Archive: The Week

The U.S. Senate approved a roughly $70 billion package funding ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and related agencies through the end of President Trump's term via reconciliation, on a 52-47 vote. Amendments to limit a related DOJ anti-weaponization or settlement fund were largely rejected. The bill locks in major resources for Trump's border priorities amid internal GOP tensions and reshapes enforcement and midterm dynamics. Pair with the House Iran-war rebuke earlier in the week and the diaspora-Second-Lady angle in our Usha Vance read.

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Rockefeller Foundation president since 2017 and former USAID administrator under Obama, Shah was recognized May 13 for the big bets era at the foundation. The $6.6B endowment is currently behind Mission 300 (300 million Africans connected to electricity by 2030), a $100M child-nutrition commitment, and Ghana healthcare partnerships designed to reduce reliance on foreign aid. The story is the strongest Indian-American philanthropy headline of the cycle, and the textbook expression of Jupiter exalted in Cancer.

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BBC reported that many victims of the Delhi fire were South Asians who had travelled to India for treatment or to accompany relatives. The diaspora-travel angle pairs visa-route fragility with the medical-tourism economy: an entire bracket of NRIs flies in annually for procedures that are cheaper or culturally smoother at home. The on-the-ground update from Hindu, Indian Express, and Mint will firm up names and counts before publish.

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Forbes reported Friday that Gautam Adani's net worth has climbed by approximately $2 billion, vaulting him into the top spot in Asia. The Adani Group's port, energy, and infrastructure portfolio has caught a renewed bid as global investors lean back into emerging-market industrials. The story pairs with Aditya Birla Group's Harvard FIELD Capstone partnership for a same-week reading on Indian industrial dynasties on the world stage, and with the NRI Manhattan-condo math now arriving via the New York pied-a-terre tax.

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Robin Khuda, the Bangladeshi-Australian founder and CEO of AirTrunk, met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confirm plans to invest more than US$30 billion in India by 2030, building the digital backbone for the next wave of cloud and AI growth. The pipeline spans multiple states and union territories and includes roughly 5GW of new data-centre capacity. AirTrunk is backed by Blackstone and CPP Investments, the latter one of India's largest foreign capital partners. The story pairs cleanly with Sangeeta Bavi's move to Anthropic India and Netrasemi's NETRA A2000 silicon bring-up for an India-AI-stack triple this week.

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The US State Department announced a Hezbollah-contingent Israel-Lebanon ceasefire Wednesday night Jun 3. Both governments rejected what State called any attempt by any state or non-state actor to hold Lebanon's future hostage. The wording allows quick collapse if Hezbollah resumes fire; Israel has signaled it will continue strikes in southern Lebanon while the truce is tested. Pair with the Trump-Netanyahu call publicly described as crazy and the US House vote rebuking Trump on Iran the next morning.

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Karan Vyas wrote, Robbie Grewal directed. Adapted from Vinay Kamath's book on Titan's founding. Set in pre-liberalisation India, the story of how Tata Group built a global watch brand from a one-room operation in Hosur. Naseeruddin Shah plays JRD Tata; Jim Sarbh is Titan's founding MD Xerxes Desai. Critics are calling it the best Indian streaming series of 2026. Prestige cast, legacy industrial subject, the Tata canon entering a global streaming window.

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The New York Indian Film Festival 2026 wrapped Sunday June 1 with Baksho Bondi (Shadowbox), the Bengali debut from directors Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi, taking Best Film. Tillotama Shome was nominated for acting and Chandan Bisht for Best Actor. The companion story is Manipuri film Boong sweeping three NYIFF awards including Best Director. The takeaway is regional cinema arriving in Manhattan with the kind of plurality Bollywood used to monopolize.

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Founder Raksha Sanikam went finance, then Bangalore interiors, then a Pratt master's, then Rockefeller Center. Edition 1 features 13 Indian designers across rugs, seating, tables, wall installations, swings. Named for santalum (sacred sandalwood). 740 square meters organized around a nadumuttam, the central courtyard of traditional Kerala domestic architecture. One-year run at Rock Center while she finds a permanent home. A diaspora design address inside the building New York puts its tree in.

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Premiered Tuesday Jun 2. Five work-obsessed 20-somethings chasing success and a love triangle in Manhattan's Murray Hill. Avantika leads alongside Ella Hunt, Will Angus, Jack Martin, Nicholas Duvernay, Jay Ellis. Kaling's first sole-creator credit since The Mindy Project. Charlie Grandy showrunning. Mixed critical reception (Variety bland, TIME called it not suitable for 2026, Rotten Tomatoes 50%) while the algorithm puts it #1 on Hulu. Two new eps drop every Tuesday through Jun 23.

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Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay winner Aarthi Sampath opened Drāvida, her first restaurant, on May 21 at 211 First Avenue in Manhattan's East Village. The chef-driven concept is an intimate journey through the South Asian diaspora, drawing on the cuisines of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Trinidad, Guyana, and beyond, with dishes more often found in homes than in restaurants. Menu highlights include Doubles (Trinidad), Oxtail Bunny Chow (South Africa), Idli and Shrimp (Indonesia and South India), and Nasi Kandar (Indo-Malay). A Mumbai native with more than 13 years cooking, Sampath trained at the Taj, The Breslin, and Michelin-starred Junoon, and was Head Chef at the Rainbow Room and Chinese Tuxedo. The opening fits this week's unusually New York Scene slate.

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