The cola industry in India is undergoing a drastic crisis. The local brands are making same kind of drinks at a much cheaper price tag and it’s already a hit among the urban cola lovers. If that wasn’t enough, now <keyword id="6354486" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Virat-Kohli">Virat Kohli</keyword>, Indian cricket team skipper and country’s highest paid celebrity has now shown his disinterest to represent a brand that he cannot connect to. Being associated with the brand for last six years, <keyword id="6360637" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kohli">Kohli</keyword>’s contract just got over. While <keyword id="44672" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Pepsi">Pepsi</keyword> is keen to have him onboard, the increasing woes over sugary and carbonated drinks are preventing Kohli from resigning the contract. In an interview with CNN-IBN, Kohli said, “"When I started my fitness turnaround, it was more of a lifestyle thing initially. If something goes away from that, I would not want to be a part of that or be promoting that," he said. "We are actually on the cusp of making some big changes on that front. Things that I've endorsed in the past, I won't take names, but something that I feel that I don't connect to anymore. If I myself won't consume such things, I won't urge others to consume it just because I'm getting money out of it." Virat Kohli is now playing ICC Champions Trophy in <keyword id="6355981" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="England">England</keyword>. At the moment, he endorses 18 brands, with the ones related to food and beverages being Pepsi, Herbalife nutritional supplements and Boost. Other endorsements include MRF tyres, Tissot watches, Puma sports gear, Colgate oral care, Audi cars and <keyword id="138316" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Samsonite">Samsonite</keyword> luggage.

Virat Kohli just broke up with Pepsi. Here's why

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/47867137.cms" /> 
Media firm TV18 Broadcast Ltd and Cable News Network (CNN) will end their 10-year partnership in January next year, reported PTI. 
 In a filing to the <keyword id="43628" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Bombay-stock-exchange">Bombay Stock Exchange</keyword>, TV18 Broadcast, which operates English news channel CNN-IBN, said the company and CNN "will be successfully concluding their 10-year brand licensing and news services arrangement for use of the CNN brand and CNN news content in January 2016". 

	It further said: "The parties have decided not to renew the arrangement." 
 

	Now both the companies will plan their own growth trajectories independently in one of the most dynamic and fast growing markets in the world. 
 

	Global Broadcast News (GBN), a TV18 group company, had signed a branding agreement in 2005 with CNN Turner International. It led to the launch of English news channel CNN-IBN in India. 
 GBN later on transformed into <keyword id="2924614" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="IBN18-Broadcast-Ltd">IBN18 Broadcast Ltd</keyword>, which in turn became <keyword id="730541" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="TV18-Broadcast-Ltd-">TV18 Broadcast Ltd.</keyword> In the biggest ever deal in the Indian media industry, Mukesh Ambani-led <keyword id="6355199" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Reliance-Industries">Reliance Industries</keyword> (RIL) acquired control of <keyword id="765863" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Network-18-Media-Investments-Ltd">Network 18 Media &amp; Investments Ltd</keyword> last year, including its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast Ltd, for Rs 4,000 crore through <keyword id="889054" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Independent-Media-Trust">Independent Media Trust</keyword> (IMT). 
	(Image: Indiatimes)

TV 18, CNN to end 10 years of partnership

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/35061938.cms" /> The <keyword id="43771" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Exit-polls">exit polls</keyword> conducted by various news channels have unanimously projected that NDA will get the magical figure of 272 or at least be in striking distance of forming the next government. 
 The exit polls also indicate that the <keyword id="14666" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="BJP">BJP</keyword> is all set to come up with its best ever performance. In contrast, the <keyword id="1575" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Congress">Congress</keyword> is headed towards its worst ever performance, with its total number of seats projected to be in the range of 100, as per the exit polls. 
 Four channels – <keyword id="2238539" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="NewsX">NewsX</keyword>, <keyword id="211456" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="India-TV">India TV</keyword>, <keyword id="1739243" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="ABP-News">ABP News</keyword> and <keyword id="60050" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="CNN-IBN">CNN-IBN</keyword> – have projected comfortable majority for the NDA. NewsX and India TV have projected 289 seats for the NDA while ABP News estimated that the NDA would capture 281 seats. However, Times Now was the most conservative in its projections, giving the NDA 249-265 <keyword id="6355187" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Lok-Sabha">Lok Sabha</keyword> seats, while CNN-IBN gave it 279-282 seats. 
 
Hindi news channel News24 gave NDA a thumping majority and predicted it to bag 340 seats. On the other hand, Aaj Tak predicted the NDA figures in the range of 261-283. Even if the party gets 261, getting the support of 11 more MPs should not be too difficult, given the fact that the AIADMK chief Jayalalitha is said to be close to Narendra Modi and has extended her support to the coalition in the past during the tenure of the Vajpayee government. 
 
Most of the exit polls showed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) getting between 101 and 148 seats. NewsX gave the UPA 101 seats, India TV 107 seats, ABP News 97 and CNN-IBN 92-102. 
 
‘Others’, including regional parties like the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party, JD (U) and the Left Front, are estimated to get between 146 and 156 seats. 
 
The exit polls also forecast that the BJP would not be able to open its account in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. However, in the North, the Narendra Modi wave is projected to sweep away regional identity-based heavyweights like the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar. 
 
The BJP is likely have the biggest gains in Uttar Pradesh where two surveys expect it to bag 54 seats, just three less than its all-time high of 57 in 1998. Similarly, the exit polls ruled out the possibility of RJD’s revival. 
 
The debutant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is projected to get an average of only five seats, with a total vote share of about 4%.

Ab Ki Baar Modi
Sarkar? Exit Polls Suggest It Just Might Be

New Delhi, Nov 28 () Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries on Thursday denied reports of selling its news media business to Times Group.
Bloomberg early on Thursday reported that Ambani "is in talks to sell his news media assets to India's Times Group, as Asia's richest man plans to unload a business that's been losing money".
"Reliance Industries firmly denies (the) story. The story is baseless and false," a company spokesperson said.
The report had quoted people familiar with the matter to say that Bennett Coleman &amp; Co, the publisher of the Times of India, is looking to hire advisers for due diligence on the news properties of Ambani's Network18 Media &amp; Investments Ltd.
Bennett Coleman's spokesperson couldn't be immediately reached for comments.
Reliance had in 2014 bought Network18, which owns and operates 56 local channels spanning news and entertainment, for up to Rs 4,000 crore.
Network18 owns TV channels (including CNBCTV18, CNN-IBN, CNN Awaz), websites (firstpost.com, moneycontrol.com), magazines (including the license for Forbes India), entertainment channel (Colors and MTV) among other businesses.
Unlisted Bennett Coleman, also known as the Times Group, already has two news channels -- Times Now (for general news) and ET Now (the business news channel) which compete with Network18's general news channel News18 and business news channel CNBCTV18.
TV18 Broadcast Ltd - the BSE-listed firm that houses the news channels - has a market cap of about Rs 4,100 crore. Promoters hold 60.40 per cent interest in the company which had in the July-September quarter reported a net loss of Rs 1.03 crore. It had a profit of Rs 8.5 crore in 2018-19 fiscal.
Last month, Reliance in its consolidated earnings statement for the July-September quarter reported a Rs 47 crore pre-tax profit from its media business on a revenue of Rs 1,174 crore.
"Robust 43 per cent growth in subscription income post-implementation of new tariff order (NTO) was offset by a weak advertising environment," it had said. "News portfolio solidified its leadership with a 10.9 per cent viewership share. Broad-based cost optimizations led to Entertainment Business-as-usual (BAU) margins rising to 12.9 per cent, vs 9.9 per cent in 2Q FY19." PRS ANZ BAL

Reliance denies selling news media biz to Times Group, says reports false, baseless

<ul><li>Supreme Court decision to make Airtel and Vodafone pay up spectrum dues gave a boost to RIL stock. </li><li>In the last one week, <a href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/ambani-said-in-talks-to-sell-news-assets-to-india-s-times-group">Bloomberg reported</a> that RIL has been trying to sell its media business to two different entities. </li><li>Ambani also said that he plans to turn the company<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/airtel-tata-sky-and-pvr-shares-fall-after-mukesh-ambanis-vision-for-ril/articleshow/70655108.cms"> virtually net-debt free</a>. </li><li>This year, Reliance Retail also crossed ₹2,000 crore in pre-tax profits during the first quarter. </li></ul>It was a much anticipated event but the market value of Reliance Industries hit crossed ₹10 lakh crore in today’s trade. In the morning session it ₹10,00,382.68 crore even as the stock went up only by a marginal 0.5% today. But the company stock withstood erratic sessions of highs and lows and various global cues, to grow steadily for the last four months. The flurry of good news started after Ambani unveiled his next generation plans at his<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/highlights-of-mukesh-ambani-speech-at-reliance-industries-agm/articleshow/70638299.cms"> annual general meeting</a>. But many unprecedented activities also made him the undisputed king of the telecom market. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Rivals loss is Ambani’s gain Jio was gaining customers, mostly at the expense of Vodafone-Idea, but that came at the cost of very cheap prices. It wasn’t clear if Jio will be able to keep the lead if it raised tariff. That worry had been laid to rest after the top three mobile service providers ⁠— Airtel, Vodafone-Idea, and Reliance Jio⁠— announced their plans to<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/jio-will-raise-tariffs-after-airtel-and-vodafone-idea/articleshow/72138425.cms"> hike</a> tariffs. It gave a golden opportunity for Jio to make more money while maintaining the lead over others. Then came the deathly blow for Jio’s rivals from none other than the Supreme Court, which ordered telcos to pay up around ₹92,000 crore ($13 billion) in dues to the Indian government. The companies had lost a decade-old case on how much they have to pay in spectrum fees that left them heavy interest and penalties included. The other two companies which were much older had to pay a lot more than Jio, which was a blessing in disguise for <keyword id="3820" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mukesh-Ambani">Mukesh Ambani</keyword>’s company. Many stockholders believed that Jio would end up with a virtual monopoly over the market as the debt of Airtel and Vodafone is all set to rise The sentiment effect too boosted the stock value by a great margin for a few weeks. Sale of Reliance’s media business In the last one week, wire agency<a href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/ambani-said-in-talks-to-sell-news-assets-to-india-s-times-group"> Bloomberg reported</a> twice that RIL has been trying to sell its media business to two different entities—Japanese major Sony and the Times Group. The media business of Network18 that RIL acquired in 2014 is a loss-making entity. The group owns the television channels of Eenadu TV along with those of Network18 like CNBCTV18 and CNN-IBN, Colours and more. It also owns multiple websites like moneycontrol and Firstpost. The news of a possible sale and cash flowing also boosted the stock price. At the AGM in August, Ambani also said that he has plans to carve out retail and Jio into separate entities to unlock value. Plan to go debt free, bonuses and IPOs Apart from announcing various futuristic plans, Ambani also said that he plans to turn the company<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/airtel-tata-sky-and-pvr-shares-fall-after-mukesh-ambanis-vision-for-ril/articleshow/70655108.cms"> virtually net-debt free</a>. For a company which is saddled with a debt of around ₹1.5 lakh crore, it is good news for investors. This is especially true in a market where every third company is either weighed down by or going <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/subhash-chandra-the-man-who-started-tv-revolution-in-india-now-bows-out-after-piling-on-1-6-billion-debt/articleshow/72251788.cms">under debt burden</a>. He also walked the talk by announcing massive deals with international oil majors –British Petroleum and Saudi Aramco which will bring in as much as ₹1.1 lakh crore in commitments. Reliance Retail starts churning profits This year, Reliance Retail also crossed ₹2,000 crore in pre-tax profits during the first quarter. “In our core retail, we crossed the best margin ever at 8.9%. We now have 10,644 stores across the country now,” said Alok Agarwal, CFO of the company during <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/mukesh-ambanis-reliance-retail-reports-over-47-growth-in-revenue/articleshow/70295939.cms">the quarterly results</a>. But this is not the only good news that the business brought. Ambani unveiled his plans to use the synergies of digital business of Jio with retail and take on Flipkart and Amazon in the online space. In fact, the company unveiled plans of a virtual reality powered shopping experience This, along with promise of public offers and possible bonuses put RIL stock on the fast lane.

Four reasons why Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries is now worth ₹10 lakh crore

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/35782949.cms" /> In one of the biggest deals in the media sector, <keyword id="6355199" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Reliance-Industries">Reliance Industries</keyword> Ltd (RIL) will acquire Network 18 Media &amp; Investments, including its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast, for Rs 4,000 crore. 
 
“The RIL board today (May 29) approved funding of up to Rs 4,000 crore to Independent Media Trust (IMT), of which RIL is the sole beneficiary, for acquisition of control in Network 18 Media &amp; Investments (NW18), including its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast (TV18),” the company said in a statement. 
 
"IMT would use the funds to acquire control over NW18 and TV18, resulting in ownership of about 78% in NW18 and 9% in TV18, and to acquire shares tendered in the open offers," it added. 
 
NW18 owns a suite of premier digital Internet properties, e-commerce businesses and differentiated broadcast content. 
 This suite includes In.com, IBNLive.com, Moneycontrol.com, Firstpost.com, Cricketnext.in, Homeshop18.com and Bookmyshow.com. The broadcast channels include Colors, CNN-IBN, <keyword id="51916" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cnbc">CNBC</keyword>-TV18, IBN7 and CNBC Awaaz. 
 
"This acquisition will differentiate Reliance's 4G business by providing a unique amalgamation at the intersect of telecom, Web and digital commerce via a suite of premier digital properties," RIL said. 
 <keyword id="851226" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Network18-Group">Network18 Group</keyword> and Reliance Industries had, in January 2012, struck a deal under which Reliance had to sell part of its interest in <keyword id="478149" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="ETV">ETV</keyword> channels and would get access to content and distribution assets of Network18.

RIL To Spend Rs 4,000 Crore To Acquire
Network18

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf2c4459e8c536cb72b9713-1257/dubaimall-fromburjkhalifa.jpg" border="0" alt="DubaiMall FromBurjKhalifa" data-mce-source="Shutterstock" />ShutterstockThe Dubai Mall as seen from the top of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, which is part of the complex.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/dubai">Dubai</a> has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dubai-mall-worlds-second-largest-mall-2018-11">65 malls</a> in a city of just over 3 million people, with 10 more under construction, including Dubai Square, a megamall set to be the biggest in the world when it is finished.</li><li>Despite the number of shopping destinations, Dubai residents I spoke to explained that the number of malls is not because the population is so shopping-obsessed, but because the city is unbearably hot for much of the year.</li><li>Because malls are large, open, climate-controlled spaces, they act as de-facto community centers and public squares where Dubai residents can gather, enjoy entertainment, or experience social events.</li></ul>If you are the type of person who likes to explore a country's "authentic" culture, traveling to Dubai can be a bit dizzying.Everywhere you turn, there is another mall or shopping center. There's the Mall of the Emirates, with its icy indoor ski slopes, the faux-Venetian Mercato Mall, and the ornate Ibn Mattuta Mall, modeled after the travels of the famous Moroccan Berber explorer, to name a few.In total, Dubai has about 65 malls in a city of just over 3 million people, with 10 more on the way. One of those currently being built is Dubai Square, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/dubai-square-mall-dubai-creek/index.html">set to become the world's largest mall</a> when it's completed.Which all begs the question: why?As if reading my mind as we walked through Deira, the oldest neighborhood in Dubai, Nada Badran, a Jordanian who has lived in Dubai for most of her life, offered an answer."Everyone thinks we're such shopping addicts. But really there are so many malls because we need spaces that are comfortable to be inside. It's so hot in the summers," Badran, who hosts Wander With Nada on CNN Arabic, told Business Insider.Related: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dubai-mall-worlds-second-largest-mall-2018-11">Dubai has a $20 billion megacomplex with the world's 2nd-largest mall, the world's tallest building, an aquarium, and 1,200 stores. I can't imagine why any tourist would want to visit.</a>During Dubai's long summer stretching from mid-April through October, temperatures make it unbearable to be outside for more than a few minutes. Temperatures <a href="https://services.dubaiairports.ae/dubaimet/MET/Climate.aspx">are regularly around 105 degrees Fahrenheit</a> (41 degrees Celsius) and have gone as high as 119 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius), with plenty of humidity. Malls offer an escape. "The malls in Dubai play a role more than just a shopping center. The malls are like community centers where entertainment and social events happen," Ali Shamsi, a financial trader an entrepreneur based in Dubai, wrote <a href="https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Dubai-full-of-malls">on Quora</a> in March. "Besides, it's too hot to do activities outdoors in summer."While most of Dubai's malls have shops that would be familiar to any American or European traveler - everything from Bloomingdales to Adidas to Gucci - their orientation is more akin to miniature indoor cities than outright shopping centers."[T]he mall is a social space, not just a shopping space," Justin Thomas, an associate professor of psychology at Zayed University wrote for <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/uae/the-national-news/20140414/282230893675225">The National</a> in 2014. "The mall is where three generations of the same family take an evening stroll; the mall is where the Abu Dhabi Readers (a book club) meet to discuss works of literature."The most iconic of Dubai's malls is the simply named <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dubai-mall-worlds-second-largest-mall-2018-11">Dubai Mall</a>, a St. Peter's Basilica of capitalism: 1,200 stores, hundreds of restaurants, a movie theater, a luxury hotel, an Olympic-size ice-skating rink, a virtual-reality theme park, and an aquarium all stuffed into one <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/05/world/meast/an-exclusive-peek-inside-largest-mall/index.html">$20 billion</a> megacomplex ranked as the second-largest in the world. The mall is so big it has its own neighborhoods like Fashion Avenue, designed to mimic Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, and "The Village," an open-air "street" with chic clothing boutiques, cafes, and restaurants.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf7e28a0d7c67415b52813f-960/boulevard-at-dubai-square.jpg" border="0" alt="Boulevard at Dubai Square" data-mce-source="Dubai Holdings" data-mce-caption="A rendering of &amp;quotThe Boulevard&quot; at Dubai Square, currently under construction." />Dubai HoldingsA rendering of "The Boulevard" at Dubai Square, currently under construction.</div></div></div>The currently under-construction Dubai Square is <a href="https://www.arabianbusiness.com/retail/401410-revealed-dubai-square-project-set-to-dwarf-dubai-mall">set to construct the Middle East's largest Chinatown</a>, a four-lane "boulevard" that mimics a wide city street, a piazza, and an entertainment center for concerts and theater shows.Related: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/emirates-airline-airbus-a380-economy-class-review-new-york-dubai-2018-11">I flew 13 hours nonstop on the world's biggest passenger plane, the $446 million Airbus superjumbo jet, and it's about as good as economy can get</a>The heat is not the only story behind Dubai's malls. The city <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/uae/dubai-plans-to-be-world-s-most-popular-tourist-destination-by-2025-1.776970">aims to be the most popular tourist destination</a> in the world by 2025, as it seeks to develop an economy not reliant on oil. It is currently the fourth most-visited city in the world, with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/most-visited-cities-in-the-world-2018-9">a projected 16.7 million visitors</a> this year, <a href="https://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/big-cities-big-business-bangkok-london-and-paris-lead-the-way-in-mastercards-2018-global-destination-cities-index/">according to Mastercard's Global Destination Cities Index</a>. Of the 15.8 million people who visited Dubai last year, 2.1 million came from India. And Dubai's fastest-growing tourist market is China, with 764,000 visitors last year. The number of Chinese visitors <a href="https://www.arabianbusiness.com/travel-hospitality/401047-chinese-tourists-to-dubai-more-than-double-since-2014">could top 1 million this year</a>. Russian tourists is another growth market for the country.What all those cultures have in common - in addition to many Middle Eastern cultures - is that shopping is viewed as a leisure activity. For many without easy access to luxury goods, traveling halfway across the world to visit a mall or luxury stores is the attraction. Dubai is positioned to capitalize on that.Emaar Malls, The Dubai Mall's developer, said recently that the property had seen <a href="http://www.tellerreport.com/life/--dubai-mall-welcomes-more-than-80-million-visitors-annually-.SJ1w0k637.html">over 80 million visitors annually for the past four years</a>, making it the most-visited mall in the world. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/smart-palm-tree-charge-phone-free-wi-fi-public-dubai-2017-10">These smart palm trees in Dubai can charge your phone and provide free Wi-Fi</a></h3> <div> <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/a1nNyhXL-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script> </div> </div>

Dubai has more than 65 malls in a city of 3 million people, and it's not because they're obsessed with shopping

A self-proclaimed spiritual guru in <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="India">India</keyword> has sparked outrage with his callous remarks about the gang <keyword id="39493" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Rape">rape</keyword> of a 23-year old in India who succumbed to her injuries on December 26.
<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Delhi-gang-rape-victim-as-guilty-as-her-rapists-Asaram-Bapu-says/articleshow/17922913.cms">The Times of India</a> quotes Asaram Bapu's speech to his devotees:
"Only 5-6 people are not the culprits. The victim is as guilty as her rapists... She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop... This could have saved her dignity and life. Can one hand clap? I don't think so."
<a href="http://ibnlive.in.com/news/asaram-joins-girls-are-responsible-for-rape-bandwagon-stirs-a-row/314437-3.html">CNN IBN reports</a> that his spokesperson Neelam Dube has since come out to say that he has been misrepresented by the press and that he was just warning his female devotees to be careful. "His statement is being misquoted...he just said that the victim is 1 per cent to be blamed," Nube said. "She shouldn't have taken that bus. He was just asking his female devotees to be careful, media is misquoting him."
India's ruling Congress Party has since called on him to withdraw his comments. Many have blamed misogynistic views and moral policing on the part of many <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/delhi-gang-rape-friend-breaks-silence-2013-1">Indian policemen</a> and policymakers for India's horrible record on sexual violence against women.
Meanwhile, five of the six accused in the gang rape and murder of the 23-year old were brought to Delhi's Saket District Court for trial but a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20930101">ruckus created by lawyers</a> that denounced a lawyer representing the accused delayed the court proceedings. It also forced the court to allow an <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Delhi-gang-rape-case-Court-orders-in-camera-trial/articleshow/17922344.cms">in-camera trial</a> that prevents the media from reporting any of the news without the court's permission. Their next hearing is scheduled for January 10.
The sixth accused could face charges in a juvenile court as police still wait bone-density test results.
You can see Bapu make the comment in the clip <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP6kltCk4AM">via CNN IBN</a>:
<iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lP6kltCk4AM"></iframe>

Indian Guru Sparks Outrage By Saying Gang Rape Victim Was As Guilty As The Rapists

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53d8b3806da8116c40b317a4-523-392/india-landslide.jpeg" border="0" alt="india landslide" />AFP GraphicsMap locating Malin village in India's western Maharashtra state</div></div></div>A major landslide on Wednesday struck a village in western India following heavy monsoon rains, leaving 150 people feared trapped, a rescue official said.
The landslide submerged Malin village in Pune district of Maharashtra state, said Alok Avasthy, regional commandant at the National Disaster Response Force.
"Civil authorities say around 42 to 50 houses are affected. 150 people are feared trapped. We have sent two teams," Avasthy told AFP.
He said that it was difficult to confirm casualties as the village has been cut off from communications.
Indian television station CNN-IBN said five people were killed in the landslide while another five have been rescued.
Heavy machinery has been mobilised to try to rescue those feared trapped, while about 30 ambulances have been rushed to the scene, local government official Saurav Rao told the Press Trust of India news agency.
"Exact number of causalities is not known as we are moving slowly to ensure that those trapped are removed safely," district collector Rao said.
Heavy rains have been falling for days in Maharashtra as a result of the annual monsoon.
Almost 6,000 people are presumed to have died during flash floods and landslides triggered by last year's monsoon rains in the northern India state of Uttarakhand.
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150 Feared Trapped In Landslide In India Village 

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/31585586.cms" />NDA is likely to get between 212 and 232 seats if the <keyword id="6355187" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Lok-Sabha">Lok Sabha</keyword> elections were held today, with BJP alone winning between 193 and 213, according to an opinion poll done for a TV channel. The poll, based on a survey of six states, puts the UPA a distant second with 119 to 139 seats, of which <keyword id="1575" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Congress">Congress</keyword> was projected to win between 94 and 110. 
 The CNN-IBN poll, conducted by CSDS and Lokniti, made these projections based on surveys in Uttar Pradesh, <keyword id="30033" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Bihar">Bihar</keyword>, Maharashtra, <keyword id="37102" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Andhra-Pradesh">Andhra Pradesh</keyword>, <keyword id="20154" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="tamil-nadu">Tamil Nadu</keyword> and Delhi. While the seat figures are more or less the same as the projections done by the same pollsters in January, the popularity rating of <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> has dipped significantly. 
 In January, 36% of respondents to the survey had chosen Modi as their preferred PM. That figure is now down to 31%. In contrast, there has been an uptick of one percentage point each in those picking <keyword id="5268" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Rahul-Gandhi">Rahul Gandhi</keyword> (now 13%), <keyword id="689" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Sonia-Gandhi">Sonia Gandhi</keyword>, <keyword id="6357690" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="mayawati">Mayawati</keyword>, Mulayam Singh and <keyword id="6359397" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Manmohan-Singh">Manmohan Singh</keyword>. 
 
The poll also shows BJP’s projected vote share down marginally from the January estimate and the Congress vote share too down marginally. The saffron party continues to enjoy a significant lead with 33% compared to Congress’ 26%. 
 Apart from the NDA and UPA, the <keyword id="43826" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Trinamool-Congress">Trinamool Congress</keyword> is likely to be the biggest party winning between 20 and 28 seats, according to the survey. <keyword id="120271" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="The-Left">The Left</keyword> with 15-23, AIADMK with 14-20, YSR Congress and <keyword id="6355032" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="SP">SP</keyword> with 11-17 seats each, BJD, TDP and DMK with 10-16 each and BSP with 8-14 could be the other significant players in the 16th Lok Sabha, it projected. 
 
If these projections turn out right, it would almost certainly mean that the next government in New Delhi would be headed by Modi and would be cobbled together by the existing NDA joining hands with smaller regional parties. Neither Congress nor the ill-defined Third Front/Federal Front would really be in a position to take a meaningful shot at forming a government in such a scenario.

Modi's Popularity Dips But NDA Still Leading: Survey

<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55535ad7eab8eac80dfda37e-1200-924/rtr3cx6r-1.jpg" border="0" alt="RTR3CX6R">REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui Krishna, 14, sits with her four-month-old baby Alok, outside her house in a village near Baran, located in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, January 21, 2013. </img>
NEW DELHI (<a class="cite">Thomson Reuters Foundation</a>) - The family of a 19-year-old Indian girl has been ostracized and fined 1.6 million rupees ($25,000) by a village council after she rejected a marriage arranged when she was a baby, the girl and her parents said on Wednesday.
<a class="cite">Santadevi Meghwal</a>, from the western desert state of&#xa0;<a class="cite">Rajasthan</a>, said she was married off at 11 months old to a nine-year-old boy in her village, 60 km (37 miles) south of Jodhpur.
Meghwal became aware of her marriage at the age 16 and, with the support of her parents, refused to go and live with her husband and in-laws as they demanded.
"I was 11 months old when I was married off. It was only when I grew up that I realized what had happened," Meghwal told the&#xa0;<a class="cite">CNN-IBN television station</a>&#xa0;on Wednesday. "I want to study and become a teacher. I don't want to go there," she added.
Meghwal's family said her husband's family refused to annul the marriage and took the matter to the council in Rohichan Khurd village, which imposed the fine and banished the family from the community.
"The community is forcing us to send our daughter to the groom's and if we don't, they are demanding 16 lakh (1.6 million) rupees from us,"&#xa0;<a class="cite">Padmaram</a>, Meghwal's father, told&#xa0;<a class="cite">the NDTV news</a>&#xa0;channel.
Members of the village council and Meghwal's husband and in-laws were not immediately available for comment.
A local charity, the Sarathi Trust, said it was helping the family, was planning legal action against the members of the village council, and had advised Meghwal's in-laws to agree to an annulment of the marriage.
Child marriage is illegal in&#xa0;<a class="cite">India</a>, but it is deeply rooted in Indian society and remains widespread in parts of the country. About 47 percent of women aged between 20 and 24 were married before the age of 18, according to government figures.
<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55535b7cecad04da1cfda37d-1200-750/rtr2z7gy.jpg" border="0" alt="RTR2Z7GY">REUTERS/Amit Dave A veiled girl from the Saraniya community waits for her engagement ceremony to start at Vadia village in the western Indian state of Gujarat March 11, 2012. </img>
In&#xa0;<a class="cite">Rajasthan</a>&#xa0;- one of&#xa0;<a class="cite">India</a>'s premier tourist destinations where millions visit its ancient fortresses and join camel-back desert safaris - some 65 percent of women were child brides, above the national average.
Gender experts say the practice hampers efforts to improve the status of women, as it cuts across every part of a girl's development and creates a vicious cycle of malnutrition, poor health and ignorance.
A child bride is more likely to drop out of school and have serious complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Her children are more likely to be underweight and will be lucky to survive beyond the age of five.

An Indian child bride is facing a $25,000 fine for rejecting her arranged marriage

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54c2c2c26bb3f7bd198045e9-1200-924/raif-badawi-protests.jpg?maxX=600" border="0" alt="Raif Badawi protests" width="600">AFP PHOTO / ANP / MARTIJN BEEKMANPeople take part in a protest by Amnesty International, for the immediate release of the Saudi blogger Raif Badawi.</img></div></div>On the way back from carving up the world at the Yalta conference in 1945, Franklin Roosevelt made an unexpected stop. On board the USS Quincy, moored in Egypt's Great Bitter Lake, the president held a long meeting with Ibn Saud, the first Saudi monarch and father of the 45 sons (nobody seems to have bothered to count the daughters) who make the kingdom's succession so operatic. Ibn Saud slaughtered a goat on the deck of the warship, sealing a pact that makes his kingdom America's oldest continuous ally in the region. It is also the most troubling one.
On January 9th Raif Badawi, a blogger, received the first of his 1,000 lashes for taking Thomas Paine's view of the "adulterous connection between church and state". Mr Badawi has also been sentenced to a decade in prison. Three days later a woman accused of murder was dragged through the streets of Mecca and beheaded with a sword.
Though America disapproves of this sort of thing, it does not let it upset relations. Government delegations to the kingdom are usually lots of men in military uniform and one official from the State Department, whose job is to say that it would be nice if women could drive.
Scott Fitzgerald wrote that the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time is the sign of a first-rate intelligence. Something similar applies in foreign policy. Ford Fraker, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, describes the alliance as "a long-term marriage founded on fundamental interests and principles". Those interests have shifted a little over time. Now they could be summarised as oil, counter-terrorism and stability.
Like diamond earrings on an anniversary, weapons and money have been exchanged throughout as tokens of esteem. Less than a year after telling an audience in Cairo that America "must never alter or forget our principles", Barack Obama performed a full Fitzgerald, signing off on one of the largest arms deals with the kingdom yet, an order now being fulfilled by American manufacturers.
Senator John McCain, just back from a trip to the kingdom, says that the country feels let down by America's reluctance to punish Bashar Assad. "They had planes on the runway ready to go," he says. "They learned it was not going to happen from watching CNN." The Saudis, he says, are worried about expanding Iranian influence in the region--more so than they are about Islamic State (IS). This disagreement, and the recent hospitalisation of the 90-year-old king, makes it a good time to consider how America should treat the kingdom in future.
The high point of the relationship came during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, says Bilal Saab of the Atlantic Council, a think-tank. Memories of two Arab oil embargoes at a time of flat domestic oil production, as well as shared hostility to the Soviet Union, drew the countries close. There followed a blip after 9/11, when 15 of the 19 hijackers turned out to be Saudis. Al-Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia between 2003 and 2005 brought the countries closer together again. Though they may dent America's idea of itself as a champion of liberty, government policy is that good relations are worth it. That may have been true in the Gipper's day, but the argument is getting harder to make.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54c2c4396bb3f7b11d8045f2-1200-924/saudi-oil-minister-4.jpg" border="0" alt="Saudi oil minister" width="600"><a href="http://pictures.reuters.com/">REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader </a>Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali al-Naimi</img></div></div>
Oil is one reason. America may be the world's biggest producer, but because consumption still exceeds what it pumps it must still shop on the world market. This does not make it dependent on Saudi Arabia, though. Oil is fungible: lousy relations with Russia, the second-biggest producer, do not threaten America's economy. As the owner of the biggest reserves, which are also very cheap to extract, Saudi Arabia is the crucial swing producer. But America's shale technology has put a ceiling on the oil price, and its economy is less oil-intensive than three decades ago.
Nor is the argument for keeping close for intelligence-sharing purposes as straightforward as it seems. Salafi Muslim terrorists, who draw much of their inspiration from Saudi imams, are a big threat to America. The pact between the House of Saud and the country's clerics has long involved bankrolling Salafi imams to preach loyalty to the king; the money that sloshes through Salafi mosques undermines more moderate strains of Islam all around the world.
The black-robed fighters of IS rely on Saudi jurisprudence and books to impose their preferred version of Islamic law. Their fondness for public beheadings is one result of this. Intelligence co-operation may be valuable, but its main task is tracking threats that have been subsidised by the Saudis themselves.
That leaves the argument that the House of Saud must be supported because it is stable. The alternative could be much worse: the thought of something like IS controlling the world's largest oil reserves is terrifying. Also, if America were to pull back from the Gulf, it is a fair bet that China would sooner or later replace it.
Some say that there is no alternative to the House of Saud. "This is a society that has the government they want," says Ambassador Fraker. "They are comfortable with what they have." If the regime is as secure as it seems, however, why should America abandon its basic values in the name of keeping it in place?
<h3>Free to scream</h3>
Strip these things away and what's left is the arms sales. These at least have the virtue of being nakedly self-interested. Selling weapons is a big part of American diplomacy in the kingdom. A recent ambassador worked for Raytheon, the world's biggest producer of guided missiles, before he was appointed. It is also popular in Congress: the defence business is adept at scattering production around as many districts as possible.
Yet this has a cost. Being a superpower means having relations with lots of unsavoury regimes, yet America need not be so eager to put principle aside when dealing with its old ally. "Failure to speak to the broader aspirations of ordinary people will only feed the suspicion that has festered for years that the United States pursues our interests at their expense," as Mr Obama once put it. Between lashes, Mr Badawi no doubt agrees.
Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist.
This article was from The Economist and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
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America Should Reconsider Its Cozy Relationship With Saudi Arabia

Here's The Insanely Long List Of Things Fox Would Own If It Bought Time Warner

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/27853827.cms" style="" /> It was released, it was watched and it delivered some frenzied results. That is good enough for many, especially those who judge a film’s merit by <keyword id="1839596" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="box-office-collections">box office collections</keyword>. Not that we have got anything against <keyword id="1987992" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Big-moolah">big moolah</keyword> – the kind of money this <keyword id="1987996" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Third-instalment">third instalment</keyword> of the Dhoom series has earned till Day 4, both in India and abroad. 
 Directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya and produced by <keyword id="6385240" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Aditya-Chopra">Aditya Chopra</keyword>, the high voltage <keyword id="6355304" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="action">action</keyword> thriller (starring <keyword id="6355923" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Aamir-Khan">Aamir Khan</keyword>, <keyword id="499" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="abhishek-bachchan">Abhishek Bachchan</keyword>, <keyword id="6354850" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Katrina-Kaif">Katrina Kaif</keyword> and <keyword id="36115" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="uday-chopra">Uday Chopra</keyword>) has sailed into the <keyword id="925977" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rs-100-crore-club">Rs 100 crore club</keyword> just after the opening weekend and grossed around Rs 107 crore at home, according to industry estimates. That’s definitely better than Hrithik Roshan-Priyanka Chopra starrer <keyword id="500441" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Krrish-3">Krrish 3</keyword>, which could enter the coveted club after 4 days. Total collections during the first weekend stood at Rs 170 crore-plus, with nearly Rs 63 crore from <keyword id="116674" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="overseas-markets">overseas markets</keyword>. And that’s a record for any <keyword id="679" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="bollywood-movie">Bollywood movie</keyword>. Now it is only a matter of time before it surpasses the lifetime grossing of Krrish 3 (Rs 270 crore) or <keyword id="227940" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Chennai-Express">Chennai Express</keyword> (Rs 409 crore). 
 
<keyword id="24705" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Dhoom-3">Dhoom 3</keyword> has also raced past the <keyword id="1988004" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Opening-day-record">opening day record</keyword> of Chennai Express, a <keyword id="1988005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Shah-Rukh-Khan-Deepika-Padukone-starrer">Shah Rukh Khan-Deepika Padukone starrer</keyword> that bagged around Rs 33.12 crore on the first day. In contrast, Aamir’s flick has collected a little more than Rs 36 crore. Its performance is equally impressive after Day 4 (December 23, 2013) and the movie has grossed an estimated total of Rs 127 crore in the <keyword id="6382118" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Domestic-Market">domestic market</keyword>. 
 In <keyword id="6378080" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="North-America">North America</keyword>, too, Dhoom 3 has debuted to a record-breaking opening weekend, collecting Rs 21.26 crore nett ($3.4 million) across 236 theatres – the biggest opening of all time for a <keyword id="143" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bollywood">Bollywood</keyword> movie. In contrast, Chennai Express collected Rs 14.82 crore ($2.4 million) from 196 screens in America and <keyword id="6356687" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="canada">Canada</keyword> in its opening weekend. So Dhoom 3 has beaten its both records in <keyword id="1988011" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Screen-count">screen count</keyword> and collection. 
 
It has an impressive performance in other overseas markets as well. The movie has collected Rs 9.18 crore nett (£906,875) from 97 screens (fewer number of screens than Chennai Express) in the UK and Rs 3.85 crore nett (A$695,782) from 30 screens in <keyword id="6355478" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Australia">Australia</keyword> in the first weekend. While Dhoom 3 has collected Rs 1.11 crore nett (NZ$ 217,923) from 19 screens in <keyword id="22501" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="New-Zealand">New Zealand</keyword> and Rs 3.9 crore nett in <keyword id="3001" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Pakistan">Pakistan</keyword> the first weekend, Chennai Express gathered Rs 60.05 lakh (NZ$1,23,478) from 10 screens in NZ and Rs 1.84 crore in Pakistan for that span. 
 
There is yet another record associated with Dhoom 3. It has reportedly grabbed the <keyword id="1988018" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Biggest-number-of-screens">biggest number of screens</keyword> this time – around 4,500 in India and 750 screens overseas. The previous record was held by Chennai Express (3,700 screens at home and 700 screens abroad). 
 If all these numbers have numbed you a bit, let’s look at the storyline for a change. One can easily see it’s loaded with populist fare – <keyword id="24462" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="bikes">bikes</keyword>, <keyword id="28817" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="babes">babes</keyword> (who can forget Katrina’s high-flying <keyword id="729495" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Acrobatics">acrobatics</keyword> and tantalising <keyword id="16156" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="dances">dances</keyword>), exotic <keyword id="6542811" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="locations">locations</keyword>, great action and fascinating <keyword id="2902" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Stunts">stunts</keyword>. To top it all, there’s the muscle-flexing Aamir playing <keyword id="1841797" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sahir">Sahir</keyword> the baddie and looting <keyword id="6354604" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Chicago">Chicago</keyword> banks without leaving any clue except a smiling clown face and a Hindi message (with help from Katrina or <keyword id="260889" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Aaliya">Aaliya</keyword>, of course) while no-nonsense cop ACP Jai Dixit (Abhishek) and his bumbling sidekick <keyword id="208896" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ali-Akbar">Ali Akbar</keyword> (Uday Chopra) are back in action to <keyword id="1988025" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Catch-a-thief">catch a thief</keyword>. 
 We are also impressed by the superb <keyword id="42054" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cinematography">cinematography</keyword> and great technical specs, but in spite of the <keyword id="3909943" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="star-power">star power</keyword> and the <keyword id="1988030" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sleek-treatment">sleek treatment</keyword>, this movie is painfully <keyword id="794224" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="predictable">predictable</keyword> and incredibly <keyword id="1311050" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="unimaginative">unimaginative</keyword>. One actually misses the subtle fun and the intriguing crime-tracking mechanisms of <keyword id="3894" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Dhoom-2">Dhoom 2</keyword> here but then, this is the age-old Bollywood wine of betrayal-revenge-retribution, served in a <keyword id="99968" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="new-avatar">new avatar</keyword>. As Aparna Mudi of Zee News says – Dhoom 3 manages to deliver a typically <keyword id="1988026" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bollywood-revenge-saga">Bollywood revenge saga</keyword> in a modern way. 
 
Sarita A Tanwar of Daily News and Analysis gives it 4 stars and says, “Welcome to the world of jaw-dropping action and stunts never seen before on Hindi screen. Dhoom 3 redefines the word ‘<keyword id="4578" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="entertainment">entertainment</keyword>’ in the grandest way possible.” 
 
That is true, in a way, but the flick has drawn flak for its many shortcomings. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN has given the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and stated, “Dhoom 3 is let down by a <keyword id="1988035" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Convenient-script">convenient script</keyword> and its inability to deliver solid entertainment.” However, it’s Raja Sen of Rediff.com who drives the point home. He has given it 1.5 out of 5 stars and written, “Dhoom 3 is a children’s film made for children who’ve never seen a film.” And we cannot agree more. You will find loads of fascinating things in Dhoom 3, but just one thing is lacking – good cinema. 
 
With input from Agencies. 
Image: Indiatimes

Dhoom 3 Breaks All Bollywood Movie Records,
Gives You Some Dumb Entertainment

<div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5232e573eab8ea2927c8a356-1200-924/india-rape-1.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="india rape" width="480" />REUTERS/Adnan AbidiDemonstrators with their heads covered by black cloth take part in a protest outside a court in New Delhi September 10, 2013. </div></div>
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - All four men convicted of raping and murdering a 23-year-old woman in Delhi were sentenced to death on Friday, nine months after a crime whose savagery triggered furious protests across Indiaand rare national debate about violence against women.
"Everybody got the death penalty," defense lawyer A.P. Singh told reporters outside the Delhi courtroom, where dozens of police had formed a barricade to keep crowds back.
One of the four men sentenced to death by hanging, gym instructor Vinay Sharma, was dragged out of the court crying.
The victim, who was raped for an hour and tortured with an iron rod on a moving bus, became a symbol of the dangers women face in a country where a <keyword id="39493" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Rape">rape</keyword> is reported on average every 21 minutes and acid attacks and cases of molestation are common.
"This has shocked the collective conscience of society," Judge Yogesh Khanna told the court, referring to the attack.
The four men were sentenced to death despite their lawyers' pleas to ignore popular and political pressure for a penalty handed down in only the "rarest of rare" cases.
Lawyer A.P. Singh, who represented two of the convicts in the trial, said hours before the sentencing that it would be "based on the emotions of the people".
"This sentencing is under political pressure," he said.
The sentencing capped a seven-month trial, often held behind closed doors, that was punctuated dramatically by a fifth defendant hanging himself in his jail cell. A sixth, who was under 18 at the time of the attack, was earlier sentenced to three years detention, the maximum allowed under juvenile law.
It was one of the biggest tests in years of <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>'s paradoxical attitude towards the death penalty.
The country's judges hand down, on average, 130 death sentences every year but India has executed just three people in the past 17 years. Despite its apparent reluctance to carry out the sentences, last year India voted against a U.N. draft resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions.
In November, India ended what many human rights groups had interpreted as an undeclared moratorium on capital punishment when it executed a man convicted for the 2008 militant attack on the city of Mumbai. Three months later, it hanged a Kashmiri separatist for a 2001 militant attack on parliament.
"In the past year, India has made a full-scale retreat from its previous principled rejection of the death penalty," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch.
The hanging of the two militants came after a seven-year gap in executions, the last being a man who was convicted of raping and killing a schoolgirl in the city of Kolkata.
Prosecutors had called for the "harshest punishment" to be given to Sharma, bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh, fruit-seller Pawan Gupta, and unemployed Mukesh Singh for last December's murder to signal that such attacks cannot be tolerated.
The four men were found guilty of luring the woman onto a bus, raping and torturing her with a metal bar and then throwing her naked and bleeding onto the road. She died two weeks later.
Violent protests exploded in several cities after the crime, a reaction commentators and sociologists said reflected a deep well of frustration that many urban Indians feel over what they see as weak governance and poor leadership on social issues.
The government, seen as out of touch with the aspirations of the burgeoning urban middle class, was caught off guard by the protests.
DIVIDED ON DEATH
The Delhi case led to the introduction of tougher rape laws in March, and for the first time open conversation about gender crime in television debates, social media and even Bollywood.
Still, sex crimes remain commonplace in India, and social commentators say patriarchal attitudes towards women have not been diluted by more than a decade of rapid economic growth.
Comments on social media websites and elsewhere ahead of the sentencing suggested that popular opinion was in favor of executing the men, although a survey by CNN-IBN-The Hindu newspaper in July showed Indians were divided on the merits of capital punishment.
The victim's parents have said their daughter's dying wish was for her attackers to be "burned alive".
A potentially years-long appeals process lies ahead for the four men. The case will go to the High Court and then Supreme Court. If they confirm the sentences, the final decision will lie with the president, who has the power to grant clemency.
Although the Supreme Court ruled in the 1980s that the death penalty should be imposed only in the "rarest ofrare" cases, opponents say the reality is quite different.
Indian courts sentenced 1,455 prisoners to death between 2001 and 2011, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
There are 477 people on death row. Many have been there for years. Human rights groups have been alarmed, however, by the vigor with which President Pranab Mukherjee, who was sworn into office in July 2012, has acted in clearing the backlog of clemency pleas. He has rejected 11, confirming the death penalty for 17 people.
Retired Delhi High Court judge R.S. Sodhi attributes the country's low execution rate to former presidents being "too soft", wary of any backlash from what he described as a divided public.
Sodhi, who said he sentenced five people to death during his time on the bench, now opposes the death penalty.
"A life sentence is the biggest sentence you can give. Imagine rotting for the rest of your life in jail," he said.
It is a view echoed by some women's rights groups and legal experts who had opposed executing the physiotherapist's attackers. Others have invoked the Gandhian principle that "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind".
But top politicians, including the interior minister, had said the death penalty was assured in the case. Such comments were seen by some as adding to pressure on the court to make a populist ruling to satisfy the public outrage over the attack.
"Public opinion and particularly media channels are adding fuel to the fire. It is putting the judiciary on the back foot," said Colin Gonsalves, a lawyer who has appeared in the Supreme Court and is founder director of the Human Rights Law Network.
(Additional reporting by Shyamantha Asokan; Writing by Ross Colvin and John Chalmers; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Four reasons why Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries is now worth ₹10 lakh crore

Katya

Preeti

RIL To Spend Rs 4,000 Crore To Acquire Network18

BI India Bureau

Dubai has more than 65 malls in a city of 3 million people, and it's not because they're obsessed with shopping

Harrison Jacobs

Indian Guru Sparks Outrage By Saying Gang Rape Victim Was As Guilty As The Rapists

Mamta Badkar

150 Feared Trapped In Landslide In India Village

Agence France Presse

Modi's Popularity Dips But NDA Still Leading: Survey

Times Of India

An Indian child bride is facing a $25,000 fine for rejecting her arranged marriage

Alexander Lockie

America Should Reconsider Its Cozy Relationship With Saudi Arabia

The Economist

Here's The Insanely Long List Of Things Fox Would Own If It Bought Time Warner

Kirsten Acuna

Dhoom 3 Breaks All Bollywood Movie Records, Gives You Some Dumb Entertainment

Sanghamitra Mandal

Four Guilty Of Delhi Gang Rape Sentenced To Death

Sruthi Gottipati and Sanjeev Miglani, Reuters