| Greetings from India! You're reading Meanwhile, Back Home, our daily newsletter specially curated for our overseas readers. While you were asleep, it was a whirlwind of a day here in India. We've got the top highlights lined up for you.
Dear Reader, Allow me to whisk you to Dharmasthala, Karnataka’s sacred temple town, which is reeling after a former sanitation worker alleged he buried assault and murder victims on orders from powerful locals. A Special Investigation Team has unearthed human remains, sparking demands to reopen unsolved cases, including the 2003 disappearance of a medical student. As whispers grow louder, the influential Heggade family, custodians of the revered Sree Manjunatheshwara Temple, faces scrutiny. Locals are torn between reverence and rising suspicion. Is this long-overdue truth, or a campaign of defamation? With DNA tests underway and emotions running high, Dharmasthala now stands at a crossroads of faith, justice, and reckoning.
💡Spotlight Indian apparel exporters are bracing for impact as steep new US tariffs threaten to upend the industry. With a critical 25% levy set to take effect on August 7, the sector fears massive layoffs and a loss of competitiveness. The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) is urging immediate government intervention to soften the blow. Here is what’s at stake: 📌 Tariff disparity: The US has imposed harsher duties on India compared to over 50 other nations, including Bangladesh and Pakistan, making Indian garments more expensive and less competitive. 📌 Key market under threat: The US accounted for 33% of India’s Ready-Made Garments (RMG) exports in 2024. Indian apparel’s share in US imports grew from 4.5% in 2020 to 5.8% in 2024 — progress now at risk. 📌 In the crosshairs: Top Indian exports such as cotton T-shirts, women’s dresses, and baby garments face tariff shocks. These items contribute up to 36% of their category’s total US imports. 📌 Job loss: Exporters warn they may have to sell below cost just to keep factories running. Without relief, widespread layoffs in India’s labour-intensive textile sector appear imminent. Also Read: India responds to Trump’s tariff attack, says ties with US have weathered ‘many challenges’
☕ Spill the Expresso National Film Awards 2025 The national awards are a star-studded affair. Shah Rukh Khan, Vikrant Massey, and Rani Mukerji walked away with top acting honours, while The Kerala Story bagged two awards, solidifying its critical acclaim. The 71st edition recognised films certified by CBFC in 2023, a year packed with cinematic hits such as Pathaan, 12th Fail, Jailer, and 2018. Dhadak 2 review Dhadak 2 dares to dive into caste, class, and gender, but does it go deep enough? Triptii Dimri and Siddhant Chaturvedi headline this spiritual sequel that takes cues from Pariyerum Perumal, yet often loses emotional punch to performative intensity. Directed by Shazia Iqbal, the film is politically aware, touching on student activism, caste humiliation, and female agency, but struggles to maintain its raw edge. While not as searing as Sairat, it is still a marked improvement over the original Dhadak, and one of the boldest Dharma films in recent memory.
🚨 Must Read Is Pak sitting on ‘massive’ reserves? US President Donald Trump claims Pakistan holds “massive” oil reserves and could one day even export to India, but the facts tell a different story. While a 2015 US report estimated 9.1 billion barrels of technically recoverable shale oil, Pakistan's proven reserves remain modest, ranked far below India. With daily output around 60,000 barrels, just a tenth of India’s, Pakistan relies heavily on energy imports. Experts stress there is no real exploratory data to support Trump’s optimism. Unless backed by major investment and years of development, any talk of Pakistan striking oil riches remains speculative at best, and more politics than petroleum for now.
📚Book Nook Did Virginia Woolf have Bengali roots? Historian William Dalrymple thinks so, and it might just change how we read her. In As I See It, Aanya Mehta explores Virginia Woolf through an Indian woman’s lens, asking what would have changed had Woolf had known of her ‘Chandannagore connection’? Would it have changed her perception of India and Indians? That’s all for now. Until next time, Aishwarya Khosla
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