Salaries delayed at Air India

Mangaluru: Mangaluru’s skyline is set for a high-end transformation as the coastal district of Dakshina Kannada prepares to shed its reputation for lacking premium hospitality. In a massive show of confidence, entrepreneurs have committed nearly ₹500 crores toward the construction of four new five-star hotels, a move experts say will finally plug the "luxury leak" to neighboring states.

For years, Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) has served as a gateway for high-net-worth travelers who, upon landing, promptly departed for Kerala or Kodagu due to a dearth of elite accommodation in the city. These new projects, three of which are backed by local visionary investors, aim to turn Mangaluru into a destination rather than just a transit point.

Mapping the Luxury Boom

The expansion is already in motion, with two major landmarks leading the charge:
•    Gurupura Property: Construction is already underway on a premier resort-style hotel.
•    Kuloor Hub: A sophisticated urban luxury hotel has been proposed for this strategic area.
•    Timeline: All four projects are slated for completion within the next 24 months, promising to fundamentally alter the region's tourism profile by 2028.

Why Now? The Investor Demand

The push for five-star infrastructure isn't just about tourism; it’s a direct response to the city’s industrial and academic evolution. Stakeholders from the IT and corporate sectors have long flagged the lack of premium suites as a hurdle for international business investments.

"Mangaluru is an powerhouse of mega-industries, medical excellence, and a burgeoning IT scene," noted a senior Tourism Department official. "It is an anomaly that a city with this much economic muscle has lacked a five-star anchor. By offering premium hospitality, we aren't just housing tourists; we are inviting global investors to stay, engage, and invest more deeply in our coast."

Strategic Retention

The "drain" of visitors to the neighboring state of Kerala has been a long-standing grievance for local businesses. With these new properties, the district administration expects a significant multiplier effect—benefiting local sightseeing, high-end retail, and the burgeoning medical tourism sector. As Mangaluru accelerates on its development trajectory, the message to the world is clear: the coast is finally ready to host you in style.

The Voice of Hind Rajab, inspired by the tragic final moments of a young Palestinian girl killed by Israeli fire in Gaza, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best International Feature Film category.

Directed by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, the film recounts the true story of five-year-old Hind Rajab, who lost her life in January 2024 while fleeing Israeli bombardment with her family.

The film features the real audio of Hind’s desperate call to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, where she pleaded for help moments before the vehicle she was in was struck by 355 bullets.

The haunting narrative begins with a brief call made from the besieged Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza, where gunfire and armored vehicles drowned out every sound.

After witnessing the brutal killing of her family, she made a trembling call, her voice reduced to a whisper as she spoke of the massacre and her unbearable loneliness as the sole survivor.

Premiering at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2025, The Voice of Hind Rajab garnered widespread acclaim, receiving a record-setting 23-minute standing ovation and the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, the festival’s second-highest honor.

In her acceptance speech, Ben Hania dedicated the film to humanitarian workers and first responders in Gaza, emphasizing that Hind's voice symbolizes countless civilians affected by war.

She aims to give voice to victims often reduced to mere statistics, highlighting the broader suffering of civilians in war zones.

The film’s Oscar nomination underscores its powerful storytelling and ethical approach to depicting real-life tragedy, making it a crucial piece of contemporary cinema.

It serves not only as a narration of individual tragedy but also as an artistic and documentary response to the silence and censorship that often overshadow West Asian struggles and wars.

Using an innovative method she calls docufiction, Ben Hania bridges unvarnished reality and narrative structure, creating a work that is both artistically valuable and socially impactful.

Born in 1977 in Sidi Bouzid—later the epicenter of the Arab revolution—her background profoundly influenced her worldview and artistic approach.

She is a graduate of the Higher School of Audiovisual Arts of Tunis, Pantheon-Sorbonne University, and La Fémis in Paris, where her studies equipped her with the technical and theoretical tools needed to address complex subjects. 

Mangaluru, Jan 17: Soult, a Mangaluru-based startup, today announced its official global launch at TiECon Mangaluru 2026, unveiling the world’s first Digital Life Vault designed for comprehensive legacy management.

Soult enables individuals and families across the world to securely organize financial assets, critical documents, personal memories, wishes, and life instructions within one private and structured platform. It addresses a universal challenge of the digital age — lives are increasingly digital, but legacies remain fragmented.

Unlike conventional cloud storage or document repositories, Soult is purpose-built for legacy continuity. The platform brings together financial preparedness and the preservation of personal values, stories, and guidance intended for future generations, creating a new global category in digital life infrastructure.

Soult chose the recently concluded TiECon Mangaluru 2026 as its global launchpad. The inaugural flagship conference of TiE Mangaluru brought together entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and ecosystem leaders to spotlight Coastal Karnataka – India’s emerging “Silicon Beach” – as a hub for innovation and investment. Launching Soult at TiECon Mangaluru underlines the belief that globally relevant products can be built from focused regional ecosystems like Mangaluru.

Soult is founded by Sanketh Kandlikar, an enterprise SaaS product and technology leader with over two decades of experience building and scaling B2B platforms, leading complex digital transformation programs, and managing global product lifecycles across industries and geographies. As Founder, he brings deep expertise in architecting secure, scalable cloud platforms and translating real-world human problems into thoughtful, productized solutions.

Co-founder Saleem, a Dubai-based Mangaluru-born serial entrepreneur, complements this with years of experience building and backing ventures across the Gulf and India. As an active ecosystem enabler for Mangaluru-origin founders, he anchors Soult’s ambition to emerge from the coastal region and serve a truly global user base, while staying rooted in Mangaluru’s values of trust, community, and long-term relationships.

“Soult was born from a very personal realization that while we carefully build our lives, we rarely organize what we leave behind in a way that is clear, complete, and compassionate for our loved ones,” said Founder Sanketh Kandlikar. “Launching from TiECon Mangaluru is symbolic — it signals that products solving global problems can emerge from new innovation corridors like Coastal Karnataka, not just the usual metros.”

Privacy and security are fundamental to Soult’s design. Built on zero-knowledge architecture with strong encryption and user-controlled access, the platform ensures that personal data remains private and inaccessible to Soult itself. The company follows a strict no-advertising and no-data-monetization approach.

As digital lives continue to expand worldwide, Soult positions itself as quiet but essential infrastructure for individuals seeking certainty, dignity, and continuity for what they leave behind.