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A worsening malnutrition crisis is having dire effects on women and girls in Afghanistan who are failed by the international community, the World Food Programme’s top official in the country told AFP.The UN agency supplies most of the food aid to Afghanistan, which has been run by Taliban officials since 2021.While aid donations have been slashed over the past couple of years, the Afghan government has faced criticism from abroad for banning women from most professions and blocking girls from attending school beyond the age of 12.John Aylieff, director for Afghanistan at the World Food Programme (WFP), spoke to AFP about the “heartbreaking” struggle to feed families.- What do you expect to happen this year? -“In the next 12 months, five million women and children in this country will experience acute malnutrition, the life-threatening type of malnutrition,” he said, out of a population of more than 40 million.”Nearly four million children in this country will need malnutrition treatment. These numbers are staggering.”- What’s the impact of funding cuts? -“I think we are, as an international community, abandoning and letting down the very people, women and children in particular, that we pledged to protect,” he said, following “immensely generous” funding in 2021 and 2022.”But since then, funding to Afghanistan has been cut and cut further and cut further,” said Aylieff, with $600 million in donations to WFP for 2024 halved last year.”If we can’t treat children with malnutrition, those children are going to die. Clinics treating children with malnutrition are closing down.””When those women carry their child, maybe four or five hours to the clinic, and they get there and they’re told WFP simply does not have the money to treat your child anymore — this is heartbreaking.”- What are the consequences for women? -“One of the phenomena which has surprised us the most this year (2025) is the dramatic surge in the number of pregnant and breastfeeding women who are malnourished,” said Aylieff.”They’re not getting the food assistance that would otherwise be helping them. Those women are also sacrificing their own health and their own nutrition to feed their children. Many of them just don’t know how to cope.””In areas where we’ve stopped assisting as WFP, we’re seeing girls being sold off into early marriage just so their families can put food on the table. We’re seeing children being pulled out of school and sent to work.””And we’re getting an increasing number of distress calls to WFP from very desperate women across the country, including some suicide calls.””This is very harrowing.”

Najiba, 24, keeps a constant watch over her baby, Artiya, one of around four million children at risk of dying from malnutrition this year in Afghanistan.After suffering a bout of pneumonia at three months old, Artiya’s condition deteriorated and his parents went from hospital to hospital trying to find help.”I did not get proper rest or good food,” affecting her ability to produce breast milk, Najiba said at Herat Regional Hospital in western Afghanistan.”These days, I do not have enough milk for my baby.”The distressed mother, who chose not to give her surname for privacy reasons, said the family earns a living from an electric supplies store run by her husband.Najiba and her husband spent their meagre savings trying to get care for Artiya, before learning that he has a congenital heart defect.To her, “no one can understand what I’m going through. No one knows how I feel every day, here with my child in this condition.””The only thing I have left is to pray that my child gets better,” she said.John Aylieff, Afghanistan director at the World Food Programme (WFP), said women are “sacrificing their own health and their own nutrition to feed their children”.Artiya has gained weight after several weeks at the therapeutic nutrition centre in the Herat hospital, where colourful drawings of balloons and flowers adorn the walls.Mothers such as Najiba, who are grappling with the reality of not being able to feed their children, receive psychological support.Meanwhile, Artiya’s father is “knocking on every door just to borrow money” which could fund an expensive heart operation on another ward, Najiba said.- ‘Staggering’ scale -On average, 315 to 320 malnourished children are admitted each month to the centre, which is supported by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).The number of cases has steadily increased over the past five years, according to Hamayoun Hemat, MSF’s deputy coordinator in Herat.Since the Taliban regained power in 2021, low-income families have been hit hard by cuts to international aid, as well as drought and the economic fallout of five million Afghans forced across the border from Iran and Pakistan.”In 2025, we’d already seen the highest surge in child malnutrition recorded in Afghanistan since the beginning of the 21st century,” Aylieff said in Kabul.The crisis is only set to worsen this year, he told AFP: “A staggering four million children in this country will be malnourished and will require treatment.””These children will die if they’re not treated.”WFP is seeking $390 million to feed six million Afghans over the next six months, but Aylieff said the chance of getting such funds is “so bleak”.Pledges of solidarity from around the globe, made after the Taliban government imposed its strict interpretation of Islamic law, have done little to help Afghan women, the WFP director said.They are now “watching their children succumb to hunger in their arms”, he said.- ‘No hope’ -In the country of more than 40 million people, there are relatively few medical centres that can help treat malnutrition.Some families travel hundreds of kilometres (miles) to reach Herat hospital as they lack healthcare facilities in their home provinces.Wranga Niamaty, a nurse team supervisor, said they often receive patients in the “last stage” where there is “no hope” for their survival.Still, she feels “proud” for those she can rescue from starvation.In addition to treating the children, the nursing team advises women on breastfeeding, which is a key factor in combating malnutrition.Single mothers who have to work as cleaners or in agriculture are sometimes unable to produce enough milk, often due to dehydration, nurse Fawzia Azizi said.The clinic has been a lifesaver for Jamila, a 25-year-old mother who requested her surname not be used out of privacy concerns.Jamila’s eight-month-old daughter has Down’s syndrome and is also suffering from malnutrition, despite her husband sending money back from Iran where he works.Wrapped in a floral veil, Jamila said she fears for the future: “If my husband is expelled from Iran, we will die of hunger.”

The first solo exhibition in India by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei opened Thursday, featuring sculpture, installation and mixed media spanning his career, as well as his “homage” to the country.The son of a revered poet, 68-year-old Ai is perhaps China’s best-known modern artist.He helped design the famous “Bird’s Nest” stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics but fell out of favour after criticising the Chinese government and was imprisoned for 81 days in 2011. He eventually left for Germany four years later.His show at New Delhi’s Nature Morte gallery comes as India’s relations ease with neighbouring China, although the world’s two most populous nations remain strategic rivals in the region.”This is my first exhibition in India… although there are only a dozen of my artworks, it covers several key points that trace more than 20 years,” the artist, who did not attend the opening, said in a statement.Gallery co-director Aparajita Jain said the show aimed to broaden understanding and artistic exchange.”We’re simply a space for expression — a place for conversation where we can learn about art practices from around the world and share histories,” she told AFP.The exhibition includes Ai’s large-scale Lego compositions “Surfing” and “Water Lilies”, alongside works made from porcelain, stone and even buttons.The exhibition includes three pieces made “as a homage to India”, Jain added — toy-brick works based on historic Indian paintings.Visual arts student Disha Sharma, 20, travelled 90 kilometres (56 miles) from the city of Rohtak to see the opening.”It’s not art that you immediately understand,” said Sharma. “It makes you think.”Srishti Rana Menon, an artist based at Nature Morte, said that seeing the work in India was exciting.”I wonder how he has put every little Lego piece together,” she said, praising the “contemporary take” on traditional works.Jain said she hoped the exhibition would signal a broader shift in India’s engagement with global art, so that people will “no longer only seek India in the world” but also find “the world in India”.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Thursday sacked a senior official after their leading men’s cricketers went on strike, escalating a crisis that has already seen the nation refuse to tour India for next month’s T20 World Cup.The BCB has been in turmoil since ties with India soured, prompting Dhaka to ask the International Cricket Council to shift its group matches to co-host Sri Lanka. The World Cup begins on February 7, with Bangladesh still scheduled to play four games in India.The row deepened after Najmul Islam, head of the BCB’s finance committee, lashed out at the players who demanded compensation from the board if the team were to pull out of the marquee competition.”We are spending so much money on them, they are not being able to do anything in different places,” Najmul said.”Have we got any international awards? What have we done at any level? Let us now ask them for the money back after every time they can’t play. Why should there even be a question of compensating the players?”In protest against his remarks, teams pulled out of Thursday’s first match of the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), demanding Najmul be ousted within next 48 hours.The BCB had distanced itself from Najmul’s remarks and on Thursday removed him from the job.”Following a review of recent developments and in the best interest of the organisation, the BCB President has decided to release Mr. Najmul Islam from his responsibilities as Chairman of the Finance Committee with immediate effect,” the BCB said in a statement.The row erupted on January 3, when the Indian cricket board (BCCI) ordered the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders to release Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman following tensions between the neighbouring nations.The BCCI did not publicly give a reason for his removal but the presence of the Bangladesh player sparked criticism from some right-wing groups after a Hindu man was lynched in Bangladesh in December.Political relations between India and Bangladesh soured after a mass uprising in Dhaka in 2024 toppled then prime minister Sheikh Hasina, a close ally of New Delhi.India’s foreign ministry last month condemned what it called “unremitting hostility against minorities” in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.Bangladesh’s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, has accused India of exaggerating the scale of the violence.Mustafizur, who has played in the IPL for other teams in previous editions, was snapped up at auction in December by Kolkata for more than $1 million.His sacking sparked fury in Dhaka.Bangladesh, led by Litton Das, are placed ninth in the ICC T20 rankings.They have played all the nine editions of the tournament, but have never qualified for the semi-finals.

Books tucked under their arms, children file into a small classroom in Bangladesh’s vast refugee camps, home to more than a million Rohingya who have fled neighbouring Myanmar.”They still dream of becoming pilots, doctors or engineers,” said their teacher Mohammad Amin, standing in front of a crowded schoolroom in Cox’s Bazar.”But we don’t know if they will ever reach their goals with the limited opportunities available.”Around half a million children live in the camps housing the waves of Rohingya who have escaped Myanmar in recent years, many during a brutal military crackdown in 2017.The campaign, which saw Rohingya villages burned and civilians killed, is the subject of a genocide case at the United Nations’ top court in The Hague, where hearings opened on Monday- ‘Severe shortage’ -In the aftermath of the 2017 exodus, international aid groups and UNICEF, the UN’s children’s agency, rushed to open schools.Determined to avoid permanently settling refugees it said it lacked the resources to absorb, the Bangladeshi government consistently opposed enrolling Rohingya children in national schools and barred them from studying in Bangla, the national language.By 2024, UNICEF and its partners were running more than 6,500 learning centres across the Cox’s Bazar camps, educating up to 300,000 children.But the system is severely overstretched — a situation worsened by cuts to US aid under President Donald Trump, which slashed funding and forced sweeping closures or scale-backs.”The current system provides three hours of instruction per day for children,” said Faria Selim of UNICEF. “The daily contact hours are not enough.”Khin Maung, a member of the United Council of Rohingya which represents refugees in the camps, said the education on offer leaves students ill-prepared to re-enter Myanmar’s school system should they return.”There is a severe shortage of teachers in the camps,” he said.Hashim Ullah, 30, is the only teacher at a primary school run by an aid agency.”I teach Burmese language, mathematics, science and life skills to 65 students in two shifts. I am not an expert in all subjects,” he told AFP.Such shortcomings are not lost on parents.For them, education represents their children’s only escape from the risks that stalk camp life — malnutrition, early marriage, child labour, trafficking, abduction or forced recruitment into one of the armed groups in Myanmar’s civil war.As a result, some families supplement the aid-run schools with extra classes organised by members of their own community.”At dawn and dusk, older children go to community-based high schools,” said father-of-seven Jamil Ahmad.”They have good teachers,” and the only requirement is a modest tuition fee, which Jamil said he covered by selling part of his monthly food rations.”Bangladesh is a small country with limited opportunities,” he said. “I’m glad that they have been hosting us.”- ‘Justice and peace’ -Fifteen-year-old Hamima Begum has followed the same path, attending both an aid-run school and a community high school.”I want to go to college,” she said. “I am aiming to study human rights, justice, and peace — and someday I will help my community in their repatriation.”But such schoolsare far too few to meet demand, especially for older children.A 2024 assessment by a consortium of aid agencies and UN bodies concluded that school attendance falls from about 70 percent among children aged five to 14, to less than 20 percent among those aged 15 to 18.Girls are particularly badly affected, according to the study.Even for those who stay enrolled, academic standards remain low.”We organised a mid-year exam this year, and 75 percent of high school students failed,” Khin Maung said.Jaitun Ara, 19, is therefore an exception.Having arrived in Cox’s Bazar at the age of 12, she has now secured a place at the Asian University for Women in Chittagong on a support programme to prepare for degree studies.But she doubts many others will be able to follow her path.”Families can barely manage food,” she said. “How would they spend money on their children’s education?”

Daryl Mitchell struck an unbeaten 131 to lead New Zealand to a series-levelling seven-wicket win over India in the second one-day international on Wednesday.Chasing 285 for victory, Mitchell’s eighth ODI ton and a 162-run stand with Will Young (87) for the third wicket helped New Zealand reach their target with 15 balls to spare in Rajkot.Mitchell’s knock trumped an unbeaten 112 by KL Rahul in India’s 284-7 and forced the three-match series into a decider on Sunday in Indore.Mitchell walked in to bat with New Zealand on 46-2 and along with Young helped the Black Caps take control.Young fell to Kuldeep Yadav in the 38th over but Mitchell stood firm to bring up his hundred.He hit 11 fours and two sixes in his 117-ball innings and with Glenn Phillips, who made 32 not out, put together an unbeaten stand of 78.Indian bowlers enjoyed early success when Harshit Rana bowled Devon Conway, who made 16, and fellow quick Prasidh Krishna had Henry Nicholls inside-edge a delivery onto his stumps for 10.But Mitchell, who was dropped on 80, and Young struck regular boundaries as New Zealand completed their highest-ever ODI chase in India.Earlier, India skipper Shubman Gill made 56 before a brief collapse and a 73-run fifth-wicket partnership between Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja.Rahul raised his eighth ODI ton in 87 balls with a six off Kyle Jamieson.India started strongly courtesy of Gill and Rohit Sharma, who scored 24, as the opening pair put on 70 runs.Rohit failed to capitalise on his start and fell to Kristian Clarke, before pace spearhead Jamieson sent back Gill.Clarke kept up the charge with his medium-pace bowling to dismiss Shreyas Iyer for eight and the in-form Virat Kohli for 23.The 37-year-old Kohli, who returned to the top of the ODI batting rankings on Wednesday, walked back to stunned silence after he played on as India slipped from 99-1 to 118-4.Rahul then took centre stage to rebuild the innings along with Jadeja, who made 27.The series will be followed by five T20s, ahead of the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka between February 7 and March 8.

Indian writer Amitav Ghosh has long chronicled the entangled histories of empire, trade and migration.But his recent work focuses on what he considers the most urgent concern: the accelerating unravelling of the natural world and the moral legacy left for the future.Author of “The Great Derangement”, “The Glass Palace” and the forthcoming “Ghost-Eye”, Ghosh speaks bluntly about our headlong rush towards disaster while treating the Earth as an inert resource rather than a living world.”Sadly, instead of shifting course, what we’re actually doing is accelerating towards the abyss,” he told AFP from a bookshop in New Delhi. “It’s like people have lost their minds.””We’re hurtling down that path of extractivism,” he said. “Greenwashing rhetoric has been completely adopted by politicians. And they’ve become very skilled at it.”His latest novel, a mystery about reincarnation, also touches on ecological crisis, with the “ghost-eye” of its title symbolising the ability to perceive both visible and invisible alternatives.- ‘Little joys’ -Despite his subject matter, Ghosh manages to resist writing from a place of unrelenting grief.”You can’t just write in the tone of tragic despair,” he said, calling himself “by nature, sort of a buoyant person”.”One has to try and find the little joys that the world offers,” the 69-year-old said. For Ghosh, one of those joys arrives each week, when his nine-month-old grandson comes to visit.The baby is central to Ghosh’s motivation to pen another manuscript, one that will remain sealed for nearly a century as part of the Future Library project.”I think what I’m going to end up doing is writing a letter to my grandson”, he said. “In an earlier generation, young people would ask their parents, ‘What were you doing during the war?'” he said. “I think my grandson’s generation will be asking, ‘What were you doing when the world was going up in flames?’ He’ll know that I was thinking about these things.”Ghosh will submit his manuscript this year as part of Norway’s literary time capsule, joining works by Margaret Atwood, Han Kang, Elif Shafak and others to be sealed until 2114.- Mysterious world -“It’s an astonishingly difficult challenge,” he said, knowing his book will be read when the world “will be nothing like” today.”I can’t really believe that all the structures we depend on will survive into the 22nd century,” he said.”We can see how quickly everything is unravelling around us,” he added.That change is fuelling the world’s “increasingly dysfunctional politics”, he said.The younger generations “see their horizons crashing around them,” he said. “And that’s what creates this extreme anxiety which leads, on the one hand, to these right-wing movements, where they’re filled with nostalgia for the past, and on the other hand, equally, it also fuels a certain left-wing despair.”Born in Kolkata in 1956, Ghosh rose to prominence with novels such as “The Shadow Lines” and “The Calcutta Chromosome”, and later the acclaimed Ibis Trilogy. He holds India’s highest literary honour, the Jnanpith Award, won numerous international prizes, including France’s Prix Medicis Etranger, and is regularly tipped as a possible Nobel winner.But he is wary of overstating literature’s capacity to change history.”As a writer, it would be really vainglorious to imagine that we can change things in the world,” he said, while accepting that young activists tell him they are “energised” by his books.Ghosh keeps writing, not out of faith that words can halt catastrophe, but because they can inspire different kinds of thought.His involvement with the Future Library embodies that impulse: a grandfather’s attempt to speak honestly from a burning world.”We have to restore alternative ways of thinking about the world around us, of recognising that it’s a world that’s filled with mystery,” he said. “The world is much, much stranger than we imagine.”

Indian wildlife officers are hunting a rampaging wild elephant blamed for killing at least 20 people and injuring 15 others in the forests of Jharkhand, villagers and officials said Tuesday.The elephant, a lone bull, is reported to have gone on the rampage for nine days beginning in early January, creating panic in the rural West Singhbhum district.”We are trying to trace and rescue this violent wild elephant that killed so many people,” government forest officer Aditya Narayan told AFP, confirming the toll of 20 dead.Children and the elderly are among the dead, as well as a professional elephant handler, known as a mahout.But after wreaking a trail of destruction, it had not been spotted since Friday, despite multiple patrols in the area.Officials said search teams, aided by drones, are combing dense forest tracts, including a national reserve in neighbouring Odisha state.Fear has driven residents of more than 20 villages to abandon their farms or barricade themselves indoors at night, elected village head Pratap Chachar told AFP.”A police team, or forest official vehicle, visits in the night to provide essential help to villagers,” Chachar said.Hundreds of thousands of Indians are affected each year by crop-raiding elephants.Asian elephants are now restricted to just 15 percent of their original habitat.The usually shy animals are coming into increasing contact with humans because of rapidly expanding settlements and growing forest disturbance, including mining operations.As elephant habitats shrink, conflict between humans and wild elephants has grown — 629 people were killed by elephants across India in 2023-2024, according to parliamentary figures.The elephants that pose the most danger to humans are often rogue bulls, solitary male animals enraged during “musth”, a period of heightened sexual activity when testosterone levels soar.A former forest official said the elephant was likely in musth, and may now have calmed down and rejoined its herd.India is home to the majority of the world’s remaining wild Asian elephants, a species listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and increasingly threatened by shrinking habitat.The Wildlife Institute of India last year issued a new estimate, that put the country’s wild elephant population at 22,446, a report that also warned of the deepening pressures on one of India’s most iconic animals.

India and Germany are looking to boost defence industry cooperation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday after hosting Chancellor Friedrich Merz in his home state of Gujarat.Merz said Berlin also wants a closer security partnership with New Delhi, including deeper “cooperation between our defence industries” to cut India’s traditional dependence on Russia for military hardware.Merz began his two-day India visit — his first to Asia since taking office in May — two weeks ahead of an EU-India summit and as India and the European bloc are working on a free trade agreement.Both countries announced several agreements and joint declarations after the leaders’ meeting with an aim to boost their $50 billion trade.The announcements included strengthening defence industry cooperation and on semiconductors and critical minerals.The two countries “are working together on secure, trusted, and resilient supply chains and our MoUs on these issues will strengthen our partnership”, Modi said. The meeting between the Indian and German leaders comes at a time when both are facing economic and security challenges from the world’s two biggest economies, China and the United States.Merz said Berlin was “committed to an international order in which we can live freely and securely, because the world is currently undergoing a process of realignment”.”It is increasingly characterised by great power politics and thinking in terms of spheres of influence, which is why we must join forces to weather these rough winds,” he added.”That is why we also want to move closer together in terms of security policy, such as conducting joint exercises between our air forces and navies for security in the Indo-Pacific.”Recent actions and statements by US President Donald Trump including arbitrary trade tariffs have played a key role in upending global alliances and regional geopolitics, with New Delhi still negotiating a trade deal with Washington.- ‘Strategic importance’ -“It is of particular strategic importance that we deepen cooperation between our defence industries. This strengthens both sides and also helps to make India less dependent on Russia, for example,” said Merz.New Delhi, which has relied on Moscow for decades for its key military hardware, has tried to cut its dependence on Russia in recent years by diversifying imports and pushing its own domestic manufacturing base.India today counts France, Israel and the United States as its key military suppliers besides Russia.Berlin and New Delhi have also been negotiating a potential deal for Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems to build six submarines for the Indian Navy in partnership with Indian state-run Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders.While still being negotiated, that deal would allow India to replace its ageing fleet of Russian-built submarines and likely include technology transfer provisions to help its domestic defence industry.In defence, the two sides are also exploring other areas of convergence as New Delhi pumps billions of dollars to upgrade its naval fleet and air force in the next few years.There are around 300,000 Indians and people of Indian origin in Germany, including about 60,000 students — many of them in critical science, engineering and other key technology research fields. Many Indian workers have filled a recent shortfall of qualified professionals in Germany’s IT, banking and finance sectors.Modi said that “India is honoured that he (Merz) has chosen our nation as the place of his first visit in Asia”. He said the leaders had agreed on “deeper cooperation in defence, space and other critical and emerging technologies”. Merz will wrap up his visit with a trip to the southern technology hub of Bengaluru on Tuesday.

India and Germany are looking to boost defence industry cooperation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday after hosting Chancellor Friedrich Merz in his home state of Gujarat.Merz said Berlin also wants a closer security partnership with New Delhi, including deeper “cooperation between our defence industries” to cut India’s traditional dependence on Russia for military hardware.Merz began his two-day India visit — his first to Asia since taking office in May — two weeks ahead of an EU-India summit and as India and the European bloc are working on a free trade agreement.Both countries announced several agreements and joint declarations after the leaders’ meeting with an aim to boost their $50 billion trade.The announcements included strengthening defence industry cooperation and on semiconductors and critical minerals.The two countries “are working together on secure, trusted, and resilient supply chains and our MoUs on these issues will strengthen our partnership”, Modi said. “Closer cooperation in security and defence shows mutual trust and shared views,” Modi added.”We will work on a roadmap to increase defence industrial cooperation, which will open new opportunities for co-development and co-production.”The meeting between the Indian and German leaders comes at a time when both are facing economic and security challenges from the world’s two biggest economies, China and the United States.Merz said Berlin was “committed to an international order in which we can live freely and securely, because the world is currently undergoing a process of realignment”.”It is increasingly characterised by great power politics and thinking in terms of spheres of influence, which is why we must join forces to weather these rough winds,” he added.”That is why we also want to move closer together in terms of security policy, such as conducting joint exercises between our air forces and navies for security in the Indo-Pacific.”Recent actions and statements by US President Donald Trump including arbitrary trade tariffs have played a key role in upending global alliances and regional geopolitics, with New Delhi still negotiating a trade deal with Washington.- ‘Strategic importance’ -“It is of particular strategic importance that we deepen cooperation between our defence industries. This strengthens both sides and also helps to make India less dependent on Russia, for example,” said Merz.New Delhi, which has relied on Moscow for decades for its key military hardware, has tried to cut its dependence on Russia in recent years by diversifying imports and pushing its own domestic manufacturing base.India today counts France, Israel and the United States as its key military suppliers besides Russia.Berlin and New Delhi have also been negotiating a potential deal for Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems to build six submarines for the Indian Navy in partnership with Indian state-run Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders.While still being negotiated, that deal would allow India to replace its ageing fleet of Russian-built submarines and likely include technology transfer provisions to help its domestic defence industry.In defence, the two sides are also exploring other areas of convergence as New Delhi pumps billions of dollars to upgrade its naval fleet and air force in the next few years.Merz will wrap up his visit with a trip to the southern technology hub of Bengaluru on Tuesday.