New Delhi: As the US goes to polls in one of the closest races in recent memory, a sleepy village in South India is preparing for a Kamala Harris victory.
Thulasendrapuram in Tamil Nadu, where Harris’s grandfather P.V. Gopalan was born, is on edge, reports The Guardian. Over a century has passed since Gopalan was born there—but the village still proudly claims Harris as a “daughter of the land”.
Banners and billboards have been erected across the village wishing Harris good luck in Tamil, and the local temple has been conducting pujas to ensure her victory. Chai stall chatter is no longer about local gossip—it has been replaced by conversations on electoral trends in crucial swing states, according to The Guardian.
Harris has virtually no ties to her ancestral village—none of her relatives still live there, and the house her grandfather was born in is now just a vacant plot of land. Yet, villagers still feel connected to her. And her grandfather is “still remembered fondly in the village as a well-read man with progressive values and a passion for activism that he passed down to his daughters, Shyamala and Sarala.”
Harris’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, was a huge influence on her, and is often brought up during her electoral campaign to appeal to South Asian voters in the US. Her aunt Sarala still lives and works in Chennai, and has visited Thulasendrapuram several times—once, she donated Rs 5,000 to the local temple in Harris’s name, leading to it being inscribed on the walls of the Dharmasastha Temple.
“Harris’s presidential campaign has also inspired a flurry of village development in her honour,” the story says. “A new water tank, to collect and harvest rainwater for the village, is under construction which will have a plaque bearing Harris’s name. A new village bus stop, named after Harris, is also being built.”
Villagers also pointed out that around 250 families from the village had emigrated to the US in recent years, and at least some of them would be registered to vote in this election—which is why The Guardian reports that the village feels it is “contributing modestly to her success”.
While the villagers of Thulasendrapuram are keenly tuned into the US elections, things still appear frosty on the government level amid allegations that the Indian government was involved in assassination plots in the US and Canada. And it seems like Australia is also getting on the bandwagon.
The Washington Post—which has been leading coverage on the issue—carried an AP wire on how Australian foreign minister Penny Wong discussed the allegations with her Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar while he was visiting Canberra.
“Wong said her message to the Sikh community was that people have a right to be safe and respected in Australia, regardless of who they are,” the report says. She also said that Australia has a “principled position in relation to matters such as the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and also, frankly, the sovereignty of all countries.”
Jaishankar said at the same press conference that Canada has “developed a pattern of making allegations without providing specifics”, and that putting Indian diplomats under surveillance was “unacceptable”.
The press conference with both foreign ministers came hours after Jaishankar condemned reports of a Hindu temple near Toronto being vandalised as “deeply concerning”.
The BBC has a report on India’s ambitious space projects and how the government is able to afford them. India’s upcoming projects include the next phase of its Moon mission, sending an orbiter to Venus, beginning construction on its maiden space station, and developing a new reusable rocket to launch satellites.
“It’s the single largest allocation of funds ever for space projects in India, but considering the scale and complexity of the projects, they are far from lavish and have once again brought into focus the cost-effectiveness of India’s space programme,” the BBC reports.
India spent $74 million on Mars orbiter Mangalyaan and only $75 million on the historic Chandrayaan-3. Both these projects cost less than how much it took to make the sci-fi thriller movie Gravity. ISRO’s budget for the year is $1.5 billion, compared to NASA’s budget of $25 billion.
ISRO’s frugality can be traced back to the 1960s, the report says. It has always had to “work with a tight budget in a country with conflicting needs and demands”—remember those photographs from the 1960s and ’70s of scientists carrying rockets and satellites on cycles and bullock carts?
One of the reasons why ISRO’s missions are so cheap is because its technology is home-grown, and the machines are manufactured domestically in India, the BBC reports. NASA, on the other hand, outsources satellite manufacturing to private companies and also takes out insurance—which adds to their costs. ISRO also employs fewer people and pays lower salaries, making its projects very competitive.
The tight budgets also mean scientists have to be even more innovative and think outside the box. But as “India scales up, the cost could rise”, the BBC warns. India uses small rocket launchers because it doesn’t have anything stronger, which means Indian spacecrafts take much longer to reach their destination. This is something ISRO has to navigate if India still plans to send a manned mission to the Moon by 2040—it will need a more powerful rocket to fly astronauts there quicker.
Also, India is in the process of opening up a space race among private players. And once that happens, it’s unlikely costs will remain so low.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that the Adani Group has begun cutting electricity supply to Bangladesh—and has threatened to “shut down power exports” as the new government hasn’t yet cleared a backlog of overdue payment.
The group has set a deadline for 7 November for a full cut-off of power, the FT reports, unless the Bangladeshi government can clarify how it will settle its debts. The government reportedly owed around $800 million at the end of September.
Bangladesh’s top energy adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan told FT that the government is “both surprised and disappointed at the decision”.
“The dispute with the influential Indian tycoon, Asia’s second-wealthiest individual, underscores the vulnerabilities of Bangladesh’s economy after the dramatic ousting of authoritarian prime minister Sheikh Hasina by student protesters in August,” the FT says. “The turmoil disrupted the critical garments sector in south Asia’s second-largest economy, which was already faltering thanks to its reliance on costly fuel and commodity imports.”
But despite Adani’s cutbacks, Bangladesh is “managing” and has “fired up more expensive power generation plants using liquid fuels such as diesel and furnace oil”.