Pakistan blamed India-backed militants for a suicide bombing that killed 12 people in Islamabad on Tuesday, raising the prospect of renewed tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals, as India’s prime minister vowed to hunt down the perpetrators of a car explosion in New Delhi the day before.
A blast on Monday near a metro station by New Delhi’s historic Red Fort set several nearby cars on fire,
killed eight and injured at least 20 others, Indian police said. The car had three or four passengers, all of whom died in the explosion, said police, who haven’t determined the cause of the blast.
LUCERNE, Switzerland (AP) — Yodel-ay-hee … what?! Those famed yodeling calls that for centuries have echoed through the Alps, and more recently have morphed into popular song and folk music, could soon reap a response — from faraway Paris.
Switzerland’s government is looking for a shout-out from U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, based in the French capital, to include the tradition of yodeling on its list of intangible cultural heritage. A decision is expected by year-end.
Modern-day promoters emphasize that the yodel is far more than the mountain cries of yesteryear by falsetto-bellowing male herders in suspenders who intone alongside giant alphorn instruments atop verdant hillsides. It’s now a popular form of singing.
Yodelling students practise at the HSLU university music department in Lucerne, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Yodelling students practise at the HSLU university music department in Lucerne, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Over the last century, yodeling clubs sprouted up in Switzerland, building upon the tradition and broadening its appeal — with its tones, techniques and tremolos finding their way deeper into the musical lexicon internationally in classical, jazz and folk. U.S. country crooners prominently blended yodels into their songs in the late 1920s and 30s.
About seven years ago, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts became the first Swiss university to teach yodeling.
“For me, actually, in Switzerland we have four languages but I think really we have five languages. We have a fifth: The yodel,” said Nadja Räss, a professor at the university, alluding to the official German, French, Italian and Romansh languages in Switzerland. Yodeling exists in neighboring Austria, Germany and Italy, but Swiss yodeling is distinctive because of its vocal technique, she said.
Yodel teacher Nadja Raess laughs at the HSLU university music department in Lucerne, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Yodel teacher Nadja Raess laughs at the HSLU university music department in Lucerne, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
In its early days, yodeling involved chants of wordless vowel sounds, or “natural yodeling,” with melodies but no lyrics. More recently, “yodeling song” has included verses and a refrain.
The Swiss government says at least 12,000 yodelers take part through about 780 groups of the Swiss Yodeling Association.
In Switzerland, Räss said, yodeling is built on the “sound colors of the voice” and features two types: one centering on the head — with a “u” sound — and one emanating from deeper down in the chest — with an “o” sound.
And even within Switzerland, styles vary: Yodeling in the northern region near Appenzell is more “melancholic, slower,” while in the country’s central regions, the sounds are “more intense and shorter,” she said.
Yodel teacher Nadja Raess yodels with students at the HSLU university music department in Lucerne, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Yodel teacher Nadja Raess yodels with students at the HSLU university music department in Lucerne, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
What began as mostly a male activity is now drawing more women in a country that adopted universal suffrage in 1971. The Appenzell-Innerrhoden region only gave equal voting rights to women in local elections in 1990, following a high court ruling.
Julien Vuilleumier, a scientific adviser for the Federal Office of Culture who is spearheading the Swiss request, said it’s tough to trace the origins of yodeling, which factors into the imagery of the Swiss Alps.
“Some say it’s a means of communication between valleys, using these very distinctive sounds that can carry a long way. Others believe it’s a form of singing,” he said. “What we know is that … yodeling has always been transformed and updated.”
UNESCO’s government-level committee for Intangible Heritage will decide in mid-December in New Delhi. The classification aims to raise public awareness of arts, craftsmanship, rituals, knowledge and traditions that are passed down over generations.
Yodelling students stretch with teacher Nadja Raess, 2nd right, at the Music High School in Lucerne, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Yodelling students stretch with teacher Nadja Raess, 2nd right, at the Music High School in Lucerne, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Also among the 68 total nominations this year are traditions like Thanakha face powder in Myanmar; Ghanaian highlife music; the fermented Kyrgyz beverage Maksym; and the El Joropo music and dance tradition in Venezuela.
The list is different from the UNESCO World Heritage List, which enshrines protections for physical sites that are considered important to humanity, like the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
Last year, Japan’s famed sake — the smooth rice wine — was one of more than 60 honorees in the intangible heritage list, alongside things like the Nowruz spring festival in parts of central Asia, and the skills and knowledge of zinc roofers in Paris.
Räss of the Lucerne university says that candidates for the intangible heritage list are asked to specify the future prospects of cultural traditions.
“We figured out some projects to bring it to the future. And one of those is that we bring the yodel to the primary school,” said Räss, alluding to work along with the Swiss Yodeling Association and a folk music center known as the Roothus Gonten. She said 20 Swiss school teachers know how to yodel and are trying it with their classes.
“One of my life goals is that when I will die, in Switzerland every school child will be in contact with yodeling during their primary school time,” she said. “I think it’s a very good chance for the future of the yodel to be on that (UNESCO) list.”
Sadanand Dhume writes a biweekly column on India and South Asia for WSJ.com. He focuses on the region’s politics, economics and foreign policy.
Mr. Dhume is also a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. Previously he worked as the New Delhi bureau chief of the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER), and as Indonesia correspondent for FEER and The Wall Street Journal Asia.
Mr. Dhume is the author of “My Friend the Fanatic: Travels with a Radical Islamist,” (Skyhorse Publishing, 2009), which charts the rise of the radical Islamist movement in Indonesia. His next book will look at India’s transformation since the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014.
Mr. Dhume holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Delhi, a master’s degree in international relations from Princeton University and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, and travels frequently to India.
GURUGRAM, India—When the Trump Organization in April announced another luxury real-estate project in India, Eric Trump gave a shout out to his local partners for helping accelerate the brand’s expansion.
“We’re incredibly excited to launch our second project in Gurgaon,” Eric Trump, who runs day-to-day operations, using the former name for the city near New Delhi. “And even prouder to be doing it once again with our amazing partners.”
Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – A distraught Javid Ahmad Bhat fears he may lose the entire year’s earnings from the apples he grows.
Two trucks bearing his apples worth more than $10,000 are among rows of stranded carriers that stretch for miles along a key highway connecting his city, Baramullah, in Indian-administered Kashmir to the remainder of India. Their tarpaulin covers bulge with crates of fruits that have begun to blacken and collapse under the weight of rot.
“All our hard work for the entire year has gone to waste. What we painstakingly nurtured since the spring is lost. No one will buy these rotten apples, and they will never reach New Delhi. We are left with no choice but to throw away both truckloads along the highway,” Bhat told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.
The Jammu–Srinagar national highway – the only all-weather road connection in the Himalayan region – has been repeatedly blocked since August 24 after rain-triggered landslides damaged a section of it. For more than a month, the region has been battered by a severe monsoon fury, killing at least 170 people and causing extensive damage to properties, roads, and other infrastructure.
A truck driver shows rotten apples in his vehicle stranded along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, after the highway road was closed following landslide and floods, in Qazigund town, Anantnag district, Indian Kashmir, September 10, 2025 [Sharafat Ali/Reuters]
Blockade during peak harvest season
Horticulture forms the backbone of Indian-administered Kashmir’s economy, with the valley producing about 20–25 million metric tonnes of apples every year – roughly 78 percent of India’s total apple output, according to data Al Jazeera collected from fruit growers’ associations.
The highway blockade coincides with the peak harvest season in Kashmir, locally called “harud”, during which apples, walnuts and rice are gathered from thousands of orchards and fields across the valley.
“It’s not just me or my village – this crisis [road closure] is hitting all of Kashmir’s apple growers. Our entire livelihood depends on this harvest,” said Bhat, calling it a second blow to the region’s economy this year after the Pahalgam attack in April, when suspected rebels killed 28 people, severely disrupting tourism – another key sector in the valley.
A local government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said about 4,000 trucks have been stranded on the highway at Qazigund area in southern Kashmir’s Anantnag district for two weeks, and the fruit loaded on them has begun to rot, resulting in estimated losses of nearly $146m.
In protest, growers shut down fruit markets across Kashmir on Monday and Tuesday as they condemned the government’s inability to clear the key road.
“If the highway stays blocked for even a few more days, our losses will skyrocket beyond imagination,” Ishfaq Ahmad, a fruit grower in Sopore town, told Al Jazeera.
Sopore in Baramulla district, about 45km (28 miles) from Srinagar, is home to Asia’s largest fruit market. But the sprawling complex was a scene of despair on Tuesday. Fresh apple crates remained piled up in an endless wait, as each passing day reduced their value, or worse, brought them closer to rotting. Some estimates said the price of an apple box had already fallen from 600 rupees ($7) to 400 rupees ($5).
“We have stopped bringing more apples to the market here. We are forced to leave them at the orchards because there is no space left, and the trucks that left earlier are still stranded on the highway,” said Ahmad.
Rotten apples lie on the ground near trucks stranded along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, after the highway road was closed following landslide and floods, in Qazigund town, Anantnag district, Indian Kashmir, September 10, 2025 [Sharafat Ali/ Reuters]
‘Nothing is moving’
Fayaz Ahmad Malik, president of the Kashmir fruit growers’ association, said about 10 percent of the trucks left for New Delhi on Tuesday after a 20-day standstill on the highway, but thousands remain stuck.
“Our preliminary estimates already run into crores [millions],” he said, adding that the government failed to take prompt action when the highway closure first began, worsening the crisis.
To address the crisis, Manoj Sinha, the region’s top official appointed by New Delhi, on September 15launched a dedicated train from Budgam station in the central part of Indian-administered Kashmir to New Delhi to transport the fruit, claiming the move would “significantly reduce transit time, increase income opportunities for thousands of farmers, and boost the agricultural economy of the region”.
“It’s essentially a parcel coach linked to a passenger train, not a full-fledged goods train,” a railway official told Al Jazeera, on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, adding that the train can carry about 23-24 tonnes of produce each day.
But farmers say the measure offers only limited relief to growers in Kashmir, who produce nearly two million tonnes of apples every year.
“It [the special train] is a positive move, but with such capacity, it will only carry roughly one truckload of apples per day, which is far less than what the growers need,” Shakeel Ahmad, an official at a fruit market in Shopian district, told Al Jazeera.
As anger and frustration over the stalled trucks mount, the region’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who has limited administrative powers in a region controlled directly by New Delhi, on Tuesday said if the federal government cannot keep the highway operational, its control should be handed over to him.
“We have been patient, waiting for daily assurances that the restoration would be completed, but nothing has been done. Enough is enough,” Abdullah said, speaking to reporters on September 15 in Srinagar, the region’s largest city.
Meanwhile, in a post on X on September 16, Nitin Gadkari, the federal minister for road transport and highways, said more than 50 earthmovers have been deployed in a round-the-clock operation to clear and repair the Jammu-Srinagar highway.
“We are determined to restore this vital national highway to full strength at the earliest, ensuring safety and convenience for all road users,” he wrote.
But the minister’s assurances provide little comfort to Shabir Ahmad, a truck driver at Qazigund, who climbs into his van every morning to inspect the apple boxes.
“We have been stranded here for 20 days, and the government has shown no urgency in restoring the road. The losses are beyond imagination,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that the authorities should have understood it was the peak harvest season and acted swiftly.
He said the farmers who find their produce is rotten unload it silently and take the road back, looking for a place to dispose what once was their season’s hard work. “Nothing is moving, and with each passing day, our fruit is turning into waste.”
Family‑run institution joins an exclusive cohort of five global awardees in 2025 for championing authentic Indian cuisine abroad.
NEW DELHI, April 19, 2025 (Newswire.com)
– The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has bestowed its prestigious Annapurna Certificate upon New Delhi Restaurant, the pioneering Indian eatery on Tjuvholmen. Owner Baljit Singh Padda accepted the lifetime‑validity plaque in New Delhi on 9 April, marking the first time a Norwegian restaurant has received the honour. Indian embassies and high commissions worldwide collect nominations, which are then evaluated by an ICCR‑appointed jury to select the final recipients.
Established in 1982, New Delhi began as a 40‑seat family bistro and has grown into a multi‑location group serving around 5 000 guests each month. The restaurant’s menu celebrates classic North‑Indian dishes-such as Rogan Josh and Tandoori Halibut-prepared with seasonal Norwegian produce.
Baljit Singh Padda notes, “My father was Norway’s first Indian chef in 1982, and for 42 years we have worked to share India’s culinary heritage with Norway. This certificate belongs to every member of our 70‑strong team.”
Why the Annapurna Certificate matters
Introduced in 2023 as part of India’s cultural‑diplomacy programme, the certificate recognises restaurants that not only preserve authentic recipes but also broaden perceptions of Indian cuisine. Recipients must have operated for at least five years, serve substantial numbers of diners and actively engage in cultural outreach.
The accolade has already been awarded to trail‑blazers such as Namaste India in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and Naans and Curries in San José, Costa Rica, underscoring its truly global scope. By honouring these establishments, ICCR designates them as India’s culinary ambassadors, charged with expanding the horizons of Indian food culture wherever they operate.
About New Delhi Restaurant
From its flagship restaurant New Delhi at Tjuvholmen, Baljit’s restaurant group now also operates additional restaurants in downtown Oslo and Solli. All spice blends are ground in‑house daily, and the wine list has been curated to pair Norwegian seafood with India’s layered flavours. A public “Annapurna Tasting Journey” menu will launch on 1 May to celebrate the award, and an open‑house reception with representatives from the Embassy of India in Norway is planned for early June.
It is celebrated across faiths by more than a billion people in the world’s most populous nation and the diaspora. Over five days, people take part in festive gatherings, fireworks displays, feasts and prayer.
Diwali is derived from the word “Deepavali,” which means “a row of lights.” Celebrants light rows of traditional clay oil lamps outside their homes to symbolize the victory of light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance.
Hindu women light oil lamps at the Banganga pond as they celebrate Dev Diwali festival in Mumbai, India, Nov. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File)
When is Diwali?
The dates of the festival are based on the Hindu lunar calendar, typically falling in late October or early November.
This year, the holiday is being celebrated on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. In the U.S., Diwali falls on Halloween this year, which has triggered quite a few #Diwaloween memes on social media where some celebrants can be seen lighting diyas in their scary costumes or handing out laddoos to trick-or-treaters.
What are some Hindu stories of Diwali?
FILE- A residential building is decorated with lanterns and lights during Diwali, the festival of lights in Mumbai, India, Nov. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File)
While Diwali is a major religious festival for Hindus, it is also observed by Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. The origin story of Diwali varies depending on the region. All these stories have one underlying theme — the victory of good over evil.
In southern India, Diwali celebrates the victory of Lord Krishna’s destruction of the demon Naraka who is said to have imprisoned women and tormented his subjects. In northern India, Diwali honors the triumphant return of Lord Rama, his wife Sita, and brother Lakshmana, from a 14-year exile in the forest.
How is Diwali celebrated?
A record 2.51 million earthen oil lamps are lit along the Saryu river during Deepotsav celebrations on the eve of Diwali, creating a new Guinness World Record, in Ayodhya, India, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
People crowd a market as they shop ahead of Diwali festival in Mumbai, India, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File)
The festival brings with it a number of unique traditions, which also vary by the region. What all celebrations have in common are the lights, fireworks, feasting, new clothes and praying.
—In southern India, many have an early morning warm oil bath to symbolize bathing in the holy River Ganges as a form of physical and spiritual purification.
—In the north, worshipping the Goddess Lakshmi, who symbolizes wealth and prosperity, is the norm.
Gambling is a popular tradition because of the belief whoever gambled on Diwali night would prosper throughout the year. Many people buy gold on the first day of Diwali, known as Dhanteras — an act they believe will bring them good luck.
Setting off firecrackers is a cherished tradition, as is exchanging sweets and gifts among friends and family. Diwali celebrations typically feature rangoli, which are geometric, floral patterns drawn on the floor using colorful powders. This year, several northern Indian states, including the capital New Delhi, are instituting partial or total fireworks bans to combat rising pollution levels during Diwali.
What are the Diwali stories from other faiths?
FILE- People lights firecrackers to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, in Ahmedabad, India, Oct. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)
Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs have their own Diwali stories:
—Jains observe Diwali as the day the Lord Mahavira, the last of the great teachers, attained nirvana, which is liberation from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
—Sikhs celebrate Bandi Chhor Divas — a day that overlaps with Diwali — to commemorate the release of Guru Hargobind, a revered figure in the faith, who had been imprisoned for 12 years by the Mughal emperor Jahangir.
—Buddhists observe the day as one when the Hindu Emperor Ashoka, who ruled in the third century B.C., converted to Buddhism.
New in 2024: Diwali Barbie
This year, Mattel has released its “Barbie Signature Diwali Doll” by designer Anita Dongre who wrote on Instagram that her Barbie represents “the fashion-forward modern women who wears India on her sleeve with pride.”
In contrast to her earliest iteration in 1996 who was clad in a bright pink sari or the 2012 avatar who was packaged with a “monkey friend,” Diwali Barbie is fashionably dressed in a lehnga, an ankle length embroidered skirt with motifs from Dongre’s home state of Rajasthan, a cropped blouse and vest.
This doll, priced at $40, sold out on day one on Mattel’s website.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
NEW DELHI (AP) — As India gears up for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, people are divided over whether they should celebrate by setting off firecrackers, which worsen the country’s chronic air pollution.
Diwali, which will be celebrated Thursday, is marked by socializing and exchanging gifts with family and friends. Many Indians light earthen oil lamps or candles. But every year the festivities are tinged with worries over air pollution, as smoke-emitting firecrackers cause toxic smog that can takes days to clear.
FILE – Children play with firecrackers during Diwali celebrations in New Delhi, India, on Nov. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)
The capital, New Delhi, which is among India’s worst cities for air quality, is particularly impacted by the problem and is usually shrouded in toxic gray smog a day after Diwali. Authorities there and in some other states have banned the use and sale of firecrackers since 2017, asking people to opt for more sustainable options like environmentally friendly firecrackers and light shows, but the rule is often flouted. Firecrackers can be easily bought from roadside stalls and stores.
Some residents in New Delhi say the ban doesn’t make much difference, while others see it as a necessary measure to fight pollution.
Vegetable vendor Renu, who only uses one name, loves celebrating Diwali in the city. Every year her kids set off firecrackers at night. She tells them to be careful but not to refrain from using them.
A thick layer of smog hangs over the skyline of Delhi ahead of Diwali festival in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Shonal Ganguly)
“Diwali is a day of celebration and happiness for us which comes only once a year, and I feel the ban should not be there,” she said.
Others are against it.
Unlike most kids, Ruhaani Mandal, 13, doesn’t light firecrackers. She acknowledges it is fun, but says it is hazardous for people and animals.
“I have seen firsthand the struggle of my father, who has lost his sense of smell due to pollution, and I see how his health worsens after Diwali celebrations,” she said.
New Delhi and several northern Indian cities typically see extremely high levels of air pollution between October and January each year, disrupting businesses and shutting schools and offices. Authorities close construction sites, restrict diesel-run vehicles and deploy water sprinklers and anti-smog guns to control the haze and smog that envelopes the skyline.
Commuters drive amidst morning smog ahead of Diwali festival in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
This year, thick, toxic smog has already started to engulf New Delhi. On Wednesday, authorities reported an AQI of over 300, which is categorized as “very poor.”
Several studies have estimated that more than a million Indians die each year from air pollution-related diseases. A high level of tiny particulate matter can lodge deep into the lungs and cause major health problems, including chronic respiratory diseases.
New Delhi’s woes aren’t only due to firecrackers. Vehicular emissions, farm fires in neighboring states and dust from construction are the primary causes of the capital’s air pollution woes. But health experts say the smoke emitted from firecrackers can be more hazardous.
Fishermen row their boat amidst morning smog in the river Yamuna as toxic foam floats in the river ahead of Diwali festival in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
“The smoke that is produced by firecrackers contains heavy metals like sulphur, lead and toxic gases like carbon monoxide and fumes of heavy metals that are dangerous to our respiratory system,” said Arun Kumar Sharma, a community medicine professor at New Delhi’s University College of Medical Sciences.
Meanwhile, authorities in New Delhi have largely failed to enforce a strict ban on the use of firecrackers to avoid offending millions of Hindus across the country, for whom Diwali is one of the biggest festivals. To sidestep the ban, many sellers offer firecrackers online, some with the convenience of home delivery.
Gyaanchand Goyal sits in his shop in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. Goyal said that the ban on firecrackers has served as a disadvantage to sellers like him and affected their biggest source of income during the festive season. (AP Photo/Verda Subzwari)
Shopkeeper Gyaanchand Goyal said the ban on firecrackers has disadvantaged sellers like him and affected their biggest source of income during the festive season.
“The government enforces a restriction on firecrackers solely to demonstrate their commitment to the environment. Other than that, I don’t think there are any other consequences of this ban,” he said.
New Delhi — Thousands of angry students and other protesters marched on the streets of eastern Indian city of Kolkata in the West Bengal state on Tuesday demanding justice for a doctor who was brutally raped and killed earlier this month at a city hospital.
The police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse protesters who were on their way to the state secretariat building to demand the resignation of Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of the West Bengal state, whom they accuse of mishandling the case.
Indian TV networks aired videos showing protesters climbing barricades that had been placed at the Howrah Bridge, as police used water cannons to stop them.
Police use a water cannon to disperse activists carrying India’s national flag as they march toward the state secretariat amid protests over the rape and murder of a doctor, near Howrah bridge in Kolkata, Aug. 27, 2024.
DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty
The brutalized body of a 31-year-old doctor was found with multiple injuries in a lecture hall at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on Aug. 9. The female doctor had gone to the lecture hall to rest during a night shift when she was attacked. An autopsy confirmed sexual assault and multiple injuries sustained before she died, suggesting she resisted and may have been tortured before being murdered.
The Kolkata Police arrested a volunteer member of the force on Aug. 10 and have charged him with rape and murder, but the brutality of the case has drawn nationwide outrage, with medics across the country demanding safer workplaces and citizens demanding safety for women in a country with a shameful record of rape.
Doctors at public hospitals across India refused to work last week, turning away all but emergency patients as part of a national strike over the rape and murder.
Kolkata police had turned the city into a virtual fortress ahead of Tuesday’s planned protest, barricading all roads leading to the state secretariat and deploying 6,000 personnel in full riot gear. The police said they had not given permission for the protest march, and the Trinamool Congress party, which is in power in West Bengal state, alleged that it was an attempt by opposition parties to create unrest in the city.
Police clashed with the protesters Tuesday morning as some of the crowd managed to climb over the barricades, but the demonstrators were stopped before they could reach the state secretariat.
Activists stomp on police barricades as they march toward the state secretariat to demand the resignation of the chief minister of India’s West Bengal state, in Kolkata, Aug. 27, 2024.
DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is the opposition in West Bengal, claimed several students were injured Tuesday amid the clashes with the police and called for a new, 12-hour general strike in the state on Wednesday to protest the response.
India’s federal Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), which was tasked with investigating the rape-murder in Kolkata, subjected the prime suspect, Sanjay Roy, to a polygraph test last week, the results of which were yet to be released Tuesday. Many in the country hope the results will shed new light on whether other people could have been involved in the attack, as has been suggested by the victim’s father.
India reported an average of nearly 90 rapes per day in 2022, according to the most recent data available from the National Crime Records Bureau. Experts believe the real number could be much higher, as many rapes go unreported due to prevailing stigmas around sexual violence and a lack of faith in police investigations. Conviction rates remain low, with many cases becoming mired for years in India’s overwhelmed criminal justice system.
A portion of the canopy at a departure terminal of New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport collapsed early Friday as heavy pre-monsoon rains lashed the Indian capital, killing one person and injuring six others, officials said.All flight departures from Terminal 1 were temporarily suspended as rescuers cleared the debris to rescue anyone trapped there, the airport authority said.The collapse occurred in the domestic departure area of Terminal 1, the main terminal of New Delhi’s main airport. The fire services control room said the injured were taken to a hospital.“Due to heavy rain since early this morning, a portion of the canopy of the old departure forecourt” collapsed around 5 a.m., an airport authority statement said.Besides the roof sheet, some support beams also collapsed, damaging cars in the pickup and drop-off area of the terminal, the Press Trust of India news agency said.Of the six injured, one was rescued from a car on which an iron beam had fallen, PTI said.Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said first responders were working at the site and advised airlines to assist all affected passengers.”Rescue operations are still ongoing,” he said in a post on the X social media platform.
NEW DELHI, DL —
A portion of the canopy at a departure terminal of New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport collapsed early Friday as heavy pre-monsoon rains lashed the Indian capital, killing one person and injuring six others, officials said.
All flight departures from Terminal 1 were temporarily suspended as rescuers cleared the debris to rescue anyone trapped there, the airport authority said.
The collapse occurred in the domestic departure area of Terminal 1, the main terminal of New Delhi’s main airport.
The fire services control room said the injured were taken to a hospital.
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“Due to heavy rain since early this morning, a portion of the canopy of the old departure forecourt” collapsed around 5 a.m., an airport authority statement said.
Besides the roof sheet, some support beams also collapsed, damaging cars in the pickup and drop-off area of the terminal, the Press Trust of India news agency said.
Of the six injured, one was rescued from a car on which an iron beam had fallen, PTI said.
Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said first responders were working at the site and advised airlines to assist all affected passengers.
“Rescue operations are still ongoing,” he said in a post on the X social media platform.
The world famous Gateway of India monument in Mumbai, India was built during the 20th century to commemorate the visit of king George V and Queen Mary. It is located on the waterfront of the Apollo Bunder area of south Mumbai and is the city’s top tourist attraction.
Darren Robb | The Image Bank | Getty Images
India’s travel landscape is changing as the country emerges as a powerhouse in the tourism sector.
Their willingness to spend big while traveling is going, but research shows that most Indians are traveling domestically — not overseas.
Indian travelers took 1.7 billion leisure trips in 2022 but most never left the country, and only about 1% traveled abroad, according to Booking.com and McKinsey.
Indian travelers are projected to be taking 5 billion leisure trips by 2030, and 99% of those will be within the country as well, said the report published October.
The world’s most populous country is set to be the fourth-largest global travel spenders by 2030, largely due to a growing middle-income population that will see household earnings grow by $35,000 annually by that time.
In addition, the population is young, with the median age at 27.6, “more than ten years younger than that of most major economies,” McKinsey said on its website. “What’s more, consumption of goods and services, including leisure and recreation, is forecast to double by 2030.”
Spending on travel and tourism is predicted to hit $410 billion — a surge of more than 170% from $150 billion in 2019, the report showed.
Here are the top 10 spots for Indians traveling within their own country, according to Booking.com and McKinsey.
New Delhi
Bengaluru
Mumbai
Chennai
Pune
Hyderabad
Gurugram
Jaipur
Kochi
Kolkata
According to the “How India travels 2023” report, about 2,000 Indians and 42,000 global tourists between 18 and 54 years booked leisure travel trips in 2022 and plan to do the same this year.
New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai retained the top four spots since the previous study in 2015 — Kochi is the only new city on the list.
“India’s travel ecosystem is maturing and there are multiple government schemes that are making the country more connected and ensuring it develops into a tourist hub,” Kanika Kalra, managing partner at McKinsey Mumbai, told CNBC.
The top 10 most visited cities are highly populated destinations, but that could soon change.
More and more Indians are now looking to discover smaller urban spots including those in Tier 2 or Tier 3 cities, Kalra said, adding that Kochi is a Tier 2 city.
Tier 2 cities in India are those with a population of between 50,000 to 100,000, while those from between 20,000 to 50,000 residents are classified as Tier 3 cities, according to India Briefing.
Tourists shopping for clothes at a local street market in Jodhpur, India, on Nov. 22 2022.
Mayur Kakade | Moment | Getty Images
In addition to cosmopolitan cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, those like Jodhpur, Dharamshala, Bodhgaya, Bilaspur, Kodagu and Raipur are also catching the attention of international hotel chains keen to carve out market share in India’s booming travel industry.
“Branded hotels are currently focusing on Tier 2 cities for expansion owing to the increasing business opportunities and travelers’ increasing willingness to pay for standard services,” Deepak Rao, director of revenue management at Hyatt Hotels in India and Southwest Asia, said in the report.
French hotel chain Novotel opened its doors to travelers in Jodhpur in May, while Radisson Hotel Group announced in June it will start welcoming visitors to Raipur in 2025.
About half (52%) the hotels in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities will be branded hotels by the end of 2023 — up from 27% in 2015, the report showed.
Growing interest in traveling to smaller Indian cities is largely attributed to the transportation infrastructure boost that is underway, said Mckinsey’s Kalra.
At its annual budget announcement in February, India’s finance ministry said it plans to pump up capital expenditures by 33% to 10 trillion rupees ($120.96 billion), as the country is poised to become the second largest economy by 2075.
Indian airlines have ordered over 1,000 new aircraft, which will bring the total number of planes to between 1,500 to 1,700 by 2030, the report showed.
“So we will see this landscape change quite dramatically and we will see a new wave of travelers to smaller towns,” Kalra said.
SRINAGAR, India (AP) — From Western capitals to Muslim states, protest rallies over the Israel-Hamas war have made headlines. But one place known for its vocal pro-Palestinian stance has been conspicuously quiet: Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Indian authorities have barred any solidarity protest in Muslim-majority Kashmir and asked Muslim preachers not to mention the conflict in their sermons, residents and religious leaders told The Associated Press.
The restrictions are part of India’s efforts to curb any form of protest that could turn into demands for ending New Delhi’s rule in the disputed region. They also reflect a shift in India’s foreign policy under populist Prime Minister away from its long-held support for the Palestinians, analysts say.
India has long walked a tightrope between the warring sides, with historically close ties to both. While India strongly condemned the Oct. 7 attack by the militant group Hamas and expressed solidarity with Israel, it urged that international humanitarian law be upheld in Gaza amid rising civilian deaths.
But in Kashmir, being quiet is painful for many.
“From the Muslim perspective, Palestine is very dear to us, and we essentially have to raise our voice against the oppression there. But we are forced to be silent,” said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key resistance leader and a Muslim cleric. He said he has been put under house arrest each Friday since the start of the war and that Friday prayers have been disallowed at the region’s biggest mosque in Srinagar, the main city in Kashmir.
Kashmiris have long shown strong solidarity with the Palestinians and often staged large anti-Israel protests during previous fighting in Gaza. Those protests often turned into street clashes, with demands for an end of India’s rule and dozens of casualties.
Modi, a staunch Hindu nationalist, was one of the first global leaders to swiftly express solidarity with Israel and call the Hamas attack “terrorism.” However, on Oct. 12, India’s foreign ministry issued a statement reiterating New Delhi’s position in support of establishing a “sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine, living within secure and recognized borders, side by side at peace with Israel.”
Two weeks later, India abstained during the United Nations General Assembly vote that called for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, a departure from its usual voting record. New Delhi said the vote did not condemn the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas.
“This is unusual,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute.
India “views Israel’s assault on Gaza as a counterterrorism operation meant to eliminate Hamas and not directly target Palestinian civilians, exactly the way Israel views the conflict,” Kugelman said. He added that from New Delhi’s perspective, “such operations don’t pause for humanitarian truces.”
India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, sought to justify India’s abstention.
“It is not just a government view. If you ask any average Indian, terrorism is an issue which is very close to people’s heart, because very few countries and societies have suffered terrorism as much as we have,” he told a media event in New Delhi on Saturday.
Even though Modi’s government has sent humanitarian assistance for Gaza’s besieged residents, many observers viewed its ideological alignment with Israel as potentially rewarding at a time when the ruling party in New Delhi is preparing for multiple state elections this month and crucial national polls next year.
The government’s shift aligns with widespread support for Israel among India’s Hindu nationalists who form a core vote bank for Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party. It also resonates with the coverage by Indian TV channels of the war from Israel. The reportage has been seen as largely in line with commentary used by Hindu nationalists on social media to stoke anti-Muslim sentiment that in the past helped the ascendance of Modi’s party.
Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the war could have a domestic impact in India, unlike other global conflicts, due to its large Muslim population. India is home to some 200 million Muslims who make up the predominantly Hindu country’s largest minority group.
“India’s foreign policy and domestic politics come together in this issue,” Donthi said. “New Delhi’s pro-Israel shift gives a new reason to the country’s right-wing ecosystem that routinely targets Muslims.”
India’s foreign policy has historically supported the Palestinian cause.
In 1947, India voted against the United Nations resolution to create the state of Israel. It was the first non-Arab country to recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization as the representative of the Palestinians in the 1970s, and it gave the group full diplomatic status in the 1980s.
After the PLO began a dialogue with Israel, India finally established full diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992.
Those ties widened into a security relationship after 1999, when India fought a limited war with Pakistan over Kashmir and Israel helped New Delhi with arms and ammunition. The relationship has grown steadily over the years, with Israel becoming India’s second largest arms supplier after Russia.
After Modi won his first term in 2014, he became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel in 2017. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, travelled to New Delhi the following year and called the relationship between New Delhi and Tel Aviv a “marriage made in heaven.”
Weeks after Netanyahu’s visit, Modi visited the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, a first by an Indian prime minister, and held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “India hopes that Palestine soon becomes a sovereign and independent country in a peaceful atmosphere,” Modi said.
Modi’s critics, however, now draw comparisons between his government and Israel’s, saying it has adopted certain measures, like demolishing homes and properties, as a form of “collective punishment” against minority Muslims.
Even beyond Kashmir, Indian authorities have largely stopped protests expressing solidarity with Palestinians since the war began, claiming the need to maintain communal harmony and law and order.
Some people have been briefly detained by police for taking part in pro-Palestinian protests even in states ruled by opposition parties. The only state where massive pro-Palestinian protests have taken place is southern Kerala, which is ruled by a leftist government.
But in Kashmir, enforced silence is seen not only as violating freedom of expression but also as impinging on religious duty.
Aga Syed Mohammad Hadi, a Kashmiri religious leader, was not able to lead the past three Friday prayers because he was under house arrest on those days. He said he had wanted to stage a protest rally against “the naked aggression of Israel.” Authorities did not comment on such house arrests.
“Police initially allowed us to condemn Israel’s atrocities inside the mosques. But last Friday they said even speaking (about Palestinians) inside the mosques is not allowed,” Hadi said. “They said we can only pray for Palestine — that too in Arabic, not in local Kashmiri language.”
Heavy security deployed at High Commission of Canada on September 19, 2023 in New Delhi, India.
Hindustan Times | Hindustan Times | Getty Images
Canada has pulled 41 diplomats and their families from India, after New Delhi threatened to have their diplomatic immunities revoked if Ottawa did not comply with demands for parity in diplomatic staffing.
“Canada confirms that India formally communicated its plan to remove immunities unilaterally for all but 21 Canadian diplomats and dependents in New Delhi by October 20, 2023,” the Canadian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The move effectively slashed Canada’s diplomatic numbers in India — its largest source of new migrants — by about two-thirds. As a result, Canada has to temporarily suspend in-person services at consulates in Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Mumbai, leaving its High Commission in New Delhi as the only place in India where it is able to offer services in a country that’s been its largest source of new migrants.
India’s Ministry for External Affairs did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment after office hours.
Tensions between the two countries escalated in September when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claimed there were “credible allegations” the Indian government orchestrated the extra-judicial slaying of a Sikh separatist in Canada.
After reciprocal diplomatic expulsions last month, India issued a travel warning for its citizens, suspended visa applications in Canada, and demanded for parity in diplomatic staffing, which meant Ottawa had to cut staff numbers in India.
“A unilateral revocation of diplomatic privileges and immunities is contrary to international law, including the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. This action taken by India is completely unreasonable and escalatory,” it added.
“Diplomatic immunities should be respected and cannot be unilaterally revoked by a host country. If we allow this norm to be broken, no diplomat anywhere would be safe,” Canada said.
“As such, the Government of Canada will continue to respect diplomatic norms and not reciprocate this action.”
Visitors are silhouetted against the dark clouds at Taj Mahal in Agra on September 20, 2022.
Pawan Sharma | Afp | Getty Images
India expelled a senior Canadian diplomat on Tuesday, slamming “absurd and motivated” claims that New Delhi had a part to play in an extra-judicial slaying of a Sikh activist in Canada.
Canadian intelligence agencies have been actively pursuing credible links between Indian government agents and the killing of a Canadian Sikh community leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh cultural center in British Columbia, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a parliament seating in Ottawa Monday.
Nijjar, a strong supporter for an independent Sikh homeland named Khalistan, was killed on June 18.
“Such unsubstantiated allegations seek to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” India’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The inaction of the Canadian Government on this matter has been a long-standing and continuing concern.”
“Canada has declared its deep concerns to the top intelligence and security officials of the Indian government,” Trudeau said Monday. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”
While Canadian leaders stopped short of explicitly accusing India, they urged Indian authorities to fully cooperate in the investigations, with Joly emphasizing that Canada “will not tolerate any form of foreign interference.”
Australia said it was “deeply concerned” about Canada’s allegations, while the United Kingdom said it’s in close contact with its Canadian partners over the matter.
Activism in Canada among some of its Sikh diaspora, which accounts for about 2% of its population, has been an issue of contention in bilateral ties between Canada and India.
It has complicated Ottawa’s attempts to deepen economic ties with the world’s most populous nation as part of its broader attempt to “de-risk” from China, along with its western allies.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) shakes hand with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi on September 9, 2023.
Evan Vucci | Afp | Getty Images
Prior to the Group of 20 nations’ leaders’ summit last week, Ottawa had paused talks on a proposed trade treaty with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BharatiyaJanataParty government.
While Canada views peaceful Sikh activism as part of free expression, India views Canada’s continued tolerance as an endorsement of Sikh separatism that it regards as an infringement of its domestic affairs.
India Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had on June 8 condemned online video footage of a parade float in the Canadian city of Brampton that glorified violence and vengeance in its depiction of the 1984 assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
“That Canadian political figures have openly expressed sympathy for such elements remains a matter of deep concern,” India’s foreign ministry said Tuesday. “The space given in Canada to a range of illegal activities including murders, human trafficking and organized crime is not new.”
“We reject any attempts to connect Government of India to such developments. We urge the Government of Canada to take prompt and effective legal action against all anti-India elements operating from their soil,” India’s foreign ministry added.
Trudeau said he brought the issue to Modi’s attention “personally and directly … in no uncertain terms” when they met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 nations leaders summit in New Delhi last week.
In a readout after their meeting last week, Modi’s office said he conveyed India’s strong concerns about “continuing anti-India activities of extremist elements in Canada.”
He also said they were “promoting secessionism and inciting violence against Indian diplomats” and “threatening the Indian community in Canada and their places of worship.”
During the G20 leaders’ summit, U.S. President Joe Biden called on G20 leaders to support the World Bank and other multilateral development banks to increase their ability to support low and middle-income countries. From left, World Bank President Ajay Banga, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa and U.S. President Joe Biden in New Delhi on Sept. 9, 2023.
Evan Vucci | Afp | Getty Images
World leaders have called for the World Bank’s expansion to boost its lending capacity — but that can’t happen without funding from the private sector, the bank said.
The World Bank is no longer just focused on eradicating poverty, but also on other impending global challenges — like pandemics, climate change and food insecurity, its president Ajay Banga told CNBC’s Tanvir Gill on Saturday.
“There’s no way there’s enough money in the multilateral development bank, or even in governments … that can drive the kinds of changes we need for this polycrisis. Getting the private sectors’ capital and ingenuity into the game is going to be very important,” he told CNBC in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the Group of 20 nations leaders’ summit in New Delhi.
“We are digging deep to boost our lending capacity, but we are going further, creating new mechanisms that would allow us to do even more,” Banga said at the G20 leaders summit.
“We’re working to expand concessional financing to help more low-income countries achieve their goals, while thinking creatively about how to encourage cooperation across borders and tackle shared challenges,” he added.
Leaders at the summit agreed that this isn’t something the World Bank can tackle alone.
During the summit, U.S. President Joe Bidencalled on G20 leaders to further support the World Bank and other multilateral development banks over the next year in order to increase the institution’s ability to support low and middle-income countries.
Biden has asked Congress to increase the World Bank’s financing by more than $25 billion, a move that will enable the bank to further help developing countries achieve their development and economic goals.
The world needs institutions to work together.
Kristalina Georgieva
Managing Director, IMF
“This initiative will make the World Bank a stronger institution that is able to provide resources at the scale and speed needed to tackle global challenges and address the urgent needs of the poorest countries,” the White House said.
The World Bank was created in 1944 to help rebuilding efforts in Europe and Japan after the Second World War. It started with just 38 members but today includes most of the countries in the world.
Biden has previously said that developing countries need more funding options to reduce their dependency on China, and help them recover from the effects of Russia’s war on Ukraine.The administration asked for $3.3 billion to increase development and infrastructure finance by the World Bank.
“It is essential that we offer a credible alternative to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) coercive and unsustainable lending and infrastructure projects for developing countries around the world,” the White House said in August.
Apart from providing more resources to help developing countries reduce poverty, the World Bank’s expansion also aims to help these nations in their renewable energy transition.
“I do have the idea that if I could get a certain amount of money in the bank to put into say, renewable energy, could I get the private sector to put one-is-to-one, two-is-to-one, three-is-to-one?” Banga said.
He highlighted that investors are keen on investing in renewable energy in developing countries, and are confident that solar, wind and geothermal projects “can be built to make money.”
Both the World Bank and IMF have pledged to form a stronger partnership to help countries with their debt struggles, sustainability goals, and digital transition.
In a separate interview with CNBC’s Martin Soong at the G20 summit, the IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said: “The world has changed. the horizon of how many different lenders there are and different conditions they provide their resources, is much, much broader that it was 10 years ago.”
“We need this conversation because if you don’t have it, we have no solutions and the debt problem is very pressing,” Georgieva said Sunday.
She added that “25% of debt of emerging markets is treading in distressed territory.”
“We now have more than half of of the low income countries either in or close to that distress.”
The IMF Chief reiterated that the World Bank and the fund must work to complement each other and promote synergies.
“The bank has very deep sectoral expertise. We don’t and we would never ever get into sectoral investments,” she explained.
“What we bring is how you can use fiscal policies to advance the transition to digital economy; how you can use monetary policy to assess the new types of risks — including from crypto from climate; and how you can use data to cover what matters to policymakers today and in the future.”
“The world needs institutions to work together,” she added, pledging that both the IMF and World Bank will work with others to “set the right example of what it means for the whole to be bigger than the sum of individual parts.”
India’s relationship with the United States is the strongest it’s been in years.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are set to meet for another bilateral meeting later Friday at the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi, after several one-on-one meetings earlier this year.
Despite warming ties — with both leaders sharing a hug during Modi’s state visit to Washington in May — a “traditional alliance” between the two nations remains off the table, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
“I do not think India and the United States are headed for a traditional alliance relationship … India is keen to make sure it protects its ability to make its own decisions on every kind of question,” said Alyssa Ayres, adjunct senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations.
US President Joe Biden and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an event with senior officials and chief executive officers in the East Room of the White House in Washington on June 22, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
India is a “very independent” country, and the traditional alliance relationship the U.S. has with other countries “creates an almost unexpectable level of deference on the part of the other country,” Ayres told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.
“India very much doesn’t want … what it sees as its freedom of action in the future, constrained by requirements to act on behalf of another country due to an alliance agreement,” Ayres added.
Both countries still have disagreements, with a notable one being their views on the Russia-Ukraine war, which Washington has condemned but New Delhi has so far refrained from doing so.
India has purchased discounted Russian oil since the war broke out in February last year, and now imports about 40% of its crude supply from Moscow.
“Obviously, this is an area where American foreign policy leaders would like to see something different given American concerns about Russia’s war in Ukraine,” Ayres highlighted.
“So I think that this is yet another area where you do see some space between American interests and Indian interests … That’s probably going to remain an area of disagreement.”
Although an India-U.S. alliance seems to be off the table, the partnership between the two countries will continue to strengthen, with technology cooperation at the forefront of it.
In May, Biden and Modi announced a slew of technology and defense deals, ranging from collaborating on diversifying supply chains to working together across space and artificial intelligence.
“Technology generally has really been in the lead in improving this relationship,” said Evan Feigenbaum, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“For a long time, people used to talk about India as a country that needed to be reformed. But increasingly, India has models and ideas and things that have been tested domestically that can be exported and scaled,” Feigenbaum told CNBC.
“They’re relevant in parts of the world, especially the global south like Africa and the Middle East, much more relevant than the models the United States and Europe has,” he added, citing the example of how India’s digital infrastructure has helped the “unbanked become banked.”
“It’s something the government wants to showcase and it’s something you’re going to hear a lot about at this G20,” Feigenbaum said.
US President Joe Biden, right, and Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, at an arrival ceremony during a state visit on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, June 22, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned the normally sedate rotating presidency of the Group of 20 nations into a branding vehicle to burnish India’s geopolitical importance — underscoring India’s emergence as a key voice on the world stage.
The country’s diplomats now face a race against time to broker tangible multilateral outcomes at this weekend’s G20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi that will mark the end of India’s year-long presidency of the bloc of leading industrialized and developing economies.
India has so far not been able to foster consensus for a joint communique from the previous G20 meetings in other major tracks that it has convened. Member states haven’t been able to agree on binding action due largely to Russia’s and China’s objections to the language referring to the Ukraine crisis.
In a banner year for Indian diplomacy that also saw the world’s most populous nation take on the rotating presidency of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, India risks having little to show for its efforts that may in turn undercut the country’s credibility and Modi’s domestic messaging.
One of the risks is that by elevating India’s presidency of the G20 so much, there are now expectations for India to deliver some concrete breakthroughs.
Manjari Chatterjee Miller
Council on Foreign Relations
“What is different about India’s presidency of the G20 and what I’m amazed by is how the Modi government has turned the G20 into a nonstop advertisement for both India and his leadership,” said Manjari Chatterjee Miller, a senior fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C.
“One of the risks is that by elevating India’s presidency of the G20 so much, there are now expectations for India to deliver some concrete breakthroughs,” she told CNBC in an email. “India has been trying to use the G20 to bring the Global South together and offer itself as a bridge between the Global South and the West. But there remains the problem of Russia and China.”
With Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping sitting out the Sept. 9-10 meeting, the prospect for any real breakthrough appears dim.
Indeed, the specter of Russia’s Ukraine invasion has loomed large over G20 meetings for the various tracks that India has convened.
India had hoped to forge consensus on a range of issues from a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies to the resolution of crippling debt issues for developing countries.
Other areas include reforms in multilateral banks as part of its agenda to foster progress on sustainable development, as well as the admission of the African Union as a member of the G20.
Despite its neutral position on the Ukraine crisis, New Delhi has not been able to broker a single joint statement in any of the key discussion tracks since India took over the G20 presidency in December 2022. Instead, it has only managed non-binding chair’s summary and outcome documents.
In fact, Russia disassociated itself from the status of the outcome document in a June meeting on development issues in Varanasi, due to references to the Ukraine war. China said the meeting outcome should not include any reference to the Ukraine crisis.
“The original language was accepted by Russia at the Bali G20 — and Indian diplomats in fact, played a major part in getting Russian acceptance on that,” Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, Eurasia Group’s head for its South Asia practice, told CNBC in a telephone interview from New Delhi.
“But since then, Russia has hardened its position and joined by China to say that we don’t accept the original body language, which is taken from the UN Security Council resolution,” he added.
“Last I heard, India is still struggling to get an agreement on what type of language would be acceptable to all 20 countries,” Chaudhuri said. “If they fail to bridge that gap, then we may see the failure to issue a joint statement, and there probably won’t be an action plan afterwards.”
[Modi] is trying to portray this as a great recognition that India has arrived under his under his prime ministership.
Pramit Pal Chaudhuri
Eurasia Group
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov — who is due to represent Russia at G20 leaders’ summit in place of Putin — reportedly warned there will be no general declaration at the meeting in New Delhi if Russia’s position is not reflected.
The Kremlin insists that its invasion of Ukraine is a “special military operation” in an existential war against the West that’s determined to take down Russia.
This could well be a setback for Modi’s government, which has convened more than 200 G20 meetings in more than two dozens cities across India.
“It’s actually quite brilliant and one has to give him and the BJP credit for making an event that is usually elitist and esoteric, and a rotating presidency that is routine into something the whole country can understand and be proud of,” CFR’s Miller said, referring to Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
More than just lining streets with banners and signs that injected plenty of visibility to the various G20 meetings, Modi has also used these meetings to clean up host cities, promote local products and more.
“At the national level, [Modi] is trying to portray this as a great recognition that India has arrived under his under his prime ministership,” Eurasia Group’s Chaudhuri said. “I think the messaging has been strong, but the reception is harder to work out, it’s harder to quantify.”
The biggest risk for Modi is the lack of tangible multilateral accomplishment out of the G20 presidency after all that has been done and invested, possibly with an eye on boosting the legacy and standing of his Hindu nationalist BJP after a decade in power and ahead of national elections next year.
Underscoring that wariness, India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was quick to tout the “unanimous support” from G20 member states, for twooutcomes that India proposed at the Varanasi G20 ministerial meeting on developmental issues. He even labeled it the “biggest achievement” of India’s G20 presidency so far — despite Russia and China abstaining.
“There may be a sort of backlash, or a degree of cynicism may set among voters who say — we have heard a lot — we seem to have spent a lot of money, but nothing really seems to have happened here,” Chaudhuri added.
India walked the diplomatic tightrope even as China pushed for an expansion of BRICS alliance of developing nations to build support for a broad coalition aimed at challenging U.S. dominance over the global political and economic system.
“India will continue to maintain healthy diplomatic relations with Russia amid an increasing reliance on that country’s energy imports,” Sumedha Dasgupta, a senior analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNBC. Moscow is India’s leading source of crude oil.
“Simultaneously, India will develop stronger diplomatic bonds with the US and its allies through means such as the Quad, co-operation on critical technology and defense, which will over time amount to a gradual geopolitical shift,” she said in an email.
Underscoring India’s strategic importance, Biden hosted Modi in June in the Indian prime minister’s first state visit to the U.S.
Warming India-U.S. ties contrast with India’s continued standoff with China.
India — along with Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan — sharply rebuked China last week for a new national map that Beijing claims contested territories as its own.
As the U.S. ramps up efforts to limit the transfers of strategic technology to China on grounds of national security, India stands to gain from American companies looking to diversify their supply chains — at China’s expense.
In January, India’s commerce minister told CNBC that Apple was manufacturing its latest iPhone 14 in the country and aimed to produce 25% of all iPhones in the country.
This development serves to buttress India’s burgeoning economic clout, the basis of its greater confidence and assertiveness geopolitically.
It’s a happy coincidence for the moment, I think, for India to showcase itself as an improved economy; as an improved place for international investors … and as an alternative to China.
Pravin Krishna
Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies
In the last decade in power, Modi’s BJP has liberalized foreign direct investment policies, invested in infrastructure, pushed for digitalization in the world’s fifth-largest economy, along with several other neo-liberal economic policies.
“All of of these things are coming together at the right time, alongside the G20,” said Pravin Krishna, a professor of international economics at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
“So it’s a happy coincidence for the moment, I think, for India to showcase itself as an improved economy; as an improved place for international investors; as an improved platform, potentially for manufacturing; and as an alternative to China, which India has been aspiring to be for a number of years,” he added.
Authorities in India are determined to keep a lid on any monkey business ahead of world leaders jetting in next week, by placing life-size cutouts of angry langurs across the capital to dissuade smaller pesky primates from wreaking havoc or hogging the limelight while the nation takes center stage.
India is gearing up to welcome the leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) countries in New Delhi next weekend, including US President Joe Biden, in an event that has been given utmost prominence at home.
Little is being left to chance, not even the city’s notoriously mischievous population of rhesus macaques.
The small monkeys are found across the capital, running across roads, bouncing between rooftops, causing a general nuisance and occasionally attacking unexpected pedestrians.
As the government embarks on a major beautification drive, freshly painting walls, planting trees and placing colorful flowers in key areas across town, New Delhi’s authorities have taken steps to ensure the animals don’t ruin those efforts.
Enter the langur – or at least, cardboard cutouts of langurs – and men trained to sound like the bigger primates.
“(The monkeys) don’t want to come near the large cutouts of the langurs as they get scared,” Satish Upadhyay, vice-chairperson of the New Delhi Municipal Council, told Indian news agency ANI. “Monkeys cannot be displaced, harmed or hit.”
Upadhyay added they have also deployed between 30 and 40 men who can mimic the sounds of langurs to trick the rhesus monkeys into thinking they are nearby.
The council has also left food for the monkeys in forested areas to encourage them to remain there, he added.
The langur monkey is much larger and more aggressive than the smaller rhesus macaque and have long been used in the past by authorities to scare off marauding gangs of the latter.
Live langurs were rented and put on duty when the Commonwealth Games were held in New Delhi in 2010, Reuters news agency reported.
Much of central New Delhi will come to a halt for the G20 with a huge operation to keep global leaders moving freely between the hotels and meeting venues.
Billboards advertising the summit and featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s face have been placed on corners of many streets, while the police and security presence is set to increase in the days leading up to the meeting.
Indian Army T-90 Bheeshma tanks roll past during the full dress final rehearsal for the Indian Republic Day parade in New Delhi on January 23, 2009. (Photo credit RAVEENDRAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Raveendran | Afp | Getty Images
India is taking major strides to expand its influence in Southeast Asia, a move that will allow countries to counter China’s dominance in the region.
“India certainly is becoming more ambitious in Southeast Asia. There is no doubt about it,” said Harsh V. Pant, vice president for studies and foreign policy at Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank.
It has also become “more forceful and more upfront” about its ties with the region, he added.
Growing rivalry between India and China is seen as influencing New Delhi’s strategic calculation in strengthening its presence.
Relations have been fraught since a border clash with Chinese forces in 2020, which killed at least 20 Indian soldiers, according to the Indian army.
“I think the understanding in New Delhi had been: Let’s not wade into waters where China might be more uncomfortable,” Pant told CNBC, adding that Beijing has “enormous potential to create trouble for India.”
Since China hasn’t “budged” on the border issue, India “now feels there has been no real return for its cautious attitude towards Southeast Asia,” he added.
India’s foreign ministry did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
In June, India’s external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, highlighted the border conflict was affecting relations between the two countries.
Until Sino-India relations achieve “some sense of normalcy,” Pant said, New Delhi has few options but to ramp up ties with countries — “big or small around China’s periphery, to ensure it has some leverage.”
“India also trains pilots and ground crew of fighter jets of the Vietnam Air Force. Indian naval ships visited Vietnam constantly,” he added.
Vietnam is now planning to buy supersonic missiles and surface-to-air missiles from India, said Nagao, who specializes in defense strategy, foreign policy and security alliances.
“India’s ‘Look East’ policy began in 1991, well before China’s growing assertiveness was a real problem in Southeast Asia,” said Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation.
“But by 2014, when Modi turned the policy into ‘Act East,’ it was apparent that the region and world was dealing with a different kind of China — Xi’s China — which sought to flex its power more often and farther from Chinese shores,” he said referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Activists display anti-China placards and flags during a protest at a park in Manila on June 18, 2019, after a Chinese vessel last week collided with a Philippine fishing boat which sank in the disputed South China Sea and sailed away sparking outrage. Photo by TED ALJIBE / AFP) (Photo by TED ALJIBE/AFP via Getty Images)
In a landmark ruling on the South China Sea dispute, the international tribunal in The Hague unanimously ruled in favor of the Philippines in a historic case against China.
Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea — an assertion that is rejected by Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines among others, in competing claims for the resource-rich waterway.
India “is bolstering strategic ties — diplomatic, economic, and security — to Southeast Asian states to help them balance or hedge against, or outright counter Chinese power,” said Rand’s Grossman.
“This is particularly salient to the maritime sphere, namely the South China Sea, where overlapping sovereignty disputes threaten regional stability and openness,” he added.
China’s expanding influence through its Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia is also driving India’s calculation, according to Joanne Lin, co-coordinator of the ASEAN Studies Centre at ISEAS, at Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
As a result, “safeguarding India’s security, especially maritime security will be important,” Lin added.
Most countries in the region have supported China’s mega infrastructure project — Xi’s signature policy initiative aimed at expanding Beijing’s influence through a network of road, rail and sea connections across Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Observers note Beijing’s more strident foreign policy, coupled with the political and economic leverage it could exert through the Belt and Road, has raised concerns in the region.
India is not a camp follower of either side. It continues to maintain a very independent streak in its foreign policy, which suits a large number of Southeast Asian countries.
Harsh V. Pant
Observer Research Foundation
Readjusting to an evolving international order defined primarily by the China-U.S. rivalry has also proven particularly challenging for Southeast Asian countries.
Regional countries are “engaging India because it is a power in its own right,” noted Prashanth Parameswaran, a fellow at the Wilson Center and founder of the weekly ASEAN Wonk newsletter.
They see India as an “important piece of a broader strategy of shaping a more multipolar order rather than one that is centered around China or dominated by U.S.-China bipolar competition,” he added.
A regional survey published by the ASEAN Studies Centre at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute showed India’s standing has improved greatly among Southeast Asian nations, despite its neutral stance in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“India is the third top option for the region in hedging against the uncertainties of the US-China rivalry. Its ranking more than doubled from the last spot in 2022 to the third spot this year,” said ISEAS’s Lin, one of the authors of the survey.
Observers say that New Delhi also offers “a way out” for countries that seek to remain neutral in the U.S.-China conflict.
“India is not a camp follower of either side,” said Pant from New Delhi’s Observer Research Foundation. “It continues to maintain a very independent streak in its foreign policy, which suits a large number of Southeast Asian countries.”
While China remained the most influential and strategic power in Southeast Asia, its standing has diminished, the Southeast Asia survey from February showed.
China continues to be regarded as the most influential economic power by 59.9% of the respondents. However, its influence has declined significantly from 76.7% in 2022, as countries grew more wary of Beijing.
For several states that “most distrust China in the region — namely the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore,” India is “an additional partner to help counter Beijing,” noted Rand’s Grossman.
Still, New Delhi’s latest moves to deepen regional ties won’t go unnoticed by Chinese leaders, analysts noted.
China will be “cautious” about the developments, said Lin from ISEAS. “India’s growing influence in Southeast Asia and enhanced defense cooperation,” among other issues “will cause unease in Beijing,” she added.
Pant noted: “China will be watching this carefully and sending its own messages out.”
But given Southeast Asia “is a central pillar to India’s own Indo-Pacific strategy,” that will not deter New Delhi,” he added. “India’s push into the region will only continue to gather momentum.”
