• BUSINESS

  Ramayana weaves a trail across South and Southeast Asia

  Asia focus, Narendra Kaushik, Published on 10/02/2020

  » When Bala Venketeswara Rao Sankuratri, a researcher from Sri Lanka, proposed that about a dozen countries join together to issue a "Ramayana visa" for travellers, he found instant support in a hall packed with devotees of the Sanskrit epic and its regional variants.

• BUSINESS

  Right-to-die debate

  Asia focus, Narendra Kaushik, Published on 21/01/2019

  » Anamika Mishra has been waiting for death for over a decade, saying her health is beyond redemption.

• BUSINESS

  For god's sake

  Asia focus, Narendra Kaushik, Published on 04/07/2016

  » The first thing you notice about Devmali, a village in Ajmer district of western Rajasthan, is that everyone lives in houses made of mud. Using cement and bricks, local residents explain, would anger their local deity Devnarayan and bring bad luck. Only he deserves a concrete temple.

• WORLD

  Cash for coupling

  Asia focus, Narendra Kaushik, Published on 11/07/2016

  » Marriages are made in heaven and there is someone special for everyone. So they say.

• BUSINESS

  Rama connection

  Asia focus, Narendra Kaushik, Published on 09/01/2017

  » The Ramayana and Ramakien have long served as reminders of the deep cultural bonds between India and Thailand. Now scholars and other experts on the two epics are looking at ways to use them in the context of cultural and historical, tourism and economic connections between the two countries.

• BUSINESS

  India and Pakistan fight a common enemy: locusts

  Asia focus, Narendra Kaushik, Published on 16/09/2019

  » Madho Singh was struck by panic last month when he saw a swarm of locusts on his farm in Barmer district in Rajasthan, about 150 kilometres east of the India-Pakistan border. He immediately alerted a village officer, who put him in touch with the Locust Warning Organisation (LWO).

• BUSINESS

  Modi 2.0

  Asia focus, Narendra Kaushik, Published on 27/05/2019

  » The economic headlines in April and May, the first two months of the Indian financial year, made depressing reading for the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

• BUSINESS

  Virtual war

  Asia focus, Narendra Kaushik, Published on 26/03/2018

  » The battle lines have been drawn. On one side are the massed forces of the Indian government, represented by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), tax authorities and other state agencies, along with public and private-sector banks. On the other side are the proponents of an ever-expanding number of decentralised, stateless virtual currencies.

• BUSINESS

  Modi looks east

  Asia focus, Narendra Kaushik, Published on 05/03/2018

  » Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be bringing a long to-do list when he touches down in Thailand in early June. It includes joint defence manufacturing, cruise tourism, maritime transport, a possible "white shipping" agreement, highway transport via Myanmar, and strengthening of cultural links, among others.

• BUSINESS

  Bit Boom

  Asia focus, Narendra Kaushik, Published on 05/06/2017

  » Akshat Gupta, 27, has become a multimillionaire -- he was only a millionaire earlier -- in the last two and a half months. A medical wholesaler and retailer based in South Delhi, he hopes to have another 700% growth in his fortune by 2030.

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