Event: Indian

The Japanese and Indian governments will establish a framework to promote vehicles that run on biogas, viewed as an environmentally friendly energy source.The two sides will aim to increase the number of plants in India that manufacture methane from fermented cow dung for compressed natural gas vehicles to 1,000.Japan’s Suzuki Motor, which holds the top share in India’s passenger car market, will cooperate on the framework.The two governments will exchange a memorandum of understanding when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi visits India for three days from Wednesday.Takaichi will hold a summit with her Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, in New Delhi on Thursday. The summit was initially scheduled to take place in Guwahati, a major city in the northeastern Indian state of Assam.In India, Suzuki has begun producing biogas with Global South subsidies from the Japanese government. The company aims to further promote compressed natural gas vehicles, which account for over 20% of new automobile sales in India.With a population of about 1.4 billion, India is the world’s third-largest energy-consuming country after China and the United States, but it relies heavily on imports for crude oil. Therefore, the Indian government is pinning its hopes on Suzuki’s initiative.Takaichi’s trip to India, her first since taking office in October last year, will be part of what is known as shuttle diplomacy of reciprocal visits by the two countries’ leaders.She aims to strengthen cooperation between Japan and India in light of the reluctance of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to cooperate internationally and China’s growing assertiveness.“We want to further strengthen our strategic relationship with India by promoting cooperation for economic security and economic growth,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a news conference Friday.The Japanese and Indian governments initially planned to hold the summit on Wednesday, but it was postponed until the following day.…

A Lower House committee approved a bill Friday banning the desecration of the national flag, highlighting Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s efforts to win over the growing ranks of conservative voters.The proposed law, which is likely to be passed at a Lower House plenary session next week, would prohibit publicly damaging, removing or defacing the national flag in a way that “causes extreme discomfort or disgust to others.” Violators would face up to two years in prison or a maximum fine of ¥200,000 ($1,236), which would also apply to people who record and post such acts on social media.The bill is expected to be enacted into law after a pending vote by the Upper House without much pushback, marking a clear win for Takaichi and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Its smooth passage would underscore a rightward shift in government, appealing to a swath of conservative voters that fueled Takaichi to the premiership and cemented her grip on power in a landslide election win.“This is really the first big show of something that is from her that reflects her conservative, nationalist views on the country,” said Jeffrey Hall, a lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies who specializes in Japanese politics. “It also reflects that after the recent election, the LDP has so much power that they don’t really need to worry about opposition parties very much.”Japan already outlaws the desecration of foreign flags but not its own, an imbalance pointed out by advocates of the bill. But critics — even within the ruling party — say the bill is unnecessary as instances of flag desecration in Japan are extremely rare, and the proposal encroaches on people’s civil liberties.To address that concern, the bill includes a safeguard clause which calls for taking care to not “unduly infringe” on people’s freedom of…

Two-and-a-half years after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a grand temple to Hindu god Ram, the shrine is embroiled in an unsavoury row over allegations that donations from devotees worth tens of millions of rupees have been embezzled.The temple in the once-flashpoint city of Ayodhya in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh replaced a 16th-Century mosque torn down by Hindu mobs in 1992, sparking riots in which nearly 2,000 people died.Since its inauguration in January 2024, the three-storey temple spread over 2.7 acres has become one of India's most important pilgrimage centres, attracting an estimated 50 million visitors annually, external. But in recent weeks, questions over the handling of cash, valuable jewellery, gold and silver offered by devotees have triggered a political controversy and petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored investigation by the federal police.The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust - an independent trust which manages the shrine - has denied any wrongdoing. The state government has set up a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to inquire into the allegations.Following an interim report from SIT, Ayodhya police registered a case of alleged embezzlement on Thursday, naming eight people.All eight are in custody and being questioned, senior police officer Gaurav Grover told BBC Hindi. They are expected to be produced before a magistrate within a day or two, he added.The temple complex, which also includes six smaller shrines, draws 70,000 to 80,000 devotees daily, with crowds tripling on weekends and festivals. Most leave offerings in about 35 donation boxes around the site.The trust - which collects, sorts and counts the offerings - recorded an annual income of 3.27bn rupees ($35m; £26m) in the financial year 2024-25, making it one of India's largest temples in terms of earnings, the Hindustan Times, external reported. A former…