headlines that matter

 

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

 

Our daily list of Souk picks

Editor’s note: As you may have noticed, we just unveiled a beta version of Souk—which has one simple goal: To help you find unique, high quality products that are worth your time and money.

 

One: Life is too short to be eating out of a boring white plate. The scalloped border on these dinner plate sets from Patchou Home feels like something from an old photo. Made in brass and finished with glossy enamel, they make a table feel dressed up. We also love the contrast: the dinner plate is subtle with just a flash of green on the rim, while the quarter plate goes all in.

 

Two: We keep a jar of Urban Platter’s Chocolate Coated Nut Dragees handy for when we want a sweet something that doesn’t tip over into ‘too much’. These aren’t trying to be protein bars or superfood heroes. Just solid chocolate-coated almonds, done right. Mason & Co makes their chocolate from bean to bar, which means fewer shortcuts and better flavour. You can actually taste the dark chocolate—smooth, not cloying—and the almonds bring just enough crunch to keep it interesting.

 

Three: We take dozens of photos of our pets, but nothing beats having a little piece of them to hold on to. This DIY Paw Printing Kit from Kitsters lets you do just that. It comes with everything you need—including a how-to video—to capture your pet’s paw in a soft, lasting imprint. Mine was a big Lab paw which took some treats and gentle coaxing, but the end result was worth it. A sweet, simple way to press pause on time.

PS: This is a beta launch and feedback—good or bad—is key. So please email the team at dearsouk@splainer.in with your thoughts. We want to get this right!

 

Tigers beware: The ‘rationalisation’ of the Sariska reserve

The context: Sariska Tiger Reserve spans over 881.11 sq km and is located in Alwar, Rajasthan. Among conservationists, the reserve is best known for its successful tiger relocation programme. In the early 2000s, unchecked poaching completely wiped out the local population. In 2008, the big cats were reintroduced to the reserve—and it has been home to 33 tigers since 2023. Apart from tigers, the park also hosts leopards, caracal, hyena and many species of birds.  

 

What happened now: The reserve is in the headlines again because on June 26, the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) approved “rationalisation” of Sariska’s Critical Tiger Habitat (CTH). In layman language, it approved significantly redrawing or altering the innermost area of the reserve:

 

The Rajasthan government’s proposal has identified mostly hilly parcels, adding up to 48.39 sq km, as “peripheral degraded areas affected by human activities” that can be excluded from the CTH…

 

“These areas moved from the CTH to the buffer will not be part of the sanctuary or national park. This conversion will help foster cordial relations between the local community and the tiger reserve management,” the proposal said.

 

But that’s only if you consider mining companies to be part of the ‘local community’.

 

The problem: Conservationists say the ‘rationalisation’ was conducted to allow mining of the Aravalli hills—which are rich in mineral deposits:

 

The southern region of the reserve, particularly the Tehla range, holds significant marble and dolomite deposits. Conservationists fear that redrawing the boundaries could facilitate renewed extraction in these mineral-rich zones, further threatening the fragile ecosystem and undermining decades of conservation efforts.

 

The fallout: The Supreme Court banned mining within 1 km of Sariska’s critical zone last May. Thanks to the new reserve boundaries, over 50 mines will become kosher again. This map shows several such mines scattered around the sanctuary: 

The expansion will also block corridors critical to tiger movements.

 

Key point to note: There is significant money at stake here (and therefore, a high likelihood of corruption):

 

Local mine owners The Indian Express spoke to put the annual revenue from the Tehla mines alone at Rs 700-800 crore, with a profit range of Rs 500-600 crore. “Dolomite lumps are more profitable than marble due to cheaper extraction cost — around Rs 175 per tonne — and sell for Rs 750-900. Tehla mines used to send out at least 1,000 trucks daily for 10 months a year. At a minimum of 30 tonnes per truck, that one tehsil is worth at least Rs 500 crore annually,” said the owner of an operational mine a few kilometres from Sariska.

 

Where we are now: On Monday, a group of environmentalists kicked off a campaign to can the proposal. Once again, a petition has been filed with the Supreme Court. It will hear the case on August 12.

 

Reading list: Frontline, paywalled, and Outlook Traveller are the best on all the issues raised with regards to the redrawing of boundaries. India Today has more on the plea filed in the Supreme Court. Indian Express, paywalled, has the important piece on the 50 mines that would benefit from this whole exercise.

 

Tariff triage: India gets a plan

Trump has now slapped a 50% tariff on all Indian goods imported into the US (all the details here). The hope that a trade deal will reverse the calamity is also dwindling. Yesterday, he ruled out any trade talks until the tariff dispute is “resolved”—in other words, when he gets exactly what he wants.

 

Modi-ji responds: The Prime Minister finally broke his silence—and doubled down on defiance:

 

Modi said he would not compromise on the interests of India’s farmers, even at a “personal political cost.” “Today, India is ready for the country's farmers, fishermen, and dairy farmers," Modi said at a conference in New Delhi.

 

As we noted before, agriculture is the number one provider of employment for more than 250 million Indians. Giving into demands to drop tariffs on US products would be devastating.

 

The immediate damage: is extensive. Global analysts point out that the 50% tariff is higher than the rate on a number of products from its export rivals—including China!! More to the point: “If effective, the steep 50% tariff would be similar to a trade embargo, and will lead to a sudden stop in affected export products.”

 

Among the first casualties: are small businesses that can’t afford to wait it out—especially in the garment business:

 

There is no way the industry can absorb this. This unreasonable increase in tariff will sound the death knell for the micro and medium apparel industry, especially those who majorly sell to the US market, unless the government steps in with direct fiscal support to the industry.

 

The US accounts for a third of our garment exports—$8.4 billion. 

 

Next in line: is the seafood industry—”millions of livelihoods across coastal and rural areas.” Also: the jewellery sector. The US is our single largest customer—accounting for  $10 billion in exports, nearly 30% of our global trade.

 

Point to note: The pharmaceutical industry is the only one to receive an exemption—to protect US consumers who rely on cheaper, generic drugs from India.

 

So what’s the plan? The government plans to:

 

• FInd new markets and expand others—by sending trade reps to “friendly nations”—and setting up trade desks in underserved regions like Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.
• Increase the Duty Drawback rate from 1% to as high as 5%. This scheme refunds custom duties paid on imported raw materials, components, etc that are used in exported goods.
• Reduce the costs of borrowing—by giving a subsidy on interest rates.
• All of which would be part of a new Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) export promotion mission.

To Russia with Love: A day after Trump announced the extra 25% Russian penalty, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was in Moscow meeting President Putin. Later, Doval said India’s “strategic and special partnership” with Russia is more important than ever at a time the world is passing through a “tumultuous situation.” There was also talk of “further strengthening” the military relationship. Putin is expected to visit India later this year.

 

BRICS is best: India has kept the alliance—between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—at arm’s length, wary of provoking US ire. New Delhi now is rushing headlong into the arms of its BRICS partners—especially Brazil and Russia. Both Brazil and India have been punished with a 50% tariff. President Lula da Silva had a long phone conversation with the PM. There was talk of increasing bilateral trade to over $20 billion by 2030.

 

Point to note: India does not plan to slap any retaliatory tariffs on US goods—for two reasons:

 

For one, a tariff essentially penalises the domestic consumer. Putting a tariff will only make it more costly for an Indian consumer to import a good from the US. Two, placing tariffs will result in reducing India’s imports from the US, thus widening the trade deficit and triggering yet another cycle of tariffs because Trump is only looking at wiping out the trade deficit.

 

The big picture: Like most other countries, New Delhi will do its best to wait out the madness of King Trump. There are no other options. ‘Surrender’ would be both a political and economic disaster. The government has even coined a fancy term for its policy:

 

“India has found its own way — the middle way to resist. We do not criticise in public, but we stand up and do not buckle under pressure, all of this without making much noise,” the sources said, describing it as “quiet non-submission.”

 

Chalo. Pehle, non-alignment, ab non-submission—at least, we’re consistent:)

 

Reading list: Most of the key reads—Wall Street Journal, Mint and Indian Express—are behind a paywall. The Hindu has more on the Doval-Putin meet. The Telegraph is best on the immediate impact of the tariffs. Our Big Story is best on explaining the role of Russian oil—and why India can’t afford to turn its back on Moscow.

 

Dear US students: Meet your new Big Brother

The context: Ever since the summer of 2024, there has been increasing pressure on universities to crack down on on-campus Palestine protests. But the Trump White House is now implementing a sweeping plan to remake US liberal arts education entirely—and bring universities under direct government control.

 

The weapon of choice: Federal funding. The administration has yanked millions of dollars in research grants to the most prestigious universities—which most rely on them. It’s not just Ivy Leagues—the Trump administration just yanked $584 million in research funding from UCLA—which suggests state schools are next.

 

What happened now: Columbia and Brown arrived at legal settlements with the White House towards the end of July. The details revealed at the time were hazy. According to the New York Times, both institutions have completely surrendered—not just their independence but the private data of their students. To prove that they are not ‘guilty’ of diversity hiring—or any ‘proxy of racial admission’—they will do the following: 

 

The admissions disclosures will provide the government with data on accepted and rejected applicants broken down by “race, color, grade point average and performance on standardized tests.”

 

What this means: For starters, all that juicy data is excellent fodder for more rightwing lawsuits—and new Trump threats to funding. It will also undermine all the ways in which schools have tried to maintain diversity—while abiding by the ban on affirmative action:

 

It could cause some universities to reconsider techniques like recruitment efforts focused on high schools whose students are predominantly people of color, or accepting students who have outstanding qualifications in some areas but subpar test scores, even if they believe such actions are legal.

 

Harvard, for example, has adapted its requirements—by replacing a single optional essay with five compulsory questions about life experiences, academic achievements and extracurricular activities.

 

Champagne time for Indians? This is Diwali for desis and east Asian students—who on average score higher than black and Latino students on standardised tests. In 2024, 1% of the Black high school kids scored between 1400 and 1600, the highest possible scores, in their SAT exams. That’s compared to 27% of Asians. That’s why Indians (NRI or otherwise) were at the forefront of the legal campaign to strike down affirmative action.

 

The big picture: Anti-affirmative action groups are already salivating at the thought of all that data:

 

If this information were obtainable by a Freedom of Information Act request or made public, it would be of great interest. If we could get this and analyze it, we would because we are constantly vigilant and looking out for those who seem not to have gotten the message.

 

As Yale Law School professor Justin Driver says, the real aim of this anti-DEI push “is to send a chill through admissions offices all over the country.” The Trumpistas have achieved their ambition within months—neither US colleges nor the students who attend them will be the same again. All it took was paisa—rather, the lack thereof.

Reading list: The Skimm offers the best overview on the issue while New York Times reports on the data-sharing settlements. NPR has more background on the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling.

 

MAP Academy fellowships alert!!

Editor’s note: As you know, the wonderful MAP Academy is our content partner for Advisory. It is one of the few Indian institutions deeply invested in cultural research and education. They also offer rare funded opportunities for researchers, designers, archivists, journalists, writers and educators. The Nalli Fellowship is one of them.

 

Over to MAP Academy…

 

We’re pleased to announce that a new cycle of the MAP Academy & Nalli Fellowships will open to applications soon. Designed to support research and practice in South Asia’s diverse textile traditions, the Fellowship is born out of a collaboration between MAP Academy and Nalli Silks, a heritage textile brand based in India.

 

Programme Details: Four fellowships, each with a grant of INR 5,50,000, will be awarded. 

 

The programme is open to a wide range of people, from individuals to collectives, from researchers to practitioners. We’re hoping to receive applications on a range of subjects, and these include:

 

• Histories of clothing and costume
• Community or personal textile archives
• Textiles in religious or liturgical contexts
• Environmental impact of textile production and consumption  
• Endangered or disappearing textile traditions
• Critical perspectives on revivalism
• Labour in textile production, with a focus on caste, class, and gender 
• Textiles in relation to other cultural forms—storytelling, poetry, music, architecture, and material culture
• Textiles in the context of archaeological study
• Textiles as symbols or metaphors in literature or mythology
• Techniques and tools used in specific textile traditions

 

You can read more about the Fellowships here. We will begin accepting applications starting August 18, 2025.

 

To register your interest and receive a reminder when applications open, please visit this link. For any queries, contact us at: fellowships@map-india.org

 

what caught our eye

business & tech

 

• Arwa Mahdawi in The Guardian profiles the ‘AI vegans’—people choosing to abstain from using AI for environmental, ethical and personal reasons. 
• Wall Street Journal (splainer gift link) breaks down the trend of college students scheduling everything on Google Calendar—from drinking scenes to hook-ups.  
• Schools are using AI surveillance to protect students, but it also leads to false alarms and arrests. 
• Google Gemini can now create AI bedtime stories—hiccups and all. The Verge has more.
• Google is offering college students a free one-year subscription to its AI Pro tools, and its not just in the US as Japan, Korea, Indonesia, and Brazil are included too.
• OpenAI has launched GPT-5, its most advanced AI chatbot yet—touted as faster, smarter, and capable of PhD-level writing and coding—as India emerges as its fastest-growing user base, with support for 12 regional languages. 
• Donald Trump has called for Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to step down, accusing him of being “conflicted” due to alleged ties to the Chinese government.

sports & entertainment

 

• Palestinian football star Suleiman al-Obeid—dubbed the “Pele of Palestinian football”—was killed in an Israeli strike while waiting for aid in southern Gaza.
• South Korea’s finest footballer Son Heung-min has moved from North London to Los Angeles—where a local politician asked him… if he can help the US win the World Cup. That’s one way to lose votes in Koreatown!
• The government has introduced amendments to the National Sports Governance Bill that exempts the BCCI from provisions of the RTI Act—the latest move to evade public accountability.
• Universal Pictures has started including a message into its latest theatrical releases that says the movie “may not be used to train AI”. 
• Dean Cain—best known for playing Superman on the small screen in the 1990s—is becoming an ICE agent to support the Donald’s mass deportation agenda.
• The Guardian asks how the new ‘War of the Worlds’  adaptation—starring Ice Cube—was so bad that it got an infamous 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes. 

health & environment

 

• France is grappling with its largest wildfire in decades that has eclipsed the size of Paris and is still spreading near the Spanish border.
• According to a new study, India lost 18x more forest cover than it gained between 2015 and 2019.
• A bombshell 2024 study—that estimated climate change could slash global GDP by 62%—has had its projections reduced by 3x, upon review.  
• Our brains naturally contain lithium—the absence of which is key to the onset of Alzheimer’s, a new study says.
• Measles is spreading rapidly in rural Alberta, particularly among Mennonite communities with low vaccine uptake, as falling immunisation rates across the province leave more people vulnerable post-Covid.

meanwhile, in the world

 

• Quartz has a good read on how Trump’s trade war has entered a new phase, with a baseline 15% tariff now hitting countries that run trade deficits with the US—pushing average tariffs to their highest level since 1933.
• Indonesia will convert a medical facility on its uninhabited Galang island to treat around 2,000 wounded Palestinians from Gaza, who will return home after recovery, a presidential spokesperson has said.
• Cambodia has nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, joining Pakistan and Israel in crediting him with “visionary diplomacy” for helping end border clashes with Thailand.
• New York Times (splainer gift link) has a must-read on the hit London-based Indian restaurants plotting expansions across the pond.  
• The Guardian reports on one of the biggest atrocities of the Sudan war that unfolded in Zamzam. 

meanwhile, in India

 

• Chennai-based writer and naturalist Yuvan Aves has become the first South Asian to be shortlisted for the UK’s Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing, for his book Intertidal, a journal of Chennai’s coastal habitats.
• Rahul Gandhi has accused the Election Commission of enabling voter fraud in Bangalore Central, claiming the Congress lost the seat due to over one lakh suspicious entries in the Mahadevapura segment alone, including duplicate voters and fake addresses.
• Authorities in Bihar appear to have caught on to trolls after the ‘Dog Babu’ incident—now denying a residential certificate to an applicant under the name ‘Donald John Trump’.
• The INDIA bloc has decided to contest the upcoming Vice-Presidential election despite lacking the numbers to win, saying it won’t allow the government a walkover. 

Three things to see

One: In Jiangyou, China, videos of a 14-year-old girl named Lai being beaten, kicked and tormented by other teenagers went viral—leading to violent protests. Hundreds of residents accused officials of letting the bullies off lightly—which in turn resulted in a police crackdown with stun grenades and tear gas. You can see the protest below.

 

And the appalling video that sparked the outrage is below. (New York Times, paywalled, The Guardian)

 

Two: Once upon a time, Apple bent over backwards to appease Chinese autocrats—so they could make cheap iPhones in the country. Now, it is doing exactly the same to appease the American autocrat in the White House. Tim Cook not only committed to investing $100 billion in the US—to avoid tariffs on iPhones. He also gave Trump this customized plaque with a 24-karat gold base to seal the epic moment of ass-kissing. The Verge says other CEOs are looking to replicate Cook’s relationship-building skills. Expect a sweet and early Christmas for Donald. See the cringe moment below. (Wall Street Journal)

 

Three: Hansal Mehta’s series on Mahatma Gandhi will be the first Indian series to premiere at the 50th edition of Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) next Thursday. It is based on Ramachandra Guha’s books on Gandhi—‘Gandhi Before India’ and ‘Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World’. There’s no trailer yet but TIFF has released the official poster for the show where you can see ‘Scam 1992’ star Pratik Gandhi playing Bapu-ji. Serious Ben Kingsley vibes! (The Telegraph)

 

feel good place

One: Throwback Friday: Sabeer Bhatia sings a song.

 

Two: Birds getting a lesson in chopsticks.

 

Three: Meet the tic-tac-toe champion.