Kota Dussehra Mela: Why a 300-Year-Old Fair Still Matters to Modern India Kota's Dussehra is much larger than a single evening of…

The Coconut Economy of the Andaman Islands: Can One Island Crop Become a Tourism Story? At the Islands Coconut Carnival in Sri…

Konark in December: When the Sun Temple Becomes a Stage for India’s Classical Arts Every December, classical dancers gather beside Odisha’s 13th-century…

Pushkar Beyond the Camel Fair: The Sacred Town Becoming a Global Travel Experience Pushkar is internationally famous for its camels, desert fair…

Talakaveri: Where Faith, the Western Ghats and the River Kaveri Meet On October 17, 2026, pilgrims will gather at Talakaveri in Karnataka…

Wellness Tourism in India: Why the World Is Looking Beyond the Holiday There was a time when a holiday meant seeing as…

Wildlife Tourism in India: Where the Journey Is About More Than Seeing a Tiger There is a particular kind of excitement in…

Spiritual India: The Journeys That Take Travellers Beyond Tourism There are holidays in which the biggest question is, “What did we see?”…

India Tourism 2026: The Year India Started Travelling Differently The country is not short of famous destinations. What is changing is the…

Beyond Cricket: How India Is Building a New Generation of Global Athletes For a long time, India’s sporting ecosystem had a slightly peculiar hierarchy. Cricket lived upstairs. Everything else was expected to knock politely before entering. That is changing. Not because cricket has become less important—it hasn’t—but because India is gradually building something that did not exist at comparable scale before: a multi-sport athlete-development ecosystem combining government programmes, private investment, sports science, technology and international competition exposure. The change is visible in athletics, badminton, boxing, wrestling, shooting, weightlifting, hockey and para-sports. And increasingly, the Indian athlete is being trained not simply by a coach with a stopwatch, but by a team of coaches, physiotherapists, nutritionists, psychologists, biomechanists, analysts and medical specialists. That may sound less romantic than the old sporting story. It may also be much more important. The biggest change is happening before the athlete becomes famous India’s new sports strategy is increasingly concerned with the part of sport that spectators never see. Talent identification. Training loads. Recovery. Nutrition. Injury prevention. Biomechanics. Psychological preparation. Performance analytics. And long-term athlete development. The government describes Khelo India as a framework that combines grassroots participation with talent identification, training infrastructure, competitions and

India’s Chess Revolution: How a Game of 64 Squares Became a National Talent Engine There was a time when asking an Indian child to choose a sport usually produced a predictable answer: cricket. Chess was different. It was respected, certainly. It was associated with intelligence, concentration and perhaps the child who was unusually good at mathematics. But it was hardly a mass sporting aspiration. That equation has changed. Today, India is producing world-class chess players at a remarkable rate. The country’s current generation includes World Champion Gukesh D, Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and a rapidly rising group of young players, including Divya Deshmukh. And this is no longer simply a story about individual genius. It is the story of an ecosystem. The Anand effect: the first great move Any serious discussion of India’s modern chess transformation must begin with Viswanathan Anand. Anand became India’s first Grandmaster in 1988 and subsequently established himself among the world’s elite, eventually becoming world champion. His success fundamentally altered the perception of chess in India. For a generation of Indian parents, Anand demonstrated something important: chess could be more than an intellectual hobby. It could become a serious international sporting career. The significance of

From Community Halls to Trafalgar Square: How Indian Festivals Went Global There was a time when celebrating an Indian festival abroad meant finding a community hall. Someone booked the hall. Someone brought a sound system. Someone arranged the food. Children performed a dance. Parents sat in rows. And, if the samosas ran out early, the organising committee had a small crisis. That world has changed. Today, Indian festivals are increasingly visible in some of the world’s most prominent public spaces. Diwali is celebrated in Trafalgar Square in London. New York City closes its public schools for Diwali. The Empire State Building has illuminated its tower for the festival. And Indian-origin communities around the world are turning cultural celebrations into major civic events. This is not simply a story about bigger festivals. It represents something more important: Indian identity abroad has moved from being something communities preserved privately to something increasingly celebrated publicly. Trafalgar Square tells the story London provides one of the clearest examples. The city’s annual Diwali on the Square is held at Trafalgar Square, one of London’s most recognisable public spaces. The 2026 event is scheduled for October 25 and is organised as a free public celebration open