a diesel pump and drained about three feet of water over another two days — by some estimates, enough to irrigate 1,500 acres of farmland.

☆ China's travel recovery gets more attention, but India's outbound market is 'booming' even faster
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Charmaine Jacob | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Company data showed that while outbound travel searches from most Asia-Pacific countries increased between 30% and 60% from 2019, searches from travelers in India jumped by 225%. Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia are top picks for Indian travelers. "Vietnam is within the top five destinations and it was never there in 2019," Morgenshtern said. "There's this perception that the Indian traveler's economic power is very low. It may be true domestically, but when it comes to outbound, I actually think it's on par with the Chinese when they visit other Asian countries," Agoda's Morgenshtern said.

☆ India appeals tribunal upholds Go First bankruptcy in setback for lessors
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, May 22 (Reuters) - An Indian appeals tribunal on Monday upheld insolvency proceedings against cash-strapped airline Go First, making it tougher for its lessors to repossess their aircraft. At least three leasing companies, including GY Aviation Lease and SMBC Aviation Capital, had challenged a tribunal ruling granting Go Airlines (India), widely known as Go First, bankruptcy protection earlier this month. The appeals tribunal said on Monday the National Company Law Tribunal will decide whether lessors who terminated their leases before the bankruptcy proceedings began can repossess their aircraft. Go First Chairman Varun Berry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi and Tanvi Mehta Editing by David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Grenade Detonation Kills Father and Injures His Two Children
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Eduardo Medina | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An Indiana father was killed and his two children were injured after they went through a grandfather’s belongings and found a hand grenade that detonated when someone pulled the pin, the authorities said. The explosion, which occurred Saturday sometime before 6:30 p.m., unleashed shrapnel that injured the father’s 14-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter, who were taken to a hospital, the sheriff’s department said in a statement. Their conditions were not immediately known on Sunday night, and the authorities have not identified members of the family. The father was found dead at the scene, the sheriff’s department said. A bomb squad was called to the home “to secure the area and determine whether there may be additional explosive devices,” the authorities said.

"They are very seriously looking at India as a production and innovation base," Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in the first public comment by an Indian government official on the talks. Tesla proposed setting up a factory in India to build electric vehicles (EVs) and is also looking at manufacturing EV batteries, Reuters reported. Asked if talks with Tesla included more than just making vehicles, Chandrasekhar said "you don't talk about cars alone" when such discussions take place. "You talk about cars, you talk about energy, you talk about manufacturing technology. Outside the United States, Tesla has a plant in Shanghai - its largest factory worldwide - and one in Brandenburg, Germany.

☆ How to Wear a Sari? A New Exhibition Counts the Ways.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Phyllida Jay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The sari, in essence, is a six- to nine-yard cloth draped freely around the body. In April, Zendaya wore a sparkling deep-blue sari by Rahul Mishra on a red carpet in Mumbai, India. At the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, the Indian actress Deepika Padukone wore a shimmering gold-and-black sari by Sabyasachi Mukherjee that Vogue France called “the star piece” of the festival. Ms. Poonawalla’s Met Gala sari is among the pieces featured in a new exhibition, “The Offbeat Sari,” opening on Friday at the Design Museum in London. The show, which runs through September, explores how the sari is being newly defined, said Priya Khanchandani, the head of curatorial at the museum.

India's antitrust body in October fined Google $275 million in two cases, which involved abusing its dominant position in the Android operating system market, and pushing developers to use its in-app payment system. "The ministry has to take action," Chandrasekhar said. India's competition watchdog has begun another inquiry into Google after Tinder owner Match Group (MTCH.O) and many startups alleged that a new service fee system Google uses for in-app payments breaches the competition commission's October decision. Google has previously said the service fee supports investments in the Google Play app store and the Android mobile operating system, ensuring it can distribute it for free. About 97% of India's 620 million smartphones run on Android, and the company counts India as a critical growth market.

☆ Europe wants to ban Russian diamond imports. What comes next?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

“Russian diamonds are not forever,” European Council President Charles Michel said on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, on Friday. Tatyana Makeyeva/ReutersA ban on Russian diamonds could inflate prices for European consumers, especially if diamond production elsewhere doesn’t ramp up. The biggest task facing Europe is how to design an air-tight ban that prevents Russian diamonds from arriving in the bloc through circuitous routes. “There are a lot of Russian diamonds that still get sold within the American economy,” he said. “If you really want to close loopholes, you need to find a system that prevents [Russian] diamonds going to the G7 market,” Neys said.

Tesla is proposing to manufacture and sell vehicles in the country, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing a source. Import duties of as much as 100% made it difficult to gauge demand, so Tesla lobbied to reduce tariffs, rather than producing locally. Committing to a factory could work for Musk too, though justifying a Tesla-sized facility calls for fast and furious sales. When Tesla set up a Gigafactory in China in 2019, its sheer scale meant supply chains sprang up to serve it. Senior Tesla executives are in India this week to meet the government to discuss local sourcing of parts and other issues, Reuters reported on May 16.

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and federal and state regulators attended the session in February, according to a statement from the health ministry that did not mention cough syrups. A source with knowledge of the matter said the policy change could mean increased oversight of India's $41 billion pharmaceutical industry, which is the world's largest supplier of generic medicines. Increased testing of cough syrups as well as of raw materials for drugs in general is one of the steps being considered, said the source. India has acted against a second Indian company whose cough syrups were linked to the deaths of 19 kids in Uzbekistan, including the arrest of three of its employees. Indian health officials have expressed concern that the incidents of contaminated syrups will harm its pharmaceutical industry.

☆ India's Russian oil buying hits record high, slashes Mideast, Africa share
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Nidhi Verma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Asia's third-largest economy imported about 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil in April, about 4.4% higher than the previous month, the data showed. Higher imports from Russian raised the share of oil from the C.I.S. India's oil imports from various regionsRussia remained the top oil supplier to India for the sixth-straight month in April, followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Oil imports from Russia also rose as Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS), the country's top refiner, raised the size of its annual import deal with Rosneft (ROSN.MM). Lower purchases of oil from the Middle East dragged OPEC's share of India oil imports to a record low of 46%, the data showed.

☆ India’s airline turbulence will be felt abroad
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Shritama Bose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

India’s Go First has gone into bankruptcy – the country’s second airline to do so since 2019. Its subsequent public and messy spat with engine suppliers and lessors will have ripple effects across the industry and abroad. Go, the country’s third largest airline with a 7% market share, blames Raytheon Technologies-backed (RTX.N) Pratt & Whitney’s “faulty” engines. A global industry association, Aviation Working Group, has put India on a watchlist for violating global conventions on repossession of airplanes. The trouble at Go may not put them off but it promises some extra turbulence ahead.

NEW DELHI, May 16 (Reuters) - Senior Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) executives will meet Indian government officials on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss local procurement of parts and other issues, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Tesla and an Indian government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The electric carmaker had hired a local team and begun a search for showroom space, but that was also abandoned last year. The meeting comes weeks ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States in June. Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Additional reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Chief Standing Bear is honored on a USPS Forever stamp
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Harmeet Kaur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The stamp, which features a portrait of Chief Standing Bear by illustrator Thomas Blackshear II, was unveiled last week at a ceremony in Lincoln, Nebraska. “I hope this stamp will serve as a reminder of the lessons we’ve learned from Chief Standing Bear, and the brave Ponca people, especially here in the Cornhusker State.”Chief Standing Bear was a leader of the Ponca people in the late 1800s. An archival photo of Chief Standing Bear, a leader of the Ponca people in the late 1800s. In 1879, a newspaper editor interviewed Chief Standing Bear while in detention, and the story of his plight gained national attention, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society. In a speech before the court, Chief Standing Bear said through an interpreter, “That hand is not the color of yours, but if I pierce it, I shall feel pain.

☆ The Brutal Past and Uncertain Future of Native Adoptions
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Gabrielle Glaser | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“This law has helped us return home,” said Ms. White Hawk, who is also the author of “A Child of the Indian Race,” a memoir. “It has helped us to reclaim our spiritual wealth as Indian people.”For Mr. Stearns, the road to connect with his Navajo self was long and uneven. “His long hair made my mom suspicious,” Mr. Stearns said. Mr. Stearns said that his parents, who are both dead, never hid his adoption, and were proud that he was Navajo. “They were in it to show the love they had to a kid.” But Mr. Stearns could never breach a more personal chasm.

☆ I got laid off from Twitter in November, but now I'm making six figures as a food influencer. Here's how.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

This is an as-told-to story based on a conversation with Priyanka Naik, the food blogger behind the brand Chef Priyanka. All the while, I was building my brand: Chef Priyanka. Eventually, I started getting recognition from various food media sites. Twitter gave me flexibilityOne of the reasons I stayed so long at Twitter was because of the reach and flexibility it gave me to grow Chef Priyanka. And in some ways, it was the nudge I needed to turn Chef Priyanka into a full-time gig.

☆ In Los Angeles, an Indian Chinese Feast Celebrating Female Founders
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Jean Trinh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Before all of that, though, the women had some cooking to do, with help from chef Akilah York, whom Gao had hired to provide culinary back up. The goal was to kick back while shoring one another up. “We’re going around the table being like, ‘I see you. The guest Yasmine Khatib of the Los Angeles flower studio Yasmine Floral Design provided a trio of pastel arrangements: white vases filled with foxgloves, pincushions, peonies, poppies and alliums. And Shelley Kleyn Armistead, another guest and the chief executive of the Gjelina hospitality group, supplied the speckled white dinner plates from Gjelina’s kitchenware brand, Gjusta Goods.

In granting bankruptcy protection, the National Company Law Tribunal in New Delhi ordered a moratorium on Go First's assets and leases. But bankruptcy protection supersede lessors' repossession requests. Go First's lessors also include SMBC Aviation Capital and CDB Aviation's GY Aviation Leasing. Its voluntary seeking of bankruptcy protection to renegotiate contracts and debt marks a first for an Indian airline, and Chief Executive Officer Kaushik Khona, who was present as the order was read, hailed the tribunal's decision as "historic". The Indian tribunal said the new resolution professional will take "all necessary steps including the execution of the arbitral award".

This is the first time an Indian airline has voluntarily sought bankruptcy protection to renegotiate contracts and debt. But if bankruptcy protection is granted, those laws supersede lessors' repossession requests. Go First's lessors include major global names such as Jackson Square Aviation, SMBC Aviation Capital and CDB Aviation's GY Aviation Leasing. Two advisers to some lessors said there were major concerns that the granting of bankruptcy protection for Go First could force the lessors to embark on lengthy litigation to repossess planes. The person added that the development could lead to higher lease rates for Indian airlines in the future.

India has made it easier for lessors to take back planes if airlines default on payments after joining an international treaty known as the Cape Town Convention. But lack of a proper legislation to enforce the treaty means India's bankruptcy law will supersede lessors' repossession requests, lawyers said. Go First's lessors include major global names such as Jackson Square Aviation, SMBC Aviation Capital and CDB Aviation's GY Aviation Leasing. Bigger rivals IndiGo (INGL.NS) and Tata Group's Air India are charting major expansion plans with hundreds of new planes on order as domestic air travel in India surpasses pre-pandemic levels. Air India did not immediately respond.

☆ China assures Russia, India of deepening 'cooperation'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang pose for a photograph during the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers' meeting in Goa, India, May 4, 2023. Currently the bloc includes Russia, India, China, Pakistan and four Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Iran and Belarus are expected to be inducted into the SCO at a summit in New Delhi in July, an Indian foreign ministry official said. In a separate meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Qin said China is willing to deepen "coordination and cooperation" on international and regional issues with India and bring ties back to a "healthy" track of development. China's ties with India have deteriorated since 2020, when their troops clashed on a disputed Himalayan border and 24 people were killed.

☆ How the nation's first alert system to help find Indigenous people brings new awareness for the missing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Nicole Chavez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Nearly a year since the nation’s first alert system for missing Indigenous people launched in Washington, the push to address the crisis of unsolved cases continues spreading in the state and beyond its borders. As of this week, authorities have issued 56 alerts, according to the Washington State Patrol. “It’s working because of the community coming together and people stepping up,” said Patti Gosch, a tribal liaison with the Washington State Patrol. The focus on the crisis of missing Indigenous persons in the state and its efforts are expanding. As of Monday, there were 142 Native Americans missing in Washington state, according to the Washington State Patrol.

☆ Der Spiegel cartoon of India reopens old wounds in world's new most populous country
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Rhea Mogul | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The illustration, published last month in German news magazine Der Spiegel, shows a throng of jubilant Indians on an old and overcrowded locomotive – many standing on the roof – as it overtakes a sleek Chinese bullet train. But more than three quarters of a century later, critics of the Der Spiegel cartoon say it is unfair to view India through the lens of poverty. CNN has reached out to Der Spiegel for comment. Sankhadeep Banerjee/NurPhoto/Getty Images‘Suck up to China’The Der Spiegel cartoon “plays with very old fashioned clichés,” Germany’s ambassador to India, Philipp Ackermann, told Indian news agency ANI. “Der Spiegel caricaturing India in this manner has no resemblance to reality,” Gupta, the senior government adviser wrote on Twitter.

India started exploring a rupee settlement mechanism with Russia soon the invasion of Ukraine in February last year, but there has been no reported deal done in rupees. "We don't want to push rupee settlement any more, that mechanism is just not working. Another official said both countries have started looking for alternatives after the rupee settlement mechanism did not work out but did not give details. Reuters GraphicsTRADE ON TRACKThe sources said trade with Russia has been continuing despite sanctions and payment issues. So payments are being made to a third country which route it or offset it for their trade with Russia," the other official said.

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