https://www.scmp.com/rss/517162/feed Yashraj Sharma is a journalist based in India, covering conflicts, tech, and society. He has contributed to several international publications, including NBC News, Wired, Al Jazeera, and Foreign Policy, among others. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com For Pradeep Gupta, memory is a blessing. When he closes his eyes, he travels back to the morning of December 6, 1992, standing in his slippers and bathed in dust and limestone, as a Hindu nationalist mob razed the Babri Masjid, a 16th-century grand mosque in the ancient north Indian city of Ayodhya. Gupta, who was 14 at the time, still remembers the taste of that limestone – “a taste beyond happiness”, he insisted, “that I cannot describe even after 30 years”. The echoes of the whipped-up Hindu... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3248825/ayodhyas-revamp-reflects-indias-widening-religious-divide-modi-mobilises-millions-ahead-elections?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3248825/ayodhyas-revamp-reflects-indias-widening-religious-divide-modi-mobilises-millions-ahead-elections?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Jan 2024 04:00:24 +0000 In India’s capital of New Delhi, rain last Friday brought a breather for nearly 30 million people living under extreme air pollution. But two days later, the skies lit up with firecrackers on Diwali, the annual Hindu festival of light, and the city was back to square one. Now, the Delhi government is planning to make it rain, artificially. Following consultation with experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, the Delhi government has scrambled to get preparations in line for... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3241701/make-it-rain-new-delhi-bets-first-ever-cloud-seeding-bid-clear-pollution-hit-skies?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3241701/make-it-rain-new-delhi-bets-first-ever-cloud-seeding-bid-clear-pollution-hit-skies?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Nov 2023 02:30:29 +0000