What happened
In what can only be described as India's most expensive ribbon-cutting ceremony, PM Modi inaugurated Phase 1 of the Noida International Airport at Jewar on March 28 with the pomp of a space launch and the operational readiness of a cardboard plane. The event required 5,000 security personnel, massive traffic diversions across Greater Noida, and attracted 150,000 people — all to celebrate an airport that won't see a commercial flight until mid-May at the earliest. The PM promised flights every two minutes, a vision slightly undermined by the current flight count of zero. Meanwhile, the landowners who were displaced to build this aviation marvel are living in resettlement villages that lack running water and toilets — achieving the rare distinction of being displaced by modernity into conditions that predate it. The airport has been rechristened as Asia's largest, a title that currently applies primarily to its capacity for storing unused tarmac.