It’s easy to tell when it’s smog season in New Delhi; the air gets darker, heavier and starts scratching the throats and testing the lungs of the city’s 34 million residents.

Delhi’s air pollution nearly doubled in November, pushing the capital to the 4th spot among India’s most polluted cities.

As the White House tries to curb Moscow's energy income, Vladimir Putin enjoys a warm welcome in India, and promises an "uninterrupted supply" of Russian fuel.

When Vladimir Putin’s plane touches down in New Delhi this week, he will be met with the pomp and ceremony reserved for one of India’s most steadfast partners. Yet his host, Prime Narendra Modi, is simultaneously forging a deep strategic relationship with a key global rival: the United States.

In the hours between, the 30 million residents of India’s capital region trudge along with chronic headaches and itchy eyes, symptoms of this rising superpower’s failure to provide its people with a most basic need: breathable air.

As they reached Nagpur, they got a message that the flight to Delhi was cancelled, according to media reports. Later, the aircraft, which was supposed to take off, eventually did and they left for Delhi.

A Pakistani woman from Karachi accuses her husband of abandoning her and preparing a second marriage in Delhi, prompting her emotional appeal to PM Modi as legal bodies in both countries review the case.

“By engaging Putin so prominently, India was also sending an overt message of defiance, using its relationship with Moscow to highlight its independent stance in global affairs” said a senior western diplomat in Delhi, declining to be named, as he was not authorised to comment on the Putin visit.