A Kashmiri farmer picks saffron flowers from a field in Pampore, south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, 06 November 2023. Pampore, also known as the Saffron town of Kashmir, is famous for its high quality saffron. It is one of few places in the world where the world's most expensive spice grows. (Photo by Farooq Khan/EPA)

Locals light firecrackers on the occasion of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in Chennai, India on November 12, 2023. (Photo by Idrees Mohammed/EPA/EFE)

Cadets prepare to take part in a full dress rehearsal for the upcoming Republic Day parade, in Chennai on January 24, 2024. (Photo by R. Satish Babu/AFP Photo)

Hindu devotees watch as a 12 meter (40 feet) high statue of Hindu monkey-god Hanuman is washed during Hanuman Jayanti, the birthday of Lord Hanuman in Hyderabad, India, Friday, April 22, 2016. Hanuman is one of the most popular gods in the crowded pantheon of Hindu deities, and devout Hindus ascribe great strength and valor to him. (Photo by Mahesh Kumar A./AP Photo)

Prospective flight attendants listen to their instructor during an etiquette training course at Indigo Airlines' Ifly training centre in Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi November 18, 2014. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

In this September 11, 2014 photo, villagers climb down the side of a hill used earlier as a dumping ground of asbestos waste on Roro hills in Roro, India. An asbestos mine, abandoned nearly three decades ago still affects the people around it and 18 along with Jema were diagnosed with asbestosis in 2012. Tens of thousands more, some former mine workers, remain untested and at risk. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

A woman shields her face from the sun as she rides her scooter in Ahmedabad, India May 20, 2016. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

Some 300 girls and women in India still practise open defecation. Over half the country’s population, 800 million people, do not have access to a toilet that meets basic standards. (Photo by Poulomi Basu/WaterAid)