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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call urging people to reduce their use of transport fuels is indeed a need of the hour, given the turmoil in West Asia. Our heavy dependence on imports of crude oil, the raw material for what most motor engines burn, means that India’s policy cushions are wearing thin. The government has thus far used state-owned fuel retailers to absorb much of the oil shock since the end of February, when the Iran war began.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: The US-Iran war has crimped energy supplies, raised fuel prices, threatens to spike India’s import bill and thus strain its foreign exchange reserves. It was in this context that Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to citizens on Sunday to cut fuel use, avoid unnecessary overseas travel and explore domestic destinations instead.For some affluent Indian travellers, that shift is already underway—India's premium domestic destinations are seeing stronger demand, higher occupancies and rising room tariffs this summer.A Delhi-based family of nine abandoned their usual summer plan of a European holiday as business class tickets surged past ₹5 lakh a seat on some key routes, nearly double the typical fares.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Problem-solving captured Sanjay Sudhakaran’s imagination during his student years. It’s what drove him towards pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Mumbai, where he could use logic and creativity to build something worthwhile. An important learning that has stayed with him from those days is the importance of perseverance.“Projects rarely worked on the first attempt.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When 35-year-old Rooma Sinha listed her studio apartment in Goa’s Arpora village on Airbnb two years ago, she wasn’t sure about how things would play out. Renting the apartment out would assure her of a steady income, but the AirBnB listing had the potential to help her earn much more.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.I haven’t done this in years. Decades, if school projects don’t count. Needle in one hand, I try to remember how.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In 1580, the sultan of Bijapur was stabbed to death in his own bedroom. Ali Adil Shah was an interesting type of chap. He ate not less than 12 eggs per day for his health; he liked to read, travelling even to battlefields with books; had interests in philosophy and the occult; and also styled himself a Sufi.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Accor, the French hospitality giant, is betting big on the quiet shift in India's luxury hotel industry, where domestic travellers, not foreign tourists, are the primary engine of the high-end hospitality market.India’s luxury hotel boom still has room to run, according to the chairman of Accor India and group CEO, Ennismore, Gaurav Bhushan, who said the country is only ‘just getting started’ as affluent domestic travellers increasingly spend on high-end experiences and boutique hospitality.“The Indian luxury consumer is spending more on experiences than ever before,” Bhushan, recently appointed chairman for Accor in India, told Mint. “As long as you offer a real product and a real experience, people will spend.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s health ministry has initiated comprehensive precautionary surveillance measures in response to reported cases of hantavirus infection occurring onboard the cruise ship MV Hondius, according to the two officials familiar with the matter.The ministry is monitoring the situation in close coordination with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).The officials cited above confirmed that two Indian nationals are currently onboard the MV Hondius. “Both individuals are presently asymptomatic and are under observation in accordance with established international health protocols,” one of the officials said.“The Union health ministry remains vigilant and is maintaining close coordination with WHO and other international partners,” the official said, adding that necessary public health measures are also being undertaken proactively to safeguard the health and wellbeing of Indian citizens.As per preliminary data shared via the WHO under the International Health Regulations (IHR) framework, health officials have identified a total of eight probable cases of hantavirus infection among those on the vessel.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.It was 2-3 hours into my bus journey from Tokyo to Takayama when I opened my eyes and looked out of the window. The landscape had changed. The tall buildings of the city were nowhere to be seen and instead the bus was slowly driving past hills packed with alpine cedar, the trees covered in fresh snow.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The day before the MV Hondius’s latest sailing, the crew of the merchant vessel gathered for dinner in Ushuaia, the Argentine resort town known as the gateway to Antarctica.“One Table, Nine Nations, One Epic Journey,” chef Khabir Moraes posted on Instagram on March 31.The Oceanwide Expeditions cruise is now enmeshed in a deadly hantavirus outbreak. Three people have died and at least five more have been infected. Health authorities and airlines are racing to control further spread of the virus.Infections are a risk on cruises given the close quarters.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Iran had just opened up e-visas for Indian travellers, but ours quickly got rejected. I read on forums that it was common to get an e-visa rejection, no reasons given. So we set about charting the archaic, long-winded route to get a physical visa at the embassy: get a visa code through an Iranian travel agency, file an application with travel documents at the Iranian consulate in Mumbai and submit medical test results for TB and HIV.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The global jet-fuel crunch is hitting Asia’s low-cost airlines harder than their full-service counterparts. Governments should prepare financial or operational support to avoid further flight cancellations during the busy summer travel season—as well as outright shutdowns like the collapse of America’s Spirit Airlines.Discount carriers like Malaysia’s AirAsia, Indonesia’s Lion Air and Cebu Air of the Philippines are already bearing the brunt of the energy shock. Policymakers must consider targeted measures in the form of loans, grants or fuel price relief.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Late in 2018, when Angad Soni was preparing to launch Sepoy & Co., his botanical mixers startup, he was sure of two things: one, he had to get the formulation of his first product, tonic water, right. Two, the bottle in which it would be sold had to stand out.The target audience was consumers of premium gins who had likely sampled high-quality tonics on trips abroad, but had to settle for mass-market brands in India sold in plastic bottles, or in cans, such as Schweppes.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.As the temperature soars past the 40 degrees Celsius mark, it’s near impossible to train or play sports outdoors. Doctors and fitness experts advise lighter workouts, a modified exercise regimen and indoor sessions during the peak summer months. Top triathlete, Pragnya Mohan, who has represented India at the Commonwealth Games, travels to Europe to train during summers as training in the Indian summer comes with the high risk of dehydration, dizziness, and fainting, she says.Outdoor exercise is dependent on weather conditions, notes Dr Ajay Aggarwal, director and head of internal medicine at Fortis Hospital, Noida.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.To call Varijashree Venugopal, 35, “multifaceted” feels like compressing a wide canvas into a tiny capsule. A child prodigy who started performing when she was four, the Bengalurean is today a flautist, singer, music composer and a serial collaborator who’s worked with eminent musicians like Rajesh Vaidya, Herbie Hancock, Bobby McFerrin and Michael League. In 2024, she was nominated along with Jacob Collier and Anoushka Shankar for the Grammy for Best Global Music Performance for the track A Rock Somewhere, featured on the album Djesse Vol. 4. She is also attributed as the creator of “Carnatic Scat” singing, a vocal style that blends carnatic singing with jazz.“As a musician I am a lot into improvisation and experimentation and it applies across projects and collaborations.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.As a non-resident Bengali of my generation, I have witnessed with deep anguish the steady decline of West Bengal from its once-prominent position in India’s economic and intellectual landscape. What has been even more disheartening is the repeated pattern of large electoral mandates being given to successive governments—first the Left Front, and then the Trinamool Congress—followed by a growing sense of unmet expectations and a sense of repeated betrayal of trust.When Mamata Banerjee came to power in 2011, she carried with her a powerful promise of change: an end to decades of Left Front rule, which many believe had pushed the state into fiscal stress, industrial stagnation, and governance fatigue.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For many Indian households, the rupee hitting a record low of 94.85 to a US dollar might feel like a distant headline that has little to do with their finances. Especially when no child studies abroad, no holiday is booked overseas, and no money sits in any international fund.It is easy to assume households are insulated from the volatility of the foreign exchange market.However, the reality of a globalized economy is that the dollar is woven into the daily life of an Indian household, even with no direct spending in dollars.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Chennai: For years, Tamil Nadu has punched beyond its weight. With just 4% of India’s land area and 6% of its population, the state’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024-25 was 9.4%.The state’s economy is growing much faster than India’s 6.5%. Even as foreign direct investment (FDI) into India has slowed, foreign investors continue to bet big on Tamil Nadu.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The best business class flight I have ever taken was with Air India. As the flight was taxiing for take-off, it stopped on the tarmac. There was a snag, and we had to stay in the aircraft.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In the cool green depths of Uttarakhand, a young audio engineer chose an unusual career path. Rohit had grown up amid the impact of human-animal conflicts, and each incident he encountered shocked him to the core. He decided he wanted to tell the world the real stories behind the hundreds of tiger attacks that occur in India, and, in doing so, combine his audio expertise with his experiences with wildlife.Setting up a YouTube channel, Wilderness, the young man dove head-first into the no-compromises setup he felt the stories deserved.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Most companies are built to survive a generation. A few endure longer.