From India, a More Modest Playboy Bunny

Courtesy of Playboy EnterprisesHugh Hefner, center, surrounded by Playboy Bunnies in the first Playboy Club in Chicago, in this 1960 photo.

As the Playboy Club gets set to open in Goa this winter, its first venture in India, one pressing question keeps cropping up: What, exactly, will the bunnies wear?

(Yes, the club's opening also inspires other, more serious, questions about women, tolerance and propriety in India. More on that below.)

In a country where the introduction of American-style cheerleaders was quickly followed by orders that they  put on some more clothes, the traditional cleavage-baring, wa ist-cinching, high-cut, bunny costume obviously had to be abandoned.

But … what to replace it with? India Ink spoke recently to Sanjay Gupta, the Indian businessman bringing the Playboy Club here, about the dilemma.

Mr. Gupta, whose 25 years of business experience includes work in the entertainment, metals and mining industries, said his PB Lifestyle is “working closely” now with Playboy executives about a redesigned costume more appropriate for India's standards of modesty.

How about a salwar kameez?

“Salwar kameez!” Mr. Gupta said. “That would be too modest.” Instead, he said, “think of a modern Indian woman,” when picturing the new outfit, one who “knows her way, who is educated and is assertive.” (Maybe a suit and trousers ensemble from Raymond's “Park Avenue” line, then?)

Another very important question: Will there be ears?

Mr. Gupta said he'd rather not comment, citing ongoing d iscussions with Playboy, but added, “We will be close to the traditional” outfit.

So, that must mean ears? “Yes, of course,” he conceded.

India's Playboy bunnies will be imports, to start, Mr. Gupta said - experts shipped in from the United States, Australia, Britain and other countries. “Bunnies are rigorously trained,” he said, from a Playboy Bunny manual, which includes “strict dos and don'ts” about their conduct.

Mr. Gupta said he plans to open 120 Playboy Clubs in India in the next decade, starting with a 32,000-square-foot location on the beach in Goa in December. Goa's chief minister has already promised to keep close watch on the club, looking for wrongdoing, making Mr. Gupta's plans sound ambitious.

India Ink couldn't help but wonder: In a country where the celebration of Valentine's Day inspires protests and where women who wear Western clothing are blamed when they are attacked by men, does it make sense to open a club staff ed by women in bunny outfits in the first place?

“The bunnies will not be serving drinks, they will be acting as hostesses,” Mr. Gupta said. “You have air hostesses, they are treated with respect,” he said, and the same will be true for the bunnies. “Bunnies are integral to the Playboy culture,” he said.

The Playboy bunny costume last got a serious redesign in 2005, when it was “subtly updated with S&M overtones” by the Milanese fashion designer Roberto Cavalli, ahead of the opening of a Las Vegas club. Mr. Cavalli swapped out the traditional cufflinks for “bondage-style” cuffs, and elongated the ears, giving them a “playful droop,” Ruth LaFerla wrote in The New York Times.

The Princelings of India

Harish Tyagi/European Pressphoto Agency Congress Party general secretary Rahul Gandhi (left), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India and Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi (right) waved to supporters during a public rally on Nov. 4 in Delhi.

DELHI - In July, Rahul Gandhi, general secretary of the Congress Party, announced: “I will play a more proactive role in the party and the government. The decision has been taken, the timing is up to my two bosses: the Congress president and the prime minister.” He is expected to be anointed as No. 2, just below Sonia Gandhi, his mother and the party's president, who is said to be ill, and lead the Congress Party in parliamentary elections in 2014.

Rahul hasn't yet been officially designated as party heir and he has not taken on any direct responsibility in the government. Still, all important decisions related to the Congress are now widely believed to bear his stamp. That his name wasn't on the list of new ministers announced in a cabinet reshuffle on Oct. 28 isn't a setback for him. Rather, it suggests that he preferred to avoid being too closely identified with a government that is suffering a serious credibility crisis.

On the day of the new ministers' swearing-in ceremony, the Mail Today newspaper reported, “When reporters told him that the reshuffle had his imprint, Rahul, who was chatting with Milind Deora, Sachin Pilot, RPN Singh, Jitendra Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia, quipped: ‘I am talki ng with my imprints.'”

Rahul Gandhi has chosen to surround himself with loyal followers from a few powerful families. So much for the hype that has accompanied his rise to power since 2004 or the promise that he might usher in a new kind of politics. In the Congress Party, democracy is a dynastic affair.

Sachin Pilot, who will run the Corporate Affairs Ministry, is the son of Rajesh Pilot, a minister in the Congress government in the 1990s who was brought into politics by Rahul Gandhi's father, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Milind Deora, a junior minister of communications and information technology since 2011, is the son of Murli Deora, a minister for petroleum and natural gas until recently and a confidant of Rajiv Gandhi. Jyotiradtiya Scindia, who now holds the energy portfolio, is the son of Madhavrao Scindia, another confidant of Rajiv Gandhi and one of the most powerful members of the Congress Party until his death in an air crash in 2001.Scindia al so is heir to the Scindia dynasty, which once ruled a large swath of central India. Although royal titles and privileges have been abolished in India, members of such families enjoy residual prestige. The other two men with Rahul Gandhi at the swearing in were Jitendra Singh, from the royal family of Alwar in Rajasthan, and R.P.N. Singh, from the royal family of a small principality in Uttar Pradesh.

The lineage of Rahul Gandhi's entourage - as well as that of several other young beneficiaries in last week's reshuffle - suggests that nepotism still dominates the Congress Party despite a recent popular upsurge against corruption. In his book “India: A Portrait,” Patrick French observed that all members of the 15th Lok Sabha (the lower house of Parliament elected in 2009) under the age of 30, as well as more than two-thirds of the 66 members of Parliament under 40, had in effect inherited their seats. And 33 of the 38 youngest members got there “with the help of mu mmy-daddy.”

Even in his elective cabinet appointments, Rahul opted for the same dynastic approach. His own schedule, engagements and even much of his politics are devised by a team of young professionals headed by Kanishka Singh, his handpicked adviser - and the son of S.K. Singh, a foreign secretary under Rajiv Gandhi.

Hartosh Singh Bal is political editor of Open Magazine and co-author of “A Certain Ambiguity.''

An Industry Struggles to Keep Its Luster

Colin Delfosse for The New York Times

Indian businessmen in the diamond district of Antwerp, Belgium.

ANTWERP, Belgium - Step off the train here and you cannot miss the signs on the stores: Diamond World, Diamond Gallery, Diamond Creations or simply, Diamonds. Of late, there are the banners and posters reading simply, “Antwerp Loves Diamonds.”

A diamond polisher at work.

Though this Belgian port has had a love affair with diamonds for centuries, of late it seems to be losing some of its passion. For years now, much of the lucrative but labor-intensive business of cutting and polishing stones has been drifting to low-wage centers in the developing world, like Mumbai, Dubai and Shanghai.

More ominously, in recent years, diamond traders have been accused of a range of violations, including tax fraud, money laundering and cheating on customs payments when buying and selling stones.

Local business leaders recognize the threat. This year, they embarked on what local newspapers described as a “charm offensive.” In a 160-page program, titled Project 2020, the World Diamond Center, a trade-promotion group, outlined plans to draw business back to Antwerp by simplifying and accelerating trading via online systems. That, the industry hopes, will win back some of the polishing business lost to Asian countries with new technology, like fully automated diamond polishers, and generally burnish the image of the diamond business in the public's jaded eye.

“This is our strength,” said Ari Epstein, 36, a lawyer who is chief executive of the World Diamond Center and the son of a diamond trader, whose father emigrated from a village in Romania in the 1960s. “We have the critical mass so that every diamond finds a buyer and seller.”

Antwerp has by no means fallen out of love with the gems. In all, the market employs 8,000 people and creates work indirectly for 26,000 others as insurers, bankers, security guards and drivers. Last year, turnover in the local diamond business amounted to $56 billion, Mr. Epstein said, its best year ever.

While total revenues are expected to drop this year because of the troubled world economy, he acknowledged, a stroll along Hoveniersstraat, or Gardner's Street, leads through the heart of the market, where almost 85 percent of the world's uncut diamonds are still traded.

“I come here once a month,” said Sheh Kamliss, a trader in his 30s, who travels from his native India to buy uncut stones and sell polished diamonds. “This is the international market,” he added, chatting with fellow Indian traders outside the Diamond Club of Antwerp, one of many locations where deals are struck.

On any given day but Friday or the Jewish holidays, Hoveniersstraat, with its tiny Sephardic synagogue, is liberally sprinkled with Orthodox Jewish traders, many of them Hasidim.

But their once dominant presence has been squeezed by the arrival of traders from new markets, like Mr. Kamliss. Now people from about 70 nations are present, including Indians, Israelis, Lebanese, Russians, Chinese and others. Along neighboring Lange Herentalsestraat, Rachel's Kosher Restaurant is now flanked by the Bollywood Indian Restaurant and the Shanti Shop Indian supermarket. In the nearby Jewish quarter, Patel's Cash & Carry recently installed itself right next to Moszkowitz, the butcher.

Some here say this globalization of the business has opened the door to abuse.

Omega Diamonds, a major market maker, came under investigation and its executives fled Belgium when an employee-turned-whistle-blower revealed in 2006 how Omega had traded diamonds out of Africa for years, avoiding taxes by transacting deals through Dubai, Tel Aviv and Geneva, then moving the profits back to Belgium.

“Because of global changes, the trade routes have changed,” said David Renous, 47, the whistle blower, who is now writing a book on the subject. “New hubs, like Dubai, the Singapore of the Middle East, sometimes close their eyes to criminality.”

A version of this article appeared in print on November 6, 2012, on page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: An Industry Struggles To Keep Its Luster.

Image of the Day: Nov. 5

Associated PressCanada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper with his wife Laureen Ann Harper at the Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. Mr. Harper is on a six-day visit to India.

Delhiites: Why Don\'t You Use Public Transportation?

Altaf Qadri/Associated PressTraffic on the outskirts of Delhi in this Aug. 1, 2012 file photo.

Delhites, Why Aren't You Using Public Transportation?

The foreboding omen that winter is coming to the country's capital is back: a thick gray blanket of smog has smothered Delhi for days.

The smog, referred to by city romantics as the “fog,” or more deceivingly as the “mist,” is a pack-a-day mix of smoke, car exhaust and construction dust.

On Monday afternoon, air quality at various spots in the city was deemed “very unhealthy” by a government Web site, which frequently measures particulate matter in the air.

The government's label itself is something of a euphemism: for small particulate matter, known as PM 2.5 because they are 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller, and larger particles known as PM 10, which are 10 microns or less, an air quality index measure between 301 and 500 would be considered “hazardous” in the United States. It comes with the recommendation that “everyone should avoid any outdoor exertion.”

On Monday afternoon, particulate matter measures at various spots in Delhi ranged between the 500s and 600s, and even higher. At 4:30 p.m. in Noida, a suburb of Delhi, the air quality index for PM 10 was 882.

India's air is the world's unhealthiest, Yale and Columbia researchers said in a report released this year, and land-locked Delhi's low elevation makes the city particularly vulnerable to smog that lingers. A leading cause of the pollution is traffic: about seven million vehicles ply Delhi's roads, according to the Delhi gov ernment, and cars account for about a quarter of two major air pollutants in the city.

Making matters worse, the percentage of the city's 16 million people who use public transport is actually going down, not up: Between 2001 and 2008, use of public transport fell from nearly 60 percent to little more than 45 percent of “mode share,” or the proportion of travelers using a particular type of transportation, according to a study by RITES, an Indian government-sponsored infrastructure consultant. That comes even as the metro system was expanding in the city. Bus use fell from 60 percent to 41.5 percent.

India Ink has previously pondered why Delhi doesn't cap its car ownership. So far, the government has considered measures to discourage private vehicle use, including making parking more expensive and upgrading the public transportation system. Delhi has a spanking metro, for instance, with first-class infrastructure, which actually runs on time.

So, why do n't more city residents use it? That's a question we're hoping our readers can answer.

Are cars the only mode of transport considered fitting for Delhi's upwardly-mobile or newly rich executives and corporate moguls? Is the Metro's connectivity not convenient enough? Are Delhi's buses too unsafe or dirty?

We want to hear from you, our loyal readers. Please leave your comments below.

As Bangalore\'s Garbage Crises Eases, Recycling Suffers

Kuni Takahashi for The New York TimesUncollected garbage in Bangalore, Karnataka in this Oct. 19, 2012 file photo.

In the wake of a garbage crisis that has filled Bangalore with mounds of putrefying trash, the High Court of the state of Karnataka has ordered the city's municipal authorities to present by Tuesday a plan for clearing away the mess.

Last week, the city's main dump at Mandur reopened, and on Sunday the city sent 352 trash trucks to the landfill to dump their loads. Rajneesh Goel, the city's commissioner, announced that the streets of Bangalore would be cleared by Monday. But Bangalore residents said Monday that piles of trash still remained around the city, and Mr. Goel's deputy, Salma K. Fahim, confirmed in a telephone interview that much remains to be done.‘‘Things are improving, but I wouldn't confidently say that everything has been cleared,'' Ms. Fahim said. ‘‘They are trying their best.''

Activists have complained that the city has done nothing to enforce recycling mandates for residents and commercial entities.

‘‘Segregation at source has to be closely monitored, and we don't see any change on that,'' said Wilma Rodrigues, founder of Saahas, a recycling group.

Residents who try to segregate their waste watch in dismay as the city's trash haulers pick up their carefully separated piles and throw them together into the same truck, Ms. Rodrigues said.

‘‘And that has led even those who are segregating their garbage to become skeptical,'' Ms. Rodrigues said. ‘‘What is the point if they continue to collect ga rbage in a mixed fashion?''

Ms. Fahim responded that plans are being laid to create central collection facilities where segregation can occur. But Kalpana Kar, another of the city's garbage activists, said that plans to separate waste at central sites instead of insisting that such separation be done by residents are bound to fail.

‘‘So they're going to truck it to these transfer stations, manually separate the garbage and then put it back in the same trucks and take it to farmers?'' Ms. Kar asked skeptically. ‘‘Does that make any sense?''

Ms. Kar said that the only way to make the system work is to insist that residents separate their garbage themselves, and for the city to enforce this mandate with fines. The city must have a way of collecting different types of garbage separately, she said.

‘‘It doesn't take a genius to know that you have to have at least two containers in the trucks to handle both the wet and the dry waste,'' she said.

But Ms. Kar said she was happy that the High Court had intervened, and she said she hoped that the judges insist that city officials offer a plan that will solve the city's garbage crisis for years to come.