&w=3840&q=100)
Sacred Buddha relics set for auction in Hong Kong in May, returns to India
"This momentous repatriation has been made possible through an exemplary public-private partnership between the government of India and the Godrej Industries Group," the Ministry of Culture said.
The sacred Piprahwa relics, carried in a box, were received by Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat at a technical area of the Delhi airport, a senior official said.
"This successful repatriation sets a benchmark in cultural diplomacy and collaboration, showcasing how strategic partnerships between public institutions and private enterprise can protect and preserve global heritage," the ministry said.
The sacred Piprahwa relics will be formally unveiled during a special ceremony and placed on public display, allowing citizens and visitors to pay homage and witness these rare artefacts, it said in a statement.
The Piprahwa relics, discovered in 1898 by British civil engineer William Claxton Pepp in Piprahwa (in today's Uttar Pradesh), are believed to be associated with the mortal remains of Lord Buddha. Enshrined by his followers around the 3rd century BC, these relics have long held immense spiritual value for the global Buddhist community and represent one of the most important archaeological discoveries in Indian history.
Originally slated for auction in Hong Kong on May 7, the sacred artefacts were "successfully secured" by the Ministry of Culture through "decisive intervention", reflecting the government's unwavering commitment to preserving India's cultural and spiritual heritage, the statement further said.
"The return of the Piprahwa gems is a matter of great pride for every Indian. This is one of the most significant instances of repatriation of our lost heritage and would not have been possible without the vision and initiative of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Shekhawat was quoted as saying in the statement.
On May 5, the ministry had said that it had issued a "legal notice to Sotheby's Hong Kong", seeking "immediate cessation of the auction" of a portion of the sacred Piprahwa Buddhist relics and demanded their repatriation.
On May 7, it said, "The Ministry of Culture, Government of India, has successfully secured the postponement of the auction of the sacred Piprahwa Buddhist relics by Sotheby's Hong Kong, which was scheduled for May 7, 2025." The Ministry of Culture on Wednesday said, the "Government of India, proudly announces the historic return of the sacred Piprahwa relics of Lord Buddha to their rightful home in India."
Pirojsha Godrej, Executive Vice Chairperson of Godrej Industries Group, said, "We are deeply honoured to contribute to this historic moment. The Piprahwa gems are not just artefacts -- they are timeless symbols of peace, compassion, and the shared heritage of humanity." "Our partnership with the government of India reflects our deep commitment to preserving cultural legacies for future generations," he added.
This initiative aligns with Prime Minister Modi's broader mission to reclaim and celebrate India's ancient cultural and spiritual heritage from across the world, the ministry said.
"The return of the Piprahwa gems further reinforces India's standing as a global guardian of peace, compassion, and the timeless values of the Buddha," it added.
The Piprahwa Relics, which include bone fragments, soapstone and crystal caskets, a sandstone coffer and offerings, such as gold ornaments and gemstones, were excavated by Peppe in 1898, the ministry had said in a statement on May 7.
An inscription in the Brahmi script on one of the caskets confirms these as relics of the Buddha deposited by the Sakya clan, it had said.
The majority of these relics were transferred to the Indian Museum in Kolkata in 1899 and classified as "AA" antiquities under the Indian law, prohibiting their removal or sale, it had added.
"While a portion of the bone relics was gifted to the King of Siam, a selection retained by Peppe's descendants has now been listed for auction," the statement had said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Economic Times
12 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Indian cloud companies to storm local skies with low-cost advantage
Synopsis Indian companies are competing in the cloud market. They offer local data storage and infrastructure. These firms aim to undercut global giants on cost. Airtel, Jio, Tata Communications, and Yotta are key players. They target the public sector and regulated industries. Experts note challenges in technology and migration. Hyperscalers like Microsoft and Amazon are also expanding in India. Agencies Indian corporates are building muscle to challenge bigger global rivals in the fast-growing cloud market, with offerings that store data applications and related infrastructure within the country, referred to as sovereign cloud. These homegrown firms are underlining lower costs as their biggest advantage against the foreign competitors. Bharti Airtel's Xtelify, Reliance's JioCloud for SMEs, Tata Communications' Vayu, and Yotta's Shakti are tailored for local enterprises, especially in public sector and other regulated industries. And they are aiming to take on hyperscalers Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform, positioning themselves as affordable and secure alternatives with cost savings of 30%-50% over the global giants. Hyperscalers are large cloud providers offering massive computing resources and infrastructure. However, factors such as limited technology depth, lack of ecosystem maturity, and high migration costs from the global cloud providers are limiting the ambitious growth plans of the Indian companies, say experts. They added that interoperability between cloud providers is almost non-existent, making migration costly and technically complex."The emergence of indigenous cloud platforms represents a market response to India's sovereign cloud policy framework, creating domestic alternatives for regulated sectors," said Jitesh Karlekar, director-research at real estate research and advisory firm JLL. "However, these nascent providers will need to rapidly build technical sophistication, security credentials, and operational scale to effectively compete with established global platforms." According to an IDC study, 15-20% of Indian companies are adopters of some sovereign cloud solution for ensuring compliance and security of their core applications and data. "Sovereign cloud is still in the early stages with little adoption in India," said Rajiv Ranjan, associate director, cloud and AI at research firm IDC India. "A key reason for not migrating to sovereign cloud could be higher costs and the risks associated with migrating applications which might be time consuming and cause business disruptions." He added that enterprises in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) space need to be also fully confident with adequate security and compliance norms being met with the domestic offerings. Meanwhile, hyperscalers have rapidly grown their footprint in India through pacts with mobile phone operators. In 2019, Microsoft signed a 10-year deal with telecom market leader Reliance Jio for co-development of affordable cloud-based solutions, particularly targeted towards SMEs and startups. For its free consumer cloud storage, Jio has netted over 35 million active users. A year later, second-ranked telco Bharti Airtel signed a deal with AWS to develop differentiated Airtel Cloud products. It also tied up with Google Cloud the same year to offer G-Suite services such as Gmail, and Google Docs to to a study by policy body Centre for Internet and Digital Economy, India's $8.3 billion cloud market revenue is dominated by international vendors, with Microsoft (27%) and AWS (15%) together having a 42% share, with all other competitors, including Salesforce and SAP, having shares of less than 5% each. In the pure infrastructure space, Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud have a combined 87% market share. Bharti Airtel on Monday launched its sovereign cloud, with its vice chairman, Gopal Vittal, stressing that the telco's offering will lead to cost savings of 30-40% over rivals due to its mix of network and cloud the Centre for Internet and Digital Economy study on the competitive landscape in the Indian cloud market showed new entrants are struggling to match the free cloud credits and startup support offered by global global companies provide large sums in cloud credits and access to accelerator programs, giving them a strong edge in customer acquisition, said industry experts. In contrast, local firms often restrict credits to a small circle of existing clients and face difficulty competing for cloud-native startups. However, Indian providers are attracting small and mid-sized businesses by offering 30-70% cost savings and greater billing transparency, areas where hyperscalers fall short due to complex pricing and poor cost visibility, the study showed. The global rivals with technical strength though are better equipped to forecast and manage cloud costs, offering better expense visibility to their clients, compared with their smaller rivals.
India Today
14 minutes ago
- India Today
Modi misread Trump: Now India pays the price
A war of words has erupted between New Delhi and Washington, exposing the fragility of what was once hailed as a geopolitical success story. India has hit back hard at US President Donald Trump's threat to hike tariffs on Indian goods over continued imports of Russian oil, calling the targeting "unjustified and unreasonable" whilst slamming what it perceives as Washington's double The so-called Modi-Trump bromance, once paraded as diplomatic triumph, is now cracking under the weight of harsh reality. What began with mutual praise and public spectacle, from the "Howdy Modi" event in Houston to the grand "Namaste Trump" reception in Ahmedabad, has devolved into accusations, tariffs, and transactional Fatal MiscalculationOne of New Delhi's fundamental missteps was assuming that warm handshakes and mega-rallies could override hard economic interests. Modi's outreach to Trump was personal, public, and passionate, but Trump doesn't separate business from bromance. The "great friend" narrative gave India false confidence that proved Modi threw his weight behind Trump, literally sharing the stage with him in Houston and Ahmedabad, it was a bet on personal chemistry over policy complexity. India saw Trump not as a volatile businessman-president, but as a dealmaker who'd favour "friends." The reality? Trump doesn't do friendships, he does leverage. And India misread that playbook temples in Varanasi to villages in Gujarat, people performed pujas praying for Trump's victory. Modi had pulled off spectacular diplomatic theatre, and India felt it had America in its corner. Yet Trump's loyalty lies only with the US balance sheet, viewing India as a trade surplus machine rather than a strategic Russian Oil WedgeIndia's dependence on Russian oil has become the new wedge in this deteriorating relationship. With crude prices volatile and energy security paramount, India turned to Moscow for discounted supply, with Russia now accounting for up to 40% of India's oil imports. Trump, who views foreign policy through a profit-loss lens, sees this as lashed out, accusing India of undermining the West's Ukraine strategy and "helping Putin," with tariffs becoming punishment. Worse still, he's framed it as India profiting from global chaos. Modi's government finds itself caught in a trilemma: oil security, global optics, and Trump's offensive 4th August 2025, India's Ministry of External Affairs dropped a diplomatic bombshell in response. Calling Trump's tariff threats "unjustified and unreasonable," the MEA emphasised that India's oil purchases are driven by survival, not sympathy for Moscow. With Middle Eastern oil redirected to Europe after the Ukraine war, India had little choice but to buy discounted Russian crude to shield its economy. India's anger wasn't merely economic, it was moral. The statement highlighted US and EU hypocrisy, pointing out how the West continues trading heavily with Russia in everything from uranium to fertilisers, yet singles out India for 25% Tariff HammerTrump's imposition of a 25% tariff on all Indian goods wasn't just economic muscle-flexing, it was a warning shot. The US goods trade deficit with India stood at $45.7 billion in 2024, which Trump views as theft, plain and simple. His administration has revived old complaints about high tariffs, restricted market access, regulatory red tape, and "unfair" practices in pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and most jarring for India was Trump's renewed outreach to Pakistan, military meetings, energy cooperation discussions, and vague proposals of "regional balance." For a country that expected Trump to be firmly in its anti-Pakistan corner, this felt like betrayal, exposing another blind spot in India's strategic Path ForwardIndia must now abandon illusions of personal diplomacy. Trump is a negotiator, not a friend, he respects leverage, not loyalty. New Delhi must shift from sentimentality to strategy, from ceremonial displays to pragmatic biggest lesson? Don't tie national strategy to individual leaders. American policy is shifting toward hard realism, and India must do the same. This means engaging not as a junior partner seeking approval, but as a sovereign power navigating a multipolar obsession with optics, handshakes, stagecraft, mega-events, must give way to tough negotiations, quiet diplomacy, and pragmatic positioning. Because Trump isn't here to dance at "Namaste Trump" events, he's here to deal. And if Modi wants to succeed, it's time to stop praying and start playing hardball politics.- Ends
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
14 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Nayara exports first fuel cargo after EU sanctions, tanker heads to Oman
Russia-backed Indian refiner Nayara Energy has exported its first gasoline cargo since the privately-owned company was sanctioned by the European Union on July 18, according to four shipping sources and LSEG data. The tanker Tempest Dream, carrying about 43,000 metric tons (363,350 barrels) of gasoline, sailed on Monday, according to the sources and LSEG shipping data. The vessel, sanctioned by Britain in June, is headed to Sohar, Oman, shipping data showed, although buyer details could not be verified. Mumbai-based Nayara Energy did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. A second vessel, the Sard, is currently at the western Indian port of Vadinar used by Nayara, set to lift about 43,000 tons of diesel, according to two sources and LSEG shipping data. Nayara has been forced to reduce crude runs at its 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Vadinar due to difficulties in obtaining ships and selling fuel from the port in the wake of the sanctions, Reuters has reported. Nayara, which runs 6,600 fuel stations in India, has approached state fuel retailers for domestic sale of products, industry sources have said. It recently used tanker Leruo to move about 43,000 tons of diesel to Mundra port in western India, data from traders and Kpler shiptracking showed. The Leruo and Sard have been sanctioned by the EU since July and May respectively.
