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For American Brands Worried About China, Is India the Future?
As multinational retailers diminish their dependence on Chinese factories, some are shifting production to India.
By Peter S. Goodman
I report about breaking news in India as well as the changes taking place in Indian society, the economy and the government. I also cover India-Pakistan relations, the ongoing conflict in Kashmir and the diplomatic challenges between India and China.
Before I became a journalist, I worked as an activist in the field of bonded labor and child labor. That work took me to many villages where I witnessed the hard economic and social realities in India. I then began freelancing as a reporter/researcher for several news organizations, including ZDF, a German TV broadcaster. I joined The Times in 1997. At The Times, I have reported on major events in South Asia, including the 2004 tsunami, the earthquake in Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, and cyclones in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. I also extensively reported the ground situation in India during the Covid pandemic.
I was born in Meerut district of western Uttar Pradesh and got my schooling at different places in the region. I did my undergraduate and postgraduate education at Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Agra, and received a master’s degree in sociology. I also received a law degree from the University of Delhi.
I strive to be as accurate as possible in my work. That requires checking facts from different sources. I do not accept any hospitality or favors during work situations and reporting trips. I try to understand all the aspects of my subject, I identify myself as a reporter for The Times when I do my reporting. You can learn more about The Times’s ethics guidelines here.
Email: [email protected]
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As multinational retailers diminish their dependence on Chinese factories, some are shifting production to India.
By Peter S. Goodman
Consumption of tainted bootleg alcohol has caused several instances of mass deaths in recent years as drinkers seek out illicit liquor to save money or evade the law.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
The former House speaker joined a congressional delegation that met with the Tibetan spiritual leader at his home in India. China calls him a separatist.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
Forced into a coalition government, the prime minister faces the challenge of governing differently than he has so far in two decades in elected office.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
The Indian leader used his singular persona to lift his party to new heights. Then the opposition found a way to use his cult of personality against him.
By Mujib Mashal, Suhasini Raj and Hari Kumar
Though Narendra Modi will take up a third term as India’s leader, the election was closer than expected, forcing him to rely on coalition partners that don’t share his Hindu nationalist agenda.
By Mujib Mashal, Alex Travelli, Hari Kumar, Suhasini Raj, Sameer Yasir, Pragati K.B. and Atul Loke
This was featured in live coverage.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
This was featured in live coverage.
By Hari Kumar and Alex Travelli
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on track to secure a third term, but a dip in his party’s electoral support will have political consequences.
By Hari Kumar, Mujib Mashal and Mike Ives
This was featured in live coverage.
By Mujib Mashal, Hari Kumar and Alex Travelli
See results and maps from India’s 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
By Matthew Bloch, Agnes Chang, Saurabh Datar, Martín González Gómez, Mujib Mashal and Urvashi Uberoy
For weeks now, temperatures in several states in northern India have been well over 110, and hospitals have been reporting a rise in heatstroke.
By Hari Kumar and Mujib Mashal
Disasters over the weekend that claimed at least 34 lives prompted condolences, arrests and finger-pointing. But systemic change remains elusive, analysts say.
By Mujib Mashal, Pragati K.B. and Hari Kumar
After setting a very high bar for his party in the election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi often appears on the defensive as the voting nears its end.
By Mujib Mashal and Pragati K.B.
Families grapple with anguish and isolation as they try to raise their children in a country that increasingly questions their very identity.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
The brazenness of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vilification of India’s largest minority group made clear he sees few checks at home or abroad on his power.
By Mujib Mashal
Few doubt the popular prime minister will win a third term in voting that starts Friday. His strong hand is just what many Indians seem to want.
By Mujib Mashal
The election is a giant undertaking that requires millions of poll workers, voting machines and security forces to cover deserts, mountains, forests and megacities.
By John Yoon and Hari Kumar
As an election nears, political strife between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and opposition-held states is straining the federal formula that holds India together.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
The ancient festival has Hindu roots, but growing numbers worldwide are taking part in the celebration, which features bonfires, singing, dancing, prayer, feasting and clouds of pigmented powder.
By John Yoon and Hari Kumar
The results of India’s vote will be announced on Tuesday. They will decide the political direction of the world’s most populous country for the next five years.
By Mujib Mashal
Lists of donors and beneficiaries cast government contracts and police investigations in an unflattering new light.
By Alex Travelli and Hari Kumar
The grand opening of a temple in Ayodhya was both a religious ritual and a made-for-TV spectacle for a broadcast media co-opted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
Birds, be careful: Loitering at an Indian port with a microchip on your leg can make people nervous and get you locked up.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
Its site is sacred to Hindus, and it also represents the much more recent victory of Hinduism as a political identity.
By Alex Travelli and Hari Kumar
The temple inaugurated by the prime minister is on the disputed site of a centuries-old mosque destroyed in a Hindu mob attack that set a precedent of impunity in cases of violence against Muslims.
By Mujib Mashal, Hari Kumar and Atul Loke
Startups big and small are adding a modern touch to the ancient practice of instilling Hindu values starting in the womb.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
Two- and three-wheeled vehicles, used by billions of people, are moving away from fossil fuels to batteries faster than cars in countries that have made the energy transition a priority.
By Somini Sengupta, Abdi Latif Dahir, Alex Travelli and Clifford Krauss
Results of voting for the governments of four Indian states showed gains for Mr. Modi’s ruling party, putting him in a strong position ahead of general elections in the spring.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
The government has tried to shift the focus. That’s harder with morgues still full of bodies six months after the start of ethnic violence in Manipur.
By Sameer Yasir and Hari Kumar
After an indictment accuses an Indian official of ordering an assassination on U.S. soil, diplomats and experts debate how far up the chain the scheme went.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
Schools shut down and residents were told to stay indoors as the government seems unable to avert an airborne calamity with multiple culprits that descends at the onset of winter.
By Alex Travelli and Hari Kumar
While most Indians travel by road or rail, the country is engaged in a major expansion of its aviation industry to serve the needs of its middle class.
By Alex Travelli and Hari Kumar
A glacial lake’s overflow swept away more than 100 people in the Himalayan state of Sikkim in India. Climate change is aggravating the threat of such phenomena.
By Hari Kumar and Alex Travelli
The sweep caught up the founder and contributors of a left-leaning news website, according to other news outlets and those raided. A Times investigation had linked the site to a pro-China network.
By Alex Travelli, Suhasini Raj and Hari Kumar
India’s feud with Canada highlights how Prime Minister Narendra Modi has amplified a separatist threat that in reality is largely a diaspora illusion.
By Suhasini Raj, Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
The landmark legislation will also apply to state legislatures, but it may be years before the law comes into force.
By Sameer Yasir and Hari Kumar
The allegation that India was involved in the killing of a Sikh leader in Canada came after New Delhi had accused Western countries of inaction on secessionist groups.
By Mujib Mashal, Hari Kumar and Suhasini Raj
This was featured in live coverage.
By Mujib Mashal
This was featured in live coverage.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
India’s hosting of the G20 summit this weekend will put its growing power on display. But its leader’s divisive religious politics threaten its rise.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
The goal is to study the sun’s outer layers, to better understand its physics and dynamics and to improve understanding of space weather.
By Hari Kumar and Mujib Mashal
Its celebrated lunar landing produced not only a wave of pride at home but also a road map for other countries.
By Mujib Mashal
The Chandrayaan-3 mission makes India the first country to reach the lunar south polar region in one piece and adds to the achievements of the country’s homegrown space program.
By Hari Kumar, Alex Travelli, Mujib Mashal and Kenneth Chang
In addition to the scientific results of Chandrayaan-3, India is preparing a joint lunar exploration with Japan.
By Hari Kumar and Mujib Mashal
This was featured in live coverage.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
The robotic Luna-25 spacecraft appeared to have “ceased its existence” after a failed orbital adjustment, the space agency Roscosmos said.
By Kenneth Chang, Alina Lobzina and Anton Troianovski
India’s main opposition leader was kicked out of the legislature after a defamation case that his allies called politically motivated. He can also now run in next year’s elections.
By Alex Travelli
A gunman who killed Muslim train passengers and a Hindu march that turned riotous underscore how the partisan stances of India’s top Hindu leaders have given license to chaotic elements in the country.
By Alex Travelli and Hari Kumar
“We have stopped eating tomatoes in salad,” one shopper said, “and we are not making any tomato-based vegetable dishes.”
By Hari Kumar and Mujib Mashal
More than 100 more people were feared to be trapped under debris, as torrential monsoon rainfall continued to pummel the country.
By Sameer Yasir and Hari Kumar
Chandrayaan-3, a partial redo of a 2019 mission that ended in a crash, is the first of as many as six missions that could land on the moon in the coming months.
By Kenneth Chang and Hari Kumar
The authorities warned of widespread flooding in the Indian capital after days of torrential rains claimed dozens of lives in neighboring states.
By Sameer Yasir and Hari Kumar
At least 49 people have died since the weekend amid unusually heavy downpours that have pummeled the northern part of the country and caused widespread damage.
By Sameer Yasir and Hari Kumar
The workers were detained on charges that included endangering the safety of passengers and tampering with evidence, the Central Bureau of Investigation said.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
The barrier-breaking romance of a Pakistani woman and an Indian man has led to criminal charges and nationalist intrigue.
By Hari Kumar and Mujib Mashal
In some places, educated young people are desperate for steady employment in the world’s most populous nation. In others, factory owners struggle to retain workers.
By Alex Travelli, Hari Kumar and Atul Loke
Some doctors believe the high number of fatalities is tied to the temperatures. But the authorities are still trying to determine how many people died and what exactly killed them.
By Alex Travelli and Hari Kumar
The charges against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, follow months of protest by prominent female wrestlers, who complained that the authorities had turned a deaf ear to their allegations.
By Sameer Yasir
In India’s worst railway disaster in decades, nearly all of the 288 dead were in three crowded cars where passengers stand for long stretches.
By Sameer Yasir, Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
The restoration of service could help more families reach the area to identify the dead. Officials said about 100 victims were still unclaimed.
By Hari Kumar, Isabella Kwai and Sameer Yasir
This was featured in live coverage.
By Sameer Yasir, Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
This was featured in live coverage.
By Mujib Mashal, Sameer Yasir and Hari Kumar
This was featured in live coverage.
By Hari Kumar, Mujib Mashal and Alex Travelli
The disaster killed at least 288 people, and a preliminary government report described it as a “three-way accident” involving two passenger trains and an idled cargo train. Officials were investigating possible signal failure.
By Sameer Yasir, Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
Their protest dispersed, female wrestlers who have accused a powerful official of sexual harassment went to the Ganges intending to throw away their Olympic medals.
By Mujib Mashal, Hari Kumar and Sameer Yasir
The complex is a testament to the prime minister’s power to get things done, but the ceremony also put the nation’s political divisions on display.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
The animals had been extinct for more than 70 years in the country, which has just begun a program that brought 20 cheetahs from Africa to a wildlife sanctuary.
By Hari Kumar and Sameer Yasir
An overturn in Karnataka is a morale boost for the beleaguered opposition Congress party. But defeating the B.J.P. nationally remains a long shot.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar
A state election in Karnataka was being watched for what it might say about national elections next year.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar