Here’s some more news that we found in the Indian press over the weekend and would like to share with you. Rather than present stories of great national importance, we would like to highlight some of the items that you are less likely to see in world news reports. Any opinions that the author might express are surely beneath contempt, and are not necessarily those of Thomson Reuters.
Tennis pro Maria Sharapova visited India. Gushing ensued. “The 25-year-old, here to announce her partnership with UK-based real estate company Homestead, sported an infectious smile throughout the interaction even though the lensmen could not get to focus enough of capturing the blonde beauty. ‘Well, it is just the hair and make-up you know. I don’t wake up looking like this,’ quipped Sharapova when a scribe called her pretty. Here only for a day, Sharapova said food and culture was something she would take back from India. ‘I arrived last night and asked the chef what should I try of the Indian food. I had a dosa which tasted really nice. I wanted to have this great Indian experience. There is so much energy in the city, I have been in some quiet areas recently, resting. I really like the culture and people. You all have been really welcoming.’” Final score: love-love. (NDTV)
Mulayam Singh Yadav’s interests spread wider than wrestling or politics. He is also a lover of poetry. “For more than 35 minutes, Mulayam Yadav analysed the content of the book, ‘Yatharth ke Aas Pas’, written by a Congress leader, Chandra Prakash Rai. “This collection of poems on some very sensitive issues like girls, female foeticide, loneliness, loss of faith and other human emotions must be read by everyone,” he said. (The Indian Express)
Starbucks pays its workers a mere 25 pence an hour at its new India stores, below the country’s official living wage, according to The Mirror. “Under Indian law, restaurant, hotel and cafe owners are only required to pay their staff 17p an hour, or £6 a month. But the Indian “living wage” – the amount people need to eat, drink and pay the bills – is set at 67p an hour. When our investigators visited the Mumbai Starbucks they found cleaners were earning just 25p an hour – about £2 a day. And even the baristas who serve coffee were being paid only 56p an hour, less than £5 for a day’s work.” Starbucks declined to comment. (The Mirror)
You can get a bigger payday from being trapped in an elevator. Mumbai’s Ambassador hotel is paying 200,000 rupees ($3,657) to six guests who were trapped in one of its elevators for two hours — 18 years ago. The hotel argued that it did not bear responsibility for the trapped guests, who used the facilities at their own risk, and also argued that the elevator operator had not maintained the lifts properly. Otis Elevator Co argued that indeed it had, and had urged the hotel to shut down the elevators for three weeks for maintenance.(CNN-IBN)
