New Delhi: An investigation by the BBC has revealed that the Uttar Pradesh government “quietly” paid compensation to more families than they admitted had died during the Kumbh Mela earlier this year.
In addition to the official 37 death toll, in at least 26 additional cases, families were given partial compensation, Abhinav Goel reports for the BBC.
There were also 18 more deaths where no payment was made, the report says.
“For instance, at one crush location, the BBC identified five bodies through photos and the numbers issued during post-death formalities. Of these, the families of three victims received 500,000 rupees in cash, while the other two received nothing,” the report says.
“Some other families have photographs from the day of the crush which show bodies of their relatives, but these deaths have not been acknowledged by the government.”
Seems like Indian Kolhapuri chappals are all the ‘rage’. Italian luxury brand Prada is being accused of “cultural theft” for showcasing flat leather sandals that appear to be similar to the Indian slippers, Anupreeta Das reports for the New York Times.
“The outcry over the shoe recalled a similar case from a decade ago involving the British designer Paul Smith and a sandal that resembled what is known as a Peshawari chappal, which is made in Pakistan,” the report says.
“The designer did bring that shoe to market, selling it for $595, though the company changed the description of the sandal on its website to say it had been inspired by the Peshawari chappal.”
The Guardian’s Penelope MacRae also reports on the outrage in India, even as Prada has acknowledged that they were “inspired by” kolhapuris.
“Still, some believe the row could have an unexpected upside. Sales of the sandals have plateaued in India in recent years, but local designers believe the spotlight could boost interest in the classic design, especially among younger consumers,” the report notes.
As Donald Trump’s tariff deadline inches closer, data shows that India has more than doubled its oil imports from the US and cut imports from Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq by more than 70 percent, Veena Venugopal writes for the Financial Times.
“With the continued use of trade as a geopolitical weapon, India has to do a balancing act of what is best for its economy versus what is best for its foreign policy and national security. Increasing the share of American oil is a good way to appease a pugnacious Trump administration. Diversifying our sources of energy is also useful in the current climate of global uncertainty,” says the latest edition of the India Business Briefing newsletter.
Also in the Financial Times, an opinion article by Chris Kay looks at the deepening gulf caused by India’s language politics.
“Whatever the shape of India’s political landscape, language anxieties are likely to continue playing out across its increasingly multilingual cities.”
Kay quotes an estimate by S Irudaya Rajan, chair of the International Institute of Migration and Development in Kerala, which says “that close to half of all urban residents in India now speak a different first language to that of locals”.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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