India’s T20 win to boost ad revenue & temples’ use of facial recognition tech raises privacy concerns

New Delhi: India’s T20 World Cup victory has not only ended the country’s 13-year drought for a world championship title but also sparked hopes for a boost in ad revenue in cricket, a Bloomberg report says.

The report says Disney Star, this season’s official media rights holder, projected earnings of up to Rs 180 billion ($2.2 billion) from advertising in the sport. The tournament featured high-stakes encounters such as the India vs. Pakistan match in which a 10-second ad slot commanded Rs 2 million on average, says the report, drawing a comparison with Super Bowl ads costing $6.5 million for 30 seconds.

India and China have different perceptions about the Line of Actual Control — the contentious, 2,100-mile India-China border, with its harsh, high-altitude terrain — occasionally leading to clashes between the two sides, New York Times contributor Yudhijit Bhattacharjee writes in his piece, ‘Why do India and China keep fighting over this desolate terrain?’.

The clashes, he writes, have now escalated, with some such as the 2020 Galwan Valley skirmish leaving fatalities in its wake. As the geopolitical rivalry and territorial claims continue, China, Bhattacharjee writes, has continued its assertiveness by building settlements and infrastructure along the border. Viewing this as a tactic to encroach on disputed territories, India, he adds, has bolstered its military presence and alliances such as the Quad to counter China. The conflict, he writes, is multifaceted and involves historical animosities, nationalist leaderships and strategic manoeuvres aimed at regional dominance.

Several Hindu temples have installed cameras with facial recognition technology, citing crowd management and security, but these cameras have raised privacy and surveillance concerns, journalist Bibek Bhandari writes in a Foreign Policy report, ‘Indian temples are scanning visitors’ faces’. Bhandari writes that the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain, and Venkateswara Swami Temple in Tirupati use facial recognition technology to capture devotees’ faces, warning that experts say the technology lacks accuracy and could lead to mass surveillance and targeting of people, especially in the absence of robust data protection laws.

In a CNN report, ‘One of the world’s richest men wants to transform India’s biggest slum’, correspondent Jessie Yeung highlights Gautam Adani’s redevelopment plans for Mumbai’s Dharavi, saying critics fear displacement amid promises of housing and other facilities. A shoemaker in Dharavi tells Yeung that he worries about losing his livelihood — “If I am thrown into some different area, I will lose all my business”. Adani’s $612 million plan is to ensure a “new Dharavi of dignity” but doubts over its fruition remain, Yeung adds.

An Economist piece, ‘The rise of Mollywood, India’s more subtle film hub’, discusses the diversity and rising prominence of Indian cinema beyond Bollywood, focusing on the Malayalam film industry, Mollywood. “Instead of relying on big dance numbers, Malayalam movies tell stories,” the piece says, citing survival thriller Manjummel Boys and its modest budget and drawing a contrast with the big-budget Bollywood film, Fighter. The piece attributes Mollywood’s success to its distinctiveness, rooted in Kerala’s cultural and social dynamics, and the broader demographic the films cater to, avoiding religious and political tropes.

French election results, North Korea’s missiles’ attack

The far-Right National Rally party, early projections say, has won 33 percent of the votes in the first voting round in France, with the Left-wing taking the second spot. The centrist Renaissance Party and its allies, led by outgoing President Emmanuel Macron, remain in third place with 22 percent of the votes. To know more about the election results, follow the live updates by TheGuardian.

North Korea has fired two ballistic missiles, but the second may have failed and blown up, possibly raining debris inland, the South Korean military has said. To know more, read this Aljazeera article.

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)