Reporting on India and China

Carrie Gracie is back in Beijing as the BBC's new China Editor. She ponders the riddles of modern Chinese society and finds there is no ready consensus among her friends in the city.

And, in Varanasi, while following the Indian election campaign, Owen Bennett Jones recently witnessed a timeless Hindu ritual on the banks of the holy River Ganges. Or did he? Some fact checking back at the office revealed that traditions, too, can sometimes be invented

(Photo: Carrie Gracie's newly-mined press card, issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. BBC copyright)