India news: India steps up efforts as hundreds missing in Nepal floods
Deutsche Welle · LC · trust 43/100
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he spoke with Nepal's Shah to offer humanitarian assistance. Meanwhile, India's RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat is stirring up controversy in New York. DW has more.
https://p.dw.com/p/5JSWt Aid sent by India and other countries is being airdropped to affected regions in nepal Image: ANI News/IMAGO Advertisement Skip next section What you need to know What you need to know India's Foreign Ministry says 300 Indians are missing in Nepal and 200 are stranded in Tibet Most were pilgrims on Mansarovar Yatra India sends 10 metric tons of disaster-relief supplies to Nepal US panel on religious freedom urges government to place sanctions on RSS members Here are the biggest headlines coming out of India on Thursday, August 27:
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08/27/2026 August 27, 2026 Modi wants India to boost participation in Olympic sports India's performance at the Olympics can only improve if the nation increases its participation in events it previously didn't take part in, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday.
"In the Olympics, there are so many different sports... Indian teams don't even participate in half of them. Meaning, we don't even compete for a huge chunk of the medal tally," he said in a virtual address to hundreds of athletes, students and volunteers who had gathered at multiple Locations for the Khelo India Dialogue.
"Other countries of the world win medals in those sports, and we don't even participate in them. To increase our medal tally, we will have to master these sports as well," he said.
India participated in only 16 of the 32 sports at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The Khelo India Dialogue, which translates to "Play India Dialogue," came ahead of India's National Sports Day on 29th August.
08/27/2026 August 27, 2026 Nearly 300 Indians missing in Nepal, 200 stranded in China: India's foreign ministry At least 488 Indian nationals were "uncontactable" or "stranded" in Nepal and China as of Thursday afternoon, India's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a briefing.
"There are 288 Indian nationals who remain uncontactable. These include 73 Indian nationals working on Trishuli 1 power project. Our embassy in Kathmandu is in touch with the project head," Jaiswal told reporters, adding that the missing Indians come from several states, including Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala.
As of 1 p.m. local time, 21 Indian nationals from Tamil Nadu had been rescued in Nepal, Jaiswal said. "Our ambassador has spoken to the people in the group and has assured all possible help," he said.
Hundreds of Indian nationals were also stranded on the Chinese side of the disaster.
"A number of Indian nationals who had gone on the Kailash Mansorovar Yatra are stranded on the Chinese side. There are approximately 200 Indian nationals there who have sought our assistance for evacuation," the spokesperson said, adding that the Indian embassy in Beijing was coordinating with local authorities for their safe return to India.
Jaiswal warned that the flash floods had put authorities in a "dynamic situation," with the numbers of those missing, stranded or rescued likely to change in the upcoming hours.
08/27/2026 August 27, 2026 US religious freedom panel urges sanctions against India's RSS chief ahead of NYC visit A bipartisan US panel on religious freedom urged the US government to impose targeted sanctions on Mohan Bhagwat — the chief of a controversial Hindu nationalist group in India which is closely associated with India's current ruling party.
Bhagwat is currently on a visit to the US and is scheduled to speak at an event in New York City's Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
"We urge the US government to consider targeted sanctions against RSS members and Indian officials complicit in religious freedom violations, including revoking the visa issued to Mohan Bhagwat," Asif Mahmood, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), said in a statement.
The USCIRF is a bipartisan body of the US government which monitors religious freedom around the world and accordingly makes policy recommendations. Those recommendations are not binding.
India's Foreign Ministry has dismissed the panel's assertions and accused it of being biased against India.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, is often referred to as the Sangh. The group describes itself as a "Hindu-centric civilizational, cultural movement" focused on uniting Hindus and disputes accusations that it promotes intolerance.
The RSS is the ideological parent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the prime minister has had a longstanding association with the organization.
In recent years, the organization has launched a global campaign to counter perceptions that it is a paramilitary group involved in violence against minority communities. Meanwhile, rights groups say that the RSS promotes majoritarian ideology fueling intolerance towards minorities, especially muslims, in India.
Read more about the controversy surrounding Bhagwat's upcoming event in NYC.
100 years of the Hindu nationalist RSS movement To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
08/27/2026 August 27, 2026 NDRF says no adverse impact from Nepal floods in UP, Bihar so far Indian states on Nepal's southern border have faced "no adverse impact so far," India's disaster response officials told Indian media on Thursday, a day after Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were put on high alert.
"The situation is being monitored for potential future impacts. We have reserve teams available; if the need arises, the state government will be informed, and they can be deployed immediately," National Disaster Response Force's IG Narendra Singh Bundela told news…
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