Category: India LIVE

Indian political issues, particularly when they intersect with the Middle East

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India’s hotel industry is expected to strengthen in the second half of FY27 as robust domestic leisure travel, improving corporate demand, weddings and a seasonal recovery in international arrivals support occupancy and room rates.

A sector assessment by PhillipCapital said the April-June quarter had already shown resilience despite geopolitical disruptions, with industry occupancy rising by two to four percentage points from a year earlier. Average room rates increased 6-8 per cent, while revenue per available room, or RevPAR, advanced 11-13 per

OpenAI has appointed Meta’s India and Southeast Asia vice-president Sandhya Devanathan as its vice-president for Southeast Asia and Australia, strengthening the ChatGPT maker’s regional leadership as it expands consumer, enterprise and government engagement across Asia-Pacific.

Devanathan is due to take up the newly created role in October and will be based in Singapore, reporting to Kiran Mani, OpenAI’s managing director for Asia-Pacific. Her responsibilities will cover consumer growth, enterprise adoption and partnerships, regulatory engagement and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia.

The

India and Kuwait have agreed to deepen defence cooperation across military training, exercises, medicine, staff-level exchanges, defence production and research, giving operational shape to the strategic partnership established between the two countries in 2024.

The agreement emerged from the inaugural meeting of the India-Kuwait Joint Defence Committee in New Delhi on August 28, marking the first formal session of the mechanism created to institutionalise expanding security and military ties.

The talks were co-chaired by Joint Secretary Amitabh Prasad and Brigadier General Raed

India’s foreign-exchange reserves climbed to an all-time high of $729.33 billion as strong dollar inflows boosted the country’s external buffer and gave the Reserve Bank of India greater room to manage currency volatility.

The reserves increased by $12.42 billion in the week ended August 21, extending their rise for an eighth consecutive week. The latest accumulation pushed the stockpile above the previous record of about $728.5 billion reached in February and marked an increase of roughly $63 billion over eight weeks.

India’s data centre real estate footprint is projected to exceed 101 million square feet by 2030, nearly four times the 27 million square feet recorded in the first half of 2026, as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and hyperscale investments accelerate demand for digital infrastructure.

The expansion is being backed by more than $300 billion in announced investment commitments across data centres and associated digital infrastructure, putting the sector among the country’s fastest-growing infrastructure segments. The development pipeline could lift installed

Flipkart has emerged as a serious challenger to India’s established quick-commerce platforms two years after launching Minutes, with daily orders surging past one million and its fulfilment network expanding rapidly across large and smaller cities.

The Walmart-owned company’s rapid-delivery service is handling an estimated 1.1 million to 1.2 million orders a day, compared with roughly 390,000 to 400,000 in November. That has brought Flipkart Minutes within striking distance of Swiggy Instamart, which is processing about 1.4 million daily orders.

Blinkit remains

TDCX has opened a second campus in Hyderabad as the global customer experience company scales its operations in the country after increasing its local workforce by more than 600% over three years.

The new facility at Meenakshi Eco Park strengthens Hyderabad’s position within TDCX’s international delivery network and makes the country its fourth-largest operations base. The expansion is aimed at supporting global technology and digital economy clients requiring customer experience, sales, digital support and technology-enabled services.

The campus was formally opened on

The rupee weakened to around 95.76 against the US dollar on Wednesday as rising crude oil prices, persistent tensions in West Asia and losses in domestic equities renewed pressure on the currency. The currency touched a three-week low during the session and finished near 95.75 to the dollar, extending its decline from Tuesday’s close of 95.68. Dollar demand from importers remained firm, while the sharp increase in international oil prices added to concerns over the country’s import bill and inflation

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai A dispute over an alleged “lungi-wala” remark directed at CPI MP John Brittas triggered uproar in the Rajya Sabha, a privilege notice and a show of solidarity by Opposition MPs wearing traditional southern attire. Brittas told the House on Wednesday that a fellow member had repeatedly used the expression while he was speaking during proceedings on August 10. He later identified the member outside the House as BJP MP Sushmita Dev. The alleged exchange occurred during discussion

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai A woman was handed over to police after allegedly throwing a slipper and stones at a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Pune’s Sasane Nagar area, triggering anger among residents and a wider debate over the response to the incident. CCTV footage from the site in Hadapsar showed the woman approaching the statue and throwing objects towards it. The statue was enclosed within a protective glass structure, which remained intact despite being struck. Videos of the incident

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi found themselves at the same high-profile social gathering in New Delhi on Monday evening, even as their political confrontation over student protests continued to dominate Parliament. The two leaders attended the wedding reception of Revati Sule, daughter of NCP MP Supriya Sule and granddaughter of Sharad Pawar. The reception was held at Pawar’s residence on Janpath Road and drew senior politicians from across party lines.

OnePlus has opened closed beta testing of ColorOS 17 for the OnePlus 15 and OnePlus 15R in India, putting its planned transition away from OxygenOS into the hands of users for the first time.

The programme represents an important stage in OnePlus's software overhaul after the company confirmed that eligible devices would move from OxygenOS to OPPO's ColorOS platform. The change is intended to consolidate software development, shorten update cycles and make greater use of shared engineering and research resources

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai A Sanskrit recitation at IIT Delhi’s 57th Convocation has triggered a political argument over religion in educational institutions after Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed questioned why what she described as the Gayatri Mantra was played during the ceremony. The controversy quickly shifted, however, from whether a religious chant belonged at an academic event to what was actually recited. IIT Kanpur alumnus Gyan C Mehta, a 1968 Physics graduate and gold medallist, challenged the identification of the verses as

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai BJP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, describing their interaction as detailed and enriching as attention grows around his possible role in the party’s preparations for the Punjab Assembly election next year. ][1]) Chadha shared photographs of the 8 August meeting on social media and called it “a morning I will cherish”. He said he was grateful for Modi’s time and the opportunity to benefit from the Prime Minister’s insights and guidance.

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai A political controversy erupted in Srinagar after Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti was seen holding the national flag upside down during a protest against the constitutional changes imposed on Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019. Mufti, a former chief minister of the erstwhile state, led PDP workers in an overnight sit-in outside the party headquarters on Tuesday. The demonstration preceded the seventh anniversary of the removal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and its division into

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai The Calcutta High Court has questioned whether a legal challenge to the compulsory singing of all six stanzas of Vande Mataram in madrasas can proceed before any punitive action is taken against students or institutions. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen made the observation on Tuesday while hearing a public interest litigation challenging a government directive requiring the complete national song to be rendered in madrasas. “The heavens will not

The government has summoned Meta’s global team for two days of talks beginning on August 5, expanding its scrutiny of the technology company to child safety, artificial intelligence, account restrictions and content moderation.

Officials are expected to question the Facebook and Instagram parent over the handling of child sexual exploitative and abuse material, including allegations that paid advertisements on Instagram promoted access to illegal content. The discussions on August 5 and 6 will also examine the spread of AI-generated material and

Several passengers and crew members were injured after an Air India flight from Phuket encountered turbulence and abruptly changed altitude while travelling to Delhi on Tuesday.

Flight AI2379 landed safely at Indira Gandhi International Airport after the disturbance during the cruise phase of its journey. Medical teams examined those affected after the aircraft reached the terminal, while airport personnel assisted passengers requiring wheelchairs or additional support.

Initial accounts indicated that about 12 to 14 people, including cabin crew, sustained injuries. Air India

Apple’s annual sales in India surpassed $10 billion for the first time, strengthening the country’s position as one of the technology group’s fastest-growing consumer markets.

Revenue for the financial year ended March 2026 rose from nearly $9 billion a year earlier, driven mainly by demand for iPhones, Mac computers and services. The increase came as Apple widened its company-owned retail network, expanded financing options and deepened distribution beyond the largest metropolitan centres.

The performance marks a sharp acceleration from the roughly $8

Most adults surveyed across the country are dissatisfied with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of examination scandals that triggered nationwide student protests and forced major concessions from his government.

Just over half of respondents in a nationwide CVoter survey conducted last week said they were unhappy with the government’s response to leaks involving the national medical entrance examination. The controversy led to the invalidation of results affecting about two million candidates, disrupting admissions and intensifying scrutiny of the country’s testing system.

Disapproval

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai The Allahabad High Court has said no person can interfere with the voluntary decision of adult women to change their religion, marry partners of their choice or determine the course of their lives. Justice Sandeep Jain made the observation while hearing a habeas corpus petition concerning two sisters who were allegedly confined by their father after embracing Islam and deciding to marry men they had chosen. The women, aged about 20 and 35, have been ordered to

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Girl students burnt an effigy of BJP Lok Sabha member Kangana Ranaut in Jabalpur on Saturday, escalating protests over her remarks against young people who demonstrated over the NEET-UG paper leak. The protesters assembled at Ghantaghar in the Madhya Pradesh city, raised slogans against the Mandi parliamentarian and demanded her resignation. They accused Ranaut of insulting students who had sought accountability over alleged examination irregularities and the treatment of demonstrators at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. The protest followed a

The government has approved 543 Data and Artificial Intelligence Labs in industrial training institutes and polytechnics, alongside 58 AI Centres of Excellence, as it seeks to expand advanced technology skills and research capacity beyond the country’s largest urban centres.

The laboratories will be established across Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities under the IndiaAI FutureSkills programme. They are intended to provide practical training in artificial intelligence, data annotation, data curation and applied data science, giving students in technical institutions access to infrastructure and

Torrential rain battered Kerala on Saturday, killing at least four people in landslides and flooding homes, roads and commercial centres as authorities placed nine districts under the highest weather warning.

The most severe damage was reported from Idukki, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta, where saturated hillsides collapsed, rivers crossed warning levels and rescue teams moved families from vulnerable areas. The state government directed district administrations to prepare for emergencies and assigned ministers to coordinate relief operations in badly affected areas.

Sumathi, a resident of