Indian actor responds to CEO’s ‘90-hour work week’ comment

Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone advocated for the importance of work-life balance after the chair of an Indian multinational company backed a 90-hour work week during a company interaction.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) chair SN Subrahmanyan’s remarks, made during an internal meeting, sparked outrage online after an undated clip of his speech surfaced on Reddit on Thursday. In the video, he expressed regret at not being able to enforce work on Sundays.

“If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy. What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife or how long can the wife stare at the husband?” he said.

He further emphasised that working 90 hours a week was necessary to “stay on top of the world”.

Padukone, known for her advocacy on mental health issues, expressed her distress over the remarks on social media, saying: “Shocking to see people in such senior positions make such statements. “#MentalHealthMatters,” she said, adding the hashtag

While the statement drew widespread criticism, with many calling out the apparent disregard for employees’ personal lives, an L&T spokesperson described Mr Subrahmanyan’s remarks as a reflection of the company’s commitment to “nation-building”.

The statement read: “For over eight decades, we have been shaping India’s infrastructure, industries, and technological capabilities.

“We believe this is India’s decade, a time demanding collective dedication and effort to drive progress and realise our shared vision of becoming a developed nation,” said the spokesperson.

“The chairman’s remarks reflect this larger ambition, emphasising that extraordinary outcomes require extraordinary effort. At L&T, we remain committed to fostering a culture where passion, purpose, and performance drive us forward.”

Several social media users including journalist Nidhi Razdan, called Mr Subrahmanyan’s remarks “shameful”, pointing out their sexist undertones. “Does L&T not employ women? The comments also reflect disrespect for a wife or partner,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Another social media user pointed out: “Those hardworking people who work for your company don’t have 7 to 8 servants to do the pending jobs piling up at home like washing clothes, cleaning cars, taking their kids for a movie, or clearing their doubts, or just simply cleaning out a cupboard or getting a haircut.

“Let your young employees enjoy family life. Give them an option to work on Sundays or enjoy a holiday. Family life and leisure time is as important as work life and money.”

She added, “When did you last receive a call from your loved one saying we are waiting for you at home and dinner is ready ?? I receive such a call everyday, and I consider myself the richest daughter in the world.”

Padukone’s post has further amplified the debate on work-life balance in India, an issue reignited last year by Infosys co-founder and father in-law of former British prime minister Rishi Sunak, Narayana Murthy. Mr Murthy had controversially suggested a 70-hour work week for employees, dismissing the concept of work-life balance.

Echoing similar sentiments, Ola cab service CEO Bhavish Aggarwal also supported extended working hours, claiming they were necessary for professional growth. However, their comments faced backlash, with critics arguing that such expectations disregard the wellbeing of employees, particularly those without the financial privileges of business owners.

Namita Thapar, a judge at an Indian business reality television series, earlier countered these viewpoints, stating it was unreasonable for business leaders to impose their gruelling schedules on salaried employees. “While building one’s own company, it’s natural to work extra hours, but it’s unfair to expect the same from employees,” she said in an interview.

Australia violated human rights of asylum seekers in Nauru camps

Australia violated the human rights of asylum seekers by detaining them on the remote Pacific island of Nauru, a UN panel has ruled, asking the country to pay compensation.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee found that Australia violated two provisions of the human rights treaty in cases involving 24 refugees and asylum seekers, including minors, who were detained while trying to enter Australia by boat in 2013.

The asylum seekers, who came from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, ended up suffering years of arbitrary detention.

“A state party cannot escape its human rights responsibility when outsourcing asylum processing to another state,” committee member Mahjoub El Haiba said.

After introducing a hardline immigration policy over a decade ago, Australia started sending asylum seekers intercepted at sea to detention camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island for “offshore processing” instead of allowing them to live in the country as refugees.

“The outsourcing of operations does not absolve states of accountability,” Mr El Haiba noted. “Offshore detention facilities are not human rights free zones for the state party, which remains bound by the provisions of the covenant.”

The UN panel found Canberra violated two provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, one on arbitrary detention and the other on protecting the right of refugees to challenge their detention in court.

The ruling came on a 2016 petition from a group of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers who said they were held in an overcrowded detention centre “with insufficient water supply and sanitation, high temperatures and humidity as well as inadequate healthcare”.

“Almost all of these minors have suffered from deterioration of physical and mental wellbeing, including self-harm, depression, kidney problems, insomnia, headaches, memory problems and weight loss,” the committee ruled on Thursday.

Australia had argued there was no proof the alleged violations occurred within its jurisdiction.

The committee, however, ruled that the Nauru camp counted as being within Australia‘s jurisdiction, citing the country’s role in constructing and financing it.

In a second case evaluated by the committee, it found an Iranian refugee held in a Nauru camp had also been subjected to arbitrary detention.

The woman, accompanied by family members, arrived by boat on Christmas Island in 2013 but was transferred seven months later to Nauru.

She was not released despite being recognised as a refugee by Nauru in 2017. She was transferred to Australia a year later for medical reasons but remained in detention.

The UN committee called on Australia to provide compensation to the victims and asked it to ensure similar violations did not happen again.

A spokesperson for Australia‘s Department of Home Affairs said in a statement it was engaging with the UN on the complaints.

“It has been the Australian Government’s consistent position that Australia does not exercise effective control over regional processing centres,” the department said in a statement.

“We welcome Nauru’s continued partnership in the effective delivery of regional processing arrangements.”

At least 12 refugees and asylum seekers have died in Australian immigration detention centres on Manus and Nauru, either by murder by guards or suicide or medical neglect, according to human rights organisations.

Human Rights Watch has said Australia forcibly transferred more than 3,000 asylum seekers to the camps where they suffered severe abuse, inhumane treatment, and medical neglect.

Australia’s policy of detaining asylum seekers offshore is popular with voters. Its government claims that they are treated with dignity, fairness and respect and given access to a range of support services.

Additional reporting by agencies.

Marriage annulled after bride says wedding was social media stunt

A Melbourne court annulled a marriage after the bride testified that she thought the wedding was a social media stunt to boost the groom’s Instagram popularity.

In a judgment issued in October and released on Thursday, the family court annulled the December 2023 marriage saying the bride “believed she was acting in a social media event” rather than a legally binding wedding.

The couple had met three months prior.

The bride testified in court that after three months of staying in contact, the groom invited her to a “white party” in Sydney in December 2023. She was surprised to find that he had “organised a wedding”.

When she asked him what was going on, the groom said it was “a simple prank”. “When I got there, and I didn’t see anybody in white, I asked him, ‘What’s happening?’” she told the court.

“He told me that he’s organising a prank wedding for his social media. To be precise, Instagram, because he wants to boost his content and wants to start monetising his Instagram page.”

The groom, who had 17,000 followers on the platform, denied these claims.

Footage showed the couple exchanging vows and rings during the ceremony.

The woman told the court she had to act to “make it look real”.

It was “all an act”, she said.

The bride discovered the “sham” wedding was legally binding when the groom asked to be added to her permanent residency application. He admitted he was not a permanent resident and had “organised the marriage to help him”.

The groom claimed it was an intimate ceremony before an official wedding at a later date but the court rejected his argument, finding inconsistencies and ruling in the bride’s favour.

The judge said the groom’s claims were “so bereft of detail as to be near meaningless”.

He also found it “impossible to accept” that the bride would have a wedding ceremony without a single friend or family member present.

“She was religious,” the judge said. “Precisely why she would participate in a civil marriage and not in a church marriage ceremony went unexplored. It made no sense to me that she would.”

Over 100 flights delayed as dense fog blankets Indian capital

More than 150 flights were delayed as dense smog engulfed Delhi on Friday and reduced visibility to almost zero in parts of the Indian capital.

At least 26 trains were also delayed as the city’s air quality deteriorated to “severe” category, with the Air Quality Index reading 409.

The Indian capital battles smog, a toxic mix of pollutants and fog, every winter as cold air traps dust, emissions, and smoke from farm fires in neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana.

According to aviation tracker FlightRadar24, flight delays at the Delhi airport on Friday averaged 41 minutes.

Budget airline IndiGo issued a travel advisory and expressed regret over the delay in flights departing and arriving due to reduced visibility.

“Poor visibility due to dense fog is having an impact on flight operations in Delhi and some cities in north India today,” Air India said.

The Regional Weather Forecasting Center in Delhi had issued a yellow alert for moderate to dense fog in the morning and shallow fog in the evening.

The Indian Meteorological Department issued a moderate to very dense fog warning for most of northern India, including Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

The National Capital Region witnessed the worst fog this winter between 2 and 3 January, when visibility was reduced to zero for an unprecedented duration of nine hours.

Delhi recorded a temperature of 9.6C Friday morning, with the met department forecasting the minimum temperature in the city to be around 6C.

The year just gone was marked by particularly severe air pollution in Delhi, with 17 days classified as having a “severe” AQI of over 400, the most since 2022.

Crocodiles found at Indian politician’s home after income tax raid

Indian tax officials raiding a former lawmaker’s house in Madhya Pradesh state’s Sagar city found three crocodiles in a pond.

The crocodiles were found on the property of Harvansh Singh Rathore, former member of the state assembly from the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

The officials, over the course of a three-day raid at properties linked to the politician, reportedly recovered 14kg gold and nearly Rs30m (£283,668) in cash and multiple luxury vehicles, NDTV quoted tax authorities as saying.

Mr Rathore was elected to the state assembly in 2013.

The raid was reportedly carried out following complaints of irregularities in transactions related to the former state lawmaker’s business of ‘bidi’, which is a handrolled local cigarette made from tobacco wrapped in a leaf of Coromandel ebony tree.

Mr Rathore reportedly claimed to have obtained permission to keep the crocodiles, despite it being illegal to keep crocodiles as pets in India.

The forest department was informed and an investigation launched, local media reports said.

Earlier this week, a Canadian man was arrested at the Delhi airport for carrying a crocodile skull in his luggage.

Customs officials stopped the 32-year-old man during a security check at Terminal 3 of Delhi’s international airport on Monday and found “a skull with sharp teeth, resembling the jaw of a baby crocodile” wrapped in a cloth.

The skull weighed about 777 grams, the customs department said in a statement on Thursday.

The man was arrested for violating India‘s Wildlife Protection Act and the skull was handed over to the forest department.

In September 2024, two people were caught at the Mumbai airport allegedly attempting to smuggle baby Caiman crocodiles.

The five baby reptiles were found concealed in toothpaste boxes in their hand luggage, according to the customs officials.

Teen detained for sending hoax bomb threats to Delhi schools

The Delhi police have arrested a teenager who allegedly sent hoax bomb threats in a bid to skip exams at his school.

The arrest of the student, studying in class 12 at a private school in Delhi, comes a day after at least 16 schools received threats of a bombing via email.

Police officials claim they have found crucial evidence that indicates the student was part of a group which had allegedly sent the threats to several schools for many months. The police are investigating the role of other students as well.

The minor reportedly sent bomb threat emails at least six times to different schools, except his own, and tagged multiple schools on the mail to avoid suspicion, officials said, reported NDTV.

He sent the emails as he did not want to appear for an exam and believed that the hoax bomb threats would disrupt the exams and get those cancelled, the police said.

In one instance, he sent one email of a bomb threat to 23 schools.

The emails sent by the student warned the schools of “massive and highly dangerous explosives” on the premises and demanded $30,000 (£24,400) to defuse those, reported The Indian Express.

As a result of the hoax bomb threats, students across Delhi schools were sent back and the police deployed a bomb squad with sniffer dogs over the campuses.

The first school to report the bomb threat sent in email was Tagore International School around 11.17am on Wednesday, followed by Bluebells School International at 11.40am. Other premier schools like Modern School, Mothers International School, Springdales School, GD Goenka Public School, Salwan Public School, Amity International School, Air Force Bal Bharati, Delhi Public School in Vasant Vihar also reported the email to the Delhi police.

“Using technical surveillance, police traced the location of one of the students and brought him in for questioning. He eventually told investigators that the emails had been sent by him and some other students,” said a police source familiar with the probe, reported The Indian Express.

The student had used Gmail to send out hoax bomb threats, police from South district said.

Daughter of late Filipino dictator banned from drinking on flights

The daughter of late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos and her husband have been banned from drinking on airplanes and in airports after they got into a drunken brawl on a Jetstar flight.

Analisa Josefa Corr and James Alexander Corr caused a disturbance with their “disorderly behaviour” while intoxicated on a flight from Hobart to Sydney on 29 December, the Australian federal police said.

They had to be escorted off flight JQ720 by federal police.

Ms Corr was accused of “grabbing and shaking another passenger while exiting the aircraft toilet”.

“The pair were allegedly intoxicated and drinking alcohol they had brought with them onto the flight,” the federal police said.

The couple pleaded not guilty to charges of not complying with safety instructions and consuming liquor not served onboard.

Each charge carries a potential fine of up to A$13,750 (£6,925).

Ms Corr also denied a charge of assault onboard the aircraft. This charge carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

The couple were presented at the Downing Centre Local Court on Friday to vary their bail conditions and get their passports back. Their request was unopposed by a prosecutor for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.

A Jetstar spokesperson, without referring to the incident directly, said the airline “will never tolerate disruptive behaviour on our aircraft” and “the safety and wellbeing of customers and crew is our number-one priority”, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The case will be heard next on 24 February.

Ms Corr, 53, describes herself as an interior designer while her husband, 45, is a former soldier, Australian media reported.

The police have urged travellers to be “mindful of their behaviour at airports”. “You don’t want to start the new year with a significant fine or worse, behind bars,” Australian federal police Sergeant Luke Stockwell said.

Man arrested at airport with crocodile skull in luggage

A Canadian man was arrested at an Indian airport for carrying a crocodile skull in his luggage.

Customs officials stopped the 32-year-old man during a security check at Terminal 3 of Delhi’s international airport on Monday and found “a skull with sharp teeth, resembling the jaw of a baby crocodile” wrapped in a cloth.

The skull weighed 777 grams, the customs department said in a statement on Thursday.

The man was arrested for violating India‘s Wildlife Protection Act and the skull was handed over to the forest department.

Authorities registered a case against the suspect while “further investigation is underway”.

The forest department said the skull belonged to a species protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act.

“The texture, tooth pattern, well-developed bony palate, and nostrils confirmed the item as the skull of a baby crocodile,” it added.

The man was scheduled to leave on an Air Canada flight on Monday when he was caught. A forest official told The Times of India that the Canadian had bought the skull in Thailand.

“The man did not possess the mandatory permission required to carry wildlife items,” Rajesh Tandon, deputy forest range officer told the newspaper. “We will conduct further lab tests to identify the subspecies.”

Last year, a 32-year-old Canadian woman was stopped at the Delhi airport for carrying horns of an unidentified animal in her luggage. The woman claimed to have picked them up during a trek in the Ladakh region.

In a similar case in March last year, a 60-year-old man was caught while attempting to smuggle a ”wildlife trophy” out of India, police said.