India bridles at China’s growing presence in South Asia

In india as elsewhere, many fantasise about escaping to the beach in early January. Yet recent days have seen an unusual public debate about which beaches are acceptable and which, more to the point, are not. Politicians and Bollywood stars are richly praising India’s own island and coastal resorts. They are meanwhile urging people not to travel across the Indian Ocean to a traditionally hankered-after alternative: the Maldives. Some travel agents have stopped taking bookings to the archipelagic South Asian state.