Last week, the Supreme Court recalled its judgement of August 23, 2022, wherein it had struck down certain provisions of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act of 2016. Through the 2016 Act, the government had amended the original legislation, the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988. The 2016 law had expanded the original law from nine sections to 72 sections. In 2016, a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana had declared as unconstitutional Sections 3 (2) and 5 of the 2016 Act. Section 3(2) mandates three years of imprisonment for those who had entered into benami transactions between September 5, 1988, and October 25, 2016—that is, a person could be jailed for a benami transaction done 28 years before the Section even came into existence. The other provision that was struck down, Section 5, states that “any property, which is subject matter of benami transaction, shall be liable to be confiscated by the Central Government.” What was the Supreme Court’s reasoning in its 2022 judgement when it struck down these provisions? What is the rationale for the Review Bench to recall the earlier order and refer the case for fresh adjudication? What is at stake for the general public in this case? Guest: Amit Pai, Advocate on Record at the Supreme Court of India. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Last week, G.N. Saibaba, a former professor at Delhi University, died, after being released from jail in March this year after spending 10 years incarcerated. He was jailed on terror charges – but was eventually found innocent by the Bombay High Court. The Court while acquitting him had criticised both the investigation and the trial court’s decision in finding him guilty. Despite being 90% disabled and on a wheelchair due to polio, Prof Saibaba, as per his own account was constantly denied access to medical care while in jail, denied medical bail during the pandemic and denied emergency bail during the death of his mother. His case highlights once again, the problematic issue of bail in our criminal judicial system. Who has access to bail? How is bail given and can bail conditions be met by those seeking it? Does our bail system privilege the wealthy and leave out the vast majority of others? Is not being able to access or not being granted bail behind the problem of the huge number of undertrials in Indian jails and the overcrowding of the system? Guest: Medha Deo, Programme Director, Fair Trial Programme of Project 39A from National Law University, Delhi Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston

In this episode, we are in conversation with A. Soundararajan, the honorary president of the recently formed Samsung India Workers Union to better understand the reasons for the labour unrest at one of the South Korean manufacturing giant’s flagship facilities near Chennai. The 38-day-long workers strike at Samsung India’s factory, which produces a range of products from LED TVs to 5G technology components for the domestic and global market, is the second-longest labour protest in the past 15 years at the Sriperumbudur and Oragadam manufacturing hub in Chennai’s outskirts. The only strike that lasted longer was at the iconic motorbike maker Royal Enfield, also located in the same region. That strike lasted 50 days in 2018. The issues have been similar—better working conditions, honouring overtime pay, and crucially—the recognition of the worker’s union. Samsung is South Korea’s largest family-run business. Its consolidated revenue in FY2023 was approximately $198 billion—more than a tenth of South Korea’s 1.71 trillion dollar GDP for FY 2023. Located on a 22-acre campus the Sriperumbudur facility is one of two factories operated in India. The other is in Noida. Operating since 2007, the Chennai factory now employs about 1800 workers. They recently formed the Samsung India Workers Union, or SIWU – that represents more than two-thirds of the workers, and SIWU has petitioned the Madras High Court seeking registration of the union. Talking to The Hindu, SIWU’s honorary President, A. Soudarajan, who also heads the Tamil Nadu unit of the Centre of Indian Trade Union - says workers discontentment has been brewing at Samsung almost right from the facility was established in 2007, and that the month-long strike was its manifestation. He gave me an overview of the issues and explained why the workers sought CITU’s intervention. Mr. Soundararajan spoke to us en route to SIWU’s general body meeting in Kancheepuram, where the strike was eventually called off by a unanimous show of hands.    Guest: A. Soundararajan, Samsung India Workers Union’s honorary President  Host: Kunal Shankar  Edited by Sharmada venkatasubramanian. 

The Union government recently introduced a Bill in the Lok Sabha to amend the 1995 Waqf Act. The provisions of the 1995 law govern the administration of waqfs—properties endowed for charitable or religious purpose under Islamic law. But opposition parties have accused the government of trying to undermine the religious rights of Muslims through this amendment, which is titled, ‘Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency, and Development Act, 2024. The government, on its part, has claimed that this legislation is aimed at enhancing “the efficiency of the administration and management of the waqf properties.” But following a public outcry, the draft Bill has been referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for closer scrutiny. When the JPC sought written suggestions from the public, it received a staggering 1.2 crore suggestions. Earlier this week, when the JPC gathered for a meeting, the Opposition members of the Committee walked out, alleging that the panel was not functioning as per the rules and regulations. What exactly does the proposed Bill seek to do? What are the objections to it? Did the government involve Muslim stakeholders before or while coming up with the draft Bill? And what’s the way forward? Guest: Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, advocate-on-record with the Supreme Court of India. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

The INDIA bloc comprising the National Conference (NC), the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist (CPM) has secured a clear majority in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections. While the NC prevailed in 42 seats and the Congress won six, the BJP dominated the Jammu region, winning 29 seats in the 90-member assembly.  So, what do these results mean for Jammu and Kashmir going forward? How did the delimitation affect the results? Where does the result leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose seat share has seen a major drop?   Guest: Peerzada Ashiq, The Hindu’s Srinagar correspondent Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Jude Francis Weston

All the exit polls had favoured a Congress victory in the Haryana assembly elections. But defying these predictions, the BJP has secured a clear mandate, winning 48 seats in the 90-member assembly.   How did the BJP manage to beat a strong anti-incumbency factor, not to mention issued such as the farmers’ protests, and the Brij Bhushan sexual harassment issue? What went wrong for the Congress? And what was the nature of the social coalition that carried the day?   Guest: Rahul Verma, political analyst and fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), New Delhi.  Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Jude Francis Weston Listen to more In Focus podcasts:

On October 3, we saw that the government of India announced classical language status to four languages and Marathi was one of them. We have been hearing how there have been joyous and applauding reactions coming in from Maharashtra but there have been certain debates as well on whether Marathi should be given classical language status or not. How was the journey, and how did this whole process begin? What were the various landmark steps that were taken?

The Delhi winter used to be something everyone looked forward to. But over the past decade, Delhiites have come to dread the winter months due to toxic air quality, which have been linked to a spate of health issues.   The government has developed a Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), and a Winter Action Plan to tackle air pollution. But these measures --- seasonal and crisis-oriented in nature -- have failed to improve the air quality beyond the ‘poor’ level in the October to January period. This year, Delhi’s air quality is expected to be even more toxic compared to previous years due to climate-related factors and meteorological phenomena such as a delayed La Nina.   What is the link between climate change and air quality in Delhi? Is an emission-focussed approach feasible any longer? And what new strategies and policies are needed so that northern India doesn’t suffocate every winter?   Guest: Dr Gufran Beig, Chair Professor at NIAS (IISc) and Founder Project Director, SAFAR Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The Union Health Ministry issued a set of draft guidelines on a subject that has mostly remained somewhat taboo in India: passive euthanasia. The guidelines have stated that doctors should take considered decisions on the withdrawal of life support in terminally ill patients, or consider not giving life support measures in such patients – under certain conditions. This is not the first time passive euthanasia has come up in recent times – despite India not having any formal legislation around it, the Supreme Court allowed for it in a decision in 2018, stating that people had a right to die with dignity. The Court also allowed for citizens to make living wills or advanced medical directives. So what is passive euthanasia? Following the Supreme Court decision have living wills been made and are these being implemented in hospitals? What is the role of palliative medicine in end of life care and support? How can doctors and families ensure patients have compassionate and dignified deaths? Guest: Dr M R Rajagopal, chairman Emeritus of Pallium India and Adjunct Professor of Global Oncology, Queen's University, Canada Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston

Last week Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in aerial strikes over a southern suburb of Beirut, raising fears of a sharp escalation and expansion of the conflict across the region. Even after the killing of the Hezbollah chief along with a host of senior commanders, Israel has kept up its bombardment of Lebanon and Beirut. Hezbollah spokespersons have defiantly stated that they are ready for a land invasion from Israel. Meanwhile, the US has committed to additional troop deployments in the region. And yesterday, in a video message addressed directly to the people of Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that Iran will “finally be free” and that moment will come “sooner than people think”. What are the larger implications of the Nasrallah assassination? Can Hezbollah survive this loss? And what is Israel’s end game in Lebanon? Guest: Iftikhar Gilani, a senior journalist who has reported for three decades from South Asia and the Middle East and is currently based in Ankara. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

What’s a quick measure of how healthy you are? Most people would say Body Mass Index or BMI. But increasingly, experts have come to the conclusion that BMI has several limitations. Why? For one thing it was made using data from 19th century Europeans and does not work well across different populations. For another, it does not tell you the composition of your weight, or crucially, where that weight is located. Indians are genetically predisposed to putting on more weight around the abdomen region, and it is this fat that puts at risk of various diseases including diabetes. And this where another index comes in – the Body Roundness Index or BRI. Devised in 2013, studies over the last decade have now shown that BRI may be a better predictor of what health risks you may face. BRI, unlike BMI, takes your waist circumference into account, essentially letting you know if you are too round, and therefore unhealthy. How does the BRI calculation work? What has research about it shown so far? And is it a better metric for Indians to use? Guest: Diana Thomas, the mathematician who devised BRI. Dr Thomas is a a full professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the United States Military Academy, West Point Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston

India has made chess history winning both the team golds at the Budapest Olympiad, which saw participation from a staggering 193 teams in the Open section and 181 women’s teams. In the Open section, the Indian men’s team of D Gukesh, R Praggnanandha, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi and P Harikrishna were so dominant they finished a good four points clear of the second-placed USA. The Indian women’s route to the team gold was much tighter. They had to win their match on the final day, which they did. What does the double triumph mean for Indian chess? What went into this historic achievement? And how can India build on this success? Guest: Rakesh Rao, former Deputy Editor with The Hindu’s Sports Bureau. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Today we are at the Hindu discussing a topic which has been making news since yesterday. It's been over 24 hours since Akshay Shinde, who was accused in the Badlapur rape case, was shot dead in a police encounter. The police have claimed that he was trying to run away and that he snatched the service revolver and thereafter the police had to shoot him down. This incident has clearly snowballed into a political controversy, not just in Maharashtra but far and wide. The Badlapur case has been in news for quite some time now after reports emerged from the couple about few minor girls who were sexually assaulted, allegedly by Akshay Shinde. The most important question about the incident that has been making news since yesterday is what does the law say when it comes to the security of the accused?  Guest: Mihir Desai, senior advocate, national vice president PUCL Host: Vinaya Deshpande Pandit 

Anurag Kumara Dissanayake of the JVP has been elected as the 9th President of Sri Lanka. The results clearly signal a dramatic change from the politics of the past in Sri Lanka. In this episode of In Focus, we decode the Sri Lankan presidential election results. Nirupama Subramanian, and Meera Srinivasan provide in-depth analysis on what the outcome means for the country’s political landscape. Host: Amit Baruah Edited by Jude Francis Weston

On June 5 this year, when NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams flew the Boeing Starliner crew capsule to the International Space Station, they expected to be back within about eight days. Now however, these seasoned astronauts will remain in space for eight months – until February 2025. What happened? Their capsule which on its first flight with a human crew was not deemed safe enough to bring them back after helium leaks and other malfunctions developed. Eventually, the Starliner capsule returned to Earth without its crew. Barry and Sunita are now scheduled to return in a SpaceX crew capsule next year. So what happened to the Boeing Starliner? Who is on the ISS now, and is there enough space and adequate supplies for all of them? What happens to the bodies of astronauts who stay in space for extended durations and how does it affect their health? When will the ISS be decommissioned and will India be part of the next, new ISS? Guest: T.V. Venkateswaran is a science communicator and visiting faculty member at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) is a Stockholm-based intergovernmental organisation that advocates for democracy worldwide. It has come out with a report on the health of democracies. Titled, ‘The Global State of Democracy 2024: Strengthening the Legitimacy of Elections in a Time of Radical Uncertainty’, the report has found that while one in four countries have improved in democratic metrics, a greater proportion – four out of nine – have declined. It also says that electoral participation has declined, one in three voters live in countries where the quality of elections has declined, and in what is clearly a dangerous trend, between 2020 and 2024, in one out of five elections, the losing candidate or party rejected the electoral outcome. Interestingly, the Report also found that disputes about the credibility of elections centred mostly on voting irregularities and vote counting. Coming to country rankings, the Report finds that India has declined on all four major categories of evaluation – Representation, Rights, Rule of Law and Participation. India is ranked 71 on Representation (a year-on-year decline by 1 place), 116th on rights (slipping down by 6 places), 80th on Rule of Law (down by 4), and 104 in Participation (down by 13 places). What is behind this democratic erosion – not just in India but across the globe? Why is voter turnout falling worldwide? And what can be done to reverse these worrying trends? Guest: Leena Rikkila Tamang, Director for Asia and the Pacific at International IDEA. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Many African and Asian countries, including India, are leaning towards biofortification of crops. It is the process by which the nutrient density of food crops is increased by various means without sacrificing characteristic that is preferred by consumers or farmers. Thus, biofortified crops are more nutrient-dense than non-biofortified varieties.   Experts believe that these crops can help end 'hidden hunger' or micronutrient malnutrition.  Research is underway to add iron, Vitamin A, and Zinc to humble staple foods. Iron-biofortification of beans, cowpea and pearl millet, zinc-biofortification of maize, rice, and wheat, and pro-vitamin A carotenoid-biofortification of cassava, maize, rice, and sweet potato are currently underway and at different stages of development across the world.  In August, PM Narendra Modi released 109 high yielding, climate resilient and biofortified varieties of crops at India Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. So, How can India get the best use of the process? And, what are the challenges involved in it?    Guest: Suneetha Kadiyala, Professor of Global Nutrition, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine  Host: Nivedita V  Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian 

Jammu and Kashmir is set to hold its first assembly elections since the abrogation of Article 370. The polls will take place in three phases, on September 18, 25th and October 1. The counting of votes will happen on October 8. Given that these are the first assembly elections in ten years, what is the mood on the ground? What are the poll promises being made by the contending parties, and how do they stack up against each other in different parts of the Union Territory? Guest: Peerzada Ashiq, The Hindu’s Srinagar correspondent. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Last July, a whistleblower in Kenya posted on social media that the country’s main international airport would be taken over by India’s Adani Group. The news sparked widespread outrage in Kenya. It has since emerged that the Kenya Airport Authority (KAA), which runs the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, has signed a $2.5 billion build-and-operate deal with the Adani Group. Under the agreement, the Adanis would renovate the airport and add a new runway and terminal, and in exchange, they would manage the airport for 30 years, after which they would get an 18% equity stake in it. Hundreds of airport workers protested against the deal on Wednesday, causing flight cancellations and leaving passengers stranded. Meanwhile, the Law Society of Kenya, the country’s bar association, and the Kenya Human Rights Commission have filed a joint application against the deal in the high court. The court on Monday issued an order suspending any action on the Adani proposal until the court case is settled. Why are Kenyans upset with this airport expansion project? Did the deal follow due process, in terms of transparency and bidding procedures? What are the demands of the Kenya Airport Workers Union? Guest: Senator Richard Onyonka, Member of Kenyan Parliament representing Kisii county. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

In this episode, we dive into the Uttar Pradesh government's new social media policy, which encourages influencers to promote the state's initiatives and achievements with incentives. However, this move has sparked controversy, with opposition parties criticizing it as an attempt to sway public opinion ahead of the upcoming elections. How does UP’s policy compare to other states? What are the rules for government advertising, and how does this new policy affect influencers and current practices? Guest: Apar Gupta, a lawyer, tech policy expert, and co-founder of the Internet Freedom Foundation Host: John Xavier, Technology Editor, The Hindu Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The merger of Air India and Vistara would be complete by November 12. From this day, all of Vistara’s bookings would be automatically transferred to Air India, and the same goes for Vistara’s crew and air craft. This merger has been in the works for a while now. But mergers in the aviation sector don’t always go down smoothly, and the Air India-Vistara case faces many challenges. What would be the fallout of killing a successful brand like Vistara, which commands considerable flyer loyalty? Can Air India deliver the premium experience that Vistara passengers have come to expect? What would be impact of this merger on the competitive landscape in the domestic aviation sector? Guest: Jagriti Chandra, The Hindu’s aviation correspondent. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

There were two recent court proceedings in the country that related to divorce and maintenance: in July, the Supreme Court once again upheld a divorced Muslim woman’s rights to claim maintenance under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code or the secular law ruling that this applies to all women “irrespective of religion.” And then just a couple of weeks ago, questioned a woman who had asked for over Rs. 6 lakh per month as maintenance from her ex-husband. The court advised the woman to provide a more reasonable account of her expenses if she wanted the court to consider her application further. So what exactly is a divorced person entitled to as maintenance – spousal and child support if children are involved, under the divorce laws in the country? How is this amount calculated? Why do so many women have to approach the higher courts for maintenance? Does the principle of being able to live in the same position as prior to the divorce apply? And does there need to be a fairer, more sensitive system for all involved? Guest: Guest: Mihira Sood, a lawyer at the Supreme Court of India and a visiting professor at the National Law University, Delhi Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston

X (formerly known as Twitter) has gone offline in Brazil. The country’s Supreme Court issued an order to block X in Brazil after Elon Musk refused to appoint a legal representative for the company in the country. This defiance came on the heels of repeated flouting of the court’s orders to block certain far-right accounts that were allegedly spreading disinformation. X has more than 22 million users in Brazil, who suddenly find themselves cut off from their accounts. The judge who ordered the ban, Alexandre de Moraes, has also said in his order that those who use VPN to access X will face a fine of 50,000 reais, or $8,850 per day. Musk, meanwhile, has gone all out vilifying Judge Moraes, calling him an “evil dictator” ‘Darth Vader’ and Voldemort’. The ban on X has raised several questions about the global governance of social media. For instance, does this ban amount to some form of censorship, as Musk is claiming? Is it okay for an American tech platform owner to publicly back a particular political faction in another country, as Musk has been doing? Can an MNC expect to operate in a given country without complying with local laws? What lessons does the Brazilian court’s action hold for other nations in the Global South, such as India? Guest: Jyoti Panday, who is with the Internet Governance Project at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

For nearly a month now, the country has been rocked by protests by medical professionals – services at many hospitals stalled, at many others, healthcare staff wore black badges while working and in Kolkata, the epicenter of the protests, doctors have now begun telemedicine services to help patients while they continue their protest. The agitations began after the horrific rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital.  The protesting healthcare workers are demanding, among other things, speedy justice for the victim as well as a Central law that protect healthcare workers and spaces. The Kolkata case, they point out is not the first: there have been scores of incidents of violence against healthcare workers across the country and the problem is escalating.  What are the reasons behind violence in healthcare spaces in India? How many States have laws to protect healthcare professionals and why is there no Central law despite a 2019 draft bill? How can the government, the medical community and other stakeholders help build trust in the medical system once again?    Guests: Aatmika Nair and Uma Gupta of the Association for Socially Applicable Research (ASAR)  Host: Zubeda Hamid  Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

Israel and Hezbollah exchanged heightened military strikes over the August 25 weekend. While Israel carried out large scale ‘pre-emptive’ air strikes on southern Lebanon in response to what it claimed were preparations by Hezbollah to strike Israel, Hezbollah still went ahead and launched a barrage of rockets into northern Israel.  The attacks left one dead in Israel and three dead in Lebanon, and raised fears of the conflict escalating into a wider regional war. But Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that their strikes on Israel had completed their retaliatory response to avenge the killing of their commander Fuad Shukr, and with Israel, too, indicating satisfaction with its strikes, tensions have reduced to a low simmer for the time being.  How do we make sense of this tit-for-tat exchange? Can the asymmetric war that Iran and Hezbollah are waging against Israel help in moving the needle towards a ceasefire? And why has Israel launched a major military operation in the West Bank even as it’s bogged down in Gaza?  Guest: Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s International Affairs Editor.  Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The K. Hema Committee report has shaken up the Malayalam film industry, bringing into the public domain all kinds of horrors. Based on direct testimonies, it has documented rampant sexual exploitation, illegal bans, discrimination, wage disparity, and inhuman working conditions, with women not having access to even basic amenities such as toilets and changing rooms. Significantly, it notes that the Malayalam film industry is controlled by a tight-knit cabal of 10 to 15 all-male producers, directors and actors, who could ban anyone from the industry. It also flags the fear that witnesses felt in speaking freely about their experiences working in the industry. How is it that in such a big industry with an annual turnover of more than ₹1,000 crores, employees don’t have basic protections or decent working conditions? Will the persons who perpetrated the crimes documented in the Report be brought to book? And what kind of legal mechanisms can be put in place to protect the safety of women in the film industry? Guest: Thulasi K Raj, a lawyer who practices at the Kerala High Court and at the Supreme Court of India. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The Central government, a few days ago, banned 156 fixed dose combination drugs, or FDCs. An FDC is a drug that has more than one active ingredient – two or more drugs together, in a single pill, capsule or shot. This is the latest in a series of bans brought in by the Centre – last year 14 FDCs were banned, and a total of 499 have been banned since 2014.  Why is this happening? Expert committees of the government have said these FDCs are irrational or have no therapeutic value for patients. In fact, FDCs are known to contribute to a growing public health problem in India – antimicrobial resistance So then why is the Indian market dominated by FDCs? Why are there FDCs in India that are not found anywhere else in the world? How are even unapproved and banned FDCs often found in the market? Guest: S Srinivasan, co-convenor, All India Drug Action Network Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston

Bangladesh is in the midst of tumultuous change. After former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge as ‘Chief Adviser’ to an interim government. Meanwhile, with Hasina out, the future of the Awami League looks uncertain. The Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is back in the reckoning, and so is the Jamaat-e-Islami. What do the people of Bangladesh expect from the interim government? Will there be changes to the Constitution in the near future? Did Indian foreign policy miss a trick or two in anticipating and/or responding to these changes in its neighbourhood? What is the situation with regard to the safety of minorities? Guest: Kallol Bhattacherjee from The Hindu’s Delhi Bureau Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Jude Francis Weston Listen to more In Focus podcasts:

The last Grand Slam of the year, the US Open kicks off on Monday, with all the top players in attendance on both the men’s and women’s section. The draw is out, and interestingly for Novak Djokovic, who will be seeking a 25th Slam, his three biggest challengers – Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner – are all on the opposite side of the draw, which means he won’t meet them before the final. World No. 1 Sinner enters the event under the cloud of a doping controversy, and it remains to be seen if that affects his game or preparations. On the women’s side, as usual, the Big Three – Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina -- remain the favourites, with a couple of dark horses in the likes of Jessica Pegula and Jasmine Paolini. Who are the stars in form? Which are the match-ups to look out for? And what are the prospects for Indian hope Sumit Nagal? Guest: N Sudarshan from The Hindu’s Sports Bureau. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Another public health emergency has hit the world, and this time it’s mpox, previously known as monkeypox. The outbreak is sweeping through west, central and east African countries, and in the past few days cases have also been reported closer home, in Pakistan and Thailand.  While mpox has been around for decades, this time around, a deadlier and far more transmissible strain—known as Clade 1b—has driven the recent surge in cases. This strain is believed to cause death in about 3.6 per cent of the cases, with children being the most vulnerable, according to the World Health Organisation.  The Indian government has said there is no call for alarm as of now but has also said that hospitals have been alerted and large-scale testing is being looked into if the need arises.  So what is mpox—how is it caused and how does it spread? How do you know if you have mpox and what are the signs and symptoms? What are the treatment options and is there a vaccine available? And importantly, how concerned should India be about this latest zoonotic viral disease?    Guest: Dr V Ramasubramanian, consultant infectious diseases specialist, Apollo Hospital, Chennai and medical director, Capstone Multispecialty Clinic, Chennai  Host: Zubeda Hamid  Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

A few weeks ago, Donald Trump told Black journalists in Chicago, USA, that Kamala Harris had identified herself as Indian, not Black. He was trying to suggest to Black journalists and voters that Kamala Harris was not "Black enough." While that criticism has been made against Kamala as well as Obama, for that matter, it also threw into focus Indian-Americans who form a small part of the overall population in America but who are now quite visible in American politics, government, business and academia today.  We have Vijay Prashad, academic, author and activist who is executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and author of the book Karma of Brown Folk about Indian-Americans to talk to us about this. Host: M Kalyanaraman Edited by Jude Francis Weston

In 2020, the Indian government issued a directive that made changes to its FDI policy. The Directive, called Press Note 3, made it mandatory for companies that are based in countries that India shares a land border with to get the government's approval before investing in India. Experts saw this as a move to curtail Chinese investments into India and protect Indian companies from hostile takeovers. Chinese investments in India have fallen to a nearly two-decade low as a result. However, it is important to note that China is not a major investor in India, only $4 billion of Chinese FDI has entered the country in two decades.  Over the last couple of months, several reports, including the Economic Survey, have made a case for urging the govt to allow Chinese investments in India.  “To boost Indian manufacturing and plug India into the global supply chain, it is inevitable that India plugs itself into China’s supply chain. Whether we do so by relying solely on imports or partially through Chinese investments is a choice that India has to make," the Economic Survey stated. Several media houses, including from The Hindu businessline, reported that the government is willing to relook this policy, even though the government has denied this. This could help get more investments in India. Meanwhile, India's net FDI inflow dropped by 62.17% to $10.58 billion in 2023-24 (FY24), a 17-year-low, from $27.98 billion the previous year, data from the RBI showed. Can such a move benefit India? We discuss this in the episode.  Guest: Santosh Pai, Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies Host: Nivedita V Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The fifth of August changed the course of history in Bangladesh. The images of a once-powerful Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fleeing the country in a helicopter will remain etched in memory for the momentous change it marked. A government led by the high-profile Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, once the target of Sheikh Hasina’s high-handed actions, has taken charge of the country. It has, significantly, two young leaders from the student movement that took the county by storm and led to the far-reaching changes. Mr. Yunus and his government are taking steps to assure the minority Hindu community that they are safe in the country in the wake of attacks in many places. As the euphoria of change dims, the spotlight will be on how the interim government performs. What the students do in the days and weeks ahead will also be watched. They have already demonstrated their influence. So, what do all these life-changing events spell for Bangladesh? We discuss this in the episode.  Guest: Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star newspaper.  Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu.  Edited by Jude Francis Weston

How did the rapid decline in the population of vultures in India affect human beings? A new study, published in the American Economic Review, says that because these birds went nearly extinct, India had about 500,000 additional deaths from the year 2000 to 2005 and the economic damages to the country amounted to about 69.4 billion dollars annually. How did this happen? Up until the early 1990s, vultures were a familiar sight in India – estimates indicate the country had about 30 to 50 million vultures. In the 20 years following 1994 however, the vulture population has been decimated – only a few thousand now exist, and they are listed as a critically endangered species. What happened to them? Diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, began to be used by farmers to treat their cattle. When vultures consumed, as they always do, the dead animals or carcasses that were treated with this drug, they began to die as this drug was poisonous to their systems. It took some years for the link between the drug and the vulture deaths to be established and the drug was eventually banned for animal use, but too late for the vultures of India. So how did the loss of vultures affect the sanitation system of India? What happened to the carcasses of farm animals that were once effectively cleaned up by vultures? Did the population of dogs and rats increase because of the vulture deaths? And importantly, how did this contribute to human deaths? Guest: Eyal Frank, assistant professor, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago, and co -author of the paper Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston Listen to more In Focus podcasts:

The devastating landslides in Wayanad that left over 400 dead and over 100 still missing shocked not just Kerala but the entire country. Almost immediately, a blame game began – Union Home Minister Amit Shah said adequate warning had been given to Kerala, but the government of Kerala disputes this – it said the warning came after the landslide had occurred. Experts in the meantime have pointed to a number of factors that could have acted as the trigger, including the 570 mm of rainfall received in the region on July 30 and 31st. The tragedy has also brought back into the news the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, led by Madhav Gadgil, whose report in 2011 recommended that the entire region of the Western Ghats – 1,29,000 sq km across six States be declared an ecologically sensitive zone. The report recommended three zones for ecologically sensitive areas, with strict restrictions on development activities in the first two. This report generated backlash from the States as it would significantly impact livelihoods and economic growth. Following the landslide, the Central government brought out, for the sixth time in 10 years — a draft notification classifying parts of the Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive areas. Concerns of the States are now to be addressed by a separate committee. What were the actual triggers of the landslide? How are the Western Ghats and other hilly regions in India particularly vulnerable? How much of a role has climate change played and will this continue in the near future? What can be done to make modelling and prediction systems better? Guest: Raghu Murtugudde is a professor of climate studies, IIT Bombay, and an emeritus professor, University of Maryland. Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee announced on Thursday (August 8) to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5% in its August 2024 meeting for the ninth consecutive time. It maintained its inflation projection for FY25 at 4.5 per cent. While announcing the MPC policy, Governor Shaktikanta Das noted that headline inflation reached 5.1 per cent in June 2024, driven by unexpected factors. Fuel prices remained in deflation for the tenth consecutive month, but food inflation surged. Food inflation contributed over 75 per cent to headline inflation in May and June. Vegetable prices alone accounted for roughly 35 per cent of June's inflation. Governor Das said that that the MPC cannot afford to ignore this, espicially in an environment of persisting high food inflation. Vegetables and pulses have kept headline retail inflation has been over 5 per cent for eight months in the last one year. However, retail core inflation — the non-food and non-fuel segment — moderated to a four-year low of 4.3 per cent in FY24. In fact, core inflation saw a historic low during May and June. Some experts believe that high food inflation is stopping the RBI from cutting rates. In fact, the Economic Survey has suggested that "India’s inflation targeting framework should consider targeting inflation, excluding food." The argument for the change is that core inflation is muted, meaning the domestic demand is weak. Core inflation measure the change in the cost of goods and services, but it does not include the food and energy sectors. A rate cut would help boost demand. Others say that food inflation is a very important component and it can't be excluded. In this podcast, V Nivedita spoke to Dipti Deshpande, Director and Principal Economist at CRISIL Limited, to decode the debate - should the RBI focus on core inflation while forming its monetary policy? Guest: Dipti Deshpande, Director and Principal Economist at CRISIL Limited Host: V. Nivedita Edited by Jude Weston

Kamala Harris’s late entry in the Presidential race leaves her with just three months to roll out her campaign. What kind of campaign strategy will work best for Harris given her vulnerabilities, especially on the immigration issue, and her record as attorney general in California? As for the Republicans, their entire Presidential campaign had been designed keeping in mind a race against Biden. According to the Washington Post, Trump’s running mate JD Vance reportedly told donors in a private meeting that the Biden to Harris switch is a “political sucker punch”. What adjustments will the Trump campaign need to make, given that Harris doesn’t carry the ‘baggage’ that Biden does?  We take a close look at how Team Trump and Team Harris are approaching the coming months of the Presidential race – what issues they would seek to highlight, what strategies they will adopt, and how they define their political vision.  Guest: Varghese K George, The Hindu’s Resident Editor in New Delhi. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Jude Francis Weston

Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer, is now at the centre of a gender row at the Paris Olympics 2024. This controversy began after Angela Carini from Italy withdrew from her Round-16 bout with Khelif just after 46 seconds. After the decision was announced, Carini didn't shake Khelif's hand but cried in the ring on her knees. Later Carini said she hurt her nose after the opening punches. This led to a heated debate on social media. Many accuse the Algerian boxer of being male or transgender, calling it unfair to women's sports. J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk also joined the debate, questioning the decision made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Simultaneously, several childhood pictures of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif surfaced on social media, aiming to prove that she is female. Along with Khelif, Taiwan's double world champion Lin Yu-ting was cleared to compete in Paris despite both being disqualified at the 2023 World Championships after failing the International Boxing Association (IBA) gender eligibility tests. Why is Khelif at the center of the controversy? What is the current IOC criteria for determining gender? What is the dispute between the IBA and IOC? How will the Olympic matches unfold in the coming days? Guest: YB Sarangi from The Hindu’s Sports Bureau. Host: Jude Francis Weston Listen to more In Focus podcasts:

The national capital was rocked by student protests last month after three IAS aspirants tragically drowned when the basement library of their coaching centre flooded, following torrential rains. While a police case has been registered and arrests made, the students pointed out that safety norms are routinely violated at coaching centres and stormwater drains in the area were clogged, leading to water inundation. Just this week, a woman and her three-year-old son drowned in a drain in Delhi, again following heavy rains. India has a massive problem that is not acknowledged or recognised enough: preventable drowning deaths. As per the National Crime Records Bureau’s statistics for 2022, over 38,000 people died in India due to drowning, a little over nine percent of all deaths. Apart from deaths due to flooding, there are also multiple deaths due to accidental falls into water bodies, due to boats or other vessels capsizing or due to getting washed away in rivers while doing basic household work such as fetching water, washing clothes or bathing. What is the scenario with regard to drowning in India? Are we doing enough to prevent drowning deaths? What did India’s framework on drowning prevention, released last December say? Guest: Lopa Ghosh, Senior Communications Advisor at Global Health Advocacy Incubator Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The Union Budget has announced several changes to the tax regime for Long-term Capital Gains. The most controversial of them is the removal of indexation benefit for the calculation of long-term capital gains (LTCGs), which could have implications for tax obligations in real estate transactions. Many now fear that the tax obligations of ordinary investors will shoot up, that black money will flood into real estate as sellers seek to lower the paper value of the transaction, and that investors will now prefer short-term holdings rather than lobg-term ones. Are these apprehensions valid? What do these taxation changes mean for the middle income investor? How will the real estate market be impacted? Guest: Ravi Saraogi of Samasthiti Advisors, who is also a SEBI-registered investment advisor. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada venkatasubramanian.

As the dust settles on the proposals that the Finance Minister made in the Budget earlier this month, some aspects have become clearer while questions remain on others. Budget 2024-25 saw several initiatives around employment and skilling being proposed. Do these form a good first step in addressing the jobs challenge the country faces? Or should the government have begun addressing the problem at the level of primary school and worked upwards? Guest: Amit Basole, Professor of Economics at Azim Premji University Host: K. Bharat Kumar Edited by Jude Francis Weston

As the dust settles on the proposals that the Finance Minister made in the Budget earlier this month, some aspects have become clearer while questions remain on others. We will dwell on topics such as: Why did the Minister choose to be less aggressive on the fiscal deficit front than she could have? Why were Andhra Pradesh and Bihar given special consideration when such action was within the purview of the Finance Commission? And what does the changeover from cooperative federalism to competitive federalism mean for the States? Guest: Lekha Chakraborty is a Professor at National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), and Governing Board Member of International Institute of Public Finance, Munich. Host: K. Bharat Kumar Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The case of a probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar has exploded in the news recently. While a lot has been said and written with regard to Ms. Khedkar’s alleged demand for privileges and her use of a red-blue beacon on her private car made headlines, what has also come under the scanner is the disability quota in the All India Services – Ms. Khedkar has been accused of falsely claiming to have disabilities to use the quota. This was followed by India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant calling for a “review” of the reservations for persons with disabilities, as he claimed they were being misused. And then, Telangana IAS officer, Smita Sabharwal questioned the need for this quota. Even as this continues to rage on social media platforms, what is not making the news quite as much is that there are candidates with disabilities who have qualified in the civil services exams but are yet to be placed.  So why is the disability quota – and this quota alone – being targeted? What do the rules say with regard to this reservations? What is the certification process like and does this need changes or loopholes to be plugged? And why do there continue to be barriers for persons with disabilities who qualify in the exams?  Guest: Rahul Bajaj, practicing lawyer, co-founder at Mission Accessibility, Senior Associate Fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and adjunct faculty at BML Munjal University School of Law  Host: Zubeda Hamid  Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

More than 170 people have been killed in violent clashes following massive protests by student groups seeking a reform of the country’s quota system for government jobs. While this is not the first time students have protested against reservations, the main bone of contention is the 30% reservation for freedom fighters and their descendants – a quota that the Sheikh Hasina government has always wanted to retain but which the protesting students oppose. The situation has somewhat calmed down after a Supreme Court order scrapping this quota. But what was the immediate trigger for the protests and violence? What do they signify for the Sheikh Hasina government, which has just come back to power for the fourth time? And will Sheikh Hasina publicly apologise for the mass deaths of protesters, as the students are demanding? Guest: Kallol Bhattacherjee from The Hindu’s Delhi Bureau. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The BJP-led coalition government has lifted the ban on government employees taking part in activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, an organisation which has been banned three times since India attained independence. The RSS was banned days after Gandhiji’s assassination by Nathuram Godse in 1948, during the Emergency by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and under civil society pressure after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992. Interestingly, the restriction on central government employees associating with the RSS remained in force during the first two terms of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and under Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his 1998-2004 terms. So, the question that arises is: why now? Is Modi trying to appease the RSS after facing an electoral setback? Didn’t RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat indirectly poke fun at Modi saying he wasn’t biological during the recent election campaign? Does this decision have anything to do with what appear to be efforts to remove Adityanath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh? Guest: Nilanjan Mukhopadyay, independent journalist, columnist and author. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

The Olympics are back in Paris, exactly 100 years after the city last hosted it. The opening ceremony will take place on July 26, but competitions will begin two days earlier, from July 24, and go on till August 11. About 10,500 athletes from more than 200 countries will be participating. India, which came back with its best ever haul of one gold, two silver and four bronze medals in the Tokyo Olympics, will be looking to do even better this time. We are sending 117 athletes, with a massive support staff numbering 140.  In this preview, we take a close look at the Indian contingent, what to expect in various disciplines, and our best medal prospects.  Guest: YB Sarangi from The Hindu’s Sports Bureau. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The assassination attempt on Republican nominee Donald Trump has queered the American Presidential race, and in a manner that wouldn’t please the Democrats. In his speech at the Republican National Convention that got over yesterday, Trump struck a new note by stressing on unity, though not at the expense of his white nativist platform. He also announced that Ohio Senator J.D. Vance would be his running mate as vice presidential candidate. If two broad themes stood out at the Republican Convention, they were unity, and the deification of Trump. Was the assassination attempt a factor in this? Would all his former primary rivals endorsed him so robustly otherwise? With reports speculating that Biden might withdraw, what are the options for the Democrats? Guest: Varghese K George, The Hindu’s Resident Editor in New Delhi, who recently travelled through the ‘swing states’ on the campaign trail.  Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The institution that immediately comes to mind when we speak of food security is the public distribution system (PDS), the nation-wide network of ration shops that provide subsidised food grains. But over the past decade, another initiative, at the level of state governments, has made an impact – government canteens. The Indira Rasois of Rajasthan, the Amma Unavagams of Tamil Nadu and the India canteens of Karnataka, to name a few, have become popular, especially among migrant workers in our cities. A new survey of these canteens, conducted last year, documents their efficacy and draws some lessons regarding social policy interventions. It raises, and answers, some interesting questions: Why do we need government canteens when we already have PDS? Who frequents these canteens? How much do state governments actually spend on them? And are canteens something that should be scaled up and expanded to states that don’t have them at present? Guest: Reetika Khera, Narendra and Chandra Singhi Chair Professor (Economics) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia was keenly watched across the world, after all, it was Mr. Modi's first bilateral visit since winning a third straight term. For India, the summit is a chance to engage with one of the country's oldest allies. Mr. Modi's and Russian President Putin's meeting was a chance to talk about ways to strengthen trade and investment, increase connectivity, science, technology, and deepen military ties. However, India's Western allies weren't too keen on the visit, given the Russia-Ukraine war. In fact, the U.S. State Department and Ukraine were openly critical of Mr. Modi’s visit. The visit concentrated more on bettering the economic and trade relationship -- increasing bilateral trade to $30 billion, promoting the use of national currencies in trade, develop connectivity by expediting work on the Chennai-Vladivostok (Eastern Maritime) Corridor and the International North-South Transport Corridor and increasing cooperation in space and energy sectors. The two sides also discussed several ways to deepen military and military-technical cooperation by focusing on joint research and development, co-development and joint production of advanced defence technology and systems. The two sides also agreed to encourage joint manufacturing of spare parts, components and other products in India. In this episode of the In Focus podcast, we talk to Swaran Singh about Mr. Modi's comments on bringing peace to the region, the challenges to increasing trade between the two countries, the changing dynamics between the two countries and India's focus on strategic autonomy. Guest: Swaran Singh, Professor, International Relations, JNU. Host: Nivedita V Edited by Jude Francis Weston

A recent study published in the journal The Lancet Global Health, brought out a staggering figure – almost half of all Indians are not sufficiently physically active. Between 2000 and 2022, the number of adults who engaged in insufficient physical activity increased from a little over 22% to 49.4%. Women were found to be more physically inactive than men. Across the world, South Asia was ranked second highest in the number of adults being insufficiently active, after the high-income Asia-Pacific region, which came first. World over, about 1/3 of all adults, 31.3% were not sufficiently physically active, and if this trend continues, researchers said, the target of reducing physical inactivity by 15% globally by 2030, will not be met. An adequate amount of exercise has for long been known to help prevent multiple non-communicable diseases including hypertension, diabetes and heart disease, and is known to promote mental well being. India holds the dubious rank of being one of the top countries in the world when it comes to obesity and diabetes and a high burden of heart and yet the amount of physical activity Indians do, is decreasing. Why are Indians not exercising enough? What amounts to an adequate amount of physical activity for an adult per week? How is the lack of exercise going to affect the massive burden of non-communicable diseases in India? And what can be done to encourage physical activity at schools, communities and in offices? Guest: Dr K Srinath Reddy, distinguished professor of public health, Public Health Foundation of India Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston

Iran held early Presidential elections following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash. In the Presidential run-off held last week, reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian won with 53.7% of the votes. During his campaign, he promised to work towards easing social restrictions, especially with regard to the mandatory headscarf and internet freedom. On the economic front, he has pledged to ease hardships by working to bring Iran out of the sanctions regime, which is only possible through sustained engagement with the West on its nuclear programme. But given that the final veto on any departure in policy or law rests with the Supreme Leader, what changes can Iranians realistically expect from the Pezeshkian presidency? Though a reformist, how will he get his appointments and legislations passed in a conservative-dominated Parliament? And what does the change in Presidency mean for Iran’s foreign policy? Guest: Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s International Affairs editor. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Pakistan is all set to launch yet another military operation against terrorists on its soil, whom it claims are coming across the border from Afghanistan. Political and army clearance for Operation Azm-i-Istehkam, or Resolve for Stability, came in the last week of June, but it is still in the works. Several operations have been launched since 2007 by the Pakistani military to rid the country from terror, but the country's own history in backing terrorists in Afghanistan and Kashmir has ensured that there has been no lasting solution to the problem. The country has also seen a parallel wave of fundamentalism and intolerance. So, will Azm-i-Istehkam make a difference? To answer this all-important question, I am joined by Ramanathan Kumar, former Special Secretary in the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW), who is an expert on Pakistan and Afghanistan. Guest: Ramanathan Kumar, former Special Secretary in the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW), who is an expert on Pakistan and Afghanistan. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Two years after an economic crisis sparked mass protests and a major political upheaval, Sri Lanka is getting set for Presidential elections. While the actual date is yet to be finalised, we know that it would be between September 17th and October 16th. President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been saying that the country has gotten over the worst of the economic crisis, thanks to his able leadership, and that politics can return to normal. But is the economic crisis really over? The ‘Aragalaya’ protesters in 2022 had deemed the entire political elite unfit to govern, and wanted a different politics. Will they get that in the election to come? Among the three main contenders - Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP), Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), and Sajith Premadasa of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, is any one likely to emerge as a clear frontrunner? Most critically, is any politician offering an economic vision for the country that does not necessarily have the fingerprints of the IMF? Guest: Meera Srinivasan, The Hindu’s correspondent in Colombo. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

There have been doubts over President Joe Biden’s mental acuity for quite some time. But his performance in the recent Presidential debate seems to have come as a shock to many, and especially to Biden’s support base. Almost the entire American liberal establishment, has called on Biden to step back and allow someone else get the Presidential ticket. Is he likely to stay the course, or will he make way for someone else? With the Democratic National Convention coming up next month, what are the options for the Democrats? Can they convince donors and voters that a President well past his cognitive prime is a good idea? And if Biden does step back, which are the names that have a good chance of winning against Donald Trump? Guest: Sanjay Ruparelia, Associate Professor of Politics and Public Administration, who holds the Jarislowsky Democracy Chair at Toronto Metropolitan University.  Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs editor, The Hindu Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

A few weeks ago, the richest family in Britain, the Hinduja family, was convicted in a Swiss court and four of its members were given a prison sentence for exploiting their domestic workers, brought from India to a villa in Geneva. They were accused of paying the workers a pittance, making them work long hours and not allowing them to leave the premises. The family has said it will appeal the verdict, but the case throws a spotlight upon an issue that has long been neglected in India – the rampant exploitation of domestic help in the country and abroad. India has not ratified the International Labour Organisation’s Domestic Workers Convention No. 189 which advocates for their rights nor the ILO’s Forced Labour Protocol which would make it mandatory for countries to safeguard the interests of workers. India is estimated to have about 50 million domestic workers, largely women, primarily drawn from the five states of Assam, Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, with hundreds of thousands migrating within the State, to other States and abroad, but a law to protect their rights – which would cover their wages, working hours, holidays and other rights – has been pending with the Central government for some years now. So what is the legal situation of domestic workers in the country? Why is the government dragging its feet on bringing about a national legislation to protect them? Are the many recruitment agencies that have mushroomed across the country, subject to regulation? What happens when our workers go abroad? How do other countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines protect their workers? Guest: Sonia George, national vice president, of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and Asian executive member, International Domestic Workers Federation Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The Labour Party has scored an emphatic victory in the July 4 British general elections and Keir Starmer is all set to be the new Prime Minister replacing Rishi Sunak. Ending 14 years of Conservative rule, Labour look all set to win about 410 of a total of 650 seats, with Sunak's party way behind at 144, BBC reported. Nigel Farage's anti-immigration Reform Party won a paltry number of seats but picked up 14 per cent of the vote. Farage won a seat in Parliament on his 8th attempt. The Liberal Democrats are expected to win 58 seats. Labour's vote percentage only increased by about four percentage points over 2019, adding up to a little over 36 per cent of the votes cast. On their part, the Conservatives lost as much as 20 per cent of their vote from 2019. So, what lies ahead for Britain under Starmer? Guest: Andrew Whitehead, historian, lecturer and journalist. Former Editor of the BBC World Service. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

India’s historic triumph at the T20 World Cup has laid many ghosts to rest for a generation of stalwarts, who have now passed on the baton. It has also earned Rohit Sharma a place in the pantheon of world-conquering captains, alongside the likes of Kapil Dev and M.S. Dhoni. Was there anything that set this team apart from the others in the past that came too close, only to miss, such as the one that lost the ODI World Cup final last year? What does the retirement of Kohli, Sharma and Ravindrea Jadeja from the T20 format mean for Indian cricket? What’s in store for Indian cricket fans, with the Women’s T20 World Cup scheduled for October? And will the victory in Barbados inaugurate a phase of Indian domination in world cricket, as is being suggested by many commentators? Guest: Amol Karhadkar from The Hindu’s Sports Bureau. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Earlier this month a train accident in West Bengal killed 10 people and injured over 40. This comes just a year after the devastating multi-train collision that killed 275 people in Odisha last year.  Railway accidents have decreased significantly over the past decade -- only 0.03 accidents took place per million km in both 2020-21 and 2021-22. But this number loses meaning in light of the numbers of lives lost in rail accidents over the past couple of years.  After a train accident, there’s almost always several things that happen – human error or signal malfunctions are blamed, there is talk about the deployment of Kavach, India’s own automatic train protection system, and there is talk about whether the government is spending enough on safety and maintenance of the railway system, even as big ticket railway projects are unveiled.  The Indian Railways moves a staggering 24 million passengers a day. What are the safety challenges it is currently encountering? What is the status on the deployment of Kavach and why is it taking so long? Are lower-level staff disproportionately blamed for accidents while responsibility should rest elsewhere? What is India’s safety track record and what can be done to improve it?  Guest: Sudhanshu Mani is Retired General Manager/Indian Railways, Leader of Train 18/Vande Bharat project and independent rail consultant  Host: Zubeda Hamid  Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

Wimbledon 2024 kicks off from July 1, promising some really exciting match-ups. This would also be the first time 22-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner will enter a Grand Slam as the world no. 1, 24-time Grand Slam champ Novak Djokovic is racing against time to get fit after a knee surgery, and with French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz, rounds out the Big Three of title contenders. Among the women, there is a lot of anticipation around the return to form of home favourite Emma Raducanu. World No 1 Iga Swiatek will once again hope for a breakthrough on grass – the one surface that she has not been able to adapt to so far. This Wimbledon will also be special for Indian fans as Sumit Nagal makes his main draw debut, and they can also cheer on Rohan Bopanna in the doubles. What does the draw look like? Who are the greats we might not see again at this venue? And how are the key contenders doing with regard to form and fitness? Guest: N Sudarshan from The Hindu’s Sports Bureau. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

It is safe to say that Artificial Intelligence isn't just a fantasy anymore, we are using AI more and more in our day to day life, be it on our phones or for work.  This year, every smartphone manufacturer, be it Samsung, Apple, Google to Oppo, Nothing, are placing their bets on the technology. They have announced plans to integrate generative AI in phones to provide a personalised user experience. What does this mean?  The thing is, we have been using AI in our phones for a while already. We use it in various ways, be it video stabilization, image enhancement, editing, as a personal assistant, for transcribing, in various apps etc. So, what's next?    Host: Nivedita V  Guest: Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint Technology Market Research.  Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

President Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang earlier this month, his first visit to North Korea in 24 years. The two countries have signed a comprehensive co-operation agreement that includes a mutual defense pact – that is, if one country is attacked, the other will come to its defense militarily. It is also expected that Russia will help North Korea with technical assistance for its military, ballistic missile and satellite programs. This meeting and the security pact, coming close on the heels of a similar summit between Xi Jinping and Putin, is not likely to go down well with others in the region, especially South Korea and Japan. US officials have also said that it could create some friction between Russia and China, as it would undermine China’s more or less exclusive leverage over North Korea. But Russia-North Korea relations haven’t been great until recently. What has sparked this revival? Is there a deep ideological convergence between the two authoritarian leaders, or is it just a transactional relationship? How would China view this pact? And what would be the impact of this agreement in South Korea and Japan? Guest: Professor Sandip Kumar Mishra from the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Jude Francis Weston

Last week, on June 15, the world marked Elder Abuse Awareness Day. How well are senior citizens in India doing? A report that was released by the NGO HelpAge India reveals that a large majority of them are not doing very well – their study conducted across 20 cities in 10 States surveying over 5,000 elderly citizens found that nearly 65% reported that they were not financially secure. Over half of those surveyed suffered from two or more non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension and at least 7% admitted to being victims of abuse. India’s demography is changing – while senior citizens now constitute around 10% of the population – this number is expected to touch 20% by 2050. Family continues to play the role of primary caregiver, but also faces challenges, physically and financially. What happens if the family is from another city or country? While India has launched programmes such as the National Programme for the Healthcare of the Elderly and has enacted legislation like the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, implementation on the ground remains. Are the current social security nets sufficient to take care of senior citizens? Does the health infrastructure need to focus on geriatric care? How can their financial challenges be addressed? And how can the country work towards providing comprehensive care for our elderly population? Guest: Anupama Datta, Head, Policy Research and Advocacy, HelpAge India Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston

In September 2022, India launched an ambitious project to restart a self-sustaining, cheetah population in the country by importing African cheetahs. In all, about 20 adult cheetahs were translocated to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Of these 20, 13 have survived, and with another 13 cubs born, there are now 26 cheetahs at Kuno. Obviously, Kuno is not big enough to accommodate this many animals in the wild. So Gandhi Sagar wildlife sanctuary – much smaller in area than Kuno, also located in MP -- is being prepared to become the second home of the imported cheetahs. According to the government, the preparations are almost done, and plans for importing more cheetahs from Africa to Gandhi Sagar will be finalised after the monsoons. While the government has said that the Gandhi Sagar wildlife sanctuary is a perfect home for the cheetahs, there are concerns about prey density, space, and adaptability. What preparations have been made to make Gandhi Sagar a suitable home for the African cheetah? Are these preparations, including large-scale relocation of prey animals from elsewhere, sound from a conservation viewpoint? How will the authorities ensure that the cheetahs don’t stray into human habitations? Guest: Ravi Chellam, Bengaluru-based wildlife biologist and conservation scientist. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The Supreme Court, in May this year, directed the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to ensure that advertisers and ad agencies submit self-declarations for every ad they put out. In these self-declarations, the advertisers would have to certify that their ads contain no ‘misleading’ content and are in compliance with all applicable regulations. With the Ministry complying with the apex court directive, starting from June 18, no new ad campaigns can be released without this self-declaration. This mandate seems well-intentioned – the objective is to curb misleading ads and protect consumer interest. But it has not found favour with industry bodies. It is expected that for the next three weeks, there might even be a slowdown in the launch of new ads. So, what exactly triggered this new mandate? Why is the ad industry unhappy about it? And if this is not the best way to protect consumers from fake claims, what are the alternatives that India could explore? Guest: Gowree Gokhale, lawyer with Nishith Desai and Associates, who specialises in Technology, Advertising, Media and Entertainment, and Data Protection law. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The results of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) 2024 have sparked a major controversy. Students and experts have flagged plenty of irregularities. Petitions were filed in the Supreme Court over the award of grace marks to more than 1,563 students by the National Testing Agency (NTA), the body that conducts the exam. A concerned Supreme Court observed that the sanctity of the exam had been affected. The NTA informed the Court that the grace marks given to the 1.563 students would be cancelled and they would be given an option to take a retest, which would be held on June 23, with results declared on June 30. However, grace marks were not the only irregularity. For the first time in the history of NEET, 67 candidates topped with the maximum possible score, with eight of them from one centre, whereas there has never been a year where more than 3 students have scored maximum marks. There were also reports of question paper leaks, torn OMR sheets, and question papers in the wrong language being distributed. Even if we set aside NEET 2024as an aberration, experts have flagged systemic problems with NEET itself as a mode of selection. For instance, the Justice AK Rajan Committee, set up by The Tamil Nadu government to study the impact of NEET, had concluded in its report that NEET was anti-poor, anti-social justice and favoured students from affluent families, students from urban centres, and students who could afford to spend lakhs on coaching centres. So, what are the various problems with NEET 2024? Is an independent probe required? How do we ensure transparency and accountability in the functioning of NTA? Why are states like Tamil Nadu seeking an exemption from NEET? Guests: Professor Anita Rampal, former Dean, Faculty of Education, at Delhi University, and Dr G R Ravindranath, general secretary of the Doctor’s Association for Social quality, who also a Member of the Justice AK Rajan Committee constituted by the Tamil Nadu government to study the impact of NEET. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

North India is enduring its hottest ever summer this year, with the number of heat wave days in May increasing by 125%. As per reports, extreme temperatures – in the range of 48-49 degrees - have caused the deaths of around 77 people across the country, including 33 who were on election duty. Not only have average temperatures been high, they have been consistently high across a vast region, and across a high number of days. How do we understand this trend? Is this primarily due to climate change? Or is this due to environmental degradation and rampant loss of green cover? What are the public health implications and what is the remedy? Guest: Raghu Murtugudde, Professor of Climate Studies at IIT, Bombay. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu is back in the news again – at least four states in India: Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala and Jharkhand have already reported outbreaks among poultry. The Centre has asked all States to be vigilant, and said all necessary measures have to be taken to prevent its spread. It’s not just in India that bird flu is in the news though – the United States has been battling this problem as the infection has now spread to cattle herds in several states in that country. The World Health Organisation recently said that A (H5N1) strain of avian influenza has become "a global zoonotic animal pandemic" with thousands of animals infected across multiple countries. While so far there is no evidence that H5N1 virus is spreading from human to human, the risk remains for people who come into contact with infected animals. Two cases were in the headlines recently – one of a child who was diagnosed with H5N1 in Australia where she had just returned after a trip to Kolkata, and another case in Mexico, where a man died of a strain of bird flu called H5N2, which had never before been found in humans. What are the ramifications of bird flu in India? Who is vulnerable to the disease and how can its transmission be curtailed? How do we ensure the safety of eggs, chicken and other animal products? And does India need reforms in its poultry and animal food sector to ensure better safety of animal and human health? Guest: Dr Subramanian Swaminathan, Director Infectious diseases gleneagles hospitals. Vice president clinical infectious diseases society of India. Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston

A 73-member Union Council of Ministers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi took oath on the 9th of June. A vast majority of BJP ministers have been retained even as about half a dozen Cabinet slots have been given to allied parties in the NDA government, the first since 2014 where the BJP doesn’t have a majority of its own.  So, what kind of government are we looking at? Will the BJP’s divisive plans of one nation, one election, a Uniform Civil Code or taking over mosques in Varanasi and Mathura be jettisoned? Or will the anti-Muslim speeches delivered by Prime Minister Modi during the election campaign be taken as the governing philosophy of the NDA government? Interestingly, not a single Muslim has found space in the 70-plus Council of Ministers.  Joining us to delve into these questions is author and journalist Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, an expert in BJP and Modi's politics. Guest: Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, political journalist and author.  Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu.  Edited by Jude Francis Weston

Barely a month after Israel rejected a three-phase peace plan brokered by Egypt and Qatar, President Joe Biden has announced another version of a three-phase peace plan. He has put himself on the line by publicly claiming that it is Israel that has come up with this proposal. But Israeli leaders are yet to own up to this plan, and keep repeating the old line that they will not accept any eventuality that leaves Hamas in power in Gaza. But the US has been circulating a draft resolution among the UN Security Council members asking them to support this ceasefire proposal. What prompted President Biden to publicise this plan? What does it propose? And how likely is Israel to accept it? Guest: Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s International Affairs Editor. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu.  Edited by Jude Francis Weston

A lot has already been said and written about the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. But a lot more remains to be unpacked. While the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has secured a majority, its biggest constituent, the BJP itself, has fallen short of the 272 mark by 32 seats. Is there a message in this mandate? Or is the outcome an effect of several factors and concerns? Also, what went wrong for the BJP, whose performance has fallen way below its own projected expectations? What went right for the INDIA alliance? And does this verdict mark the beginning of a new coalition era in Indian politics? Guest: Rahul Verma, political analyst from the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

The World Health Assembly (WHA) is the forum through which the 194 member-states of the World Health Organisation (WHO) discuss and decide on policy matters. Every year, the WHA meets for a week in May. This year’s session, the 77th World Health Assembly, started May 27 and will conclude on June 1. There is a lot of interest in the WHA negotiations this year as the agenda items include an ambitious Pandemic Agreement, and amendments to the International Health Regulations. What progress has been made in the negotiations this year? What role can the World Health Assembly play in democratising the policy-setting space at the WHO? And where does the WHA figure in the WHO’s evolving funding scenario where it has to juggle the pressures from Big Pharma while staying true to its core mission of health equity and social justice? Guest: Professor T Sundararaman, a public health expert, who has served as Executive Director of National Health Systems Resource Centre and as Dean and Professor at the School of Health Systems Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has put out a draft Digital Competition Bill to regulate anti-competitive practices in the digital space. The Bill has provisions for identifying Systemically Significant Digital Enterprises (SSDEs) – basically large digital platforms. These would then be subject to certain restrictions aimed at preventing anti-competitive conduct. For instance, they would be forbidden from practices such as self-preferencing, anti-steering, etc. While the Bill seems well-intentioned, various stakeholders have expressed concerns that it is far too invasive and could stifle innovation, undermine the interests of Indian tech companies, including MSMEs, and make consumers more vulnerable to cyber fraud. Are these concerns valid? What has been the experience with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), on which this Bill seems modelled? And what changes are needed to allay the concerns raised so far? G. Sampath is joined by Meghna Bal, Director, Esya Centre, New Delhi.

Israel has continued air strikes in and around Rafah’s humanitarian zone in Gaza killing at least 65 Palestinian civilians since the 25th of May in the face of stringent international condemnation. The air strikes came after the International Court of Justice directed Israel on the 24th of May to stop its offensive in Rafah, an area supposed to be a safe zone for those displaced by an earlier Israeli offensive. The ICJ also directed that Israel must take effective measures to enable any UN-backed commission of inquiry to enter Gaza and inquire into genocide allegations. Putting more pressure on Israel, Ireland, Spain and Norway recognised Palestine as a state, something that India did back in 1988. So, will the ICJ ruling make any difference to Israel given that it has continued attacks on civilians? Does the condemnation from countries in the region matter at all till the United States gives a free pass to Israel? Will the European Union finally adopt a more independent posture when it comes to dealing with Israeli aggression? Guest: Syed Akbaruddin, formerly India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

The French Open will kick off on Sunday in Paris. This would be the last time the tournament will host 14-time champion Rafael Nadal. The ‘King of Clay’ has been struggling with injuries, and as this is his last year on tour, he would be hoping to make a deep run in the major where he’s tasted the greatest success. But there are a lot of younger players standing in his way, including the in-form German Alexander Zverev in Round 1. Also hungry for a title is world no. 1 Novak Djokovic, who would be keen to make amends for a lacklustre year so far. On the women’s side, Iga Swiatek will start as a firm favourite, with none of the big names looking likely to cause her major trouble. There will also be, after a long gap, an Indian challenger in the main draw, in the form of Sumit Nagal. How many rounds can Nagal, and Nadal, go? Is there a chance for one last Nadal-Djokovic final this time? And what are India’s chances in the doubles, where Australian Open champion Rohan Bopanna will be in action? Guest: N. Sudarshan from The Hindu’s Sports Bureau. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

The untimely death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on the 19th of May has many implications not just for Iran but the region as a whole. Along with him, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also perished in the crash. As Iran goes to the polls on the 28th of June to elect a new President, all eyes will be on the country’s Guardian Council that has the power to decide which candidates get to contest. There is also speculation in the Western press about who might replace Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei. So, what is Raisi’s legacy on the domestic and international front? How will Iran deal with the many challenges that it faces in the region especially as it claims to be a bulwark against Israeli aggressionin Gaza? Will Raisi’s tango with Russia and China as well as an opening to Saudi Arabia hold his successors in good stead? Guest: Dinkar Srivastava, former Indian Foreign Service officer, who worked as India’s Ambassador to Iran. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Chinese President Xi Jinping last week hosted a reception for Vladimir Putin at the historic Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The two-day summit was marked by a lengthy joint statement that, among other things, said that China and Russia will promote “an equal and orderly multipolar world”. The statement also outlined a vision of a new world order with “no neo-colonialism and hegemonism” of any kind. The two countries took aim at the US, criticising unilateral sanctions and what they termed ‘long-arm jurisdiction’ without basis in international law or UN Security Council authorisation. The statement also highlighted the expansion of Russia-China ties beyond “opportunistic” bilateral cooperation to one of deeper partnership. What are the implications of this growing strategic convergence between two major powers, both of whom are veto-holding Security Council members? Can China balance Western concerns about its aid to Russia, especially dual-use technology? What are the implications of this friendship for India, which views China as a geopolitical rival and military threat, but is highly dependent on Russia for defence imports? G. Sampath is joined by Jabin T Jacob, Associate Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Shiv Nadar University.

Covid-19 may not be raging any more, but a controversy over the AstraZeneca vaccine, sold as Covishield in India is. The issue first erupted when AstraZeneca, in a submission to a court in the UK, acknowledged that its vaccine could cause a rare, potentially life-threatening condition, known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome or TTS. This led to everything from outrage on social media, to political parties issuing statements and to a host of misinformation being circulated. What is significant is that this information about TTS is not new – it was established as early as in 2021, when India’s vaccination programme was underway, and it has been a known fact now for well over three years. Just a short time after the court submission made headlines, AstraZeneca also announced the worldwide withdrawal of its vaccine, citing a decline in the demand. As of this year, India has administered over 1.5 billion doses of Covishield to its eligible population.  What led to the furore over the vaccine’s rare side effect and what do we know about it? How robust is India’s system to monitor adverse events arising from vaccinations? And what happens to India’s vaccination programme if Covishield is no longer available – are there other options available for those who need them or for future immunisations?  Guest: Dr Anurag Agrawal, Dean, BioSciences and Health Research, Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University  Host: Zubeda Hamid  Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

In a major embarrassment for India’s human rights image, the National Human Rights Commission has been denied ‘A’ status accreditation for a second year in a row. The Geneva-based, United Nations-linked Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) took the decision to defer it again during a meeting of the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) earlier this month. The NHRC was set up under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, and it had enjoyed ‘A’ Status accreditation since the beginning of the accreditation process in 1999, which it retained in 2006, 2011 and in 2017 also, after a deferment. So, what are the reasons for the deferment of accreditation for India’s top human rights institution? What are the implications of not possessing this accreditation? And what does India have to do get the accreditation back? Guest: Henri Tiphagne, Executive Director, People’s Watch, a non-profit that works in the field of human rights. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

India is seeing a sharp increase in the number of ghost shopping malls, according to a new report from real estate consultancy, Knight Frank India. The report, titled ‘Think India Think Retail 2024’, found that in 2023, there was 13.3 million square feet of ‘ghost shopping infrastructure’ across 29 cities, causing a loss of $798 million. By definition, a ghost shopping mall is one where the vacancy rate of retail space is above 40%. If we counted only the eight Tier 1 cities, the pan-India vacancy rate across all categories of malls stood at 15.7%. Also, while Tier 1 cities had 271 shopping malls in 2022, the number came down to 263 (77% of total shopping centres) in 2023. So, what is the reason behind this phenomenon of ghost shopping malls and high vacancy rates? Is it because offline shopping is giving way to online shopping? Is it due to weakening consumer demand? Or are there other industry-specific dynamics at play?

Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been given interim bail to campaign in the elections. After many hearings, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court granted conditional bail to Kejriwal on the 10th of May. Describing the elections to the Lok Sabha as the most significant event this year, the bench, facing stiff resistance from the Centre, pointed out that Kejriwal had no criminal antecedents nor was he a threat to society. What implications does Kejriwal’s release have smack in the middle of the election campaign? Will he impact elections in the seven seats of Delhi or even beyond? Guest: Javed Ansari, senior journalist and commentator, and former political writer for The Hindu. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Seven months into Israel’s military assault on Gaza, more than 34,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed, more than 78,000 wounded, and northern Gaza is facing a “full-blown famine” according to the UN. Earlier this week, there was a slight whiff of optimism in Gaza when Hamas announced that it had accepted a three-phase ceasefire proposal brokered by Qatar and Egypt, and Israel, too, sent a delegation to Cairo to discuss it further. But in the interim, Israel ordered Rafah to be evacuated, launched aerial strikes on the city, and took control of the border crossing there, which was critical for sending humanitarian aid to Gaza. Meanwhile, President Biden has halted a major shipment of bombs headed for Israel, signalling that US weapons should not be used to target Palestinian civilians. What exactly was the ceasefire proposal that Hamas accepted but Israel didn’t? Will the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future survive a ceasefire agreement at this stage of the conflict, when Israel’s self-proclaimed military objective of “destroying Hamas” hasn’t been met? Would the Biden administration’s pausing of the shipment of offensive weapons have any effect on Israel’s military plans going forward? Guest: Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s International Affairs Editor. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

The delay by the Election Commission (EC) in sharing the aggregate polling data of the first and second phases of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections has evoked sharp questions from the Opposition and civil society. The EC released the final voter turnout figures for phase 1 after 11 days, and for phase 2 after four days. Moreover, it has only released turnout percentages – 66.14% in Phase 1 and 66.71% in phase 2. It is yet to release the actual numbers of voters who cast their vote. The Election Commission has also not put out the absolute number of voters in each constituency, raising disturbing questions about the possibility of manipulation at the counting stage. Another issue that has been flagged is the sizeable difference in turnout figures between the close of polling day, and the date of announcement of final voter percentages. So, what has traditionally been the EC’s practice with regard to sharing of electoral data? How much time is it supposed to take? What kinds of data does it share as a matter of course? And are the concerns about vote manipulation at the counting stage valid or misplaced? G. Sampath is joined by MG Devasahayam, a former IAS officer who is also Coordinator, Citizens Commission on Elections.

A massive controversy has erupted in the world of spices, masalas and mixes, with products of two leading Indian players, MDH and Everest in the midst of this. The Hong Kong and Singapore governments suspended the sale and withdrew certain masalas of these two brands, stating that they contained higher than permissible limits of a pesticide, ethylene oxide. Multiple governments of other countries have now announced investigations into these products from India. After this, the Spices Board and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, or FSSAI announced a slew of measures for spices as well as other foods, to test for contamination and to ensure they are up to standards.  In the meantime though, the FSSAI has been under criticism for another issue – the allowing of a ten-fold increase in maximum residue limit from 0.01 milligrams per kg to 0.1 in spices and herbs, in cases of pesticides not registered in India or in cases where the maximum limit is not defined in Indian or international regulations.  What is going on with pesticides and masalas in India? How unsafe are the foods, especially processed foods that are sold in India? What are the regulations we have in place, and how effectively are these being implemented? Do we need a more stringent system to ensure food safety and public health in India?  Guest: Dr Vandana Prasad, a community paediatrician and public health professional associated with the Public Health Resource Network  Host: Zubeda Hamid  Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

Political parties are in full campaign mode in India. There are three days to go for the third phase of polling as this podcast is being recorded. Campaign themes are more than evident as June 4 – the day for results – is exactly a month away.  None other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched scathing attacks on the Congress saying that it will take away SC, ST and OBC reservation quotas and hand it over to the Muslims. No such promise has been made in the Congress manifesto.  Again, the Prime Minister in Gujarat said that if you have two buffalos, the Congress will take away one if it comes to power. Again, he said this was in the Congress manifesto. Again, such a promise is not to be found in the manifesto document.  Pakistan has also re-entered the BJP’s campaign themes while Opposition parties are attacking the ruling party at the Centre on a range of issues. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay joins us to discuss some of these issues and their implications for Indian democracy.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has asked health insurance companies to offer their products to everyone, regardless of their age. Until now, health insurance was readily available for anyone up to the age of 65, with companies under no obligation to cover those older. But now IRDAI has said insurance firms can extend their health coverage to everyone regardless of their pre-existing medical conditions. Both these changes are part of a wider set of reforms under the long term goal of “Insurance for All by 2047”, and they have mostly been welcomed as a positive development. But there is always the fine print, and questions remain about how these measures will pan out in real life. Health coverage tends to get more expensive with age. Will senior citizens be able to afford the packages designed by private insurers? What do the norms say regarding the ‘waiting period’ for pre-existing conditions? And will these measures be enough to reduce out-of-pocket medical expenditure, which is one of the highest in the world in India? Guest: Professor T Sundararaman, a public health expert, who has served as Executive Director of National Health Systems Resource Centre and as Dean and Professor at the School of Health Systems Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

In a setback to the Opposition INDIA alliance in Delhi, which is basically the alliance between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President Arvinder Singh Lovely has resigned from his post, and one of the reasons he has cited is his party’s tie-up with AAP. Lovely’s resignation letter has put the spotlight on what is widely recognised as a big contradiction – an alliance between the Congress party, and a party that came into being to combat the kind of political decadence that the Congress allegedly represented. In fact, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal has spent much of the last ten years targeting the Congress more than any other party, and in turn, the Delhi state leadership of the Congress has spent much of its energies targeting AAP. Furthermore, it is the Congress that’s the original complainant in the alleged liquor scam case that has landed Kejriwal in jail. So, how does this alliance square with the founding credo of the Aam Aadmi Party? How can AAP explain this alliance to its supporters? Given that the two parties have suddenly found ‘anti-BJPism’ more attractive as a political plank than anti-corruption, does this alliance then indicate that the founders of AAP – several of whom are currently in jail on corruption charges – were fundamentally wrong in their understanding of political corruption? G. Sampath is joined by Prashant Bhushan, Supreme Court advocate and a former leader with AAP.

This March was the hottest on record globally, the 10th month in a row to hit this peak. This has led to a 1.58 degree Celsius spike in the global average temperature, compared to pre-industrial levels. This doesn’t feel surprising – most parts of India have been sweltering since last month, the India Meteorological Department or IMD hadd forecast heatwave conditions in parts of at least 10 States last week and it's only going to get worse in May. This year, the heat is even believed to have impacting voting in our crucial general election, and the Election Commission has now set up a taskforce to oversee heatwave conditions.  We’re used to scorching summers in India – but experts say that heatwaves are now arriving earlier in the year, are more frequent and are also lasting longer – which means they have a huge impact on the health of humans and animals, on our agriculture and food, on our cities, our water resources and our energy supplies.  How does the unrelenting heat affect our bodies and our long-term health into the future? Do our food crops become less nutritious as temperatures rise? Do India’s standards for heatwaves need updating? Where is our country placed, globally, when it comes to extreme climate events and can we expect more of these in the near future?    Guest: Poornima Prabhakaran, Director, Centre for Health Analytics Research and Trends (CHART), Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University  Host: Zubeda Hamid  Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

The delay in conducting the 2021 census seems to have sparked a data crisis, with major implications for the social sector, especially public health policy. This crisis, according to public health analysts, has been worsened by the government’s reluctance to put certain types of data in the public domain, over concerns they might show it in an unflattering light. In the context of public health, the census is important because it forms the basis for national and state health surveys. So, how are the country’s policy-makers and social scientists managing with 2011 census data in 2024? What are the problems seen in the implementation of government welfare schemes such as PMJAY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana) due to unavailability of up-to-date data? What’s the status today with regard to transparency and professional autonomy in the collection, scrutiny and publication of data that’s central to the public health discourse? Guest: Professor T Sundararaman, a public health expert, who has served as Executive Director of National Health Systems Resource Centre and as Dean and Professor at the School of Health Systems Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Jude Francis Weston

Baby foods, drinks and protein powders have all been in the news of late – are these products harming rather than helping your health? The latest controversy has centred around Nestle, a well known brand in India – an investigation recently found that all Nestle baby cereals sold in India contained almost 3g of added sugar – but the same cereals sold in European markets had no added sugar. The harmful effects of sugar are now well known – it can contribute to obesity as well as multiple health complications later in life. The Centre has now asked the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to look into this. Other news involved the government asking e-commerce sites to stop the classification of Bournvita and other such beverages under the ‘health drinks’ category. And just before that, we were given the shocking news that many protein powders not only do not have the amount of proteins they advertise, but may also have harmful components. So what are the laws regarding baby food and processed food in our country? How are companies allowed to advertise these foods and drinks and can they be labelled healthy? Who looks into the safety of these products that are found in our supermarkets? And what does India need to do to classify which foods are healthy, and which are unhealthy, considering the huge burden of obesity, diabetes and heart disease that the country is grappling with? Zubeda Hamid speaks to Dr Arun Gupta, public health expert, central coordinator of the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India and convener of the Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest.

Gukesh Dommaraju, the 17-year-old Indian chess prodigy, has become the youngest player ever to win the Candidates tournament. As he broke a 40-year-old record in the name of Garry Kasparov, Gukesh became only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to win a Candidates event and earn the right to challenge the world champion for the title. But Gukesh’s journey hasn’t been easy. He almost didn’t qualify for the Candidates tournament – making the cut at the last minute, thanks to a hurriedly organised event in Chennai. And the moments before his victory were full of nail-biting drama. Guest: Rakesh Rao from The Hindu’s Sports Bureau. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Elon Musk is coming to India. He is meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and is likely to announce the entry of Tesla into the Indian market. The timing of this visit is interesting. Tesla used to be the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles or EVs – but it lost that title to China’s BYD Auto last year. Also, most of the EV markets in the West --- in North America and Europe – are in a slowdown. In China, Tesla has been losing ground to local competitors. But India, on the other hand, is looking to expand its EV density in a big way – it unveiled a new EV policy in March that is seen by many as tweaked to make the country more attractive for Tesla. What is the agenda of Musk’s visit in the context of EVs? Is the price conscious Indian market ready for the kind of expensive EVs that Musk sells? If Tesla is allowed to sell imported cars, what happens to ‘Make in India’ and technology transfer to local manufacturers? G. Sampath is joined by Randheer Singh, CEO and Founder of ForeSee Advisors, an electric mobility and battery storage consulting firm, and a former director of e-mobility at NITI Aayog.

The Indian government recently brought in an amendment to the Wildlife Protection Act with regard to captive elephants. This amendment, the rules for which came in last month, regulates the transfer or transport of captive elephants, and has sparked an outcry from animal rights activists. Elephants are, according to the Wildlife Protection Act, a Schedule 1 species – offered the highest protection under the law. Captive elephants however, because of their historical role in India where they have been part of royal estates, used in timber logging and still used in temples for religious festivals, come under a special category, but there were still strict rules governing their transfer. Now however, with this new amendment, the transfer of elephants is allowed for ‘religious or any other purposes’ – this vague definition, researchers say can revive illegal commercial trade and trafficking of elephants, something the country has been trying to curb for decades. Concerns have also been raised about Vantara, Anant Ambani’s rehabilitation centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat, which has come under criticism for its housing of a large number of elephants.  Why was this amendment brought in? What does this mean for the 2,600-or so captive elephants across the country? Are wild elephants continuing to be captured and illegally sold? And what is the way forward to rehabilitate captive elephants in the country?  Guest: Alok Hisarwala, lawyer and researcher, founder of Centre for Research and Animal Rights, Goa  Host: Zubeda Hamid  Edited by Sharmada venkatasubramanian. 

It was expected that Iran would respond to the bombing of its consulate in Syria on April 1 in an Israeli strike. The retaliation came last Saturday when Iran launched a direct attack on Israel. Israel claims to have intercepted 99% of the 300-odd drones and missiles fired by Iran, but a few of the missiles did sneak through its defences and hit sensitive military targets on Israeli territory. Iran has said that it would take no further action unless Israel chooses to escalate. Israel has vowed to “exact the price from Iran” when the time is right. What are the strategic implications of Iran’s unprecedented direct strikes on Israel? How serious are the risks of a wider regional war, and where does this leave the ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza?

It’s election time in India. The Modi government is touting India’s strength abroad as one of its achievements. Earlier in April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at an election rally that India today kills terrorists in their own homes. Asked about a report in the Guardian newspaper that India had killed 20 alleged terrorists in recent years in Pakistan, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said Delhi would pursue and kill terrorists in Pakistan if they staged attacks in India. In 2023, Canada accused Indian agents of being responsible for the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on its territory. So, what does all this mean for India’s foreign policy and standing in the world? Is this the right approach to adopt? What are the potential dangers of such actions sparking a wider conflict with Pakistan? Or create foreign policy fissures with other countries? Guest: Nirupama Subramanian, senior journalist and former correspondent of The Hindu in Pakistan. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Is it okay for the Union government to impose limits on how much a State government can borrow? Or does a state government have an “enforceable right” to decide its own borrowing limits? This question, raised by the Kerala government, has been referred to a Constitution Bench by the Supreme Court. The key constitutional question that the Supreme Court wants a five-judge bench to decide is: whether ‘fiscal decentralistion’ is an integral aspect of Indian federalism, and if so, are Central regulations fixing borrowing limits on States a violation of the principle of federalism. In its suit filed before the Supreme Court, Kerala has accused the Union government of imposing arbitrary borrowing limits, due to which the Kerala government is on the verge of bankruptcy – unable to pay salaries, pensions and fulfil its various financial commitments. Have the Centre’s restrictions resulted in an unfair and/or differential treatment to Kerala? Aren’t the Centre’s restrictions in conflict with the RBI’s designated role as the nation’s “public debt manager”?

The 17th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is seeing a rather unusual controversy – Indian fans have been booing, and in some cases, abusing, a star player of the national team wherever he’s gone to play. At the receiving end is Hardik Pandya, the erstwhile captain of Gujarat Titans, who has moved to Mumbai Indians. He is now the skipper of Mumbai Indians, replacing Rohit Sharma, who led the team to the title five times in ten years. Franchises chop and change their teams and captains all the time – it is part and parcel of club sport. And yet, Pandya has faced really hostile crowds at every venue he’s played so far, to the extent that there were speculative media reports on some special security arrangements at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. What explains this hostility? Is this a phenomenon of what some commentators have described as “fan wars”? Guest: Amol Karhadkar from The Hindu’s Sports Bureau. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

India announced recently, that it has completed the 10,000 genome project – a reference database of whole-genome sequences, from people in India. About 20 institutions were involved in the project. India has a population of 1.3 billion with over 4,600 population groups, many of them endogamous.  This project is seen as an important step to find out about genetic variants that are unique to India, to customise drugs and gene-based therapies, give us answers about certain diseases, and to provide a deeper insight into the population’s diversity, and perhaps into genetic predispositions to disease that we may have.  What are the implications of this genome sequencing? How far does India have to go to reap its potential benefits? What are the ethical concerns around the sharing of this data? Is India well-enough equipped to ensure health data privacy of individuals?    Guest: Shambhavi Naik, PhD Head of Research and Chairperson of Advanced Biology Programme, Takshashila Institution  Host: Zubeda Hamid  Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

If the data relating to electoral bonds placed the spotlight on corporate entities buying favours from political parties, the actions of enforcement agencies point to officials taking cues from their political masters in going after opposition politicians. The Indian Express newspaper reported on April 3 that as many as 23 out of 25 prominent politicians who crossed over to the BJP since 2014 earned a reprieve from prosecution. So, how is India faring in the battle against corruption? Or is selective targeting reducing the campaign against corruption to a farce? Guest: Vipul Mudgal, Director of Common Cause, a Delhi-based NGO, and a Trustee of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramnian.

Plastics pollution is a major global crisis, with deadly repercussions for human health, marine life, and climate change. In March 2022, the United Nations set the ball rolling for the conclusion of a Global Plastics Treaty by the end of 2024. Later this month, we have the penultimate session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), where 175 countries will negotiate a legally binding treaty to combat plastic pollution. What exactly are the issues under discussion in these negotiations? What has been India’s position on these issues? And given the magnitude of the plastic pollution crisis in India, is India on the right track? Guest: Satyarupa Shekhar, a public policy advocate whose interests include urban governance, data justice, and plastics pollution. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

The controversy over Katchatheevu is back in the media spotlight. With just a few weeks left for the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue by claiming that the Congress “gave away” Katchatheevu. He also claimed that the DMK, in contrast to its public posturing, was fully kept in the loop as the Congress “ceded” Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka. The PM’s claims were further amplified by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. The controversy revolves around two bilateral agreements, one signed in 1974, and another in 1976, pertaining to maritime boundaries and fishing rights in the Katchatheevu region. The Opposition has responded to the Prime Minister by citing the Modi government’s own reply to an RTI query in 2015 where it had said that Katchatheevu belonged to Sri Lanka. How did Katchatheevu – a tiny, uninhabited patch of land – become a contentious issue? What is its significance for the fishing rights of Indian fishermen? And are the fishing-related issues, such as the detention of Indian fishermen, really linked to the territorial claims over Katchatheevu? Guest: K Venkataramanan, Senior Associate Editor at The Hindu. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

The India Employment Report 2024, released recently by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), paints a grim picture. The news is particularly bad on two critical counts: joblessness is particularly high among the youth, and its worse for the educated youth. According to the report, India’s youth account for 83% of the unemployed workforce, with the share of the educated youth among the total unemployed doubling - from 35.2% in 2000 to 65.7% in 2022. Among other things, the report also flags a reversal of the expected transition of the workforce from agriculture to non-farm sector, and says that India’s female labour force participation rate (LFPR) declined by 14.4 percentage points between 2000 and 2019. What does all this mean for India’s ‘demographic dividend’ that people keep talking about? Why are 82% of the workforce in the informal sector, with nearly 90% informally employed? And why is the share of manufacturing in employment stagnating at 12-14%? Guest: Professor Ravi Srivastava, Director, Centre for Employment Studies, at the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

On March 10th, India signed a free trade agreement with a group of four European nations, committing to reduce tariffs. In return, India would receive $100 billion in investments over the next 15 years. The non-EU bloc, known as the European Free Trade Association, consists of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. This agreement has come on the back of protracted negotiations of 21 rounds spread over 16 years. While the balance of trade heavily favors the EFTA, with India importing about $22 billion in 2023 from the bloc, India exported only about $3 billion to the bloc. While India hopes to attract investments in railways, the financial sector and automobiles, it is expecting a growth in exports of pharma products, garments, chemicals and machinery to the EFTA.  This pact comes just two years after India signed similar agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Australia, but such free trade deals have not largely helped India's export growth. In fact, it has generally been more beneficial to the other nations or blocks who have signed such deals with India. For instance, India's 2011 comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Japan enabled Japan to double its exports to more than $16 billion in 2023 from $8 billion in 2011. On the other hand, India's exports to Japan remained static at $5.46 billion in 2023, a tad up from $5.09 billion in 2011. This mirrors other trade pacts like the one signed with the 10-member Southeast Asian block, the ASEAN in 2010. In 2022-23, India exported goods worth about $44 billion to the region, while its imports were valued at $87 billion. The trade deficit in 2022-23 was $43 billion compared with $7.5 billion in 2010.  Why is India then entering into more such agreements? How different is the EFTA from those signed with other nations and blocs? And are such deals a substitute to larger WTO led trade frameworks, where India tends to have a larger say because of the backing of other developing nations.  Guest: Professor Dinesh Abrol, retired professor at the Institute for Studies in industrial development.  Host: Kunal Shankar, Deputy Business Editor, The Hindu.  Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

After several failed efforts, the United Nations Security Council managed to pass a resolution on March 25 calling for an immediate ceasefire in Palestine. Resolution 2728 passed because unlike in three previous occasions the United States chose not to use its veto power but abstained. The resolution passed 14-0. In a related development, the International Court of Justice warned on March 28 that the prolonged and widespread deprivation of food by Israel to the Palestinians meant that famine was setting in in Gaza. Also, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights Francesca Albanese said on March 26 there were reasonable grounds to believe that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. Since October last year, Israel has killed at least 32,000 Palestinians and injured another 71,000 following the Hamas attack in which 1,200 Israelis were killed. So what does the UNSC resolution and ICJ order mean? Guest: Syed Akbaruddin, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, from 2016 to 2020. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Weight-loss drugs including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro have been making headlines across the world for weight loss – celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Elon Musk have spoken about using them to quickly and drastically lose weight. First approved for diabetes treatment, these drugs, which consist of semaglutide – are available in tablet and injectable form. While the tablet form was approved for use in India last year, recent media reports indicate that at least one injectable semaglutide drug – Mounjaro – is undergoing a regulatory review in India currently and may be available by next year.  So what do these drugs consist of and how do they work? What are the side effects you could have by taking them? Will they be a game-changer for India that has 10.13 crore people with diabetes and with nearly 50% of the population battling abdominal obesity? What are the prices of the drugs like? And what happens when you stop taking them?  Guest: Dr V Mohan, chairman of Dr. Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre and Madras Diabetes Research Foundation  Host: Zubeda Hamid  Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

A deadly terrorist attack in Moscow on March 22 left more than 130 people dead and nearly 200 injured. This was the deadliest mass shooting incident in Russia since the 2004 Beslan school siege. The Islamic State—Khorasan Province (IS-KP) has claimed responsibility for the attack. President Vladimir Putin has said that radical Islamists were behind the attack, and hinted at Ukraine’s involvement. So, why are radical Islamists, and the Islamic State in particular, targeting Russia, and why now? G. Sampath is joined by MK Bhadrakumar, a strategic analyst and former diplomat who has served in West Asia.

It’s hard to imagine a world without plastic now – plastic exists in almost every sphere of our life. Microplastics, the tiny toxic particles that plastics shed and that are scattered across the environment have been found everywhere – from clouds, to the bottom of the ocean, in Antarctica and even in our bodies – we swallow them and we breathe them in. In a recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine however, researchers found microplastics and nanoplastics – which are even smaller particles – inside our innermost organ -- in the fatty deposits or plaques that can accumulate in the blood vessels of the heart. They also found that those with these plastics in their blood vessels had a greater risk of experiencing heart attacks, strokes or death. However, they have cautioned this was only a link and not proof that plastics led to bad health – much more research is needed to establish how plastics really affect our health. The study comes at a time when the world and India is attempting to ban plastic and encourage people towards sustainable, plastic-free options – but this is happening very slowly, as we can see all around us, in daily life and in the massive landfills in our city. What can micro and nanoplastics do to the human body? What is the direction research into this must take? And how can we minimise our exposure to plastic pollution? Guest: Dr Sanjay Rajagopalan, one of the authors of the study and Chief, Cardiovascular Medicine and Chief Academic and Scientific Officer at University Hospitals, Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute, Ohio, United States Host: Zubeda Hamid

After repeated prodding from the Supreme Court, the State Bank of India has finally disclosed the full details of the electoral bonds bought and redeemed. The Election Commission has made the data public. This comes in the wake of the electoral bond being established as patently unconstitutional, a mode of political funding susceptible to corrupt practices. Now that the details of who gave how much to which party is in the public domain, what do the numbers reveal? Were the fears of ‘quid pro quo’ between donors and recipients justified? Are there sufficient grounds to call for a full-fledged anti-corruption investigation? Guest: Vignesh Radhakrishnan from The Hindu’s data team. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editors, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Pre-dawn air strikes by Pakistan on Afghan territory targeting Tehreek-e-Taliban, or TTP, militants on the 19th of March mark a new low in relations between Kabul and Islamabad. Pakistan claims that it retaliated against TTP strongholds in Afghanistan following a terror strike in North Waziristan on the 16th of March in which 7 Pakistani security personnel were killed.  The Taliban claim that eight women and children were killed in the Pakistani air raids. A spokesman for the group warned of dire consequences even as Taliban border forces attacked Pakistani positions.  What do these events spell for Pakistan-Taliban relations? Has the wheel come full circle for Rawalpindi which was responsible for the creation of the Taliban and was vociferous in welcoming the return of the group to Kabul in 2021? What can we expect in the weeks and months ahead?

The 2024 Lok Sabha polls will be held from April 19 in seven phases across the country. In Bihar, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh, voting will take place in all the seven phases. Assembly elections will also be held simultaneously in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. The last phase of voting will be on June 1 and counting will take place on June 4. This parliamentary election will be the second longest polling exercise in India’s electoral history. The longest one was the country’s first general election, which was held over a five-month period from September 1951 to February 1952. But the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, for instance, were held in four phases – between April 20 and May 10 – they were over in 20 days. The 1998 elections took place in just three phases – on February 16, 22nd and 28th – over two weeks. So what has changed between 1998 or 2004, and 2024 -- that we seem to have become so much slower? Why does India need seven phases and one-and-a-half months to hold general elections? How do other big democracies like Indonesia manage it in one day? And what are the pros and cons of having a multi-phase election? To discuss, we are joined by MG Devasahayam, a former IAS officer who is also Coordinator, Citizens Commission on Elections. 

It’s that time of the year again, when exams are looming, and students are stressed. Most students in India write a number of exams -- from the final boards at schools to the multiple competitive tests that are attempted to try and get a seat at coveted medical or engineering colleges. The process is so difficult – lakhs of students competing for a few thousand seats that coaching them for these exams has become a massive business at several cities across the country. Kota in Rajasthan, one of these hubs has been in the news recently over student suicides – 26 students died by suicide last year, and this year there have already been six deaths.   How can the mental health of students be protected at a challenging time in their lives? What should the role of parents, teachers and other stakeholders be? What can be done to bring down the number of deaths by suicide? And what happened to the National Suicide Prevention Strategy that the Indian government announced in 2022?  Guest: Dr Soumitra Pathare, director, Centre for Mental Health, Law & Policy  Host: Zubeda Hamid   Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

NITI Aayog B.V.R. Subrahmanyam recently claimed that less than 5% of Indians now live below the poverty line. He made the claim based on the findings of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES), 2022-23. Mr. Subrahmanyam argued that the average consumption expenditure in the bottom 5% of India’s population, as estimated by the survey, is about the same as the poverty line in India, suggesting that the poverty rate in India is somewhere in the range of 0 to 5%. Has poverty really dropped to 5% in India? Here we discuss the question.

The resignation of Arun Goel as Election Commissioner just ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has created ripples in Indian politics. For the first time since 1993, a single-member Election Commission is currently supervising poll preparations in the world’s largest democracy. There is no word on why Mr. Goel, who was handpicked by the BJP government, quit but some media reports point to differences with the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar. So, what does Mr. Goel’s resignation spell? Will the Government rush to appoint two Election Commissioners under the new law that gives the political executive a majority in the selection process? Do Election Commissioners grow a spine after taking office? Guest: Nilanjan Mukhopadyay is a senior journalist and author, whose latest book is The Demolition and the Verdict: Ayodhya and the Project to Reconfigure India (2021). He has also authored The RSS: Icons of the Indian Right (2019) and Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times (2013). Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

With peak summer approaching, Bengaluru is already facing a water crisis. The city, which is dependent on the Cauvery river and groundwater for its freshwater needs, remains vulnerable to drought in the dry seasons and flooding in the monsoon months. With its bore wells having to contend with receding water tables, and tankers having to travel increasingly longer distances to fetch water, there is a big question mark over the city’s water security. This was not always the case -- India’s IT capital used to have a system of tanks and parks that gave it water resilience. What happened to this infrastructure? How much water does the city need? What is the shortfall? And how can the shortfall be bridged in a sustainable way?

The 164 member world trade organisation holds what it calls a Ministerial Conference – a once in two years meeting of all its member countries to discuss, negotiate and address global trade rules. WTO’s thirteenth ministerial conference, or MC13 – took place in Abu Dhabi in late February this year, but it failed to make headway on key agenda items. Such failures in negotiations have come to plague the WTO lately. Yet, despite this, failed outcomes are often touted as major victories by member counties. Like in India’s case, where Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal claimed a win for the country’s farmers, when India’s position on demanding sovereignty over public stock holding of food, and providing largely artesanal fishing nations, subsidies for fisheries failed to reach consensus. Two more demands of developing countries – the first – lifting the moratorium on levying customs duty on e-commerce, and second, a reconstitution of the WTO’s dispute settlement appellate body, remained unresolved as well. And yet, why are these key wins for developing nations? Guest: Ranja Sengupta from the global non-profit – Third World Network Host: Kunal Shankar, The Hindu’s Deputy Business Editor Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has his task cut out for him. From steering the economy out of choppy waters to dealing with a belligerent opposition that continues to contest the results of February’s general elections, Mr. Sharif has to show that he is up to the job.   As Cabinet formation and election of a new President await Pakistan, Mr. Sharif will also be watched for his ability to deal with the country’s permanent establishment – the Army.  Will the fact that he has more patience than his brother Nawaz Sharif allow for political stability in governance? To discuss these issues, I am joined from Karachi by Shahzeb Jillani, co-host of Dawn TV’s current affairs show, Zara Hut Kay.

Earlier this week, a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court ruled that MPs and MLAs are not immune to criminal prosecution on bribery charges related to their votes or speech in Parliament or state assemblies. This judgement overturns an earlier ruling of the Supreme Court in the 1998 Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) case. In this case, the majority opinion had held that MPs and MLAs enjoyed immunity from prosecution with regard to how they vote or speak in the House. Article 105 (2) of the Constitution confers on MPs immunity from prosecution in respect of their speech or voting in Parliament. Article 194 (2) grants the same protection to MLAs. So what prompted the Supreme Court to strip MPs and MLAs of this immunity? What was the original case that set off the chain of events culminating in this judgement? And what are the implications of this verdict? Tune in to find out.

The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act was passed in 2021, but over two years later, it continues to be mired in some amount of confusion and on-going cases in the Supreme Court. Brought in to ban commercial surrogacy, it allows only for altruistic surrogacy under certain conditions, and aims to regulate surrogacy clinics, part of the huge infertility health sector in the country. Last month, the Central government brought in a modification to the surrogacy rules – it allowed married couples to use donor eggs or donor sperm to avail of surrogacy. This overturned the government’s own rules that had earlier banned the use of donor gametes. The rules now state that if one person of the intending couple has a medical complication that does not allow them to use their own gametes, then a donor gamete can be used for the surrogate baby. However, a genetic link is still a must – the other partner must provide the egg or sperm as the case may be. This means that divorced and widowed women, who are allowed to avail of surrogacy, have to use their own eggs. The law also bars single unmarried women, those in live-in relationships and those in queer relationships from its ambit – a provision being currently challenged in court by an unmarried woman. How will the new amendment change things for prospective parents? How can donor gametes be obtained when their sale is banned and the donation is strictly regulated? Has the Act met its goal of regulating surrogacy clinics and protecting surrogate rights?

Ever since the English cricket team arrived in India, ‘Bazball’ is on the lips of every cricket buff. It is a unique style of play that paid rich dividends for the English team --until the India tour. England is trailing the five-match Test series 1-3, and there is a lot of debate around whether ‘Bazball’ has been overhyped, and if England has failed to adapt it to Indian conditions. What are the elements of Bazball? How did it develop? Has India finally exposed its limitations?

Engineered cross-voting to win extra seats in the Rajya Sabha and organized defection to bring down duly-elected State Governments appear to have been normalized in Indian politics. The additional two seats that accrued to the BJP in Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh recently is a case in point. Though six cross-voting MLAs have been disqualified in Himachal Pradesh, the defeat of senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Sanghvi points to the dangers that lie ahead for the Congress government in the state. Previously, the Congress lost three state governments in Goa, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, to organized defections. So, is this a phenomenon that we will have to live with in Indian politics? Guest: Radhika Ramaseshan, political analyst and columnist. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

From time to time, stories of the commercial dealings in organs, or cash for kidney scams, surface in the media. In December, one such possible organ racket was in the news, involving people from Myanmar, who had come to a private hospital in Delhi for transplant procedures. Organ transplants have been taking place in India since the 1970s, and after multiple instances of the commercial sale of organs, India brought in the Transplantation of Human Organ and Tissues Act, 1994. This law banned the sale of organs and only allowed organs to be given between close family members, or for altruistic reasons, with no money exchanging hands. Over the last decade or so, some cities in India have increasingly become major hubs for life-saving transplant surgeries of several organs including the kidneys, heart, liver, lungs and pancreas. The deceased donor programme, where organs are harvested from brain-dead donors, has also taken off in some parts of the country. As of 2022, India performed just over 13,300 living transplants and about 2,700 deceased donor transplants. And still, the country has over 3 lakh patients on the waiting list for organs and 20 people dying each day for want of an organ. How do the transplant laws work, and do they have loopholes that need to be plugged? What are the laws in place for foreigners? How can donor rights be protected more stringently to weed out exploitation? And can the transplant programme be scaled up to meet the country’s needs?

It’s now exactly two years since Russia invaded Ukraine. According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, so far 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have perished in the war. Millions of Ukrainians have been displaced. The population in territories under Kyiv’s control has shrunk from 52 million to 30 million while the country’s economy has been devastated. As for Russia, after initial setbacks – likely caused by an underestimation of Ukraine’s capacity for resistance – it has modified its tactics and settled into a long-term war of attrition. Its economy is doing well, despite Western sanctions. In the meantime, there are question marks over the West’s will to continue its military aid to Ukraine with the same intensity. With no signs of the conflict ending any time soon, we look back at the past two years to understand what have been the gains and losses for all the sides in involved. What does the third year of this war have in store? Will it see one of the sides gaining a decisive advantage? And what needs to happen before either side decides that enough is enough? Guest: Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s International Affairs Editor. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Housing is a basic requirement for dignity of life. But affordable decent housing remains a distant dream for most Indians, especially in urban India. Close to 17% of all households in urban India live in slums, with this percentage shooting up to 41% in a city like Mumbai and 29% in Chennai. Over the years, the government has taken many initiatives to address this problem, with schemes such as Indira Awas Yojana, and the ongoing Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), an interest subsidy scheme for lower and middle-income groups. But these subsidy schemes hardly seem to make a dent on the housing crisis. The gap between people’s incomes and price points of housing stock, especially for the aspirational classes, remains wide. Why is housing in India so expensive? Why do the prices never seem to come within reach for most? A recent research paper, titled ‘House prices in India: How high and how long?’ co-authored by three analysts from the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), Shishir Gupta, Nandini Agnihotri and Annie George, offers some insights on these questions.

Most of us are familiar with the plastic waste crisis and public awareness campaigns on the need to recycle plastic. Now a new report by the Centre for Climate Integrity, an international non-profit, says that plastic producers have been lying to the public for more than 30 years – it says that they knew all along that plastic recycling was not a viable solution, either technically or economically, and yet kept they promoting it to protect their interests. How serious is the plastic waste problem? Why is plastic recycling not viable? And if recycling is not the answer, how do we address the mounting crisis of plastic waste? Tune in to find out.

The headline in a recent article was arresting – India fears losing out to China in smartphone exports race. Another broke the news that Mexico had overtaken China for the first time in 20 years as the largest exporter to the US. One more said – loud and clear at t that – that India should realise that Vietnam, and not China, was the major competitor.   There are a few dots we can connect to see a common thread in all these that should interest us – The world wants to move away from China but that cannot be done in entirety overnight because of the scale that the country has built. But there are some parts of the global supply chain that are indeed moving. Is India poised to benefit from this? What lessons does the China model hold for India? And what is it that countries such as Vietnam are doing right to bolster foreign investments that are in turn spurring those countries’ exports?  Guest: Biswajit Dhar, Distinguished Professor, Centre for Social Development.  Host: K. Bharat Kumar Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Farmers are back at the barricades, this time they have been stopped by the Haryana police at the Punjab-Haryana border. Twenty-two-year-old Shubhkaran Singh has died in the protests. Farmer leaders have suspended their protest till February 29 when they will announce their next course of action. The agitating farmers are firm that there should be a legal guarantee for MSP purchases but the Centre has, instead, come up with a five-year contract to purchase pulses, maize and cotton from farmers. So, where does the agitation go from here? To discuss these issues, Amit Baruah is joined by agricultural expert and analyst, Devinder Sharma.

Controlling a computer with just your thoughts seems to be something straight out of a science fiction movie, but that’s exactly what scientific experiments are now doing. This week Elon Musk, founder of the startup Neuralink which implanted a brain chip, called Telepathy, into a human being last month, said that the patient’s progress has been good, and the patient is now able to move a mouse on a screen by just thinking. Exciting? Yes. A little scary too? Perhaps. The tech, at least for now, is aimed at treating paralysis and complex neurological conditions. Putting electrodes into the brain is not new – scientists have been experimenting with this for years now, but refining and potentially commercialising this tech takes a lot of doing. The brain is a complex organ that works by sending electrical impulses from one neuron to another every time we think, and we have 86 billion neurons. The brain-computer interface technology attempts to capture some of this activity through a chip that acts as a bridge between the brain and a digital device. So what does brain-computer interface technology involve, and how does it work? How many of our brain signals can be read? What is its potential in medical applications to treat health conditions? And importantly, what are the ethical issues involved here?

The Lok Sabha elections of 2024 are round the corner. The season of defections is also upon us. Party hopping has commenced in earnest. An India Today poll suggested earlier in February that the NDA would win 335 seats in 2024 down from 353 in 2019. The Congress tally was put at 71. A YouGov-Mint-CPR survey, also published in February, said that 51 per cent believed that construction of the Ram Mandir, on the site where the Babri Masjid once stood, was a rectification of historical wrongs while 49 per cent felt that it was an electorally motivated move to win Hindu votes. So, with just about two months to go for Lok Sabha 2024, how does the political chess board look in India? Guest: Gilles Verniers, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, and Visiting Fellow at Amherst College in the United States. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down the Centre’s electoral bond scheme. Electoral bonds enabled anonymous political donations, which the apex court has termed as “unconstitutional”. It stated categorically that the scheme violates the right to information under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. What was the reasoning behind for this verdict, and what are its implications for Indian democracy going forward? Guest: Jagdeep S Chhokar from the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a nonprofit that works in the field of electoral and political reforms. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

The Uttarakhand assembly passed the State’s Uniform Civil Code last week. Titled ‘The Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand, 2024’, the Bill was one of the BJP’s poll promises during the 2022 Assembly election campaign. Although its applicability is supposed to be uniform, the law exempts tribal populations, and also the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) from its purview. What’s the legal history and background of this legislation? How does this law affect minority communities? And what’s controversy around its provisions concerning live-in relationships?

The Union Finance Ministry has come out with a ‘White Paper’ on the changes in the Indian economy in the past 20 years. In the 58-page document, which it presented in Parliament, the government compares the 10 years of UPA-rule from 2004 to 2014 with 10 years of NDA rule from 2014 to 2024. It claims that the NDA government in 2014 inherited a “deeply damaged economy” marked by “governance, economic and fiscal crises”. It further claims that the in the past 10 years, the NDA government has “turned around” the economy and “rebuilt” it from the foundations for long-term growth. Incidentally, this is the second such major paper from the government making significant claims in the economic domain. Earlier, the Niti Aayog had released a paper claiming that multidimensional poverty declined in India during the NDA years. We did a podcast on that paper as well, and you can check it out here (hyper link here). What are the various claims made in the White Paper, and how do they stand up to scrutiny? Guest: economist Professor Arun Kumar. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. Listen to the episode on the Niti Aayog report here.

The people of Pakistan have spoken. They have reposed their faith in democracy and cast their vote against the establishment’s efforts to decimate the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Independents backed by his party, PTI as it’s known, have won 93 seats in a House of 264, with the Muslim League Nawaz notching up 75. The Pakistan People’s Party has won 54 seats. It looks likely that a coalition government will take power in the country. Talks have begun between the Nawaz League and the PPP to form a coalition government even as the mandate appears to be for the PTI. So, what lies ahead for Pakistan? What does the mandate of February 8 mean? Will Imran Khan be out of jail like Nawaz Sharif for a fresh lease of life in politics? Or is it too early?

For anyone who drives a vehicle in this country, the nightmare scenario is the same: an accident involving another person. India has one of the worst road accident rates in the world – in 2022, the country reported over 4,60,000 road accidents, with over half taking place on national and State highways. Clearly, road safety is an area of huge concern. Recently, new provisions related to hit-and-run accident cases were brought in under the new penal code, the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita or BNS. These provisions however evoked massive protests from truck drivers across the country at the beginning of this year – truckers said the penalties were unfair, imposed very heavy fines and jail sentences and did not take into account the many issues on Indian roads – the bad conditions of the road, lighting and visibility factors, mob violence in some cases where accidents take place and the behaviour of other motorists and pedestrians on the road itself. The protests only ended after the Union Home Secretary said these provisions would only be implemented after consultations with transport bodies. So what are the new provisions for hit and run accident cases in the law? What constitutes rash and negligient driving and what are the penalties for it? Do the laws need to take into account contributing factors to accidents, and does there need to be a graded system for penalties? Guest: Prof GS Bajpai Vice Chancellor, National Law University Delhi. Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramnian.

India and Iran have deep cultural and historical connections. But relations between the two nations have atrophied in recent times. US sanctions on Iran have been a big factor, leading to India largely curtailing its engagements with the country. But recent developments – visa-free travel for Indians, and Iran’s entry into BRICS -- seem to provide reason for cautious optimism. What are the key concerns and objectives for Iran and for India when it comes to bilateral engagement? To what extent does American, Israeli and Arab concerns influence India’s approach to Iran, notwithstanding its proclaimed doctrine of ‘strategic autonomy’? And what outcomes should India be aiming for through its engagements with Iran? Tune in to find out.

The RBI has imposed major restrictions on the operations of Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL). It has directed Paytm Payments Bank to stop accepting deposits or top-ups in customer accounts, wallets, FASTags, and other instruments after February 29. An RBI circular stated that this action follows an audit report and a compliance validation report by external auditors, which revealed “persistent non-compliances and continued material supervisory concerns in the bank, warranting further supervisory action”. The Paytm founders have written to the RBI governor and the finance minister asking them to reconsider the regulatory action against them. What exactly are the allegations against Paytm? What does the RBI action mean – for Paytm, for the fintech sector, and for ordinary users? What are the issues with the regulatory framework for the digital payments ecosystem? Guest: Srikanth Lakshmanan of Cashless Consumer, a consumer collective that works on fintech. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

If you or your child has a bad cough, the first thing you’ll probably do is reach for a cough syrup. It’s easy, it's available over the counter and there’s no fuss about taking it. But does it work? Is it at all effective to help your cough go away? Last year, a panel of the US Food and Drug Administration came to the agreement that phenylephrine, a common ingredient used in a number of cough and cold medicines is completely ineffective. Health bodies across the world emphasise that over-the-counter cough and cold medication should not be given to very young children – but this continues to be a common practice in India, despite the fact that research has pointed out that it may not even work for them. Two months ago, the Indian government too issued an order with regard to this – it said that a cold medicine combination that contained two ingredients, chlorpheniramine maleate and phenylephrine, should not be used for children under the age of four and these drugs should be labelled accordingly. So should over-the-counter cough/cold medications be stopped for young children? Are they safe for older children to take? If they are ineffective, why are they being prescribed and sold? What can adults use instead? Tune in to find out.

Pakistan goes to the polls on the 8th of February to elect members of what will be its 16th lower House or National Assembly. The polls come just as former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been convicted in two successive cases and stands debarred from contesting elections. His party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, or PTI as it is known, is fighting with its back to the wall. Pakistan Muslim League leader Nawaz Sharif fancies his chances of becoming Prime Minister for an unprecedented fourth term. Many analysts believe that he has the blessings of the Army establishment on this occasion. The Pakistan People’s Party of Bilawal Bhutto and Asif Zardari is also in the electoral fray, with Bilawal Bhutto training his guns on Nawaz Sharif. A far-right Islamist Party, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, could cut votes of mainstream parties. It is a party to be watched.

In the past few weeks, there has been a surge of complaints from passengers about Digiyatra. Their main complaint is about security personnel and airport staff collecting their biometrics for the app, using coercion and deception. According to travellers, CISF personnel at the entry gates were asking them to scan their boarding pass and capturing their photos, and then enrolling them in the Digi Yatra app without even informing them. The element of coercion is especially startling as the Ministry of Civil Aviation, when it unveiled the Digi Yaytra policy in 2018, had made it clear that it would be entirely voluntary. Digital rights experts have highlighted several other concerns about the Digi Yatra app, related to privacy, surveillance, exclusion, lack of transparency and accountability, and violation of the passenger’s dignity and autonomy. The Ministry, on its part, has said that the only objective of the Digi Yatra’s biometrics-enabled, digital processing of passengers is to usher in “paper-less and seamless movement through various checkpoints” at airports. Is the Digi Yatra app safe? Is it reliable? How do airports in other countries process passengers? And is Digi Yatra really worth it or should it be withdrawn?

This is a crossover episode On February 1, the BJP-led government will place its Interim Budget in Parliament, seeking a vote on account. Has the NDA government’s economic performance in its second term fared better than its first? Here we discuss the question.

The Australian Open likes to call itself ‘the Happy Slam’ and this year’s edition sure turned out to be a happy one for India. Rohan Bopanna became a Men’s Doubles Grand Slam champion for the first time and claimed the World No. 1 ranking at the age of 43. In Men’s Singles, Sumit Nagal made it to the main draw after coming through three qualifying rounds and scored an upset victory over 31st seed Alexander Bublik in the first round – the first time in nearly 40 years that an Indian has beaten a seeded player at a major. The first slam of the year also produced a new Grand Slam champion in Jannik Sinner, while Aryna Sabalenbka mounted a successful defense of the title she won last year. With the Australian Open setting the tone for the rest of the season, some intriguing questions arise. Will 2024 be the year that Gen X finally takes over from the Big Three? How can Sumit Nagal build on his Australian Open exploits to move further up the rankings? And who are the exciting new names to watch out for in the months to come? 

This year’s Annual Status of Education Report or ASER, ‘Beyond Basics’, surveyed over 34,000 young people aged between 14 and 18, in 28 districts across the country, to get an inkling into: what are the young people of India currently doing? What are their basic maths and reading abilities like? And how do they navigate the digital world through smartphone use? The results were perhaps not very surprising given that ASER, which is brought out by the NGO Pratham, has been flagging concerns about reading and numeracy levels among primary school children. It showed that about 25% of these teens could not read a second standard text fluently in their regional language and over 50% struggled with a fourth standard-level division problem. It also showed however, that over 85% of these teenagers were enrolled in an educational institution, and that digital awareness skills are high – nearly 90% had access to a smartphone and knew how to use it. What do these results indicate about the education system in India? How is the country doing with regards to the Nipun Bharat Mission which aims towards foundational literacy and numeracy? Will the gaps in education hurt the employment prospects of young people and how can they be fixed? Can their ease with digital devices be harnessed towards bettering their education? Tune in to find out.

India’s public distribution system – its ration shops – through which subsidised food grains are distributed to the poor is the largest such welfare programme in the world. It is a lifeline that saves millions from hunger. But for the past few years, the Union government has been running pilot projects where fortified rice --- rice enhanced with iron and vitamins – is being distributed instead of natural grains. The reason given by the government for this switch is that it will reduce anaemia in the population. But a great number of the poor – especially the adivasi communities – do not like it, calling it ‘plastic rice’. Public health experts have also advised caution on giving this rice to people with sickle cell anaemia and thalassemia – and there is a high incidence both among the beneficiaries of the PDS in India. Despite problems at the pilot stage, and reports about lack of adequate quality control and testing infrastructure, the government has a target of scaling up fortified rice universally from March 2024. Is there scientific evidence that fortified rice is the best solution for anaemia? Does a poor person who cannot consume fortified rice for medical reasons have an alternative? And what exactly is driving the mega-push towards fortified rice in a country where local grain varieties with higher iron content are available?

What began on October 7 as a conflict between Israel and Hamas seems to be spreading across the entire region. Even after 100 days of a conflict that has already claimed the lives of more than 25,000 people, Israel’s military assault on Gaza continues. But this war has sprouted many secondary plot-lines: Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shia group backed by Iran, has been exchanging fire with the Israeli military. Shia groups that serve as Iran’s proxies have been attacking US and Israeli assets in Syria and Iraq. Israel itself has been carrying out assassinations of senior Iranian generals and intelligence officers. And Iran has done strikes on what it claims were Mossad assets in Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan. It also carried out missile and drone attacks on Pakistani territory, sparking a retaliatory strike on its own territory from Pakistan. Amid all this, the Houthis of Yemen have kept up attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, and in response, the US has been bombing Houthi positions in Yemen. So, how does one make sense of all that’s going on? Is the West Asia security architecture unravelling? And how are these confrontations likely to develop in the weeks to come? Tune in to find out.

A new paper released by the NITI Aayog has claimed that multidimensional poverty (MDI) has declined from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23, and that 24.82 crore people “escaped” from multidimensional poverty during this 9-year period. Titled ‘Multidimensional Poverty in India since 2005-06: A Discussion Paper’, the NITI Aayog report claims that India is well on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 1.2) of “halving multidimensional poverty” by 2030. The report also claims that various government initiatives such as Poshan Abhiyan, Anaemia Mukt Bharat and Ujjwala Yojana have played a major role in mitigating different forms of deprivation. On the face of it, India managing to reduce its poverty head count is a great achievement. But at the same time, development economists have been complaining about the increasing paucity in relevant data. Are Niti Aayog’s claims based on hard data or are they projections? Does a reduction in multidimensional poverty headcount actually mean a reduction in poverty? And how do these claims square with India’s worsening rank in the Global Hunger Index, for instance?

Having a loved one in intensive care at a hospital is an experience many of us have gone through, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s a stressful time, what with the strain of a relative being ill, the decisions you may have to take, and the costs you have to tackle. What should ICU care look like in India? The Union Health Ministry recently released a list of guidelines that list out criteria for ICU admissions and discharges, the role of intensivists or critical care specialists in the ICU and the patient as well as the family’s right to refuse admission. What do these guidelines say? How do doctors usually deal with consent in ICU settings? What happens if there is a difference of opinion between patients and doctors when it comes to ICU care? Tune in to find out!

Relations between India and Maldives seem to have hit a rough patch. First came some controversial remarks from Maldivian politicians on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lakshadweep visit, prompting a ‘boycott Maldives’ campaign on Indian social media. Then came a joint press communiqué with China, which committed to “elevating strategic cooperation” between Maldives and China. This was followed by remarks from Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, on his return from China, that although Maldives was a small country, it “won’t be bullied”, that the “Indian Ocean does not belong to any one country”, and that Maldives “is not in anyone’s backyard”. But for India, the most troubling development is Maldives setting a March 15 deadline – effectively an ultimatum -- to withdraw all its troops from the island nation. What exactly does all this mean for India? Is it purely an effect of Maldives’ domestic politics, with general elections due in March? Or should New Delhi be concerned about a more enduring shift in Maldivian foreign policy? Tune in to know more!

The Telecommunications Act, 2023 was passed by Parliament in the Winter Session of Parliament last year. The Act consolidates much of the telecom laws that existed beforehand, and repeals colonial-era laws that have been updated over the course of over 137 years.  While the Act is short in length at just over 45 pages, much of its implementation will be done through notifications and orders that will be passed directly by the government, with no prior approval necessary from Parliament.  What does this Act do differently from the colonial-era laws? Is it a revamp of telecom laws or just a consolidation of the status quo? What are the concerns around surveillance and regulation of messaging apps? 

For at least a year and a half now, most of us have relegated Covid-19 to the back of our minds. Cases of the virus had drastically reduced, it was not mentioned in headlines any more, and life seemed to have got somewhat back to normal as we learnt to live with Covid. It’s difficult however to ignore the news of yet another coronavirus mutation – this latest sub-variant, JN.1, a descendent of the Omicron variant, has been classified by the World Health Organisation as a ‘variant of interest’ because it has led to a rapid rise in cases across countries. But the WHO has said that the risk to public health is low, and this has been echoed by the Union Health Ministry in India which has said that JN.1 is not a cause of immediate concern. India has seen a surge in cases over the past few days – as of December 27, a total of 109 cases of JN.1 have been detected in the country. Active Covid-19 cases now stand at over 4,000 and several deaths have been reported over the past few days. With winter having set in across north India, pollution levels on the rise and respiratory infections doing the rounds, do we need to be worried about JN.1? Is this sub-variant more infectious than previous variants? Does it have higher vaccine escape properties? Would a booster shot of the vaccine help? And do we need to mask up again? Tune in to find out.

This month, there’s been a lot of excitement in the medical world over the approval given to treatments for diseases that based on genome editing. What’s this all about? In 2020, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry was given to two women scientists, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for their discovery of what is essentially a genetic scissors, a tool that allows scientists to cut specific sites of a human being’s DNA, or to edit it, by making minor changes. This tool, known as the CRISPR/Cas9 system, opened up opportunities to treat certain genetic or inherited disorders. Two of these are blood disorders, beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease, up until now could only be cured through bone marrow transplants. Now, they can potentially be cured by editing the patient’s own genes. In the Union Budget this year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced a sickle cell anaemia mission - to eliminate the condition by 2047. India is the second-worst affected country in terms of predicted births with sickle cell anaemia. As exciting as these new developments sound, they will likely be extremely expensive and therefore, probably unaffordable to many. Also, the clinical trials, have at present, only evaluated a small number of patients for relatively short durations and there is a need to constantly monitor the safety and efficacy of these therapies. So what exactly does genome editing involve? Can its potential be expanded to treat far more diseases, and what lies ahead in this field? What are the concerns surrouding this - could there be unintended consequences to genetic modifications?

This has been a question that has triggered a lot of research, a lot of debate and a lot of questions. A recent meta-analysis of 34 studies looked at excessive screen use and its links to your cognitive functioning. The results of the analysis, conducted by researchers in Australia, says that there is a clear link between disordered screen behaviour – or persisting with screen use even when it’s harmful for you, and your cognitive performance, specifically your attention and executive functioning. They found that sustained attention, the ability to maintain your focus for an extended period was affected – and this is something many of us may have felt as devices have increasingly taken over our lives, whether it’s for work, learning or recreation. In India, smartphone use and internet subscribers grew during the Covid-19 pandemic period, particularly as schools went online with digital learning. So what does all of this device time do to our brains, our functioning, our interactions with others and our productivity? How does addictive device use affect your mental health, and how much of a problem is it in India? And crucially, how much screen time is good for you? Tune in to find out.

As Israel continues its indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza, causing thousands of civilian deaths, it has continued to enjoy unconditional military and political backing from the United States. Last week, as the US vetoed yet another resolution at the UN calling for a ceasefire, it found itself almost completely isolated on the world stage. A few days ago, President Joe Biden said that Israel risks losing international support if it continued to bomb Gaza indiscriminately. Does this suggest the US is thinking of recalibrating its support? What has been the nature of the US’s historical backing of Israel? Is the Biden administration’s Middle-East policy venturing into uncharted territory? With the US launching a ten-nation force to counter attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, is it at risk of getting dragged into a wider regional war?

In August this year, the Union government introduced three Bills to overhaul the country’s criminal justice system. The were – the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 to replace the Indian Penal Code, 1860; Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 to replace the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973; and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023 to replace the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. Last week, the government withdrew these three bills and reintroduced newer versions of them. It has said claimed the recommendations of a Parliamentary Standing Committee have been incorporated in the newer versions. There has been little public debate or consultations on such a large scale legislative move to alter the base of the criminal justice system. What are the major changes envisaged in these bills? Do they enhance or curtail civil liberties? Is there merit in the fears that they seek to weaponise the police by expanding their powers? 

A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has upheld the abrogation of Article 370 and the subsequent reorganisation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories. While the judgement has been hailed as a historic one, it has also raised concerns regarding the federal system, which is understood to be part of the basic structure of the Constitution. So, what exactly was the judicial reasoning behind the Supreme Court judgement, and what are its larger implications, especially for other Indian states, and the federal structure? 

This year’s edition of the United Nations climate summit, COP-28, concluded in Dubai earlier this week. It began with a lot of expectations – especially on the key issue of phasing out fossil fuels. In the end, a deal seems to have been worked out – to transition away from fossil fuels. What exactly does the ‘Dubai Consensus’ entail? What are the other major takeaways from the summit? What progress, if any, has been made on climate justice? And given the slow and limited progress in CoP meetings, are there alternative modes of collective decision-making on climate action? Guest: Kanchi Kohli, Researcher (Environment, Law and Governance) and co-author of the book ‘Development of Environmental Laws in India’. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Argentina’s president-elect Javier Milei, a self-described ‘anarcho-capitalist’, has threatened to disband his country’s currency, the peso, and adopt the US dollar in its place. Argentina has been grappling with hyperinflation for a long time – it was above in November 2023. Milei has argued that dollarisation of the Argentine economy will bring inflation down, and usher in a stable climate favourable for investment. How exactly does dollarisation work? What are the risks it entails? And what has been the experience of countries such as Ecuador which have already tried it? 

Reports of a spike in respiratory illnesses in China have recently caused some amount of panic. Perhaps this is not surprising considering that next month will mark four years since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out and changed the world as we knew it. The current surge of illnesses however, have been reported primarily among children.  On November 22, the World Health Organisation requested information from China about these infections. Subsequently, Chinese authorities have said that the outbreak is due to a number of pathogens – all of them known, none of them new. On November 26, the Indian government asked State Governments to ensure that the influenza-like illnesses (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illnesses (SARI) be closely monitored, particularly in children and adolescents. Several State governments have since then, stepped up their surveillance measures, especially as winter sets in, in many parts of India while parts of the south are experiencing heavy rains. We have since heard about RSV, adenoviruses and mycloplasma that have been the causes behind many of these infections. So what are these pathogens that have caused the Chinese outbreak? Why are they affecting children? Does India have cause for concern? And what measures can we take to safeguard ourselves? We discuss these and more in this episode. Tune in!

The BJP has won the elections in three of the four states whose results were declared on Sunday. It has won in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, while the Congress bagged Telengana. In Mizoram, the Zoram People’s Movement is headed for a majority. The BJP has stamped its dominance in the Hindi heartland. The results, however, seem to have taken many by surprise – especially the margins of victory. What went wrong for the Congress, especially in Chhattisgarh, where it was expected to win? What were the deciding factors in MP and Rajasthan? What lessons can Congress draw from its win in Telangana? And what do the Congress’s losses mean for the INDIA alliance, in the context of the 2024 general elections?

A politician known as the ‘Dutch Donald Trump’ has won the general elections in the Netherlands. Geert Wilders, the leader of the far-right Party for Freedom, or PVV as it is known, is a frontrunner to be the next Dutch Prime Minister after his party won 37 seats, ahead of the outgoing PM Mark Rutte’s VVD, which got only 24. Wilders is both anti-Islam and anti-immigration. He is also anti-EU and is opposed to sending weapons to Ukraine. His victory in a country known for its tolerance and multiculturalism has come as a surprise. How did he end up winning? What are the chances of him heading the next government? What are the implications of his victory for the immigrant minorities, and the Muslims in particular, who comprise 5% of the Dutch population?

The 28th UN climate conference, or COP28, is starting today in Dubai, and will go on till December 12th. Delegates from almost 200 countries, as well as climate scientists, business leaders, and other stakeholders will take part in the meeting. It is clear the world is not on course to meet the target set in the Paris Agreement – which is to keep the global rise in temperatures within the 1.5-degree Celsius limit. There are indications that if we continue with our current climate policies, the earth would be warmer by 3 degree Celsius by 2100 – which would make severe climate events a regular occurrence. What is top of the agenda at COP28? Will there be progress in funding the ‘loss and damage fund’ established at COP27? Is there a developing consensus on what climate accountability might look like?

After winning ten matches on the trot, India could not win one more and bring home the World Cup. It started the final as favourites, but things did not go according to the expectations that fans had built up over one month of pure magic. So, what went wrong for India? Was the match lost with the toss itself? Was Australia too good on the day? Or did India make mistakes? If it did, what were they, and what are the positives we can take away from this tournament?

Most of us would remember the sudden shortage of semiconductor chips during the pandemic – how it affected automobile manufacturing, delaying deliveries, and in many cases, even caused manufacturers to deliver cars without some features. But semiconductors form an integral component of not just cars but almost any high tech device we use today – from smartphones and laptops to televisions, satellites and, of course, all kinds of advanced military hardware. As nations jockey for geopolitical dominance, in addition to traditional factors such as military capabilities and economic power, technological prowess has become another, and perhaps most critical factor. Control over the manufacture and availability of the most advanced semiconductors is a key element of geopolitical security and strategic autonomy. And yet, geopolitics and semiconductor supply chains have mostly figured in separate debates. A new book, titled ‘When the Chips are Down’, by Pranay Lotasthane and Abhiram Manchi brings the two parallel discourses together, and also presents a framework for understanding where India fits into the picture. We speak with the authors Pranay Kotasthane and Abhiram Manchi. 

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) released a set of guidelines last month for the Central and State governments to tackle the problem of Child Sexual Abuse Material or CSAM on the internet. Over the past few years, there has been a colossal increase in the availability of CSAM online. In its 2023 report, WeProtect Global Alliance, which consists of governments, companies and charities working together for digital safety, said there was an 87% increase in such cases since 2019. What is the situation like in India? The NHRC says, that according to the Cyber Tipline 2022 statistics, of the 32 million reports received about child sexual abuse material, 5.6 million reports were uploaded by perpetrators based in India. Recently, the United Kingdom passed a stringent online safety bill that introduces a number of obligations on how large tech firms must design, operate and moderate their platforms. Other countries too are contemplating or have already put in place such measures. What are the vulnerabilities children in our country face, when they go online with their devices? How does child sexual abuse material online lead to offline consequences? Where does India stand when it comes to regulating and making the digital space safe for children?

As we keep hearing everyday, artificial Intelligence is on the verge of fundamentally changing the way human beings live and work. There are also many fears about the dangers posed by AI – which range from mass disinformation and privacy risks, to extinction of the human race itself. Amid this debate over how to regulate AI so that we are able to benefit from it while keeping it safe, governments around the world have been coming up with proposals for AI governance. The latest is the Biden administration’s Executive Order on the Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence. What are the concerns shaping these preliminary moves toward AI regulation? Are there any fundamental principles that an AI regulatory regime needs to address? What are the potential conflicts – say, between the interests of AI researchers and ordinary citizens --- when framing such laws?

Just about a month ago, Rescurity, an American cyber security firm, said that personal information of 815 million Indians was being sold on the dark web. This included details such as Aadhar numbers and passport details. The persons selling this information claimed that it was from the Indian Council of Medical Research or ICMR, the country’s premier scientific research body. This is not the first time ICMR has been subject a cyber attack – 6,000 such attempts were reported just last year. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences – AIIMS in Delhi has also been hit by cyber attacks – in one ransomware case, the hackers took over the servers, encrypted the data, and made it impossible for the hospital to access its own systems. Health data consists of sensitive, personal information and once stolen, can increase the risk of digital identity theft, online banking thefts, tax frauds and other financial crimes. India was ranked fourth across the world in all malware detection in the first of 2023, as per a survey from Resucurity. Even as this is going on, the Central government launched an ambitious Ayushman Bharat Digital Initiative in 2021. During the Covid-19 pandemic, our Aadhar and other details were used for both testing and vaccination services. So how safe is our health data with the government or private health organisations? How well does the Data Protection Act, that came into force this year protect this sensitive information? Is our right to privacy over our personal information being adequately safeguarded in India?

Can breathing in polluted air, day after day, increase your risk of diabetes? A study conducted in India and published in the BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care journal last month, says, yes. Researchers studied over 12,000 adults in Chennai and in Delhi over a period of seven years from 2010 to 2017. Their blood sugar levels were measured periodically. A satellite-based hybrid exposure model was used to check for pollution levels – this assessed the daily average ambient PM 2.5 concentrations in Delhi and Chennai for each day of the study period. PM 2.5 refers to particles that are really tiny – 2.5 microns or less in diameter. These can enter the bloodstream and cause a number of respiratory and heart diseases. Considering that India was ranked the 8th most polluted country in the world as per the 2022 World Air Quality Report, and with Delhi currently choking on a toxic smog and the air quality remaining poor, this is of special concern in our country. Added to this, latest estimates indicate that 10.13 crore people in our country of 140 crore could potentially be diabetic. So how does pollution increase your risk of type 2 diabetes? Are those growing up in India now at a significantly higher risk of getting diabetes younger? Do we need to add polluted air to the list of risk factors such as unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyles? And what steps can the government and the public take to help decrease this risk and work towards clean air for all? 

A court in Qatar has handed death sentences to eight Indian citizens, all of them former personnel of the Indian navy. The ex-navymen were convicted on espionage charges. India has termed the sentencing ‘deeply shocking’ and has said it is exploring all legal options. The Indians were all employees of a defunct company, Doha-based Dahra Global, and had been arrested in August 2022. How did these Indian nationals end up in this situation? What are the chances that their lives can be saved? And what can New Delhi do to bring them safely back to India?

This year’s Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Prof Claudia Goldin for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes. Prof Goldin’s work has looked at women’s participation in the labour force, changes across decades and the gender gap in earnings that continues to exist even today. In fact, the 2023 Global Gender Gap report pegged the gap score at 68.4%, and said it would take 131 years to equalise earnings between men and women at the current rate of progress.  But how does India fare in all of this? A State of Working India 2023 report, brought out by the Azim Premji University reveals that some of Prof Goldin’s findings about women in the workforce may apply in India as well. The double burden of household work and a job continues to affect women, gender norms play a significant role and the Covid-19 pandemic had a massive impact.

Maldives has elected a new President, Mohamed Muizzu from the Progressive Party of Maldives. In the elections that concluded in September, he defeated the incumbent, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of the Maldivian Democratic Party. The elections were also viewed by many as a referendum on the country’s foreign policy. While Solih was perceived as pro-India, Muizzu is seen as pro-China. One of the main election promises made by Muizzu was to end any Indian military presence on Maldivian territory. Muizzu is set to formally take office on November 17. What prompted Muizzu to build his poll campaign around opposition to Indian military presence in Maldives? Will Maldives foreign policy now take a pro-China tilt? And for India, what are the strategic implications of Solih’s exit from power?

Five states go to the polls this month – Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Mizoram. Political analysts have taken to describing them as the ‘semi-finals’ before the finals, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Part of the reason for this characterisation is that in three of the states – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh – the elections will see a direct face-off between the BJP and the Congress. How do the contesting parties stack up in different states, and what is the significance, if any, of these elections at the national level?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said earlier this month that India will leave no stone unturned in its bid to host the 2036 Olympics. While India has hosted major multi-nation, multi-discipline sports events --- the Commonwealth Games of 2010 and the Asian Games of 1982 come to mind – the Olympics is of an altogether different order of magnitude. Several questions pop up as India aspires to host the Olympics. How does the bidding process work? What are the costs likely to be? Can India afford it? And what is the scale of infrastructure that India would have to create in order to be able to pull it off? 

Earlier this month, a married woman, who was 26 weeks pregnant, approached the Supreme Court, asking to be allowed to terminate her pregnancy. This was the woman’s third pregnancy, and she told the Court that she did not want to have the baby. She also said she was suffering from post-partum depression and other health issues. She did not know of her pregnancy until quite late, as she was breastfeeding, which can temporarily prevent pregnancies. The Court first agreed to allow her to terminate. But subsequently, following a hospital report that said the foetus was viable and had a heartbeat, and a medical board report that said the pregnancy was not causing an immediate danger to the woman or foetus’s life, the Court rejected her plea to abort the foetus. The case has sparked a pro-life vs pro-choice debate. Only last year, in a landmark ruling in a case known as X vs NCT the Supreme Court had said it is the woman alone who has the right over her body and was the ultimate decision-maker. But this apart, the case has also thrown into spotlight the laws surrounding abortion in India . So what do the laws, including the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act say? Why do women need to approach the Courts for a termination? Why is it that women across the country still find it hard to access safe and legal abortion services?

In Part 1 of this series, we looked at the origins of this conflict, which began with the steady influx of Jewish settlers in Palestinian territories and culminated in the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. In the second part, we explored the key developments of the conflict from 1948 to the present – the wars that took place in 1948, 1956, 1962, 1982, the First Intifada, the Second Intifada, the Oslo process, the rise of Hamas, and so on. In this final episode of the three part series, we will explore the key factors driving the current explosion of conflict in the region and its potential fallout over the medium term.

In the first part of this series, we looked at the origins of this conflict, which began with the steady influx of Jewish settlers in Palestinian territories and culminated in the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. In this episode, we explore key developments from 1948 to the present – the wars that took place in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, the Camp David agreement, the First Intifada, the Oslo process and reasons for its collapse, the Second Intifada, the rise of Hamas, and other aspects of the conflict.

When it comes to taxes, there is one definitive trend in all countries: the wealthiest entities, be it billionaires, or multinational corporations, enjoy the lowest effective rates of taxation. And this is in a context where governments around the world are cutting down on welfare programmes because they ostensibly can’t afford the resources to sustain them. To reduce inequality, fair and effective taxation is absolutely critical, and yet, largely missing. The European Union Tax Observatory (EU Tax Observatory) has come out with a report on this subject, titled ‘Global Tax Evasion Report’. It summarises the work of more than 100 researchers worldwide and quantifies the magnitude and dynamics of tax evasion. We discuss this report and its findings.

The Israel-Palestine conflict has turned into a giant humanitarian crisis over the past week, with thousands of civilians, including women children being killed. Many of them were killed when hospitals were bombed. The UN Security Council’s attempt to pass a resolution calling for a humanitarian pause in the bombing campaign by Israel was blocked by the US and its allies. International public opinion has become sharply polarised into two camps – those defending Israel’s right to do whatever it wants to wipe out Hamas, and those calling for an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid to Gaza, and a peace process premised on ending the Israeli occupation of Gaza and West Bank. While this conflict dates back to the 19th century, if not earlier, a lot of the background and nuances are often lost in the polemics of the present. This episode is the first in a three-part series on the Israel-Palestine conflict where we seek to detail the history, context, and developments around this conflict from the beginning till the present. In this episode, we trace the origins of this conflict: What was the nature of historical Palestine? What was the Balfour declaration? And how exactly did Palestine become the chosen homeland for Jews from around the world? 

The Supreme Court, in a judgement this week refused to give legal recognition to same sex marriages. The court had heard a series of petitions asking for same-sex marriage to be allowed under the Special Marriage Act of 1954 which provides a civil form of marriage for couples who cannot marry under their personal, religious laws. The question before the Court was this: is there a right to marry under the Indian Constitution and is preventing same sex/queer couples from marrying, discriminatory? A five-judge Bench of the Court held that that the SMA was not unconstitutional and could not be read down. The petitioners had also questioned the Central Adoption Regulatory Authority, or CARA’s regulations that prevented persons in live-in relationships from adopting a child. Here again, the majority three judges, refused to strike down these regulations. The Central government, had stiffly opposed any judicial recognition of same sex marriages and had said that this was an issue that needed to be resolved by the legislature and not the judiciary. The Court has now shifted the burden to the government, and has directed that a committee be set up to examine the concerns of same sex/queer couples and to see whether the existing legal framework can be amended. In effect, the Court has accepted that the issue needs to be dealt with by the government. What are the key takeaways from the judgement? How did the Court rule on marriages of transgender persons? Given this setback, what are the next steps that can be taken?

The Dussehra festivities are here, and so are Dussehra processions. In Mysore, like every year, this time too, the elephant Abhimanyu will carry the 750-kg Golden Howdah and lead the procession. Abhimanyu is 59 years old and this could be one of the last times he performs his annual duty. While people love temple elephants and pachyderms like Abhimanyu are an integral part of religious rituals, it is, nonetheless, a fact that elephants are wild animals, and their transition to life in captivity is rarely without distress. In this episode of InFocus, we look at the life trajectory of Abhimanyu, and the larger issues around human-elephant conflict in the context of captive elephants. 

It has taken the country over 25 years to pass the Bill, after it was first introduced in the Lok Sabha in 1996, by the then Deve Gowda-led United Front government. At that time, it was heatedly opposed, and subsequently, despite being reintroduced several times, the Bill was not passed, until this year. In 1993 however, then prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao brought in Bills which reserved one third (33%) of all seats and chairperson posts for women in rural and urban local bodies. These Bills were passed and became laws. Today, the country has nearly 15 lakh elected women representatives in panchayats and other local bodies. The representation of women in our Parliament however, is dismal – just about 15%, lower even than Pakistan and Kenya. Why is women’s reservation in Parliament and State Legislatures important? What has been the experience of elected women’s representatives in local bodies and what are the changes they have managed to bring about? What are the barriers to women entering the political sphere? And how will this Bill, which is not going to be implemented in the immediate future, pan out? Tune in.

Earlier this month, the Bihar government published the ‘Bihar Caste-based Survey 2022’. The survey data showed that extremely backward classes (EBCs) and other backward classes (OBCs) together made up nearly 63% of the 13-crore population, making them the largest caste group in the State. The Congress has made a demand for a caste survey a core element of its poll campaign in the forthcoming assembly elections, and the INDIA alliance is likely to do the same in the 2024 general elections as well. So, what does the data of the Bihar caste survey reveal? Is the caste survey only about removing the existing caps on reservations? Is it likely that a Mandal 2.0 moment will emerge in opposition to ‘Kamandal’ politics? 

More than 3,000 people -- Israelis and Palestinians -- have been killed following a surprise attack on southern Israel by the militant Palestinian group Hamas. The military operation, named ‘Toofan Al-Aqsa’ by Hamas, has brought back into the spotlight the most critical element of sustainable peace in West Asia – Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territories. Israel has declared war on Hamas and laid siege to Gaza. It has launched a bombing campaign over Gaza, and cut off supplies of all essentials, including water, electricity and food. In the days to come, Palestinian civilian casualties are likely to surpass the civilian casualties caused by Hamas’ attack. Why did Hamas launch this attack? What does this war mean for the recent geopolitical realignments in the region? And how did Mossad, considered by many to be the world’s most capable intelligence agency, fail to detect a full blown military invasion?

Diplomatic relations between India and Canada have never been this strained. The current spat between the two countries began when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in Parliament that there were credible allegations of the Indian government’s involvement in the murder of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Now India, in the latest salvo, has asked Canada to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats from the country. India has long wanted Canada to crack down on the activities of Khalistani separatists on its soil – something Canada has not been keen to do. What are the factors driving the Canadian government on this issue, given that Khalistani separatism has been an irritant in bilateral relations for a long time now? And how does a diplomatic confrontation with India gel with Canada’s foreign policy that seeks an Indo-Pacific pivot with an objective of ‘containing’ China?

The proposed Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita or BNS, may soon replace the Indian Penal Code or IPC, a piece of legislation that has dealt with crimes and their punishments since 1860. One of the clauses under the BNS, clause 69, has recently sparked off a debate. Clause 69 says that if a man promises to marry a woman, but does not actually intend to marry her, and still has consensual sex with her, this will amount to a criminal offence. Sex under deceitful means or false promises to marry, may be punished with a prison term that can extend up to 10 years. With this a separate section has been carved out, differentiating these cases from rape cases. Criminalising sex based on a false promise to marry is not new: the courts in India have interpreted such cases as rape for years, relying on sections 375 and 90 of the existing IPC. With the proposed clause 69 though, consensual sex can be framed as rape, if a man does not carry out his promise to marry the woman. There’s another element to this: Indian courts so far have distinguished between cases where the promise to marry was false from the beginning, and a breach of promise where the man intended to marry the woman, but could not do so for “legitimate reasons”. These reasons, as per judgements can be parental opposition, or, if the parties are from different castes, the courts have indicated that the woman should have known marriage would not have been possible. But how can the intent to marry be established? What happens when the first instance of sex was forced, and subsequently, a promise is made to marry, but is then not carried out? Should criminal law play a part at all in intimate relationships? And do such provisions undermine the sexual autonomy of women or are they the only way women can claim for damages when they have been harmed in a relationship?

Think of Himachal Pradesh, and you’ll most likely think of apples growing there. Soon though, this apple-growing State may legalise a new crop: cannabis. Last month, a five-member panel constituted by the government submitted a report that said the legalisation of cannabis would be a game-changer for the state, enabling it to generate revenue and create employment.  Himachal Pradesh is not the first state to consider this: in 2018, Uttarakhand became the first State in India to legalise the cultivation of cannabis for industrial and scientific purposes. Controlled cultivation has also been allowed in parts of other States including UP and Madhya Pradesh. Cannabis, marijuana or ganja as it is commonly known, has a centuries-old history in India. It has grown wild abundantly, has been cultivated, consumed and parts of this versatile plant have been used for various purposes. In 1985 however, the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act or the NDPS Act banned the use of the resin, flowering and fruit tops of the plant.  Cannabis is made up of more than 120 components. Researchers now know a lot about two of them, cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC is a psychoactive substance, while CBD is not. Over the years, countries across the world have begun relaxing their stance on the use of cannabis, for recreation, and exploring the many uses that its extracts can have in both the industrial and significantly, in the medical field. Research has shown that cannabidiol or CBD can help treat childhood epilepsy syndromes that don’t respond to anti-seizure medicine, and may also help with anxiety, insomnia and chronic pain. In India too, there is now a growing industry for hemp products and cannabidiol or CBD: in just 3 years at least 50 new startups are reported to have come up in the country. So how does Indian law regulate cannabis? Do the laws need to be eased for medical and industrial uses? Should the recreational use of cannabis be allowed or will legalisation increase the drug abuse burden in India?

The net financial savings of households in India has fallen to a five-decade low of just 5.1% of the GDP in FY 2023. It was 7.2% in FY 2022. This is a worrying development, because a high savings rate has traditionally correlated with a healthy growth rate. Data released by the RBI also shows that at the same time that household savings have fallen, financial liabilities of households have risen sharply – from 3.8% of GDP in FY 2022 to 5.8% in FY 2023. This is not good news, when viewed alongside the high inflation and high interest rates that we have right now. So, what are the reasons for the historic decline in savings rate? What does this mean for India’s growth and investment targets? And what does the government need to do to reverse this trend of falling savings rate? 

International cricket’s biggest event is starting tomorrow in Ahmedabad. The 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup will go on till November 19, featuring 48 matches spread across ten cities. Ten teams will vie for the coveted trophy. While defending champions England will be strong contenders, India, as the host nation, will be under tremendous pressure to bring home the Cup. How do the teams stack up? How easy has it been for fans to get tickets? And what does recent form say about who the favourites are?

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education has flagged its concerns over a key element of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 – the multiple exit and entry system for students in higher education. The Committee’s report, titled “Implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 in Higher Education,” says that a policy of multiple entry/exit for undergraduate students may not work well in the Indian context. It took this view following strong objections from students and teachers. Already, some states, including Kerala, have refused to implement the multiple entry/exit system. So, what is the rationale behind the government’s introduction of this feature in college education? How is it meant to work? And why are students and teachers opposed to it?

The government introduced a new Bill in the Rajya Sabha in August – the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023. It repeals the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991. This Bill was initially listed for discussion in the special session of Parliament this month, before being held back. But it has sparked a big debate about the implications of this Bill, especially the provisions that removed the Supreme Court Chief Justice from the selection panel, and altered the status of the Election Commissioner – from being equivalent to a Supreme Court judge, to that of a Cabinet Secretary. 

Overnight- ties between India and Canada, already quite tense, took a turn for the worse- within days of returning from Delhi where he attended the G20 summit, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a startling announcement in parliament.  In this episode of Worldview, we look at the diplomatic war that has broken out between India and Canada, as Canadian PM Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of masterminding the killing of a Khalistani separatist leader. 

A new study from Nutrition Advocacy for Public Interest (NAPI), titled The Junk Push: Rising UItra Processed Food Consumption In India: Policy, Politics and Reality, paints a grim picture of misleading marketing, rising consumption of Ultra Processed Foods (UPFs) in India, and the role of UPFs in triggering an epidemic non-communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension, among others, with children being particularly vulnerable. To find out how to identify harmful UPFs and why they are a public health concern, we speak with Dr Arun Gupta, Convener of NAPI and former member of PM’s Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges. 

Recently, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national president N. Chandrababu Naidu was arrested by the Crime Investigation Department for his alleged complicity in the ₹371-crore A.P. Skill Development Corporation ‘scam’, which reportedly took place during his term as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister between 2014 and 2019. The TDP termed the arrest a “political vendetta” against Mr. Naidu by the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government. The ruling party argued that there is “clinching evidence” in the case. Here we discuss whether corruption cases against politicians are driven by political rivalries.

In this bonus episode, Suhasini Haider looks at all that the G20 Summit in India was able to achieve- the big wins, the spotlight, the shade and the seven big takeaways.

The Nipah virus is back in the news. For the fourth time in five years, Kerala is battling an outbreak of Nipah. The virus, first documented in Malaysia in 1998, is zoonotic, which means it is transmitted to people from animals, in this case the animals are believed to be the fruit bats of the Pteropus species. As of September 15, six people have tested positive for Nipah virus, and two have died. A Central government team is in Kerala at present and a mobile testing lab has been set up. In infected people, the World Health Organisation says, the virus can cause a range of illnesses from asymptomatic (subclinical) infections to acute respiratory illnesses and fatal encephalitis.  But despite our many brushes with Nipah, there still remains a lot that is unknown – we still need to know more for instance, about how the virus spills over from bats to humans, and why this is happening. There’s also the growing concern of the surge in zoonotic infections across the country – scrub typhus and leptospirosis for instance, and why this is happening.

The RBI has issued a new circular on how banks should go about resetting interest rates on floating rate loans. Interest rates have been rising throughout this year, and customers haven’t been too happy with the way banks impose changes on their loans. But the new RBI guidelines promise to increase transparency and clarity. For one, borrowers will now be given the option to shift from a floating to a fixed rate of interest. Secondly, banks have to offer them the choice of whether they want to raise the EMI or extend the loan tenure, or do a combination of both. What prompted the RBI to come up with these new rules? How will they benefit borrowers? And will it enable more equitable information-sharing between lenders and borrowers? 

The G20 Summit under India’s presidency last week announced the launch of the India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor. It aims to enhance connectivity and trade throughout this corridor, connecting India to Saudi Arabia and then onto Europe.  The other signatories to this proposal are the UAE, France, the EU, the US and Germany. In some quarters, this is also seen as a sort of a challenge to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. That Italy has signalled to China its keenness to exit the Asian nation’s infrastructure initiative adds to the intrigue. 

After two weeks of high octane tennis, the US Open has produced two new champions in men’s and women’s singles. Novak Djokovic has claimed a record 24th Grand Slam. And Coco Gauff has finally fulfilled her promise with a victory over the new world number 1, Aryna Sabalenka. Some of the match-ups were intriguing, and so were their outcomes – Medvedev versus Alcaraz, for instance, and also Karolina Muchova versus Coco Gauff. The tournament has also produced two new world number 1s – Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka. But how long are they likely to hold on to their perch?

How do we understand how an infection affects the human body? And how do we go about the process of finding safe and effective drugs and vaccines for the many diseases that abound? One way scientists do this is through Controlled Human Infection Studies or CHIS, also known as human challenge studies. This involves deliberately exposing a volunteer to a disease-causing germ, in a controlled environment. This is done to understand the various facets of the infection and disease, and also to speed up the process of finding a cure. India has so far stayed away from such studies, because of the many ethical issues involved: the deliberate harm caused and the potential risk of exploitation since volunteers are paid for their participation, though they have been carried out in other countries. Last month however, the country’s premier medical research body, the Indian Council of Medical Research, released a consensus policy document, arguing the case to bring in human infection studies into our country. What exactly will these studies involve? Do they have any benefits over regular clinical trials? After the world saw the sudden explosion of Covid-19, is there a need for deeper, faster studies of infectious diseases especially with resistance to many drugs increasing? Does India have a robust-enough regulatory system to oversee such trials and to ensure transparency and accountability?

The Union government has set up a committee headed by President Ramnath Kovind to look at various aspects of implementing the ‘one nation, one election’ plan. The broad idea is to synchronise the timing of Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections across all States. The proposal for simultaneous elections has raised many concerns. Foremost among them is the impact it will have on federalism. Then there is the question of feasibility – what happens if a state government falls, for instance? Then there are the legal aspects – what are the various constitutional amendments that would be needed, and would the states have to ratify it as well?

President Xi Jinping will not be attending the G-20 summit in Delhi. Instead, Premier Li Qiang with lead the Chinese delegation. This is the first time that Xi will be missing the G-20 summit, and China has offered no explanation for why he won’t be attending. So, what is the significance of Xi skipping such a high profile international event that will also see the likes of US President Joe Biden attending? Is China trying to send a message to India? By staying away from G-20, isn’t Xi missing an opportunity to be front and centre of an important diplomatic forum?

The pandemic wasn’t kind to school children. Two years of lockdown has meant a huge setback in terms of learning outcomes. While children from privileged backgrounds could do online classes, poorer children could not. It has been reported that, post-pandemic, children from marginalised communities have even forgotten what they had learned two years earlier. Now a new research study titled ‘Where are the Kids? The Curious Case of Government Schools in Bihar’ documents the state of schooling and school children in North Bihar. The report was conducted by Jan Jagriti Shati Sangathan and is based on a survey of 81 schools in two districts. It offers revealing glimpses into the state of education in rural India. 

The Parliament has passed the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2023. This law amends the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. While the government claims that the aim of this law is to help fight climate change by promoting afforestation, conservationists have panned the Act. They say it is actually promoting deforestation. Why are environmentalists so worried about this Bill? Does it really take away existing protections afforded to forests? And why are people in the north-eastern states so concerned about this law? 

Over the past few years, we’ve heard the names of a lot of new diseases – we had the Zika virus, the Nipah virus and even an Ebola scare, while the coronavirus pandemic rocked the country. Scientists estimate that about 60% of all known infectious diseases are zoonotic, meaning they spread from animals to people. India has a huge population, with large numbers of livestock reared and the additional issue of climate change events such as heatwaves and floods affecting the country, make us particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases. Which is why, the concept of ‘One Health’ is now being talked about: this is an approach that recognises that the health of humans, animals, plants and their environment is interconnected, and needs a unified approach, across multiple sectors to tackle public health challenges. India’s National One Health Mission, being led by the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor, is part of its G20 health priorities. But while a holistic approach of this sort does seem to make sense, some concerns have been raised: when developing countries share material with developed countries, will they legally be able to benefit from these collaborations? How exactly will the One Health framework work out in these contexts?

18-year-old chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa has finished as runner-up in the FIDE Chess World Cup held at Baku, Azerbaijan. He held world No 1 Magnus Carlsen to two consecutive draws in classical chess. The match then went to a tie-break, where Carlsen won 1.5-0.5. This is the first time since V Anand that an Indian has reached the final of the Chess World Cup, and Praggnanandhaa is the third youngest player to achieve this feat. What does this achievement mean for India? How do we rate his performance in this tournament? What is it that separates Carlsen from the rest of the field?

India is staring at a strange problem: malnutrition among children has not gone away, but at the same time, there is an increasing burden of childhood obesity. Simply put, obesity happens when children eat and drink more calories than they burn off. The latest National Family Health Survey reported that 33 States and Union Territories in the country registered a spike in the number of overweight children. Changing lifestyles including diets, easy access to unhealthy food, a decrease in physical activity and perhaps and increase in screentime, may all be contributing factors to this. The problem is, doctors have said, that obesity in childhood can have long-term consequences on physical and mental health. What is obesity challenge in India? What are the health problems it can cause long-term? How much does our diet play a role? And what can parents and communities do to reverse this trend?

The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill was passed in Parliament earlier this month. The government says the law will help improve ‘ease of doing business’. It will amend 183 provisions in 42 different laws. These amendments aim to eliminate imprisonment or excessive fines for minor offences. While this sounds good, the Bill has drawn criticism for the amendments it makes to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. One of the amendments is to Section 27 (d) of the Act. This change will allow for compounding of an offence by a drug manufacturer -- they can pay a fine instead of undergoing criminal proceedings. Critics say this would allow manufacturers of substandard drugs to get away lightly. They claim that this is dangerous as a drug that is not of standard quality (NSQ) could prove to be potentially lethal or lead to antibiotic resistance. Is this criticism valid? Or is this amendment a reasonable move that will aid ease of doing business in the pharma sector?

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had granted a bailout of $3 billion to Sri Lanka in March this year. The IMF had imposed nine conditions for agreeing to the bailout. Next month, the global lender will conduct its first review -- before the next tranche of funds under the bailout are released. What are the conditions that Sri Lanka has to fulfil? What has been the public response to the austerity measures that the government has had to initiate? And what success has Sri Lanka had in restructuring its bilateral debt, especially with lenders such as China?

Doctors and MBBS students, in various fields of specialisation, across various age-groups, from diverse geographies, say they believe that while common entrance examination for medical seats is a necessity, the coaching industry skewed it in favour of urban and richer students. Unaffordability of quality coaching classes and the luxury that richer students have to drop a year to prepare for the exam, make it increasingly difficult for students from poorer and more rural backgrounds to get a seat, they said. In this episode of Vital Signs, The Hindu Data Team speaks to various stakeholders in the medical field to understand the issues plaguing India’s medical education, over the years. 

On August 3, the Indian government brought in import restrictions for laptops, tablets and servers. The import of these products would be allowed against a valid licence for restricted imports. Following some strong reactions from industry, it has deferred the effective date to Nov 1.  But to begin with, what did the government aim to achieve with these curbs? Shore up national security by having tight controls over whom we import from? Or nudge local manufacturing and thus spur job creation?

It sounds like a science fiction movie, but it’s all real: scientists managed to revive a pair of roundworms that had been buried deep in the Siberian permafrost 46,000 years ago. The roundworms, called nematodes, were thawed in a lab and came alive again, reproduced several generations, and then died. These nematodes first existed when the woolly mammoths did, managed to survive in the harshest of frozen conditions, and then, from a state of suspended animation, that scientists call cryptobiosis, began life again, crawling about in a lab. A paper on this was published recently in the scientific journal PLOS Genetics. Does this mean, that technically, life can be paused for thousands of years and then restarted? That organisms can exist in a state between life and death indefinitely? If the roundworms came alive again, can other microorganisms and pathogens do that too, especially since the Siberian permafrost is melting, and can these microbes cause new diseases?

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 has been passed in both houses of the Parliament. The Bill has gone through many versions. Despite this, the version that has been passed has left most independent data privacy experts disappointed. It has come in for even more criticism from Right to Information (RTI) activists, who have charged that the Bill amends the RTI Act, 2005 and weakens it. So, how well does the Bill really fare on the basic metric of protecting a user’s personal data? And where does it fall short? Is there a danger of democratic backsliding with this Bill, like many are saying, or is that an overblown criticism?

Seventeen-year-old grandmaster D Gukesh has become the highest-rated Indian player in FIDE rankings. He shot past his idol Viswanathan Anand when he defeated Azerbaijan’s Misratdin Iskandarov in the ongoing World Cup in Baku. With this victory, Gukesh’s live rating went up to 2755.9, higher than Anand’s 2754. As Gukesh climbed up to become world No. 9, Anand slipped to the 10th spot. This is a big departure as Anand has been India’s top-ranked player since 1987 – a period of 36 years. Now Gukesh has set his sights on getting his Elo rating past the 2800 mark – a feat achieved by only 14 players in the history of the sport. To find out more about the rise of Gukesh and what it means for Indian chess, we speak with Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor (Sports) at The Hindu. 

In this episode, we are discussing the new book “The Importance of Shinzo Abe: India, Japan and the Indo-Pacific”, a collection of essays, edited by Sanjaya Baru, examining the legacy of the former Japanese leader who was the country’s longest serving Prime Minister in history. Abe stepped down in 2020 citing health reasons, and his shock assassination in 2022 stunned the world. In this podcast, we discuss Abe’s impact on Japan, its relations with India and the world. How did Abe transform Japan’s security profile? What role did he play in the region embracing an Indo-Pacific strategy? Beyond his undeniable global role, what were some of the darker aspects of his legacy at home?

The Rajya Sabha on July 27 passed the Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2023. This bill, among other things, brings in age-based certification for films and stringent penalties for piracy. It also provides for separate certification for the exhibition of films on TV and ‘other media’ So, what was the need for these changes to the Cinematograph Act, 1952? How will the age-based certification work and would it be in consonance with the age-based ratings in other countries? And how significant are the new provisions against piracy? 

Last month, the Lok Sabha passed a Bill that was aimed at improving the ease of doing business in India. This Jan Vishwas Bill, passed by the Rajya Sabha, this month brought in amendments to 42 different laws, including amendments to two sections of The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. These drug law changes have sparked a controversy: health activists have said that it essentially decriminalises the manufacture of drugs that are not of standard quality, allowing manufacturers to get away with a fine, with no imprisonment. The quality of drugs in India, has already been under scrutiny, with the recent deaths of dozens of children in at least two countries, Gambia and Uzbekistan, being linked to contaminated cough syrups manufactured in India. But while such cases of adulterated drugs can attract penal provisions, the bigger problem of substandard drugs that may not work effectively on a patient, potentially making the patient worse, are not dealt with stringently. This is a huge problem, say experts as the Indian pharmaceutical industry, estimated to be worth about USD 41 billion, is one of the largest in the world and provides drugs to a number of developing countries.  How will this recent amendment affect drug laws and pharmacies in India? How do drugs that are not of standard quality affect the human body? What is the problem with the drug regulatory mechanism in our country? 

On July 24, Israel’s coalition government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu passed a key part of its proposed judicial reforms. The reforms, which essentially aim to give the executive control over the judiciary, had sparked massive protests both inside and outside the Knesset. The Opposition staged a walkout when the Bill came up for vote, and it was passed with 64 votes in favour and zero against, in the 124-member assembly. So, what does the Bill that was passed mean for Israel’s judiciary? What other proposals are under consideration in the judicial reform package? Is Israeli democracy under threat, as critics of judicial reform say?

The Rajasthan government on July 21 passed the Right to Minimum Guaranteed Income Bill, 2023, a legislation that has been hailed as a ‘historic’ step towards the fulfilment of a state’s social security obligations towards citizens. The Bill has three key elements: a right to guaranteed employment, right to a minimum guaranteed income – which is not to be confused with a minimum income guarantee, or what is known as Universal Basic Income or UBI – and a right to guaranteed minimum social security pension. Rajasthan already has a MGNREGA-based employment scheme and other welfare schemes going. So what was the need for a law like this? Is this an example of what Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to as ‘revdi’? And how will the Rajasthan government raise the resources for what is evidently a rights-based welfare measure?

President Xi Jinping has dismissed Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang after just seven months in office. Qin has been replaced by former Foreign Minister Wang Yi. This development comes a month after Qin disappeared mysteriously from public view, sparking feverish speculations about his fate. A career diplomat, Qin rose rapidly through the ranks, and was seen as close to President Xi Jinping. In March this year, he was made a State Councillor, a very senior post, and one that he stills holds. Then what explains his sudden disappearance, and now, his sacking? 

There has been extreme civil strife in Manipur for nearly three months. Two major ethnic groups – the Valley-dwelling Meiteis and the hill-dwelling Kukis – seem to have completely lost even the bare minimum of mutual trust essential to co-exist peacefully. The barbaric sexual assault of Kuki-Zomi women on May 4, a viral video of which emerged recently, brought to national consciousness the depth, scale and toxicity of the violence in Manipur. While the state government has failed to ensure basic law and order, the larger question remains: is the problem purely one of law and order any longer? Can peace be restored without addressing the underlying ethnic tensions? Is the internet ban – slightly loosened -- helping or making things worse? What has been the fallout of this ethnic conflict in neighbouring states?

It’s World Hepatitis Day this week, on July 28, and perhaps an apt time to look at conditions associated with the liver. One of the first things that comes to mind is alcohol and the liver. Across the world, people have believed for decades now that a moderate amount of alcohol consumption may be good for you – that it could potentially protect you against heart disease. A study published earlier this year, however, by Canadian researchers, disputes this. The analysis, of more than 100 studies covering about 4.8 million people pointed out that all the older studies, which linked moderate alcohol use with better health, had failed to take into consideration, the fact that moderate drinkers had other healthy habits – they were more likely to exercise and had better diets. Once this was corrected for, the researchers said the health benefits of drinking, dramatically decrease. The finding ties in with the World Health Organisation’s warning early this year that when it comes to alcohol consumption, there is no safe amount that does not affect health. What does the latest research into alcohol conclusively point to? How does India fare when it comes to alcohol and liver disease? Can any amount of drinking be considered safe?

While still frowned upon in most parts of the country, live-in relationships are becoming increasingly common. Couples can choose not to get married for a number of reasons and still stay together, share a household and possibly children. So how legal are these relationships in India?  In a recent judgement, the Allahabad High Court refused to grant protection to an inter-faith couple in a live-in relationship and even stressed upon the need to create awareness about the emotional and societal pressures and legal hassles that may be created through such relationships. The Supreme Court however, over the years, has recognised the personal liberty of individuals involved, and, in a number of judgements conferred certain rights – for instance, live-in relationships can be covered under the protection from domestic violence law. But what happens in the case of separations, alimony and children? Are these protections available to same sex and queer couples? With the increasing harassment faced by inter-caste and inter-religious couples in the country, where even getting married has become challenging, do live-in relationships require more legal security?

The Biden administration has taken a decision to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions as part of military aid for its ongoing war with Russia. This has evoked concern among human rights watchdogs, as cluster munitions are known to be a deadly cause of civilian casualties. More than 120 countries have signed a treaty that bans the production, use, stockpiling or transfer of cluster munitions. As it turns out, neither the US, nor Ukraine nor Russia are signatories of this convention. The US, however, does have a domestic law that bans the use, production or transfer of cluster munitions with a ‘dud rate’ above 1%. The dud rate of the cluster munitions being given to Ukraine, according to the State Department, is 2.35%, which is still above the 1% cap. So, what exactly are cluster munitions? What has prompted the US to offer them to Ukraine? And can they help Ukraine gain a decisive breakthrough in the war? 

Last month, the Union government stopped the sale of rice and wheat from the Central pool under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS). This has provoked sharp reactions from state governments led by Opposition parties, especially Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, who have accused the Centre of “playing politics” and of being “anti-poor”. State such as Tamil Nadu, which have a universal Public Distribution System (PDS), have utilised the OMSS route to procure additional food grains over and above what they get from the Centre under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). Now, the Congress government in Karnataka, which had promised additional 5 kg of food grains under its Anna Bhagya scheme, has said that because of the Centre’s refusal to provide food grains under OMSS, it will provide cash transfers equivalent to the price of those food grains. So, why exactly has the Union government put an end to state governments sourcing grains under the OMSS? Is it to curb inflation, as it claims? And is there a case for OMSS to be made available once again for state governments? 

Every headline over the past few weeks has been of the staggering rise in prices of not just tomatoes, but also of potatoes, onions, rice, wheat, tur dal and milk. The steep hike in prices is affecting residents across the country, changing the amount of food we can afford to buy, what we cook and what we put on our plates and finally eat. Nutritionists and doctors have long called for healthy diets: combining an adequate amount of carbohydrates, fats, proteins to keep our bodies fit and healthy, to ward away diseases and to prevent non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. The cost of fruits, meats and fish, sources of fibre, protein and other nutrients have always been high in our country, but when the price of basic vegetables also shoots up, what happens to our diets? How does an increase in food prices affect how healthy are diets are? Do we eat more unhealthily when foods are more expensive? Why are healthy foods so expensive? And do our food policies need an urgent rethinking to make them more affordable?

July 16 is World Snake Day. When you have a day dedicated to something, it typically denotes a call to care for, or draw attention to, the welfare of the entity to which the day is dedicated. That’s how it is with Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and so on. But with World Snake Day, things get a little complicated, as the first thing that comes to mind when you mention ‘snakes’ is the fear of snake bites, and the fact that India is the snake-bite capital of the world. So we tend to forget that snakes are also part of wildlife, and discussions about the importance conserving snake species tends to take a backseat. It is estimated that out of the 78,000-100,000 snake bites that occur every year globally, the vast majority – about 64,000 – happen in India. The snake bite is a public health issue in India. At the same time, it is a marker of high human-snake conflict. In this episode, on the eve of World Snake Day, we take a closer look at the human-snake conflict, what has India been doing to bring down snake-bite fatalities, what role snakes play in India’s bio-diversity and why they need to be protected. We speak with Sumanth Bindumadhav, Director of the Wildlife Department at Humane Society International, India.

The Union environment ministry has notified draft rules for implementation of a Green Credit Programme (GCP). The programme aims to create a market-based mechanism for incentivising “voluntary environmental actions” by individuals, urban local bodies, communities and the private sector. The draft is now in the public domain for suggestions and objections, for a period of 60 days, after which it will be finalised. Under this programme, certain activities will earn green credits, which can also be traded – that is, bought and sold – on a trading platform. So, how will this Green Credit Programme actually work? What activities qualify for green credits? And will the institutionalisation of green credits result in forests being viewed as fungible assets - just like any money or any commercial paper, when they actually are not?

For the first time in the 48-year history of ODI world cups, the West Indies will be missing from the tournament. The champions of the first two editions, in 1975 and 1979, and the 1983 runner-ups, have failed to qualify for the 13th edition of the World Cup set to take place in India later this year. In the World Cup qualifiers, they lost to Scotland in the Super Six stage of the tournament, which put them out of the reckoning. While the West Indies’ cricketing decline has been evident for some time, this failure to make it to the World Cup, a tournament they once dominated, marks a new low. What are the factors behind this decline? Is it due to mismanagement of the sport, or is it that the country has stopped producing good talent? Is there any chance of this downward spiral getting reversed?

July 1 this year marked the 6th year since the Goods and Services Tax was implemented. The average monthly collection in the first year was sub-₹1 lakh crore. Now, the government expects ₹1.5 lakh crore to be the norm, with its eye ₹2 lakh crore for the near future. At the start, there were several changes that naysayers felt made compliance difficult. Others said these were necessary prerequisites for a smooth run later. Pratik Jain, Partner and National Leader for Indirect Tax in PwC India joins us today to share his perspectives on how the 6-year run has been and what the road ahead looks like.

The recent bus accident on the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway that left 25 people dead after the bus hit an iron pole and caught fire, has once again thrown the spotlight on road accidents in India. Our country has one of the highest numbers of road crash deaths and injuries in the world. In 2021, India saw over 4 lakh road accidents that killed over 1.5 lakh people. What is tragic, is that the majority of these deaths and injuries occur in young persons, generally those in the 18 to 45 age group. Highways of course do not account for all road accidents, but they do account for a major proportion of deaths. One media report states on the Samruddhi Expressway alone, 616 accidents have occurred since it was opened just six-odd months ago, killing 88 people and leaving over 600 injured. Why are our highways so unsafe? Is 'highway hypnosis' a phenomenon that affects drivers a cause for concern on Indian roads? How do road design and engineering, the speeds at which vehicles are driven and driver education play into safety on our roads? With even more highways and expressways being built, how can the country improve its road safety track record?

Can Novak Djokovic win a record 24th Grand Slam title? This question is one of the central themes of the 2023 Wimbledon championship. If the Serb manages to do it, not only will be equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 grand slams – the highest across both genders – he will also equal Roger Federer’s men’s record of eight Wimbledon titles. And with Nadal out of the picture for the rest of the year, he will be on track for a calendar Grand Slam and perhaps put to rest the GOAT debate once and for all. But how much of a favourite is Djokovic this year? What are the chances of the new world number 1 Carlos Alcaraz? And who are the favourites in the women’s draw?

In this podcast, we look at the state of play three years after India put in place sweeping curbs on inflows of Chinese investments into India. Official data shows investments from China are slowly returning through new avenues and ventures, with New Delhi welcoming investments in some sectors such as manufacturing but remaining wary about others where data and security concerns are involved. How are Chinese companies working around the curbs on investment? Have the curbs on Chinese investment ended up making investments more opaque with a rise in investments through third countries? What are the implications for regulation and security?

The intellectual class of West Bengal, euphemistically termed the Bhadralok, has long held a pivotal role in shaping culture, politics and policy in the State. From producing timeless cinema to dominating political power to setting policies on welfare, reforms and state interventions, this segment of Bengali society performed an outsized role. But all indications are that its influence is fading quickly in the State and beyond. Surajit Chandra Mukhopadhyay and Sandip Roy ponder the relevance of the Bhadralok in a discussion moderated by Shiv Sahay Singh

India has faced record-breaking temperatures this summer. The punishing heatwave across large parts of our country has killed dozens of people already, and while exact numbers remain controversial, the fact remains that heatwaves are becoming far more frequent, lasting for longer, and, as a consequence affecting more people. A large section of our population works out of doors for most of the year, and is exposed to high temperatures; this is combined with the fact that many people in our country cannot afford cooling mechanisms such as fans and air-conditioners, leaving them vulnerable to the searing heat. While we know that climate change is responsible for the increasing number of heatwaves, and the increased number of hot days per year what exactly does extreme heat do to our body? What are the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke? What can individuals do to protect themselves?

On June 24, the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war took a surprising turn as Russia’s Wagner Private Military Company, a paramilitary organisation, rebelled against the Russian establishment led by Vladimir Putin. The rebellion led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner, claimed control over Russia’s Southern Military District headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, a city near the Ukrainian border and then began a march towards Moscow. Mr. Prigozhin claimed it was a march for justice, alleging mistreatment by Russia's military establishment. The Wagner Group is a mercenary organisation that was involved in Russia’s annexation of Crimea and has operations in Africa and West Asia. The attempted coup, however, melted away after negotiations that involved Belarus. In this episode we try to understand the import of these events, what it means to the Russia-Ukraine war and to Putin himself.

An India-wide study on the prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetes, results of which were released recently, threw up some startling results: 10.13 crore people in our country of 140 crore could be diabetic, and another 13.6 crore are estimated to be at the pre-diabetic stage. The study was conducted by the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Union Health Ministry. Apart from diabetes, the study also revealed that 35.5% of Indians suffer from hypertension, while nearly 40% of the population has abdominal obesity. Uttar Pradesh had the lowest prevalence of diabetes at 4% while Goa had the highest at 26.4%, closely followed by Puducherry and Kerala. What does the rural-urban divide in the diabetes numbers tell us? How can these high numbers in diabetes be tackled by States? How much of a role does our diet play and what can individuals do?

On May 31st, the Union Health Ministry issued a notification making it mandatory for over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms to display anti-tobacco warnings as seen in movies screened in theatres and on TV. The notification amended the rules under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2004. The OTT industry is quite upset with this move for various reasons, not the least of them being that it was not consulted. Critics have said that this move could disrupt the audience’s viewing experience, throttle creativity, and is an act of overkill that infringes on the right to freedom of expression. So, what prompted this move? Does the inclusion of anti-tobacco messages in the middle of OTT content really make a difference? Is it practically feasible for OTT platforms and producers to incorporate anti-tobacco messages before a movie, in the middle of one, and every time a shot of tobacco consumption comes up?

Over the past few weeks, there have been news headlines about Ariha Shah, a child of Indian parents, who was taken away by child care authorities in Germany after she had been hospitalised for an accidental injury. Despite no charges being filed against the parents, the baby was not returned to them. A diplomatic spat has now broken out between New Delhi and Berlin, and 59 Parliamentarians from 19 political parties have now written to the German Ambassador in India, asking for the child to be brought back to India. The case has echoes of the 2011 Sagarika Chakraborty case in Norway, recently made into the Rani Mukherjee-starring movie, Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway. It also throws up questions about whether child protection services in Europe differ from those in India in their mechanisms.

The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee decided to continue to retain the benchmark interest rate at 6.5%. Its estimate for inflation in FY24 is at 5.1% which is lower than the upper tolerance limit of 6% but still higher than the desired midpoint level of 4%.  Given the RBI's, and other central banks', hawkish view on rates, where does India's economy stand? Would the impetus for economic growth have to come from an accommodative fiscal policy?

India’s ambitious cheetah relocation project got a shot in the arm when one of the translocated females gave birth to four cubs in March. These were the first cheetah cubs to be born in India since the species went extinct in the country 70 years ago. But in an unfortunate turn of events, three out of the four cubs have died, and the fourth one, also reported to be very weak, is under close medical monitoring. The Environment Ministry in a press release has claimed that the survival rate of cheetah cubs is only 10%. Does that mean that the deaths of the three cheetah cubs were along expected lines? Shouldn’t the survival rate be higher in the absence of predators? What are the various factors that could have a bearing on the survival of cheetah cubs? 

The government of India has always claimed that India is the fastest growing economy in the world. The latest GDP numbers would seem to buttress that claim. On the back of a fourth quarter growth of 6.1%, the GDP growth for the financial year 2022-23 has been recorded at 7.2%, which is much higher than the earlier RBI projection of 6.8%. On the one hand, this is good news, and of course, good optics. On the other hand, critics have expressed scepticism about the methodology used to arrive at the estimate of 7.2%. They also point out that if we take an average of the three years from the last pre-pandemic year, the economy has only grown at an average of 3.2%, the infamous ‘Hindu rate of growth’. So, what do we really make of the GDP numbers in terms of the health of the economy? What are the concerns about the methodology followed in its calculation? How do they tally with other indicators such as growth in employment and manufacturing output?

After its loss in the recent Assembly elections in Karnataka, the Bharatiya Janata Party is left with no State government in south India. It is part of an alliance in the Union Territory of Puducherry. The governments of the five States of the south are led by different parties — the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala, the YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi in Telangana, and the Congress in Karnataka. This is not a new trend; the south has rarely followed the electoral trend set by the north. In the 1977 Lok Sabha elections, while the Congress was wiped out in the Hindi heartland, it continued to hold onto its seats in the south. Similarly, in the last nine years, even at the peak of its popularity the BJP has been unable to breach the southern fortress as convincingly as it would like to. Is there a north-south divide in politics? Here we discuss the question.

Of late there has been a lot of buzz around what’s known as the Account Aggregator ecosystem or framework. It’s a form of ‘open banking’ that has emerged with the blessings of the RBI and, according to analysts, could transform the financial services industry by making it easy for consumers to give their consent to sharing their personal financial data with different service providers. Although it’s still early days, there are about ten Account Aggregators in operation, with an estimated 7.7 million citizen accounts linked with the various account aggregators. In Part 1 of this podcast, we looked at what Account Aggregators are, what led to their emergence, and how they work. In the second part of this two-part podcast, we look at how the account aggregator framework will deal with data privacy aspects such as purpose limitation and duration of consent validity, potential for exclusion due to algorithmic credit allocation, regulatory mechanisms for grievance redressal.

Of late there has been a lot of buzz around what’s known as the Account Aggregator ecosystem or framework. It’s a form of ‘open banking’ that has emerged with the blessings of the RBI and, according to analysts, could transform the financial services industry by making it easy for consumers to give their consent to sharing their personal financial data with different service providers. Although it’s still early days, there are about ten Account Aggregators in operation, with an estimated 7.7 million citizen accounts linked with the various account aggregators. So how do account aggregators work? Who will benefit the most from this new ecosystem? What are the concerns about privacy and fraud? We explore all these aspects in a two-part podcast with two experts. In this episode, we look at what Account Aggregators are, what led to their emergence, and how they work.

The rise of OTT platforms have transformed the entertainment market the world over. At present, there are 50 to 60 OTT streaming platforms operating in India, presenting the consumer with a bewildering array of entertainment options to choose from. In this scenario, a new breed of players is emerging in India: the OTT aggregator. Platforms such as OTTPlay, YuppTV Scope, and Tata Play Binge are bundling multiple OTT offerings in a single place, promising ease of selection and cost savings for the end user. But how reliable are these OTT aggregators? How robust is their value proposition? And are there any scams going on in this space that consumers need to be wary of? 

Last month, the Supreme Court directed all States and Union Territories in the country to follow guidelines formulated by the Union Health Ministry to monitor “unnecessary” hysterectomies being performed. A hysterectomy is a surgical procedure to remove a woman’s uterus, and sometimes, the surrounding organs and tissues.  The PIL petition that the Supreme Court acted on, was filed in 2013 by Dr Narendra Gupta, a public health activist, who, found during his work in Rajasthan, that many women, primarily those from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Communities, who were still in their twenties and thirties, had undergone hysterectomies after being told that this was the only option they had to deal with the gynaecological problem they had come in with. Reports from multiple parts of India have indicated that is a widespread problem. Economically disadvantaged women sometimes feel coerced into getting their uterus removed so that they continue to work through the month without the problem of menstrual bleeding and pain, lack of hygiene and sanitation contributes to gynaecological problems and money for the surgery often leads to debt. On the other side, are some hospitals that perform a large number of these surgeries. What do the Supreme Court’s guidelines now mandate? Is women’s health not given enough priority in India? How can the issue of missing wombs be comprehensively dealt with?

The National Pension Scheme (NPS) was launched in 2004. While the older pension scheme offered defined benefits to all government employees without any contribution on their part, the NPS requires employees to contribute a sum throughout their working years. Almost two decades after the NPS came into effect, several States are switching back to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). Earlier this year, the Central government set up a committee under the leadership of the Finance Secretary to review the working of the NPS and evolve an approach that addresses the needs of government employees while maintaining fiscal prudence. Here we discuss whether States should return to the OPS.

On May 20th, Russian forces managed to take control over the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. The ‘battle of aBakhmut’, which has been raging for nine months, has seen some of the bloodiest fighting in Europe since World War 2. With Ukraine investing a lot of its resources in defending the city, the fight for it took on a symbolic significance. In his speech to the U.S. Congress last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky even compared it to the decisive battle of Saratoga in the American war of independence. But now, thanks primarily to the Wagner Group, Bakhmut is in Russian hands. What are the strategic implications of the ‘fall’, so to speak, of Bakhmut? Is it a pyrrhic victory for the Russians, as Ukraine and western observers seem to suggest? Whose forces have been degraded more by this long-drawn battle of attrition?

The Central government introduced the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 in the Lok Sabha on March 29th this year. Generally speaking, the Bill exempts certain types of forest land from the protection afforded by the Act. It also expands the list of activities that can be carried out on forest land. Both these aspects have drawn an outcry from conservationists and environmentalists, who are saying that the amendment opens the doors for commercial exploitation of lands that were hitherto protected under this Act. The government has also not inspired much confidence regarding its intentions by sending the Bill to a Select committee of Parliament instead of referring it to the Standing committee on science, technology, environment, and forest for scrutiny. With the Parliamentary committee now accepting submissions on the Bill, there is renewed debate on its provisions and what they mean for India’s forests. Will this Bill safeguard India’s already depleted forests or does it dilute the protections? 

This year’s French Open, which is starting on May 28th, will take place in the looming shadow of 14-time champion Rafael Nadal’s absence. It is also expected that this year could finally mark the long overdue transition in men’s tennis – from the domination of the Big Three of Nadal, Federer and Djokovic, to the next generation of players led by the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune and Jannik Sinner. On the women’s side, defending champion Iga Swiatek is under an injury cloud – though its reportedly not serious -- and it’s a typically open field, defined by a growing rivalry between this year’s Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka and Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina. It is also possible that we could see a completely new women’s Grand Slam champion at Roland Garros this time. Who are favourites? Who are the dark horses? And can Djokovic take advantage of Nadal’s absence to notch up a record 23rd Grand Slam? 

Even before the World Health Organisation announced this month that the Covid-19 pandemic no longer constituted a global emergency, the pandemic had begun to slowly fade from public memory. For some people however, health issues from the viral infection remain even months since they first contracted the infection: long Covid continues to haunt hundreds of people in the country. Long Covid has a wide variety of symptoms, often not easy to diagnose, potentially leaving many not even realising they have it or not knowing whom to seek help from.  What is long Covid? How, and in whom, does it manifest? Now that the pandemic is no longer an emergency, what can be done to better understand and treat people with it in India?

Turkey’s high-stakes presidential elections are headed for a run-off. None of the candidates could cross the 50% mark needed to win the presidency in the first round, which took place on May 14. Now the incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) will face each other once again on May 28. In the elections held last Sunday, Erdogan confounded pollsters – who had given the edge to Kilicdaroglu – by winning 49.51% of the vote, while Kilicdaroglu finished with 44.89%. The third candidate, Sinan Ogan of the right-wing nationalist ATA Alliance, secured 5.17% of the vote. He could play kingmaker ahead of the run-off. Meanwhile, in the Parliamentary polls, which also happened simultaneously, Erdogan’s party, the AKP secured a majority for its alliance with 266 seats, while the CHP managed 166 seats in the 600-member House. Who is the favourite as the country heads for the run-off? Who is the kingmaker Ogan likely to back? And how did Erdogan, despite public anger over his regime’s inept response to the February earthquake and a worsening cost-of-living crisis, manage to do so well? 

The Congress has returned to power in Karnataka with an emphatic victory. It has won 135 seats – more than double the BJP’s tally – and has increased its vote share by 5% from the last Assembly poll. While the BJP held on to its vote share, its seat share fell by one-third. All the high decibel campaigning by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah proved to be inadequate. How did the Congress manage to secure this victory? What were the main issues that decided the elections? And what does this poll result mean for the big Assembly elections that are due later this year, and of course the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

We are living through an era of immense political and social turmoil. People have thought the same in many past eras too. But still, the enormity of the present is something that we cannot overlook. Assumptions about our collective self that evolved over decades have been challenged, and we seem to be in the search for alternative organizing principles. This is true for India, as is for the whole world. Professor Bhargava’s writings in the recent years, seek to address some fundamental questions about how we see ourselves and relate to one another. For Professor Bhargava, the Constitution of India represents the distilled wisdom of the founders of the nation. And it offers a moral compass as well as the institutional framework to create what we call Unity in diversity.  In this episode, we are joined by Rajeev Bhargava who is one of the finest thinkers and political philosophers of our time. He is familiar to the readers of the Hindu, as a regular writer in our op-ed pages.  We discuss with Professor Bhargava his faith in the Constitution, which he considers sacred and why he remains optimistic, regardless of the sectarianism that surrounds us all. 

The recent announcement from the World Health Organization that COVID-19 would no longer be considered a public health emergency of international concern sort of threw a spanner in the works.  Was this a message of hope? Is it true that COVID is really over? What about vaccination or masking? The questions were aplenty. Today we have with us Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, former chief scientist of the WHO and present chairperson of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai, to bring some clarity to the issue.

Delhi has been witnessing a series of demolition drives of working class neighbourhoods. These demolitions are being carried out as part of a ‘beautification’ drive ahead of the G-20 Summit in Delhi in September this year. Places where citizens’ homes were reduced to rubble included neighbourhoods in Mehrauli and Ghosiya Colony, Tughlaqabad, Kashmere Gate, and Moolchand Basti at Rajghat. Residents whose homes were destroyed have alleged that demolitions were carried out in complete violation of laws and rules that regulate demolitions and evictions. Many have said that eviction notices were only served as the bull dozers were rolling into their street. What are the laws that govern demolitions and evictions in Delhi? Did the municipal authorities follow them? How did the evictions affect livelihoods and the lives of children? 

About 60 have been killed, more than 230 injured, and thousands have been displaced following inter-ethnic clashes in Manipur. According to the state government, around 1,700 houses, including religious places, were burnt. The clashes followed months of mounting tensions over successive measures by the Manipur government that the state’s tribal groups believe to be against their interests. The immediate trigger for the conflict seemed to be an order of the Manipur High Court directing the State government to submit its recommendation -- to include the state’s majority Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes list – to the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry by May 29. On May 3, as the All Tribal Students’ Union (ATSU), organised a ‘solidarity march’ to protest against this move, violence broke out, and spread to different parts of the state. So, what are the issues behind the communal clashes rocking the state? What are the moves by the state government that have proved controversial among the tribal populations? And what possible steps could lead to the restoration of peace in the state?

The divorce rate in India is about 1.1 per cent, one of the lowest in the world. Census 2011 figures however, show that the population that is ‘separated’ for various reasons, is almost triple the divorced number. On May 1, the Supreme Court held that it could grant divorce by mutual consent and spare couples the “misery” of having to wait usual period of six to 18 months. This was done under Article 142 of the Constitution, which gives the Supreme Court the power to use any means to render “complete justice” between parties. So what does this judgement mean for divorce laws in the country? Will it set a precedent for lower courts to do away with the mandatory period as well? Why did the Court say that would not be a matter of right but of discretion, to be exercised with care and caution?

India, it would appear, is in perpetual election mode. Every State Assembly election, analysts believe, will tell us about the mood of the people as the country moves towards the big one – the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.  Will Narendra Modi be able to grab a third term as Prime Minister? Does the Opposition have enough to see it across the finish line in 2024? Is the conviction and disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as a member of Parliament a turning point for the Opposition? Does the Congress reaching out to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal carry political meaning? What about the noises emanating from within the NCP – will the Opposition alliance hold firm till 2024 in Maharashtra? 

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has been in action since 2008, the year after India won the inaugural T20 World Cup. When Mumbai Indians played Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai on April 30, it marked the 1,000th match of the competition since its inception. This is a historic moment in the history of the league, attesting to its extraordinary success and staying power. On this landmark occasion, we take a look at the impact IPL has had – on cricket, on cricketers, on the business of cricket, on other sports in India, and its oversized footprint in the domain of sporting entertainment and popular culture as a whole. While its success is indisputable – has its impact on other sports in India been positive? Can the IPL model work for growing a sporting culture in India that goes beyond cricket?

Chess has a new world champion – 30-year-old Ding Liren from China. He defeated Russia’a world no. 2 Ian Nepomniatchi to become only the 17th player in chess history to wear this crown. He is the first ever Chinese and the first Asian since Viswanathan Anand to be achieve this. This year’s world title championship match took place under the looming absence of defending champion Magnus Carlsen, who refused to defend his title citing a lack of motivation. Interestingly enough, speaking to the media after his victory, Liren remarked, “For me, it’s not so important to become world champion. I always wanted to become the best player in the world.” Will Liren, who wears the mantle of ‘world champion’, be accepted as the best player in the world? Will Carlsen ever come back to pit himself against the new world champion? And what does it mean for the chess world to have its latest world champion from Asia, and from China in particular? 

Between September 2022 and February 2023, eight cheetahs from Namibia and 12 from South Africa were translocated to India as part of an initiative to reintroduce the species in India, where it had gone extinct in the 1950s. The animals were released in the 748 sq km Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh, and seemed to be doing well until, within a span of a month, two out of the 20 cheetahs died. Furthermore, one of the cheetahs was spotted in a village outside the national park area, sparking fears of cheetah-human conflict. The Madhya Pradesh Forest Department has asked the Centre for an “alternate” site for the cheetahs, citing lack of logistical support and space. Meanwhile, scientists from the Cheetah Research Project of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, have published a letter in the journal, Conservation Science and Practice, stating that the translocation did not take into consideration the spatial ecology of cheetahs, as a result of which the animals are bound to come into conflict with people in the neighbouring villages. So, how serious is the problem of space for the cheetahs at the Kuno National Park? And what does wildlife science tell us about the spatial ecology of cheetahs? We speak with one of the scientists behind the letter on the spatial ecology of the translocated cheetahs, Dr Bettina Wachter, head of the Cheetah Research Project and a senior scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW), Berlin. 

Social media was abuzz recently with a controversy over Bournvita, a product that most of us have probably had as children. This sparked a discussion around all of the processed and packaged foods that are now widely available and consumed in the country.  How healthy are these foods? With a lot of these items, it is not always easy to understand their nutritional content, going by the ingredients. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India or FSSAI is now considering introducing front of pack labelling – a regulation that will involve all brands indicating if the product is high in salt, sugar or fat, right at the front of the product. Several countries across the world have brought in such regulations, in order to make consumers more aware about what is in various products. So do our processed and packaged foods contain too much sugar, salt or fat? Are unhealthy eating habits contributing to obesity, heart disease and diabetes? How much salt or sugar should we be consuming on a daily basis, and do we, as a country, consume too much?

Sudan is once again on the verge of a civil war. Fighting erupted on April 15 between two military factions, leading to the death of more than 400 civilians, and leaving around 3,700 injured so far. One of the factions is headed by Lt. Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the commander of the country’s military, and the other is led by Lt. Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who controls a state-sponsored paramilitary outfit known as the Rapid Support Forces or the RSF. The fighting has destroyed civilian infrastructure such as airports, hospitals and roads in a country already devastated by years of conflict. Different countries, including India, are scrambling to evacuate their citizens trapped in the country. With 3,000 Indians stuck in Sudan, the government has just started Operation Kaveri to evacuate them. So, what has caused this war to break out? What do the two Generals want? What are the implications of this conflict for Sudan’s democratic transition that was underway before this conflict erupted? 

On the 22nd of April, Pakistan announced that its Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will visit India for a multilateral meeting with his Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, or SCO, counterparts. The visit by a Pakistani Foreign Minister to India comes after a long gap.  Also, on the 22nd of April, five Indian soldiers were killed close to the Line of Control, pointing out yet again the dangers of unabated terrorism in the country. The abrogation of Article 370 and reducing Jammu & Kashmir to a Union Territory in August 2019 has not helped in ending terrorism, belying the tall claims of the Modi government.  At the same time, Islamist forces and hardline Hindu groups have ensured that dialogue and contact between Pakistan and India is almost non-existent.  Can a Bilawal Bhutto visit change anything on the ground? 

The Tiger Census 2022, released recently, estimates that India has 3,167 tigers at present. This is a slight increase from the figure in 2018’s report, which was 2,967. Project Tiger first began in 1973 when there was an alarming decline of the national animal. From the nine reserves the country had in 1973, there are now 53 reserves, spanning over 75,000 sq km, roughly 2.3% of India’s land area. Since 2006, a tiger census has been carried out every four years. There are, however, criticisms with regard to the methodologies adopted. What do the numbers revealed in the current census mean for tiger conservation? What are the major threats facing tigers at present? Can India support bigger tiger numbers, and if so, what can be done to achieve this?

There finally seems to be some movement towards a peace settlement in the Yemen civil war, which has been raging for nine years now. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have been fighting the Saudi coalition forces, are now in talks with Saudi Arabia with Omani mediation. Although the negotiations are expected to take time before they yield results, there is some optimism in the air as the talks are happening in the aftermath of a China-mediated agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to resume diplomatic relations. While war fatigue could be one trigger behind the talks, another seems to be a clear shift in Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy engineered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). In recent months, in stark contrast to the aggressive foreign policy that he started out with --- starting the war in Yemen, the failed blockade of Qatar, the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, the house arrest of Lebanon’s Prime Minister and so on – MBS seems to have made a conscious switch to a more tactical foreign policy centred on building relations with all the key powers in the region. So, what are the contours of Saudi Arabia’s new foreign policy? What prompted it? And does it signal a more peaceful West Asia in the long run?

The Education Ministry has released the pre-draft of the National Curriculum Framework for school education, or NCF-2023, for public feedback and comments. The document, which was last revised in 2005, has a critical role to play in determining pedagogical approaches and how textbooks are designed. Some key recommendations of NCF-2023 that have made headlines include: board exams twice a year, a semester system for Class 12, and giving students the option of pursuing a mix of courses from science, humanities and commerce rather than splitting them into exclusive streams. What are the implications of the changes proposed by NCF 2023? Are they what the Indian school system needs? How will they get reflected in the schooling experience of students going forward?

The mafia-style execution of former legislator Atiq Ahmed and his brother, Khalid Azim, by three assailants on the night of April 15 in Prayagraj, while speaking to reporters on camera has again turned the spotlight on the absence of the rule of law in Uttar Pradesh. Two days earlier, on the 13th of April, Atiq’s son, Asad Ahmed, was killed in an alleged encounter with the police in Jhansi. The killings come days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath told the State Assembly that he would smash the mafia in his state to the ground. In March this year, Atiq Ahmed wrote to the Supreme Court that he might be killed in a fake encounter with the U.P. police. His fears were proven correct. Both Atiq and Asad were accused in the murder of a political rival in February. Atiq, a former leader of the Samajwadi Party and the Apna Dal, had more than 100 criminal cases against him. More than 180 alleged criminals have been shot dead in so-called police encounters in the last six years that Adityanath has been the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. So, what does the sensational execution of Atiq and his brother tell us about the state of law and order in Uttar Pradesh? Can the rule of law be restored in a state where the police has been seen as aggressive and high-handed? 

It's back in the news and it's back everywhere. Covid-19, which seemed to be going away, has had a resurgence in India recently, with the data as of April 14, showing that over 11,000 new cases have been recorded. While this particular sub-variant, XBB.1.16, is believed to be mild and not as virulent as last 2021's Delta variant, the government is taking the surge in cases seriously, and has asked States to remain prepared, in terms of beds, oxygen and adequate testing kits. The country has so far administered over 220 crore doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, though booster dose coverage remains low at about 16%. Do we need to worry about this current surge in cases? Who needs to take the booster? Will Covid-19 continue to lie low and emerge occasionally with a spurt in cases, and what precautions should we take?

In May 2022, Finland, along with its Nordic neighbor Sweden, applied for NATO membership. It took less than a year for it to formally become NATO’s 31st member. With this, NATO’s border with Russia has more than doubled – from 1,200 km to 2,500 km. How does this development change the security architecture of Europe? Will it lead to a militarization of the Russia-Finland border? How big a strategic setback is this for Russian President Vladimir Putin?

There have been some dire predictions about how hazardous the heat is going to be this summer. India this year experienced its warmest February since 1877, and in November last year, the World Bank warned that India could become one of the first places in the world where wet-bulb temperatures could increase beyond the survivability threshold of 35°C. Furthermore, last month, Peter Dynes, chief strategy officer at Mirrors for Earth's Energy Rebalancing (MEER), tweeted that India this summer is at “serious risk of wet-bulb” if global temperatures continue to rise. So, what exactly is the wet bulb phenomenon, and what does it mean when it is said that summer temperatures in India could cross the wet bulb threshold? Have heat wave conditions in India worsened due to climate change? What should we be doing to mitigate the effects of heat wave conditions and protect the most vulnerable?

By quashing the Information & Broadcasting Ministry’s order ceasing operations of the Malayalam news channel, Media One, the Supreme Court appears to have sent a clear message to the government of the day – that the freedom of the press is a key pillar of Indian democracy. At a time when the press is under pressure to toe the Government’s line, the judgment is also a signal to members of the media – that they should do their job without fear or favour. The press, the Supreme Court held, had a duty to speak truth to power. Is the press performing this duty today? What are the larger implications of this April 6 verdict?

A survey of nearly 10,000 people carried out for the Status of Policing in India Report 2023 suggests a high level of support for certain forms of government surveillance but reveals a lack of public awareness regarding critical issues such as the Pegasus spying scandal. The report, prepared by the NGO Common Cause and Lokniti, CSDS, finds that three out of four people believe CCTVs can help monitor and reduce crime. The poor, Adivasis, Dalits and Muslims are the least trusting of the police. Interestingly, 44 per cent of those surveyed across 12 states and union territories believe that the police should not have the freedom to check people’s phones without a warrant.  So, what is the bigger picture from the survey? Why choose this theme at this time? How does surveillance impact dissent? 

Last month, Rajasthan became the first state to enact a Right to Health Act. The legislation sparked massive protests from the medical community, with the protests finally being called off on April 4, after an agreement was reached, on the applicability of the law. The Act gives every resident of Rajasthan the right to emergency treatment care without prepayment of fees at designated health centres -- a provision that was contentious. The private healthcare sector had called the Act "draconian" and was apprehensive of the government’s interference in their functioning after the enforcement of the law. But does the private medical sector, which forms a huge segment of the healthcare sector in our country, need legislation? Should emergency care be provided to every resident in need of it at any hospital that is able to provide it? Should the Right to Life, enshrined in our Constitution, also guarantee all citizens the Right to Health in India?

All four persons, who had been given the death sentence by a trial court for the May 2008 Jaipur bomb blasts that killed 71 persons, were acquitted by the Rajasthan High Court on the 30th of March. Those acquitted of all charges were: Mohammed Saif, Mohammed Salman, Saifur and Mohammed Sarver Azmi. The State of Rajasthan plans to file an appeal against the acquittal in the Supreme Court.  The two-judge bench ruled that the prosecution had been unable to establish a conspiracy between the now-acquitted persons, pointing out that for a conspiracy to be established there had to be a meeting of minds.  The judges were of the view that nefarious means were used by the investigating agencies and even fabrication had been done during the course of the investigation. They directed the Rajasthan Director-General of Police to initiate an appropriate inquiry / disciplinary proceedings against erring officers. 

March 21, was single parents day, commemorating mothers and fathers, who parent alone. And while in India, families are still widely seen as that of two biological parents and their children, this is rapidly changing: families can come in all sorts of forms – from single parents, to parents who are not married but live together, adoptive parents, step-families, queer families and more. However, while some laws and court judgements are clearing the path towards easier access to procedures and systems for non-traditional families, there are still multiple hurdles faced by single parents and others for even basic procedures such as school admissions and banking.

India’s women boxers have created history by winning four golds at the IBA World Boxing Championships that just concluded in Delhi. India topped the medals table, matching its best ever performance of 2006. The golden girls this time around were Nitu Ghangas (48 kg), Nikhat Zareen (50 kg), Lovlina Borgohain (75kg), and Saweety Boora (81kg). What is the significance of India’s performance in the context of the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games, and the 2024 Paris Olympics? Can India replicate this outcome at the Olympics? And is India slowly turning into a global hub for women’s boxing, as is being asserted by some observers?

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposals for a judicial overhaul that would limit the powers of the Supreme Court have triggered massive protests in the country. More than 100,000 protesters gathered in front of the Israeli Parliament or the Knesset, and as the country’s most powerful trade unions called a general strike, there were flight cancellations at Tel Aviv international airport, and municipality workers, tech workers, government bureaucrats, and most significantly, even army reservists joined the pushback against the proposals. US President Joe Biden pitched in, asking Netanyahu to ‘walk away’ from the judicial overhaul, prompting Israeli Prime Minister to retort that he does not take decisions based on pressure from abroad. On Monday, however, Netanyahu announced that he was delaying the judicial changes to the next Parliamentary session, ostensibly to buy more time to build a compromise with the proposals’ political opponents. So, what exactly are the implications of the proposed judicial changes? Do they constitute a threat to Israeli democracy, as alleged by their Opposition leaders? What are the security implications of the fact that these proposals seem to be causing deep divisions in Israeli society? 

The phenomenon of Amritpal Singh has taken Punjab by storm. In a daring act, his supporters ransacked a police station in Ajnala and freed some of his associates in February. From a businessman in Dubai till September last year, Amritpal has become Punjab’s leading practitioner of separatist politics, telling Frontline magazine in a recent interview that he does not recognize the Indian Constitution as it doesn’t see Sikhism as a separate religion.  He has inherited Waris Punjab De, an organisation intended to help young people follow the tenets of Sikhism. Currently, Amritpal is on the run after the Punjab police launched efforts to arrest him on March 18. Some recent reports say CCTV cameras showed him at a Delhi market while others said he had reached Nepal.  So, who is Amritpal Singh? How has he managed to capture the spotlight in a matter of months? Whom does he represent? Is he popular? Is Amritpal filling a political vacuum in Punjab? 

Last week the Supreme Court asked the Centre for data that could point to a more dignified, less painful, and socially acceptable method of executing prisoners other than death by hanging. A Bench of Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.S. Narasimha even mooted the setting up of an expert committee to relook at India’s method of carrying out the death penalty. The alternatives that were discussed included death by lethal injection, lethal gas, and firing squad, among others. The court was hearing a petition filed by advocate Rishi Malhotra challenging the constitutionality of death by hanging as a mode of execution. Section 354 (5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure mandates that a person sentenced to death shall “be hanged by the neck till he is dead”. Malhotra argued that there was a need to evolve a “humane, quick and decent alternative”. He termed hanging as “cruel and barbarous” compared to lethal injection. So, is death by hanging a “cruel and barbaric”? Are there more ‘humane’ methods of execution? Is the goal of protection of human dignity and eliminating cruelty compatible with any mode of execution – that is, with capital punishment itself? 

Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as a member of Parliament from Wayanad constituency in Kerala on the 24th of March, a day after a Surat court convicted him on criminal defamation charges. Mr. Gandhi was sentenced to a maximum two-year jail term. The decision sent shockwaves through the country’s polity.  A two-year jail term in a criminal case means that a legislator is automatically disqualified on conviction. It would appear that the only relief available to a disqualified legislator is if a superior court not only suspends the sentence but stays the conviction.  So, what of the Surat court judgement? Can someone be convicted merely if he called all persons with the Modi surname thieves? Doesn’t defamation have to be specific to the aggrieved person? Did the Lok Sabha Secretary-General act in haste by issuing disqualification orders to Rahul Gandhi the very next day? 

By postponing elections to the provincial assemblies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa beyond a constitutionally-mandated period, the Election Commission of Pakistan has strayed into uncharted territory that could imperil democracy in the country yet again. This comes after a same-page show by the Army chief Asim Munir and the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in trying to tackle the common threat they perceive from the person of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan. The courts in Pakistan, however, haven’t been as obliging to Gen. Munir and Prime Minister Sharif and the arrest of Imran Khan hasn’t yet happened. It’s also clear that Mr. Khan continues to be popular and his party could well have won the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Assembly elections previously scheduled to have been held by the end of April. Meanwhile, Pakistan continues to face an unprecedented economic crisis with common people bearing the brunt of runaway inflation. So, what happens now? 

The Wagner Group has been at the forefront of Russian gains in eastern Ukraine, especially in the battle for the town of Bakhmut. It was also in the news over attempts by members of the U.S. Congress to label it as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO), but strangely enough, the Biden administration is opposed to such a labelling. In another related development, President Vladimir Putin has just signed a new law criminalising the spreading of “fake” or “discrediting” information about the Wagner units fighting in Ukraine. So, what exactly is the Wagner group? Is it a group of mercenary soldiers? Is it a Private Military Company (PMC)? What was it up to in different parts of the world over the past decade, and what has been its role so far in the Ukraine war?

By issuing a warrant for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the International Criminal Court has upped the ante in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. It sets a bar from which retreat will be a trapeze act for the West. American President Joe Biden has hailed the ICC decision even as Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled to Moscow to meet President Putin. What impact will this have on the war in Ukraine? How does this affect international relations? And, finally, how will it affect the prospects for a negotiated peace in Ukraine. 

A Constitution Bench judgement of the Indian Supreme Court on March 2 took the appointment of Election Commissioners out of the sole hands of the political executive and assigned it to a three-member committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice and the leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha. Appointments will take place through this panel till a law is made on this subject by Parliament. The bench headed by Justice K.M. Joseph said in its judgement that a person who is weak-kneed should not be appointed as an Election Commissioner. Neither should that person be in a state of obligation or feel indebted to the person who appointed him. The judgment also made a “fervent appeal” to the Union of India / Parliament to put in place a permanent secretariat for the Election Commission and charging its expenditure to the Consolidated Fund of India to make it truly independent.

Last week, California-based Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th largest bank in the United States, collapsed, sending shock waves through the start-up universe. Then two more banks – the crypto-currency focussed Signature Bank and Silvergate Capital – shut down, sparking fears of wider financial contagion, similar to how the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 triggered a global crisis. The American government and the Federal Reserve acted fast to try and avoid precisely such a scenario by announcing measures aimed at boosting confidence in the banking system. The Biden administration has announced that all the depositors’ savings in the Silicon Valley Bank will be protected, including those deposits over and above the sums that are insured. The Federal Reserve, on its part, has unveiled a new lending program called the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP), which would enable banks to borrow directly from the central bank instead of having to resort to loss-making bond sales, as the Silicon Valley Bank did. So, what caused the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank? Could it have been prevented? Is this banking collapse something that can be contained, or is it a harbinger of more such failures in the pipeline?

Next month, the Supreme Court of India, will listen to final hearings on the issue of legal recognition for same sex marriages in India. A number of petitions have been filed, seeking this recognition. The case follows the landmark Puttuswamy judgement of 2017, affirming the right to privacy as a fundamental right, and then the Navtej Johar judgement of 2018, which decriminalised same sex relationships. The Centre however, has opposed same sex marriages, stating that marriages in India are holy unions, this would rock societal values and also that, if there is to be a change, it should be through Parliament and not the judiciary. 

For the first time, United Nations members have agreed on a unified treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas. On March 4, a draft international agreement, called the UN High Seas Treaty, was finalised to govern the conduct of governments in ‘open seas’ – the major part of the world’s oceans – two-thirds of it – which lie beyond the jurisdiction of any one country. Once ratified by the signatory countries, the agreement will become legally binding. The treaty, dubbed the ‘Paris Agreement for the Oceans’, will also establish a conference of the parties (CoP) that will meet periodically so that member states can be held accountable for respecting the treaty. So, what exactly does the UN High Seas Treaty propose? How will ensure that biodiversity of the oceans is protected? And what does it say in terms of sharing of marine genetic resources – a key sticking point in the negotiations preceding the agreement?

In a rare moment for Chinese diplomacy, Beijing used its good offices to broker an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia that should see the two warring West Asian nations re-establishing diplomatic relations and re-opening their embassies within two months. China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, who is a signatory to the “joint trilateral statement”, said the agreement showed that Beijing was a “reliable mediator”. The joint trilateral statement itself said the accord was the consequence of a “noble initiative” by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The announcement, which came on March 10 after four days of talks between Chinese, Iranian and Saudi Arabian officials in Beijing, coincided with a session of China’s National People’s Congress that saw Xi being elected as President for an unprecedented third term. So, what does this agreement signal for Chinese diplomacy? A new confidence? The ability to play a game long dominated by the West? A showpiece that suggests China was now willing to play broker in other parts of the world? 

The Indian rupee has had an interesting run these past few weeks. It strengthened in response to investor inflows into the markets but started losing steam soon after the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony to the U.S. Congress in which he said controlling inflation would continue to be the focus area.  Does the RBI have a choice beyond keeping step with the Fed in raising interest rates further? What does it mean for our forex reserves? 

The National Stock Exchange (NSE), one of India’s leading stock exchanges, has tweaked the constituents of its major indices such that three Adani Group companies are all set to enter key Nifty indices from March 31. The Adani stocks being included in Nifty indices include Adani Wilmar, which has been added to Nifty Next 50 and Nifty 100, Adani Total gas, which has been added to Nifty Shariah 25, and Adani Power, which has been added to ten different indices. The move has raised concerns given the continuing meltdown in Adani group stocks since January 24 when the US-based firm Hindenburg Research made several allegations about stock manipulation and fraud that the Adani group has denied. On the one hand, the exposure of actively managed mutual funds to Adani stocks is reported be less than 1%. But on the other, nearly 16% of India’s mutual fund industry’s ₹41 lakh crore is parked in index funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) that mimic indices constructed by the NSE and BSE, and some of this investment will be steered to these Adani stocks from March 31. And earlier this week, the NSE also removed four Adani Group stocks from the Nifty Alpha 50 index. So, what exactly goes into the decision to include or exclude any given stock in an index? How justified is the inclusion of Adani stock in various NSE indices given the recent sharp fall in their prices? And what are the risks and options for ordinary investors?

COVID-19 and the fear around it may have gone away, but over the past few weeks, India has been rocked by cases of fever and intense coughs. People across States have been falling sick, and some have even had to be hospitalised. Last week, the Indian Council of Medical Research said these cases are linked to Influenza A, the H3N2 subtype virus that causes flu. The Council said surveillance data had shown a spike in these cases in India. So what is the H3N2 virus? Who is vulnerable to it and what symptoms can it cause? Is there a vaccine that can be taken?

2023 is a busy year for state elections, with a total of nine state elections scheduled to take place. We are in March now, and three of those assembly polls have concluded. In all three – Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya – the incumbents have been returned to power. The BJP was voted back in Tripura, although with a reduced vote share, while in Nagaland, the alliance of the National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and the BJP are back in power. In Meghalaya, interestingly, in its election campaign, the BJP had branded the government of the Conrad Sangma-led National People’s Party (NPP) as the “most corrupt” state government in the country. But after the polls, it has chosen to extend support to the NPP. So what are the implications of these election results for the North-East? With barely 13 months to go for the 2024 general elections, what are the takeaways for the two main national parties – the BJP and the Congress? Were there any lessons to be drawn with regard to Opposition unity? 

A few days ago, the results of an interesting study were published. The study, conducted in the United Kingdom saw 61 companies and 2,900 employees take part in the reduction of the work-day week, from the standard five days, to four days. At the end of the six-month experiment, employees were less stressed, had better work-life balance and were absent on fewer days. Companies reported no impact on productivity, while revenues remained the same and in some cases, even increased.  But can this system work in India, a country that has one of the highest number of working hours in the world?

On February 24th, the Supreme refused to entertain a PIL seeking period leave for students and working women. The three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, observed that the issue had “different” dimensions and asked the petitioner to approach the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development to frame a policy. The court also took note of a caveat filed by a law student, which said that compelling employers to grant menstrual pain leave could act as a “disincentive” for employers when it comes to hiring women. Is the question of period leave purely a matter of gender rights – in terms of acknowledging women’s biological difference and accommodating it through affirmative action? Or is it a bad idea because it will increase gender discrimination against women at the point of recruitment? What kind of a policy intervention, if any, would be appropriate in this context?

GDP data for India in the Oct-Dec 2022 quarter has given out mixed signals. Of concern are a contraction in manufacturing despite a let up in input costs as well as the slowing growth in the high-contact services sectors. Still, the government seems confident of 7% growth in FY23 despite a revised growth rate data put out for FY22 at 9.1%. What does the near future hold for India? 

The one-year anniversary of the ongoing war in Ukraine saw a number of related developments beyond the battle zone. First came the visit of President Joe Biden to Kyiv, where he reiterated the motto of ‘As long as it takes” for American support to the Ukrainian war effort, underlining that the US is in it for the long haul. Then President Vladimir Putin, in his state of the nation speech announced that Russia was “suspending” its participation in the New START Treaty (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), the last of the major treaties in place to curb an unfettered nuclear arms race. Next China released what has been variously described as a “peace plan” and a “position paper” on bringing an end to the Russo-Ukraine war. So what are the implications of each of these developments? Will China’s peace plan be taken seriously by the West? Will Biden’s domestic opponents allow his administration to funnel endless billions into this war? Will Russia’s ‘suspension’ of its participation in New START destabilise a fragile strategic balance?

The Tata Group-owned Air India has placed two big orders with Europe’s Airbus consortium and Boeing for 470 planes – the largest ever single order placed by an airline in aviation history. As per the list price, the value of the order is around $70 billion. This order is evidently part of a strategy to rapidly expand the fleet and increase market share. It does raise some questions though: Does India have the aviation infrastructure to support such a vast expansion? What are the challenges for Air India in terms of manpower, such as pilots and trainers, and training infrastructure? How will it handle the competition from other airlines? What are the implications in terms of passenger safety, given that some of the planes are of a type that Air India pilots have never flown before, and pilot shortage may be an issue for years to come?

The Election Commission of India recently recognised the Shiv Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde as the Shiv Sena and allotted the bow and arrow symbol to it. This order is now under challenge by the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Sena in the Supreme Court. Using the test of majority principle, and that a majority of party MLAs in Maharashtra had sided with Mr. Shinde, the Election Commission, in its wisdom, presented the Chief Minister with the Shiv Sena. What impact will this have on the politics of Maharashtra, a state which sends as many as 48 representatives to the Lok Sabha? Could Maharashtra play a key role in deciding the results of the 2024 general elections? Does the BJP still have use for Eknath Shinde after the goal of dethroning Uddhav Thackeray has been achieved? For the moment, all eyes are on what the Supreme Court will decide on the tussle between the Sena factions. Also, a key test for the BJP, Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray will be the upcoming elections to the Mumbai municipality.

The inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) is all set to kick off from March 4. In an auction held earlier this year, five franchises – Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Gujarat Giants, UP Warriorz, and Mumbai Indians -- were sold for a total sum of ₹4,699.99 crores. In the players’ auction that followed, India opener Smriti Mandhana went for the highest price, with the Adani-owned Gujarat Giants shelling out ₹3.40 crores for her. Viacom 18 purchased the media rights for the first years for a sum of ₹951 crores. So, is the WPL all set to change the face of Indian women’s cricket? Does India have the depth of talent to support the growth of such a league over the long term? How far does the WPL have to go before it can be compared with the world’s top T20 leagues such as the WBBL of Australia?

Earlier this month, Assam began a massive crackdown against child marriages in the State - so far, over 4,000 cases have been registered and over 3,000 people have been arrested. Protests have broken out in the State as young girls and children have been left with no wage earners in the family. Assam has high rates of child marriage -- while the all-India figure as per the latest National Family Health Survey was 23.3%, in Assam, the figure was 31.8 percent. The Assam Chief Minister in fact said the drive against child marriage was for public health as teenage pregnancy rates were high. Concerns around child marriage and the health of young girls are valid and should be dealt with, but does using the criminal justice system help? Why does India continue to have significant numbers of child marriages? How much is this to do with access to education? And what policies have worked in other States and other parts of the world to help bring child marriage rates down?

Five states – Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh – have informed the Centre that they would be reverting to the Old Pension Scheme. Some analysts even believe that one of the reasons for the Congress victory in Himachal was its campaign promise to revert to the Old Pension Scheme. At the same time, the Centre has warned that this move spells fiscal irresponsibility. Some economists have said it could even lead to a scenario of possible defaults on pension payments. But government employees in different states have staged protests demanding the Old Pension Scheme. So what exactly is the difference between the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and the New Pension Scheme (NPS)? Why do employees want the OPS, while the Centre is pushing for NPS? Realistically speaking, is the OPS fiscally sustainable in the long run? Or will it bankrupt state governments? 

This year’s Union Budget announced a scheme for the protection of natural resources that are fast degrading in the country: our wetlands. Amrit Dharohar, the scheme announced by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget this year, aims to protect and work towards the optimal use of wetlands. A separate scheme to protect mangroves was also announced. To mark 75 years of Independence last year, India also added 11 sites to its existing Ramsar sites, making 75 in all. Ramsar sites are wetlands that are designated to be of international importance for biodiversity. By some estimates, India has lost nearly 30 per cent of its wetlands over the last three decades: unplanned construction and pollution being major factors in this. Their loss can have massive consequences for cities – flooding and loss of water security being some. What is the status of wetlands in India now? How well are current rules for protection being implemented? How much will the new schemes help? And how can local societies get involved in conservation?

It will soon be a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, or to use Moscow’s terminology, began a “special military operation” in Ukraine. A thick fog hangs over the progress of the war – information trickling in about the war continues to be unreliable. Some larger truths, however, are obvious. There are, so far, no victors in this war that has been joined in a proxy manner by NATO and the United States on behalf of Ukraine. Both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers continue to slug it out as hi-tech weapons play a role in the war. If the European goal behind oil sanctions and price controls was to grind the Russian economy to a halt, then that hasn’t happened. China and India continue to be major consumers of Russian energy as the world awaits a resolution of the war in Ukraine. One year on, what happens to Ukraine and Russia? Can peace breakout between the two countries?

Last week the Reserve Bank of India raised its key repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.50%. This is the sixth rate hike since last May, for a total hike of 250 basis points in less than a year. The latest hike, while not entirely unexpected in some quarters, came as a surprise to those who were hoping for a pause in the consecutive rate hikes, especially given that inflation pressures were seen to be moderating. But the rate hike has also sparked a debate about its effect on FD rates, home loan interest rates and EMIs, and in turn, the impact on demand in the real estate market. In this episode of InFocus, we try and decode the implications of the rate hike, especially from the consumer’s point of view. 

On February 6, an earthquake measuring a massive 7.8 on the Richter scale hit Southern Turkey and parts of Syria, followed by a second quake of the same magnitude a few hours later. The death toll from the earthquake has risen to 17,000 but there’s a fear that many more bodies are under the rubble, the death toll could rise sharply. The scale of the devastation has been immense- the worst such in the region in nearly a century.  In Turkey, the cities of Antakya and Gazantiep are amongst the worst hit, and in Syria Alleppo and Idlib, and the destruction of buildings and roads have also cut off communication with many parts. A global rescue effort is underway for Quake hit Turkiye and Syria- where the deathtoll is in the thousands already- What are the factors that are making this rescue difficult? How is India helping? Will India’s assistance be a diplomatic gamechanger?

It’s been a little more than two years since Myanmar’s generals staged a coup and ousted Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy from power. A bloody civil war is raging in the country, with independent estimates suggesting that the military junta had killed nearly 3,000 civilians and jailed another 18,000 since the 1st of February 2021. More than a third of Myanmar is not under the control of the military, a top junta functionary admitted recently. Martial law regulations have been extended to another 37 townships where military tribunals can try and sentence “offenders” on charges ranging from treason to spreading “false news”. International action against the junta has not stopped the country’s generals from launching air strikes against resistance forces. Russia, China and India continue to engage the junta, lending it a degree of respectability. ASEAN has little to show in trying to get its member state back to the democratic path. Later this year, the junta led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is threatening to hold elections. Will it carry any credibility? 

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) promises 100 days of wage-based employment every year to rural households across the country. As per independent reports, demand for work under this scheme has been increasing. But in the 2023-24 Union Budget, the government has slashed allocation for this scheme to ₹61,032.65 crore, which is 30% less than the revised estimate of ₹ 89,154.65 crore for 2022-23. This is the lowest ever allocation as a percentage of the GDP, at less than 0.2%. This is the second straight cut, as in the 2022-23 budget also the allocation was reduced by 25%. So, what are the government’s justifications for these budget cuts? How do they relate to ground realities? Is there a danger of demand suppression through insufficient budgeting, as claimed by MGNREGA advocates? 

Last Saturday the United States shot down what it described as a Chinese “spy balloon” off the coast of South Carolina, raising tensions between the two countries. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who was scheduled to leave for China on Sunday, postponed his visit. He described the incident as an “unacceptable” violation of America’s sovereignty and said that the balloon had “undermined” the purpose of his trip. China, on its part, insists that the balloon was just a civilian “airship” that had strayed into American air space “completely accidentally”. Although it expressed ‘regret’, it described the U.S.’s military response as an “obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.” It also warned of “necessary” responses. So, what kind of response can we expect from China? Will we see the effects of this incident once again in the South China Sea? And was it really a spy balloon? 

Pakistan’s last military dictator, Pervez Musharraf, has died in Dubai at the age of 79. I was in Islamabad as a correspondent for The Hindu when General Musharraf took power through a bloodless coup in October 1999. He was the presiding officer for the Kargil incursion but later turned peacemaker, signing a milestone agreement with then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in January 2004. Gen. Musharraf, like the man he ousted from office, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, had to eventually leave Pakistan for medical treatment in March 2016. He resigned as President in 2008 following a protracted civil society movement led by lawyers. As the Pakistani Government announced that Musharraf’s body would be flown to Islamabad from Dubai, what is the former General’s legacy? How is he perceived today in Pakistan? 

2023 is set to be a landmark year for India's population trajectory, as the country is predicted to overtake China to become the world's most populous nation. And India will remain in that position for several more years. The advantages, experts have pointed out, is the demographic dividend - we will have a massive number of young people in the working age group, and a relatively lower number of those needing care such as the elderly and young children, at least for a couple of decades. But how well is India placed to harness this young population for us to grow economically? Do we have the polices for education, skilling and health in place? And what happens when some Southern states have populations that age faster than some northern States?

Hindenburg Research, an American ‘activist’ short-seller, known for going after companies that they believed are excessively overvalued, has unleashed a storm in the markets and regulatory circles with a report on the Adani Group of companies. In its report, Hindenburg has accused the Adanis of pulling off “the most egregious corporate fraud” in history. The allegations include stock manipulation and round-tripping of funds using shell companies. While the Adanis hit back with a 413-page rejoinder, the markets have so far sided with Hindenburg, as Adani stocks tumbled and more than $100 billion of market cap was wiped out. The Adanis then scraped through in their follow-on public offer (FPO) that closed on January 31. But the very next day, they withdrew the FPO, citing moral reasons. In the meantime, Credit Suisse has announced that it will no longer accept Adani bonds as collateral, while Dow Jones has dropped Adani Group companies from its Sustainability indices. So, what do the allegations mean for the lay investor? Will SEBI act? Where does this leave Indian banks who already have high exposure to Adani stock? 

The United States, Germany and the UK have pledged to send modern main battle tanks (MBTs) to help Ukraine in the ongoing war with Russia. While the US has agreed to send 31 of its M1 Abrams tank, Germany will supply 88 Leopard 2 tanks, while the UK has pledged 14 of its Challenger 2 tanks. These are far short of the number demanded by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky—but it wasn’t an easy decision to make, especially for Germany. Battle tanks are known to work best with air support, and now Zelensky has also started demanding combat aircraft, namely F-16s. When will the tanks reach Ukraine? What impact will their entry into the war zone have on Russia’s battle tactics? Can the infusion of such heavy firepower turn the war decisively in Ukraine’s favour? 

In this episode we are joined by Tanvi Srivastava, short story and fiction writer, who explains the experience of translating Asha San’s diary from Hindi to English.  The original book, a diary, recorded the teenager’s thoughts on the impact of World War II on ordinary people, her unbound admiration for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and her unwavering love for her motherland in the language she knew best — Japanese. The memories of Asha-san’s (as she was respectfully called in Japanese) struggles and sacrifice would have been lost in the pages of her diary if she had not herself translated it into Hindi in 1973. Half-a-century later, her grand daughter-in-law, Tanvi Srivastava, has translated the Hindi diary into English as The War Diary of Asha-san: From Tokyo to Netaji’s Indian National Army.

The banking sector in India witnessed a return to relatively good health over the past few years. With more stringent norms set by regulator RBI NPAs have declined and bank balance sheets have shed much of their baggage of bad loans. Is this trend here to stay? Also as the country emerged from the pandemic and economic growth picked up, banks also saw healthy credit growth. Deposit growth, though, has not kept pace. Are these causes for concern? 

The appointment of judges to the higher judiciary continues to be mired in controversy. So much so, there have been some sharp, public comments by Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on the subject. He has written to the Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, suggesting that a Central government representative sit on the collegium of Supreme Court judges that makes appointments to the top court. On several occasions, the Centre has sat on appointments that, perhaps, were not to its liking, drawing the ire of the Supreme Court. Justice Chandrachud recently referred to the “basic structure” of the Constitution as the “north star”, or a guide to the judiciary. This comment followed public remarks by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar that questioned the “basic structure” judgment delivered by 13 judges of the Supreme Court 40 years ago. 

Private capital expenditure has been anaemic for a few years now, a state of affairs that has only been exacerbated by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Business hates ambiguity and in the last three years, ambiguity alone has ruled our personal and professional lives. As we seek leave behind the pandemic impact and head into another Budget season, it’s time to review private sector investment levels in the country and the effect of the Production-linked Incentive scheme in bringing in investments.

The Election Commission, on December 28th, wrote to political parties asking them to attend a demo of a remote Electronic Voting Machine or RVM, which was held on January 16. The EC’s justification for mooting RVMs is to enable domestic migrant workers - who may be working in a state different from where they are on the voter list - to cast their ballot. It has claimed that this measure could remedy the relatively low voter turnout in recent elections. But most of the Opposition parties have expressed scepticism about this proposal, pointing out that the EC’s proposal is not backed by any research or relevant data on migrant workers and their voting behaviour. So, does India really need remote EVMs? How will they work? Is this the right step when there are still doubts being raised about the integrity of EVMs themselves? 

It was only in 2022, after the third wave of COVID-19, that schools in India finally reopened fully, after two plus years of pandemic-related disruptions. Educationists had flagged concerns both about students potentially dropping out and about learning losses. The Annual Status of Education Report 2022, brought out by the NGO Pratham last week, reveals that at least one of these concerns may not be a problem: overall enrolment figures for the 6 to 14 year age group, have increased and the number is now over 98% in 2022. Learning losses however, are steep: both reading and numeracy skills in children have taken a hit. The percentage of class 3 children who were able to read at the level of class 2, has dropped from the already low 27.3% in 2018 to 20.5% in 2022 -- a decline visible across most States, in both government and private schools. The number of children who can do arithmetic at grade level is more varied, but still not promising.  India now has National Education Policy 2020, which stresses the importance of fundamentals in education, and a scheme, the NIPUN Bharat programme, launched in 2021, aiming at achieving foundational literacy and numeracy for grade 3 children by 2026-27. But even as roadmap is laid out for lower primary schoolchildren, data from ASER from 2012 to 2022 shows that learning trajectories in upper primary, classes 5 to 8, are relatively flat.  So where is the education system stumbling? Families want their children to be educated: this is clearly evident in the rise in number of children going for private tuition classes. What can be done, post-pandemic, to help children catch up with their learning? Do we need better teacher training, bigger budgets and more resources? In our curriculum-heavy, board exam driven system, how can the country ensure no child is left behind in their school career? 

As we begin our countdown to Budget 2023-24, India faces a tough global environment and volatile commodity prices, the latter posing upside risks to inflation. Economists see some bright spots in the economy as also some concerning metrics, especially to do with exports and recent Core Sector or IIP figures that have given no discernible trend in recent months. 

On New Year's Day this year, the country was rocked by the news of a horrific accident in Delhi -- 20-year-old Anjali Singh, who was on a scooter, was hit by a car, and her body dragged for several kilometres. Soon after, news reports indicated that investigating officers may consider a lie detector test for the five main accused persons in the crime. This is not the first time a lie detector test has been brought up in the course of an investigation in a high profile case: the accused in the Shraddha Walkar case, Aaftab Poonawala underwent polygraph tests; these tests have begun on three suspects in the murder of a Tamil Nadu Minister's brother and a court has now allowed narcoanalysis and polygraph tests to be conducted on an accused person in the case of Ankita Bhandari, a 19-year-old murdered in Uttarakhand, as per news reports. These are just a few of the recent cases where such "scientific" tests are being used on those accused of crimes. In 2010, a Supreme Court ruling said that the use of narcoanalysis, brain mapping and polygraph tests on the accused, suspected and witnesses to a crime, without their consent, was unconstitutional and violated their right against self-incrimination. It also said that such test results could not be admitted in evidence; however any information/material subsequently discovered with the help of tests undertaken voluntarily, could be admitted. Despite the ruling however, these tests continue to be used, to date. But how scientific are they? Several countries across the world have disbarred or significantly cut down on their use - is there any evidence to suppose that they truly work? Do such invasive procedure violate the rights of those who undergo them? And have they led to any investigative breakthroughs in India?

The past few weeks have seen tremendous excitement around generative AI. Names like ChatGPT, Dall-E, and Stable Diffusion are buzzing around, and start-ups in the Generative AI space are being flooded with multiple rounds of funding worth millions of dollars. Apparently, all you need to do is type a textual prompt, and you can have an original news article or a whole new painting ready in a matter of seconds. So, what exactly is generative AI? What makes it different from the other kinds of artificial intelligence that we are accustomed to? What are its potential applications? And what are the ethical concerns over this technology? 

Pakistan’s economic woes are not new. With dipping foreign exchange reserves and mounting debt, the country has a Himalayan climb ahead when it comes to getting its economy in order. Pakistan’s Prime Minister has just returned from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – two countries that have always been helpful to Islamabad in times of crisis. This time, too, they have promised to help out. So, what are the dimensions of Pakistan’s economic crisis and can the problem be fixed? 

Artificial intelligence has helped take over some of the mundane tasks done by humans across sectors, in recent years. It has helped enhance the value that humans bring to their jobs. But there is also fear that automation may replace humans, leaving us without options for livelihoods. Shop-floor automation in manufacturing is an example that has given rise to such anxieties. Where does AI go from here.  In a conversation with The Hindu, Manish Bahl, founder, Curious Insights and former head of the cenre for the Future of Work in Cognizant says there will be job impact, as also job creation. Where he sounds a warning bell is on the education sector that is likely preparing students to fight artificial intelligence instead of equipping them to complement these technologies. Where creativity and innovation flourish, artificial intelligence can but take on a secondary role.

The town of Joshimath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district is sinking. More than 700 houses are known to have developed cracks and nearly 150 families have been moved to safer locations. The Uttarakhand and Central governments are scrambling to deal with a problem that is now a full-fledged crisis. Teams of scientists have been deployed to investigate reasons behind the sinking of the town. For years, friends of the Himalayas have been warning that unchecked building activity, including the construction of dams, could jeopardise the lives and livelihoods of people not just in Uttarakhand but impact those living in downstream areas. Ravi Chopra, founder director of the People’s Science Institute, is one of those who has been watching the impact of so-called development on the Himalayas for more than three decades from his perch in Dehradun. Last year, he resigned as the chair of a high-powered committee to study the impact of expanding the road network to service the many shrines in Uttarakhand. Ravi has just returned from Joshimath and he has joined us to discuss what’s happening there. 

The first Grand Slam of 2023 will get rolling from January 16 in Melbourne, Australia. Last year, the event witnessed plenty of unseemly controversy, including a courtroom drama, over the deportation of Novak Djokovic, and it also saw Rafael Nadal pick up a historic 21st Slam title. But this year Djokovic is back, and has announced his intentions by winning the Adelaide International, a preparatory event, last week. While Nadal is the defending champion, world no 1 Carlos Alcaraz has withdrawn due to a freak injury. The draw in the women’s section, as has become the norm in recent years, is wide open. Naomi Osaka will be missing, as also last year’s champion Ash Barty, who has retired from the sport, and world no 1 Iga Swiatek is under an injury cloud. The rest of the field has several contenders, from last year’s runner-up Danielle Collins, to the Czech Petra Kvitova, world No. 2 Ons Jabeur and the American Coco Gauff. So, who are the favourites, who are the dark horses, and what are the narratives that are likely to dominate this year’s Australian Open? 

With the surge in COVID-19 cases in China, after the easing of its stringent zero-COVID policy in December, there is apprehension that the pandemic could be entering a new, uncertain phase. Here we discuss the situation in China and the potential impact in India.

Days after Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was formally inaugurated as the President of Brazil, right-wing supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed and ransacked the offices of the President, the Supreme Court and the Congress in Brasilia on the 8th of January. The attackers, who don’t accept the results that brought Lula to power for the third time, appealed to the Army to take power. That, however, didn’t happen. Taking charge of the situation, President Lula ordered Army personnel into action, dispersed Bolsonaro’s supporters while arresting 1,500 of them, who are now going to stand trial. Not a single casualty was reported. In an obvious parallel to the storming of the U.S. Capitol in January two years ago, the attacks on democratic institutions led to massive protests in Brazil calling for Bolsonaro’s supporters to be punished. International condemnation of the incidents too was quick. 

Last week the government announced that it has allocated ₹19,744 crore for a National Green Hydrogen Mission. The Mission will aim to make India a ‘global hub’ for producing, using and exporting green Hydrogen. India is not alone in formulating a green hydrogen strategy, or in setting aside big money for developing the country into a global hug for green hydrogen. In the last 18 months or so, several developing countries have zeroed in on green hydrogen, which is viewed by many as a silver bullet of sorts for decarbonisation. How will the National Green Hydrogen Mission be implemented? How does green hydrogen fit in with India’s energy consumption profile? Does India have the manufacturing base to develop itself into a green hydrogen hub? 

In mid-December, a government department told the Kerala High Court that Ribociclib, a drug prescribed for a type of breast cancer, did not meet the conditions necessary to issue a compulsory licence. The drug is patented and therefore cannot be made by generic manufacturers but a compulsory licence, if issued by the government would permit a drug to be manufactured and made available at an affordable price. The case involved a woman, now deceased who said that she and her husband had a joint income of ₹74,400 a month, while the drug Ribociclib cost her ₹58,140, making it unaffordable. A study by the Indian Council of Medical Research has found that breast cancer is one of the top cancers in women in India. Drug prices have evoked national interest following the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw widespread reporting of desperate patients turning to the black market for drugs and devices. In September, the Centre released the National List of Essential Medicines -- the list was released after a gap of seven years, and contains 384 drugs. Interestingly, it also has added, for the first time four drugs that are under patents. So what's in and out of the latest list? How are drug prices regulated in India, and how will the inclusion of drugs on the list help? Does India need to do more to make medicines affordable and accessible?

On December 18, in Montreal, Canada, 188 governments that are parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) agreed on a new framework to halt species extinction and loss of bio- diversity. Known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), it sets out four goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030 to ensure that 30% of land, inland water, marine and coastal ecosystems are protected. At present, only 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine ecosystems are protected. So, how realistic are these goals? How will the signatories be monitored to ensure that they are on course to meet their targets? Since conservation and restoration initiatives will not come cheap, what is the total estimated cost and how will the funds be raised, especially for developing countries? 

Following his victory in the November 1 elections, and after securing a vote of confidence in Parliament, Benjamin Natanyahu has become Prime Minister of Israel for a record sixth time. He now heads what has been described as the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. The coalition government includes, apart from Netanyahu’s own right-wing Likud Party, the far-right Jewish Power party and the Jewish supremacist Religious Zionist party. Political observers, and even Israel’s own Western allies, have expressed apprehensions that the inclusion in the government of what were hitherto fringe elements, could lead to escalation of tensions with Palestinians and worsening of repressive measures in the occupied territories. There are also fears that life could become more difficult for secularists and left-wing groups in Israel. How justified are these fears? What is the likely agenda of the new government? And will Israel get more aggressive about expanding settlements? 

By banning women from attending universities and colleges, the Taliban have proved that their ideological motivations matter more than international opinion. In September last year, one month after taking power again, the Taliban banned girls from attending secondary schools. In November, the Taliban banned women from visiting public parks, hamams and gymnasiums. In December, the Taliban resumed the practice of public floggings and executions, putting their medieval motivations on display yet again. Many countries and the United Nations Security Council have expressed concern at the Taliban decisions banning women from public life. But what do these statements amount to? Can the UN and other influential countries influence Taliban behaviour?

It’s the eastern front with China that has become tense after a border clash between Chinese and Indian troops in Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh on the 9th of December. India and China, listeners may recall, are still engaged in dialing down Chinese transgressions in multiple areas in eastern Ladakh through negotiations that have been slow and protracted. Four days after the incident in Tawang, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed both Houses of Parliament that Chinese troops unilaterally tried to alter the status quo in the Yangtse area, but were rebuffed by Indian soldiers. So, what does one make of the latest aggressive posture displayed by the Chinese in the eastern sector? To discuss this issue, we have Dr. Jabin T. Jacob, Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations and Governance Studies of the Shiv Nadar University. 

Celebrations are still going on in Argentina after what many consider as possibly the greatest World Cup final played till date. Billed as a match-up between Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, the game surpassed and confounded everyone’s expectations in its twists and turns. While the final will remain the biggest talking point of the Qatar World Cup, the tournament also threw up several others – the success of Morocco, spectacular upsets, the tactical evolution of the game, Messi’s legacy, and of course, the fact that this is the first World Cup to be hosted in the Arab world. We look back at some of these highlights as we bring the curtains down on what has been a truly memorable event. 

The Union government introduced the Multi-state Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha on December 7. The justifications for the Bill trotted out by the government include: strengthening governance, reforming the electoral process, improving the monitoring mechanisms, and ensure ease of doing business, ensure financial discipline, and making it easier to raise funds. But Opposition members have criticized sections of the Bill on the grounds that it encroaches into the jurisdictions of States, and seeks to centralize power with the Central government. There is also the question of whether the changes enhance or dilute the autonomy of the multi-state co-ops. 

Last month, the Central government, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, said that it cannot be held liable to pay compensation for deaths caused by adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine. The affidavit was filed in a case in response to a petition filed by the parents of two young women, who allegedly died due to adverse reactions following their taking the COVID-19 vaccine. The Centre also said that taking the COVID-19 vaccine was purely voluntary and that the government had made all the relevant information about the vaccines freely available in the public domain. AstraZeneca’s vaccine or Covishield as it is known in India, which was the vaccine largely used in the country’s immunisation drive, is reported to be linked to a rare blood clotting condition, known as TTS – the United Kingdom in fact offers alternative vaccines to healthy adults under the age of 40.  The Centre said that a total of 26 TTS cases were reported, of which 14 recovered and 12 died. Other countries offer compensations to those who are injured following a vaccination: during the COVID-19 vaccinations, the World Health Oganisation introduced a “no fault compensation programme” as part of its Covax initiative. As of last month, India has administered nearly 220 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, since the vaccination drive began in January 2021. As per the Centre’s affidavit, a total 92,114 cases of adverse events following immunisation (AEFIs) have been reported in this period, which amounts to 0.0042% in terms of adverse events against the number of doses given. Of these, 89,332 have been “minor” cases while only 2,782 cases or 0.00013% are serious and severe. But how robust is India’s system of reporting adverse events following immunisation? How easy or difficult is it for patients to report an adverse event, and do most people know how to do so? How much communication was there with regard to possible effects of taking vaccines? And while vaccine injuries are rare, and vaccines are necessary for public health initiatives, what happens to families of those who fall sick or lose their lives following a vaccination? Should the government, ultimately, take responsibility?

The Rajya Sabha passed the Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2021 earlier this month. The Lok Sabha had cleared it four months ago, in August. The Bill, which amends the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, has been justified on the grounds that it was needed to implement provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), to which India is a signatory. But the Bill has raised concerns among conservationists. One worry is that it leaves the door open for commercial trade in elephants. It has also been criticised for diluting the federal framework by seeking to displace the State Boards of Wildlife, which are chaired by the Chief Minister, with a Standing Committee headed by the Union Forest Minister, evoking fears of turning a body vested with wildlife guardianship into a ‘rubber-stamping’ authority. 

Tensions are rising in northern Syria along the border with Turkey – an area that is already facing a grave humanitarian crisis following a decade-long civil war. Now Turkey, which has already carried out four on-ground offensives in Syria since 2016, has announced that it could launch another big military operation against the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF is largely made up of Kurdish People Protection Units, known as the YPG, and Turkey believes YPG to be behind a major bomb blast in Istanbul on November 13. The SDF and the YPG have denied any involvement. So, what is driving Turkey’s militaristic policy in Syria? Can Russia and the US, both of which have a military presence in Syria, stop Turkey from staging another offensive? What are the implications for the security of prisons in Syria where thousands of Islamic State fighters are locked up? 

Just when it feels like we’ve gotten over the coronavirus pandemic, another infectious disease has been making the rounds: measles. Over the past few months, several States in India, notably Maharashtra and Kerala, have seen outbreaks of hundreds of cases of measles and several deaths of children. As of December 12, Maharashtra recorded 991 confirmed cases of measles, and tragically, 19 deaths, as per a news report. States such as Gujarat, Jharkhand, Bihar and Haryana too, have recorded an uptick in cases. Measles is a highly infectious viral respiratory illness. Transmission is similar to COVID-19’s transmission: airborne and through respiratory droplets and close personal contact. In mild cases, the infected individual gets a rash and fever, but the disease can be fatal. Two doses of the vaccine, which are included in the country’s universal immunisation programme, provide a very high level of protection, making it one of the vaccine preventable diseases. But since it extremely infectious and spreads rapidly, a large section – about 95% of the population -- needs to be immunised in order to keep outbreaks at bay, experts believe. Vaccine coverage however, was hit by the pandemic in India in 2020 and 2021 when routine healthcare services were disrupted. Last month, the World Health Organisation declared measles to be an “imminent threat to every region of the world.” The WHO said, globally, a record number of nearly 40 million children had missed at least one dose of the measles vaccine in 2021. Another aspect that has raised concerns is the infection being seen in babies younger than nine months – the first dose of the vaccine is given to infants between 9 and 12 months – leading experts to consider whether the first dose should be given earlier. The Centre stepped into action last month, directing States and Union Territories to consider administering an additional dose to all children of 9 months to 5 years in vulnerable areas, identify cases and conduct outbreak response immunisation, as per news reports. So what happened to our immunisation coverage during the pandemic? How much do we have to do to catch up with our vaccinations? Is vaccine hesitancy an issue and how can it be tackled? How well is India set to eliminate measles by 2023 as per our goal?

The Centre is planning to amend the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. It proposes to make more than 60 amendments to this law through an amendment Bill, titled Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act (Amendment) Bill, 2022. This Bill, prepared by the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, is expected to be introduced in Parliament either in the ongoing Winter session or the Budget session. Among the proposed changes is the inclusion of bestiality as a crime, the recognition of ‘five freedoms’ for animals, and a new category of ‘gruesome cruelty’ which would carry enhanced penalties. What are the various amendments, their implications, and how effective are they? 

Spectrum for 5G services was auctioned out by India earlier this year. The pattern followed pretty much what was standard for the rest of the world that had preceded us. And, like in the rest of the world, our own aviation administration has also raised concerns about potential interference between 5G services and the functioning of altimeters in aircraft. Altimeters in planes help in landing of plans and use telecom spectrum for this purpose.  Is there cause for concern or are authorities only being extra cautious in suspending 5G services in and around airports for now? If a resolution is even possible, how far away is it? 

The Right to Information Act was passed in 2005, and it gives citizens access to the records of central and state governments. This act gives people the power to question the government, making it a key part of maintaining a healthy democracy.  But the act isn’t as foolproof as it seems. When it works, the act is a powerful tool, that can uncover major issues in areas that fall under the government. But with issues like vacancies in information commissions, a reluctance to be transparent and delays with appeals and complaints, the Act’s power seems to be getting weaker. In this episode, The Hindu speaks with journalists and RTI experts about these issues, and how it is affecting the law.

Last month, the government’s Department of Consumer Affairs brought out norms that e-commerce websites must adhere to for customer reviews. Fake reviews that prop up products tend to lure customers into purchasing them in the belief that others have had a good experience. What other aspects do these standards cover? Are all of the norms mandatory? Anything else the government ought to have done?  To share his perspectives with us today, we have Mihir Mahajan, Adjunct Fellow at the Takshashila Institution in Bengaluru. He teaches topics in technology policy such as competition policy, intellectual property and algorithm audits. His prior work includes research on online reputation systems to understand how consumers use reviews and the economic impact of having a good online reputation.  

December 4 is World Wildlife Conservation Day, and on this occasion, The Hindu brings you a special episode of InFocus aimed at raising public awareness about the importance of wildlife protection and the issues around it. More than 100 species of plants and animals in India currently figure in the ‘Red List’ of endangered species put out by the International Union for Conservation of Nature or IUCN. Many more are vulnerable. What exactly are the threats facing wildlife in India? How do we deal with them? At a more fundamental level, do we really appreciate why we should care about wildlife? We explore the various challenges around conservation with two remarkable individuals who have in common a strong passion for wildlife. 

It's World Wildlife Conservation Day this Sunday, December 4 and so, perhaps an apt time to discuss one of the first animals most people think about in the context of our country: our lions.  Speaking of big cats however, there's another one now in the picture -- the eight African cheetahs that were brought in from Namibia to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh in September to much excitement.  Asiatic cheetahs that once roamed over large tracts of India, were declared extinct in our country in 1952 -- their capture over the centuries, hunting for sport, and their killing for bounties all contributed to their extinction. Their last surviving population is in Iran today.  Project Cheetah under which the animals from Namibia were brought to India, aims, it says, to "re-establish the ecosystem function role of the cheetah in representative areas of its former range” and to restore open forests and savannah systems.  As of the end of November, all eight cheetahs have been released from their quarantine zone into a larger enclosure within the national park, as per news reports. But while the cheetahs establish themselves in their new homes, experts have voiced concerns both over the aims and advisability of bringing the cheetahs into India, and over the larger question of what happened to the original plan of housing our lions at the Kuno National Park.  In 2013, the Supreme Court of India, in an order had stated that the protection of Asiatic lions was a top priority and that they must be provided with a second home - the lions were supposed to go to Kuno National Park where the cheetahs now are. Our lions are, at present, found only in the Gir region of Gujarat, and as such, possibly vulnerable to threats - there have been instances of disease outbreaks amongst them for example. So what happened to the lion translocation plan? How will the cheetahs help with the ecology of our country? How have conservation projects of endangered species progressed in our country?

In the last ten years, Indian banks have written off loans worth about ₹10 lakh crore. This helped the banks reduce their NPAs by 50%. But tellingly, they were able to recover only 13% of the loans written off – a very poor rate that raises many questions, for it is generally not easy to get a loan from a bank, and banks have many options for recovering loans. Another interesting aspect of the write-offs is that the bulk of the NPAs were from big corporate borrowers, with the NPA rates among smaller borrowers such as microenterprises being much lower. So, why do banks write off big ticket loans? Why is the recovery rate so poor? And how does the combination of massive write-offs and poor recovery rate affect taxpayers? 

Protests against draconian Covid restrictions have rocked several Chinese cities since the death of 10 persons in an apartment building fire in Urumqi on November 24. These protests come a month after Communist party strongman Xi Jinping took office for an unprecedented third term as the country’s president. Embarrassing as it is for the Chinese leadership, the protests appear to reflect popular anger at the party’s “zero covid” policy at a time when the rest of the world has moved on from the pandemic. So, what do these protests signal? Can we expect a massive crackdown on the protesters? Do the protests point to the failings of an increasingly centralized party leadership that doesn’t listen to the people at large? 

Asim Munir is Pakistan’s new Army Chief. He was appointed on the 24th of November, putting at rest endless speculation of who would be chief and whether Qamar Jawed Bajwa might get yet another extension. There were also doubts that Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi, an Imran Khan appointee, may not sign off on General Munir’s appointment. But, mercifully, for Pakistan, that did not happen. The President signed off on the appointment but after flying to Lahore to meet Imran Khan. So, what kind of chief will General Munir make? Will he interfere in the country’s politics? Will he try and fix the popular Imran Khan whose massive public meetings continue to signal his imminent return to power? 

This is the second part of a two-part Deep Dive podcast on the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 (DPDP Bill, 2022), which is the fourth draft of the Bill. In Part 1, we discussed various aspects of the Bill from the perspective of the data principal’s privacy rights. In this episode, we take a close look at how the Bill envisages the structure and independence of the Data Protection Board of India, the role of consent managers, and protections from surveillance, among other things. 

In August this year, the government withdrew the draft Data Protection Bill, 2021, saying it would come up with a comprehensive legal framework in a new draft. Now the new draft, – the fourth overall, is out. Titled the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 (DPDP Bill, 2022), the draft Bill is open for public comments and is expected to be introduced in Parliament in the Budget session of 2023. So, how different is the latest version from the earlier drafts? Does it do a better job of safeguarding the rights of users – or data principals, as they are called in legal parlance? In the first part of this two-part Deep Dive podcast, we take a detailed look at how well the Bill safeguards the rights of individual users. 

This month, Haryana has been rocked by agitations and healthcare services have been disrupted, as medical students have been protesting against the State government's bond policy. Bond policies for students at government medical colleges, usually involve a mandated period of service at a State-run hospital for students after their graduation, failing which they pay a penalty amount.  In Haryana, the government's original policy said MBBS candidates had to pay an annual bond of Rs. 10 lakh minus the fee, at the start of every academic year, which the government would repay, if the candidate obtained employment with the State. The service period with the State is seven years. Following the protests, the Chief Minister had said the bond need not be paid at the time of admission, instead students would have to sign a bond-cum-loan agreement with the college and a bank. However reports indicate the students are still unhappy with the policy. Many States have this policy for medical students, with the bond amount and the period of service varying from State to State. In general, the understanding is that since students at government medical colleges get an education subsidized by the State, they must provide service in return to the state, generally in rural areas where there may be a shortage of doctors. In August 2019, the Supreme Court upheld the bond policy put in place by several States but said that some seemed to have rigid conditions, and suggested to the Centre that the country have a uniform policy regarding this. Now, there are reports that the Union Health Ministry plans to create guidelines to scrap the bond policy altogether, based on recommendations from the National Medical Commision - and perhaps incorporate mandatory rural through a non-financial mechanism. While providing healthcare rurally is crucial - 75% of our healthcare infrastructure is concentrated in urban areas - students in parts of the country have complained of no State job guarantee once their degree is complete, and in some cases, no payment of salaries.  So does the bond policy for medical students need to be relooked at? How can State governments provide healthcare where it is desperately needed, while ensuring a policy that is fair for students? How do other countries handle their rural healthcare systems? And what else can governments do to provide accessible, quality healthcare in our villages? 

The killing of two persons inside Polish territory on November 15 by a missile strike had the world on edge till it became known that the likely culprit was a Ukrainian and not a Russian missile. A flurry of meetings took place and statements flew thick and fast. U.S. President Joe Biden convened an emergency meeting of like-minded Western nations on the sidelines of the G20 Bali summit. As NATO and Western statements suggested that it was a Ukrainian air defence missile that may have landed in Poland, tensions eased, but dangers lurk ahead as the Russia-Ukraine confrontation looks to go on and on. 

This November marks 10 years of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, or the POCSO Act as it is commonly known. POCSO has been in the news recently - with two High Courts in India, the Karnataka High Court and the Delhi High Court dealing with cases of teenagers, under the age of 18, in consensual relationships. The Karnataka High Court said the Law Commission of India may have to rethink the age criteria in law for consensual sex to address the issue mutual love affairs amongst minor girls and boys, who are aged above 16 but are below 18.  The POCSO Act defines a child as any person under the age of 18, and a child cannot consent.  This is not the first time the debate about age of consent has come up -- in fact, the POCSO Bill when it was originally introduced had a clause recognising consent of minors between the ages of 16 and 18, but this was then removed after the Bill went through a Parliamentary Standing Committee.  Studies have shown that a number of cases filed under the law are by parents, against boys who have eloped with their daughters - leading to many ramifications for the teenage couples, from girls being put into government homes, to boys being held in custody, to families having to go through the process of a case and trial, which can take months, or sometimes years.  But while there are calls to take into consideration the consent of older teenagers, there are concerns too - how can young people be safeguarded from exploitative or unsafe relationships? Will lowering the age of consent be used to justify cases of child marriage or trafficking? How can evolving consent in adolescents be assessed appropriately? Does an act as broad as POCSO need a refocused look?

The 22nd edition of the FIFA men’s World Cup will kick off in Qatar on November 20. The month-long tournament is one of biggest sporting events on the planet, followed by millions the world over. But this year’s event has been dogged by controversy ever since Qatar won hosting rights back in 2010. There have been allegations that Qatar bribed FIFA officials in order to win the bid. The host country has also faced criticism on its human rights track record, treatment of migrant workers, and restrictions on civil liberties. For their part, Qatari officials have termed all the criticism as unfair. So, how did a tiny Gulf nation with hardly any soccer tradition end up hosting the world cup? What’s in it for Qatar? Will the criticisms overshadow the event? And coming to the sport itself, how do the 32 teams stack up? 

The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020), among other things, also envisaged what is being called ‘assessment reform’ – that is, changing the way school students are assessed. With this objective in mind, it recommended setting up a centralized, national-level assessment regulator called PARAKH – Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development. The government invited international consultants to bid for a contract to help set up PARAKH, and now three global nonprofits – Educational Testing Services (ETS), American Institutes for Research (AIR) and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) – have expressed interest. So, how will having a centralized assessment regulator change the way assessments are done in India? Why do need the help of foreign consultants for setting up PARAKH -- do we lack the expertise in India? How will PARAKH help secure better educational outcomes for our students? 

The 27th summit of the Conference of Parties (COP27) in Egypt comes on the back of extreme weather events that seem like a trailer of the climate catastrophe that awaits the planet: epic floods in Pakistan, heat waves in Europe, wildfires in Australia, to name a few. One theme has figured prominently so far: climate finance for mitigation and adaptation. Developing counties need about $2 trillion annually to cut their greenhouse emissions so that the world is on track to meet its net-zero targets. But will the rich counties, who account for 1/8th of the global population but half of all emissions, fulfill their moral responsibility? What happened to their promise to commit $100 billion annually from 2020? The other big theme of COP 27 is the impact of the Ukraine war, and a turn to new fossil fuel projects in different parts of the world – apparently as a temporary measure but which, if executed, could get locked in for a longer term. How are these issues playing out in COP 27? 

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Jo Biden met for over three hours on November 14, ahead of the G-20 meeting in Indonesia. It was their first face-to-face meeting as heads of state. Readouts from the two sides suggest that both Xi and Biden did some tough talking, reiterating old positions and supposed red lines. Both sides agreed to keep talking and resume engagement on climate change and issues related to global economic stability even as their differences persisted. 

In late October, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) levied penalties exceeding Rs. 2000 crore, totally across two cases for anticompetitive practices. One was to do with what CCI called Google’s abuse of its dominant position in the mobile ecosystem. CCI said that mandatory pre-installation of the entire Google Mobile Suite, with no option to uninstall the same, and their prominent placement amounts to imposition of unfair condition on device manufacturers and thereby contravenes competition law.  In the second case, CCI said making access to the Play Store dependent on mandatory usage of Google Play Billing System for paid apps and in-app purchases was one-sided, arbitrary and devoid of any legitimate business interest.  A third complaint that the CCI is currently reviewing is against Google for allegedly denying market access to Smart TV makers who do not enter into licensing agreements with Google.  To share his views on the topic, we have with us today Rahul Singh, Associate Professor, NLSIU Bangalore, who teaches Competition Law & Policy, Regulation, WTO and Jurisprudence.

On October 31 this year, the Supreme Court declared that the two-finger test - a test used on survivors of rape or sexual assault, was not only regressive and unscientific but also re-victimised and re-traumatised women. In a first, it also said that that any person who conducts this test in sexual assault cases shall be guilty of misconduct.  Activists and survivors have for years, been calling for an end to be put to this test - which involves checking the laxity of a woman's vaginal muscles with two fingers. This is not the first time the Supreme Court has said it must not be used. In fact, the Union Health Ministry's 2014 guidelines too say the test must not be conducted. Experts say however, that the guidelines do not translate into change on the ground - that there still is not enough sensitisation and training of all the personnel involved in the reporting, examination and investigation of a sexual assault case. The problem in India is huge and multi-faceted -- the country, as per National Crime Records Bureau statistics, registered 31,677 cases of rape in 2021 -- an average of 86 a day. And this too, may be an under-reported number. Challenges for survivors range from the actual reporting of a case to the police station, to getting an FIR lodged, the medical examination and then navigating the court system.  How much has changed since the Nirbhaya case shook the nation in December 2012 and led to the criminal law amendment of 2013? How much do the departments of police and health work together in cases where medical examinations and collection of evidence could be important to an investigation? How much of what is the law on paper translate into the experience of a survivor? And what can be done to make the process better and more sensitive? 

The dates for the Gujarat assembly elections are out – polls will be held in two phases, on December 1 and 5, and the results will be declared on December 8. The BJP has been in power in Gujarat since 1995, for 27 years. But there has been little talk of anti-incumbency, with most analysts ,and an opinion poll, predicting another comfortable victory for the BJP. However, unlike in the past, this time with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the mix, many constituencies are expected to see a three-cornered contest, instead of a two-way contest between the BJP and the Congress. Which party is likely to lose ground due to the AAP factor – the Congress or the BJP? Is the splash made by AAP merely a social media phenomenon or has it made an impact on the ground as well? And what will be the significance of this election for the BJP, looking ahead to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections?

Democrats have performed better than expected in U.S. midterm elections to the House of Representatives and the Senate. In the House, a Republican advantage looks to be slender and the Senate is still up for grabs with a couple of seats set to be the decider. Exit polls suggest that inflation and abortion were key issues in the minds of American voters. Nearly 60 per cent of voters surveyed said they were dissatisfied or angry with the U.S. Supreme Court overturning abortion rights. So, did the abortion issue allow the Democrats to perform better? Did it help in turnout at a time when President Joe Biden’s approval ratings are down? 

Western powers, particularly the Group of Seven wealthy nations are working to fix a price cap on Russian oil. They expect major buyers in the West, Australia included, will comply and not buy Russian oil above the price cap. Their hope is that even countries that don’t formally subscribe to the cap, will use the opportunity to negotiate with Russia and buy the Urals crude at prices cheaper than even the price they now get – which is said to be at a 20-30% discount to global oil prices. The idea is to allow Russian oil to continue to flow in the global markets so that supply constraints don’t drive up prices and hence strengthen the possibility of a global recession that is already on the horizon. There's no saying if this will take off or fall apart, but the U.S. Treasury Department has been able to convince the G7 to go along with the proposal. We have with us today, David Wessel, Director, The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Brookings Institution, and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner as a journalist, to share some perspectives with us.

 The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) of the Environment Ministry on October 18 cleared the proposal for the commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) mustard. The GM mustard variety, named Dhara Mustard Hybrid (DMH-11), has been developed by the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants at Delhi University. While this development has been welcomed by sections of the scientific community, it is being opposed by farmers and environmentalists. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, in an interim order, has ordered “status quo” on the GEAC’s clearance, telling the government “Do not take any precipitative action”. It has posted the matter for hearing on November r10th. In the second part of this two-part Deep Dive podcast on the issues around the introduction of genetically modified mustard crop, we decode the socio-economic ramifications. For instance, given the certainty of GM crops contaminating non-GM ones, what happens to the right of farmers to not cultivate a GM crop? Can scientists take that call? What would be the impact on food security, famer livelihoods, and India’s agri-exports to GM-hostile markets such as Europe?

The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) of the Environment Ministry on October 18 cleared the proposal for the commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) mustard. The GM mustard variety, named Dhara Mustard Hybrid (DMH-11), has been developed by the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants at Delhi University. While this development has been welcomed by sections of the scientific community, it is being opposed by farmers and environmentalists. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, in an interim order, has ordered “status quo” on the GEAC’s clearance, telling the government “Do not take any precipitative action." It has posted the matter for hearing on November 10th. In the first part of this two-part Deep Dive podcast, we take a detailed look at the history of GM Mustard in India going back to 2002, the nature of the science behind the genetic manipulation involved, and examine the basis of claims that DMH-11 is higher yielding than other options available to the Indian farmer. 

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was shot in the shin even as one of his party workers was killed as a gunman opened fire at a container carrying the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s senior leadership. Imran, who has been leading a long march demanding fresh elections and an end to the Army’s political role, underwent surgery in Lahore but is said to be fine. A senior PTI leader, Asad Umar, directly blamed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and a Major-General in the ISI Directorate, Faisal Naseer, for the assassination bid. So, what happens now in Pakistan? Will Sharif junior’s government survive or will Pakistan have fresh elections?

After nearly 20 years, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been re-elected as Brazil’s President. Lula, who was earlier President from 2003 to 2010, defeated his right-wing rival Jair Bolsonaro by a narrow margin. But it was enough to send Lula’s supporters into the streets of Brazil in celebration. The President-elect, who served 580 days in jail before being acquitted off corruption charges, has promised to re-unite a bitterly divided country. Interestingly, Bolsonaro is yet to concede defeat. A whole procession of world leaders, ranging from Russia’s Vladimir Putin to America’s Joe Biden, have congratulated the 77-year-old Lula, who is credited with pulling millions of people out of poverty during his earlier stint as President. So, what does Lula’s election mean for Brazil? And can the new President actually unite a divided nation, something that has become a feature of many modern democracies. 

The feeding of stray dogs has always been a highly divisive issue. While dog-lovers feel they have a right to feed these animals, others who feel intimidated by these dogs are strongly opposed to it. Plenty of petitions have been filed and heard on this issue. In the latest judicial development on this matter, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court has ruled that people interested in feeding strays should first formally adopt them and feed them in their own homes. Noting that “real charity lies in taking complete care and not just feeding and then leaving the poor creatures to fend for themselves,” the court also directed the municipality to impose a fine of ₹200 on anyone found feeding dogs in public places. What are the implications of this ruling? Is it reasonable to expect anyone who wants to feed a stray to simply adopt the dog? Will this directive solve or worsen the problem of street dogs? Guest: Meet Ashar, Manager of Cruelty Response at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), India Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

Ahead of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP27, which is scheduled to be held in Egypt next week, medical journal The Lancet released a report, The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: health at the mercy of Fossil Fuels. An India factsheet based on the report, reveals alarming numbers: heat-related deaths increased by 55% over the last 20-odd years, the number of months suitable for dengue transmission has been rising, reaching 5.6 months each year, and in 2020, over 330,000 people died in India due to exposure to particulate matter from fossil fuel combustion. And these are only some of the health impacts brought about by climate change.  For years now, experts have been warning of what climate events can do to disease patterns, to food security and nutrition levels, to maternal and child health and to mental health too. India is already burdened with communicable diseases, the increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases, and now faces the challenges of climate change to public health in a healthcare system that has already seen its limits stretched during the COVID-19 pandemic. So how exactly do increased warming and other climate change effects play out on our health? How is our country placed to meet these challenges? And what can be done, at a policy and personal level to help reduce the impact of climate change on our health?

The government is expected to finalise its Battery Swapping Policy soon. The draft version of the policy, released for stakeholder comments in April, has evoked a mixed response, with sections of the industry welcoming it, while others had some reservations. The draft policy offers several arguments for an Electric Vehicle (EV) ecosystem, particularly for e-2-wheelers and e-3-wheelers, centered on battery swapping as opposed to battery charging – it’s more time-efficient, cost-efficient, and space-efficient. But at the same time, some have pointed out that aspects of the policy that mandate standardization in the design of battery packs to ensure interoperability could be problematic. So, what are the various challenges in implementing a battery swapping ecosystem? How will it be rolled out, given the high costs of setting up a battery swapping station? What has been the experience in other countries? 

Five days after Imran Khan personally won six out of the seven National Assembly seats he contested in Pakistan, the country’s Election Commission has disqualified him from either remaining or being chosen as a member of Parliament. Mr. Khan has called on his supporters to protest the controversial decision just as his party said they would pursue a legal challenge against the Commission’s order. Many analysts are drawing parallels between the October 21st disqualification and a similar action against then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2017 when the country’s Supreme Court stated that Mr. Sharif could not hold office as he had been dishonest. Are there parallels between the two decisions? Is the unseen hand of Pakistan’s permanent establishment again at work? What impact will this have on the country’s politics? 

In a matter of less than a week, Rishi Sunak has replaced Liz Truss as Prime Minister. In the first week of September, Boris Johnson was still the British Prime Minister. Our guest in last week’s “In Focus” podcast, Andrew Whitehead, former Editor of the BBC’s World Service, had predicted that it would be Rishi Sunak. And Sunak it is. We turn again to Andrew Whitehead for what he thinks of Britain’s first Indian-origin Prime Minister and the challenges that lie ahead of him. 

In China, the winner has taken all. After obtaining an unprecedented third term, the Chinese President and Communist Party general secretary, Xi Jinping, has packed the politburo standing committee with his own nominees. Xi has emerged as king and king-maker from the just-concluded party congress in Beijing. It was expected that the Premier would stay on in the powerful standing committee but Xi has had his way – six members are of his choice – many of the new entrants have worked closely with the President in the past. The seventh member is Xi himself. Apart from achieving full control of the party and government, Xi has also packed the powerful Central Military Commission with his nominees. The President has also promoted three generals who served in the Western Theatre Command, which borders India, with key posts. So, what are the takeaways from the Party Congress? How will it impact China internally and the rest of the world? Will it mean business as usual with India or will there be any departures? 

Earlier this month, the World Health Organisation issued a global warning about four cough syrups that it said were substandard products and were unsafe, and their use, especially in children, could “result in serious injury or death." These four cough syrups Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup, were manufactured by Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd, based in Haryana. The medicines have been “potentially linked” with the deaths of over 60 children in The Gambia, a West African nation. The drugs, the WHO said, contained “unacceptable amounts” of two “contaminants”—diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which are toxic. Diethylene glycol, which is generally used in industrial products, is believed to be used in medicines as an adulterant in order to cut costs. This is not the first instance of deaths due to diethylene glycol—there have been several cases in India too, the latest being the deaths of 14 children in Jammu in December 2019. India is the largest manufacturer of generic drugs in the world, and supplies a range of drugs to 200-odd countries, meeting about half of the global vaccine demand. It supplies nearly 40% of the generic drugs demand in the United States and supplies about a quarter of all medicines in the United Kingdom. The industry is growing rapidly and will is estimated to be worth about 49 billion US dollars. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and the Haryana State Drugs Controller have directed a stop to all manufacting activity at Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd following the Gambia deaths, and an expert committee has been constituted to look into this. But where does the responsibility for drugs lie? Who enforces our laws on spurious drugs and are they enough? Do we have enough resources to check all of the drugs manufactured in India to ensure they are safe for consumers? What is the pharma industry’s role here and what is needed to ensure that no fake or substandard drug finds its way to a patient?

The eighth edition of the ICC T20 World Cup has kicked off in Australia. India hasn’t won this tournament since the inaugural edition in 2007. Last year, we got knocked out in the group stage itself. But everyone is optimistic about India’s chances this time. After all, India has the best T20 record of any cricketing nation this year, with the most number of wins in a calendar year. So realistically speaking, what are India’s chances? Who are the other favourites? Who are the most in-form match-winners that are likely to make a splash this year? 

Three prime ministers in three months. That’s the political score for England just ahead of the T20 world cup. The old and mature democracy distinctly looks a bit Third Worldish. Just after saying she wasn’t a quitter, Liz Truss had to quit as Prime Minister on Thursday. It wasn’t really a surprise after she had to sack her Finance Minister and then lost her Home Minister as well. The new Finance Minister had to turn her economic policies on its head. So, where does Britain go from here? Should there be fresh elections so that the electorate can make the choice of a new prime minister? Or should the Conservative Party get another shot at foisting a leader on the country? And who might that somebody be? 

The expected has happened. Mallikarjun Kharge is the new president of the Indian National Congress. His rival, diplomat turned politician Shashi Tharoor, garnered impressive thousand-odd votes against Kharge, who was considered to be the establishment candidate. The election does show that inner-party democracy in the Congress party is possible. By holding elections in a transparent way, the Congress has also shone a light on how tightly-controlled other parties, including the BJP, are.

This year’s Global Hunger Index, a peer-reviewed annual report that tracks hunger at the “global, regional, and country levels," has shown South Asia, and India in particular, as a hunger hot spot. India has been ranked 107th out of the 121 countries that were the subject of the report. India, whose child-wasting rate of 19.3% was the highest of any country, was ranked below countries such as Pakistan, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Sudan. In the Global Hunger Index 2021, India had been ranked 101st out of 116 countries. The government of India, for the second year in a row, has rejected the report. It has claimed that the report’s methodology is flawed, and that it ignores the food security efforts of the central government during the pandemic. How was this report prepared? Are the criticisms of it justified? What are its implications for food security and public policy? 

The Finance Minister recently addressed the Indian industry, urging them to step up investments in the country with confidence. She also asked them why they were like Lord Hanuman, who had to be reminded of his own strength. Why did she make this appeal? What is the status of private investment in this country? The government has budgeted for higher public spending this fiscal year, but could this have come earlier, to help crowd in private investment?

Josep Borell, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has triggered a controversy by saying that Europe was a garden and “most of the rest of the world” was a jungle. He warned in a speech at the European Diplomatic Academy on the 13th of October, that the “jungle could invade the garden”. He continued, “The gardeners should take care of it, but they will not protect the garden by building walls. A nice small garden surrounded by high walls in order to prevent the jungle from coming in is not going to be a solution. Because the jungle has a strong growth capacity, and the wall will never be high enough in order to protect the garden. The gardeners have to go to the jungle. Europeans have to be much more engaged with the rest of the world. Otherwise, the rest of the world will invade us, by different ways and means.” So what does this speech mean for the rest of the world? Does it signal a formal end to globalisation and integration? Does it reflect the true state of the world? Are these rare candid remarks from a serving European bureaucrat? 

The RBI issued directions earlier this week to Indian banks on the provisions they ought to make against loans, if the entities to which they have lent funds in foreign currency have not hedged against risk of changes in the exchange rate. After all, if an Indian company had borrowed one dollar a year ago, and has to close the loan now, it would have to shell out more rupees today to close one dollar’s worth of debt, than when it received the loan.  Today, ratings agency CARE Edge Chief Economist Rajani Sinha joins us to share her views on what the trigger for the Reserve Bank's move is. 

 The mid-day meal scheme is considered to be one of the government's most successful initiatives. For thousands of children across the nation, this scheme guarantees that they get at least one meal a day. While this has led to increased school attendance, data and social audits reveal that the food being served is sometimes unhygienic, cold, contaminated, or nutritionally inadequate. Consequently, issues like food poisoning, are seeing a spike.  In this episode, The Hindu speaks with experts on the benefits of the mid-day meals scheme, what they've seen on the ground and how to effectively implement feedback mechanisms. 

Chinese President and general secretary of China’s Communist Party, Xi Jinping, is all set to shred the two-term rule for the country’s top leader in the post Deng Xiaoping era. Xi will be the first leader in decades who is expected to hang for an unprecedented third term at the upcoming 20th Congress of the Communist Party.   So, what does this mean for China and its internal and external policies? Will we see a harder Chinese approach towards its own people and to the rest of the world? And, how has the continuing zero COVID policy changed China? 

On October 6, India abstained from voting on a draft decision at the United National Human Rights Council that called for a debate on the “situation of human rights in the Xinjiang Uyghur Region” in China. By a narrow majority of 19 to 17, China and its allies ensured the defeat of a Western bloc of nations that were seeking a debate on the state of the Uyghur Muslim minority in China.  The very next day, the spokesman of the External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi hoped that the “relevant party” would address the situation in Xinjiang “objectively and properly.”  So, should India have voted for the draft decision on the situation in Xinjiang, especially since China has resisted efforts to sanction terrorists responsible for anti-India operations in the 1267 sanctions committee at the U.N., rather than abstaining? 

If the Covid-19 pandemic turned our world upside down, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has added to the global economic gloom. We thought it apt to now take a quick snapshot of major economies undergoing stress and of places where policy action is going against the grain. We also wanted to take a peek into nations that are doing rather well, when the rest of the world is surrounded by uncertainty. We chose to review the US’s interest actions, the UK’s fiscal and currency woes, Turkey’s unbridled inflation and counterintuitive interest rate moves, the blossoming of Vietnam’s economy in a world full of economic stagnation, with Indonesia close on its heels and insistence by Japan’s central bank that it won’t raise rates given that it has the lowest inflation rate among major economies. Rohit Azad, who teaches economics at JNU, shares his views with us on these global trends.

Fifth generation telecom technology, or 5G, has been in the news lately. Spectrum that was recently auctioned to telecom firms for providing 5G services fetched the government about Rs. 1.5 lakh crore. Airtel has already unveiled services in 8 cities. Jio promises to follow suit by Deepavali this year, even as it targets pan India availability by December 2023.  Meanwhile, C-DoT or the Centre for Development of Telematics has developed India’s own 5G core. What does this mean to the local industry? Is it compatible with other global equipment providers? Will it help save on foreign exchange outgo? 

 India’s foreign exchange reserves are lower by about $100 bn from a year ago. The rupee has also depreciated; it has seen a decline of more than 7% since the start of the financial year in April. Though the Reserve Bank has dipped into the reserves to help stem volatility in the rupee, that is not the only reason that the observed value of reserves has declined. Changes in valuation, given the dollar strengthening brutally against other currencies too have also contributed. How does this work? And what implications do all these changes have for the Reserve Bank’s action path going forward?

On September 13, 2022, India and China disengaged from a fifth friction point in Eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Both sides have now established five buffer zones since tensions began in April 2020, but the LAC crisis is far from over. In this episode, Manoj Joshi, Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Reservation Foundation and author of “Understanding the India China Border”, explains where things stand on the border, where both countries go from here as they look to rebuild shattered trust, and what may have driven China’s recent actions on the LAC that have upended decades of peace.

The rupee weakened past 81 against the dollar for the first time ever last week. The RBI’s intervention in the forex market to help stem the volatility by selling dollars has meant that our forex reserves have fallen about $94 billion over the course of about 12 months to about $545 billion in mid September. How much lower can we afford to let our reserves go? Is there a ‘correct’ level for the rupee? Where does the interest rate as a policy tool figure in all of this? 

Nothing seems to be going easy for the Congress. Even selecting and electing a non-Gandhi family member as the Congress president has proved to be a tall order.  Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot claimed that he didn’t know anything about a pro-incumbent revolt in the state legislature party even as Sachin Pilot waits in the wings to become Chief Minister.  After an apology to party president Sonia Gandhi, Mr. Gehlot opted out of the Congress president’s race. The contest is now between Malikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor. 

There is a minor storm in the chess world over alleged cheating. It all began on September 4 when a 19-year-old grandmaster named Hans Niemann defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen in an over-the-board game in a tournament in the US. Following this shocking loss to a player rated much lower, Carlsen withdrew from the tournament - something that almost never happens in a top event. He offered no explanations except to insinuate that Niemann had cheated. Niemann has said that he has cheated in online chess in the past but is clean now. But Chess.com was quick to ban him. When Carlsen and Niemann met again in an online event on September 19, Carlsen resigned after just one move, and has said he will not play against Niemann. Meanwhile, the chess world’s top anti-cheating expert Ken Regan has analysed not only Niemann’s win over Carlsen but also all his games from 2020, and found no evidence of cheating. Is Carlsen justified in making these insinuations without any evidence? Does the FIDE have adequate safeguards in place to ensure players don’t throw random allegations around? And how easy, or difficult, is it to cheat in chess today?

Following setbacks in his invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a partial mobilisation of ‘reservists’ to bolster the war effort. He launched his so-called special military operation with 150,000 troops, but now he plans to raise an additional 300,000 troops. Simultaneously, he also announced that referendums will be held in four Russia-held regions of Ukraine. If they vote yes, these Ukrainian territories will come under Russian sovereignty. Both these developments have serious implications, in Ukraine and in Russia. The move toward partial mobilisation has triggered fierce protests in Russia. There have been dozens of anti-mobilisation rallies, enlistment centres have been set on fire, and there have been lengthy queues of cars – some as long as 18 km – at Russia’s border crossings, with people wanting to flee. Will this partial mobilisation enable Russia to reach its military goals? Or will it backfire? What do the referendums mean in terms of the possibilities of military escalation?

Zar. Zendegi. Azadi. Women. Life. Freedom. That’s the slogan given by Iranian women protesters after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being allegedly beaten in police custody for wearing her hijab improperly.  The other popular slogan is “death to the dictator”.  Over 40 persons have been killed in the protests in about 50 cities across Iran since Mahsa Amini’s death. The protests continue in the face of a massive crackdown by the hardline Islamic regime even as internet bans continue. WhatsApp, Instagram and Skype have been shut down by the government.  One of the fundamental demands of the protesting women is that wearing a hijab should not be mandatory. In some other societies, it would be looked upon as a basic right. But not in Iran. 

Adoption in India is known to be a rather long, tedious and painful process. Now, in an ostensible attempt to speed up the adoption process, the government has introduced some changes. It has notified the ‘Model Amendment Rules’ under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2021 and so, from September 1, instead of the courts, it is the District Magistrates who would have the power to issue adoption orders. But this change, instead of being welcomed, has parents and adoption agencies worried. What are they worried about? What ails the adoption process in India, and what is the way forward to make it a rewarding process for children and parents?

On September 14, a two-judge bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli assented to several significant amendments to the BCCI Constitution. These amendments had been unanimously approved by the BCCI at its annual general body meeting in December 2019. But the BCCI needed the Supreme Court’s approval for its amendments to take effect, and now the approval has come. One of the most talked about amendments has to do with the cooling off period for office-bearers and the other is to do with disqualification of those holding public office. So, what exactly did the BCCI constitution say on these matters, what do the amendments seek to do, and how do these changes sit with the reforms initiated by the Justice R.M. Lodha committee?

Quiet Quitting has recently captured the imagination of employers and employees alike. Is it a new concept or is it a new name for something that is as old as industry itself?  Quiet Quitters are described as those who continue to be employed in a company but just do their job and no more. They are not seen as going above and beyond. Some experts argue that that is all right. Others say, the level of engagement is to be seen distinctly from working only the average 40 hours a week and that Quiet Quitters could actually be contributing by working only 8-9 hours a day.  Today, we are joined by Barnik Maitra, Managing Partner for India and South Asia at Arthur D. Little, which is said to be the oldest management consulting company. 

Bilateral meetings hogged the limelight at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation – the ones that happened and even the ones that didn’t. The presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were watched closely. Especially the bits where Mr. Putin said that he understood Chinese and Indian concerns about the war in Ukraine.  From India’s standpoint, a non-meeting with the Chinese President indicated that the recent pullback in the disputed border areas between the two countries were not enough to warrant a bilateral engagement at the highest level. With Pakistan, no meeting was expected with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and none happened. 

Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz, who won the US Open last week, has become the youngest male player to be ranked world number 1. There’s been plenty of buzz over the 19-year-old for some time now, and while many felt he would win a Grand Slam sooner or later, few expected him to claim both a Grand Slam title and the number 1 ranking this year itself. But former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero, who has been coaching Alcaraz since he was 15, has said that his rapid rise may be a surprise to everyone else but not to him, because “Since the moment that I started with him, I saw some things that were different than the other guys at his age. I am still seeing it on the court.” So what are these things that set Alcaraz apart? With Roger Federer announcing his retirement, are we at a moment that marks the end of the Big Three era and the start of the ‘Alcaraz era’?

Taliban authorities in Kabul have denied that wanted terrorist kingpin Masood Azhar of the Jaish-e-Muhammad was in Afghanistan. The denial came in the wake of a report in the Pakistani newspaper, The News, which claimed that Azhar was in Afghanistan. Masood Azhar, it may be recalled, was released by India following the hijacking of an Indian Airlines aircraft to Kandahar in 1999. He was designated an international terrorist by the United Nations in 2019.  Azhar’s name surfaced soon after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has, once again, killed Pakistani soldiers and the ceasefire brokered between the TTP and the Pakistani State is coming apart. It also comes at a time when the Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, is supposed to let Pakistan off the grey list. 

Western sanctions had initially threatened to derail the Russian economy ever since the country invaded Ukraine. However, Russia has shown a resilience that has surprised observers, and which has the potential to realign the global economic order. In a recent article for Business Line, Biswajit Dhar, Professor of Economics at the JNU, points out how observers’ projections for Russia’s GDP contraction and the rouble’s sharp fall have had to be revised as the year progressed. He points out that in its April forecast, the IMF had predicted Russia’s economy would contract by 8.5% in 2022, an improvement over what was anticipated when the sanctions were imposed. The update in July indicated that the economy would shrink by a lower 6%. The market has been more optimistic; JP Morgan predicted in July that the country’s GDP would contract only 3.5%. The rouble too, after falling from 76 to 120 versus the dollar, has now stabilised at 60. What has driven this recovery? 

The Ukraine war has been raging for nearly seven months, and the dominant pattern so far has been Russia making slow and incremental gains in territory. But this pattern was abruptly broken over the past week as Ukraine made rapid gains in the north and north-east. Russian troops have been driven out of cities like Kupyansk and Izyum, which are critical from the perspective of military logistics and supply lines. How would the loss of these logistical hubs affect Russia’s military campaign? What enabled Ukraine to make these rapid gains, and do they signify a turning point in the war? How will these losses impact President Vladimir Putin politically back in Russia?

The Union Power Ministry introduced the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in Lok Sabha on August 8. The Power Minister said at the stage of introduction that the Bill could be moved to the Energy Standing Committee of Parliament for broader consultations. But the Opposition has questioned the introduction of the Bill, saying that the Centre has broken the promise made to the farmers that this Bill will not be brought to Parliament. Opposition MPs have also said that the Bill is not only anti-farmer, but also anti-constitutional, and against the spirit of federalism. There are also concerns that the Bill may lead to the end of subsidies for farmers and poor consumers. In the second part of this two-part Deep Dive podcast, we take a closer look at why state-owned power distribution companies (DISCOMs) are forever making losses– is it purely because they are inefficient, or have they been set up for failure, thanks to an irrational regulatory framework and unrealistic expectations? What would a sustainable and fair model of privatisation that doesn’t encroach on state governments’ sovereignty look like?

The Union Power Ministry introduced the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in Lok Sabha on August 8. The Power Minister said at the stage of introduction that the Bill could be moved to the Energy Standing Committee of Parliament for broader consultations. But the Opposition has questioned the introduction of the Bill, saying that the Centre has broken the promise made to the farmers that this Bill will not be brought to Parliament. Opposition MPs have also said that the Bill is not only anti-farmer, but also anti-constitutional, and against the spirit of federalism. There are also concerns that the Bill may lead to the end of subsidies for farmers and poor consumers. In the first part of this two-part Deep Dive series, we take a detailed look at the history of the Electricity Bill and power sector reforms going back to the 1990s, and decode the implications of the key provisions of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022.

Managing a difficult relationship has brought dividends to both India and Bangladesh. By all accounts, Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina have transcended many barriers and rapids to take their relationship in a direction that benefits both countries.  Mr. Modi appears to have put some distance between his Home Minister Amit Shah’s use of the term “termite” when referring to Bangladeshi immigrants and the potential of bilateral ties.  Sheikh Hasina’s visit shows that with due preparation even an agreement to share the river waters of the Kushiyara is possible even as an accord on the Teesta proves elusive. There’s little doubt that Hasina’s statement that “as long as Prime Minister Modi is here, Bangladesh and India will resolve” problems between them is significant. 

This year’s U.S. Open is being viewed as a ‘farewell tour’ – more or less – of the Williams sisters as the curtains come down on what has been described as “the greatest sibling act in sports history”. With both Serena and Venus Williams exiting the U.S. Open early, the two sisters, who between them account for 30 singles Grand Slam titles, 14 doubles Grand Slams titles, and eight Olympic gold medals, are easing out of the pro tour, leaving behind a unique legacy that transcends tennis. In this episode, we take a look at their impact on the sport: how they changed women’s tennis, what their success did for the African-American community, their impact on how women’s tennis is treated by the entertainment industry, and other aspects. Guest: The Hindu’s Ziya Us Salam, a passionate tennis aficionado who has closely followed the career of the Williams sisters right from the 1990s. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Liz Truss has become Britain’s third woman Prime Minister. She defeated Rishi Sunak to become leader of the Tory party – the fourth leader in six years. Truss becomes Prime Minister with fewer than half of eligible voters in the party’s electoral college voting for her. She replaces the very flamboyant Boris Johnson. Truss is faced with multiple issues, especially a looming energy crisis as gas prices hit the roof in the country. Some observers are even warning of potential blackouts this winter. So, what sort of leader will Liz Truss turn out to be? Is she up to the challenge? Guest: Andrew Whitehead, former editor of the BBC’s Word Service. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu.

Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, died in Moscow on August 30 after a long illness. He was 91. Gorbachev not only tried to introduce reforms and change in the erstwhile Soviet Union, he presided over its demise in 1991.  Loved by the West, Gorbachev made two Russian words – glasnost or openness and perestroika or restructuring – popular in the rest of the world. Multiple obituaries have been written on him – evaluating his position as a leader central to ending the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union.  So, what was Gorbachev? A reformer who didn’t know how to wield power? A leader who lost control of his own party? A man who was ahead of his times? A statesman who ended up altering the balance of forces in the world to the advantage of the West?  To discuss Gorbachev’s legacy, I am joined by P.S. Raghavan, who was India’s Ambassador to Russia. He is currently Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board.

In November 2021, the Delhi government rolled out a new excise policy. The new policy effectively took the government out of the liquor retailing business and handed it over to private players. But within a few months, it came under CBI scrutiny following allegations of favouritism and corruption. The Delhi government withdrew the policy and announced that from September 1, the state would revert to the old regime for a period of six months until a fresh policy is in place. The whole saga has thrown up interesting questions concerning public policy, regulatory principles, and public finance. For instance, what exactly was the logic of Delhi’s old liquor policy? What was the new one trying to do? And what ought to be the primary outcomes of a sustainable liquor policy that is fair to all the stakeholders? 

Late last month, the Adani Group acquired Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt. Ltd. (VCPL) which held warrants convertible to 29.18% stake in NDTV. As per SEBI rules, the Adani Group – having exercised the option to convert the warrants into equity stake – made an open offer to acquire 26% shares from public shareholders, offering Rs. 294 per share. On the date of the announcement, the shares were trading on the BSE at about Rs. 370. It is unlikely any shareholder would tender their shares at a discount to the market price. So, if there is no visibility to gaining majority control over the media firm, why did the Adani Group move to acquire the 29% stake? 

The words Congress and crisis go together. Since losing power in 2014, the party has lurched from one crisis to the other, sending warning signals of its imminent demise. Yet, it remains in power in a few states and, perhaps, the only non-BJP party with a national footprint. In the politically significant state of Uttar Pradesh, the party has stuck to its non-player status.  The Congress has remained without a president after Rahul Gandhi quit the top post. After a long delay, the party has announced that it will elect a president on October 17, but Mr. Gandhi has so far said he will not run again. The Gandhi family is said to favour Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. There are reports that Congress leader Shashi Tharoor may also contest.  To discuss all these issues, we are joined by Sandeep Phukan, who covers the Congress party for The Hindu.

On August 26, China’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong published an article in a Sri Lankan newspaper in which he drew parallels between American leader Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, and India’s objections to Chinese tracking tracking vessel Yuan Wang-5 docking at Sri Lanka’s strategically significant Hambantota port. In the article, without naming India, he effectively accused India of bullying Sri Lanka, and interfering with its sovereignty by trying to pressurise it over its decision to allow the docking of the Chinese vessel. He concluded his piece by saying that China and Sri Lanka should join hands to protect their respective sovereignties from countries such as the US and India. India’s response was uncharacteristically sharp. In a series of tweets, the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka charged the Chinese Ambassador with “violating basic diplomatic etiquette”. Is the entire episode, involving India, Sri Lanka and China an outlier, or are we likely to see more such confrontations as the geopolitical competition in the Indian Ocean heats up? What are Sri Lanka’s options in this scenario?

The United Nations recently released a new report by Tomoya Obokata, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences. The report will be part of the agenda at the next session of the Human Rights Council in September. It focuses on one particular aspect of contemporary slavery -- how minorities are especially vulnerable to it, and what can be done to protect them from falling prey to slavery. To better understand the implications and recommendations of this report, and why slavery continues to persist, we speak with Dr Prabha Kotiswaran, Professor of Law and Social Justice at Kings College, London.

Earlier this month, Cricket Australia launched a five-year strategic plan for growing and managing the sport in the country.  The plan, titled ‘Where the Game Grows’ lays down a roadmap for Australian cricket for the period 2022-2027. It has many ambitious targets, including doubling the number of cricket-playing kids aged 5 to 12 years to 210,000 in five years, and quadrupling the number of girls taking up cricket to 60,000. Among other things, the plan also aims to enhance community participation, increase cultural diversity, and offer outstanding digital and live experiences for cricket fans – all with an eye on making cricket an Olympic sport by the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.  India, as we all know, is a cricket-crazy country, but the fans aren’t a part of the process when the Board draws up its long-term plans, unlike Australia. So there is a lot of curiosity about Cricket Australia’s approach to managing the sport. How did Cricket Australia come up with this plan, what went into it and what are the challenges they foresee? 

The central government had recently barred State-owned power distribution companies from buying or selling power on the spot exchanges without paying their current dues to power producing firms. Many States have since paid up and have been able to participate in the trades. This is an opportune moment to evaluate whether the legacy problems of State discoms, that have been perennially burdened with inefficiencies and huge debt, are on a path to resolution. To help us with perspectives, we have with us Ms. Vibhuti Garg, Energy Economist, Lead India at Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). 

The premature release of these prisoners, responsible for heinous crimes, has taken place behind closed doors. It has led to some public outrage and the matter may well go before the Supreme Court for its opinion on whether the State Government operated in a judicious manner.  To discuss the issues surrounding the release, I am joined by Senior Advocate Rebecca John, who is a well-known criminal lawyer. 

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019(PDP Bill). It didn’t give clear reasons for the move, except to cite the detailed recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee’s report. It has also not given a definitive timeline for when a refurbished Bill will be ready.  The move to withdraw the PDP Bill has evoked a range of reactions – ranging from puzzlement to disappointment. If the Bill was deeply flawed, was it then not a good move to withdraw it and redraft it again? Or would it have been better to let the draft go through the whole process of Parliamentary debate and amendments, and later, if need be, judicial challenge? Or is this a matter of the government simply buying more time?

On Monday, China said its industrial output expanded 3.8% in July compared with a year earlier, a tad slower than June’s 3.9% growth. Retail sales too rose a slower 2.7% compared with the 3.1% growth in June. Media reports quote analysts as saying that loan demand from the real economy remained weak. The country’s central bank cut rates with an aim to spur growth. Like the rest of the world, India’s northern neighbour faces challenges in terms of quickening inflation, growth challenges and the threat of flight of capital. To help us understand China’s imperatives, we have with us today,  Santosh Pai, Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), New Delhi.

On August 16, FIFA, world football’s governing body, suspended India citing “undue influence from third parties” in the functioning of the All India Football Federation. This ban, if not lifted soon, could mean that India wouldn’t be allowed to host the Under-17 Women’s World Cup, which is scheduled for October this year. FIFA’s statement also laid down two conditions for the lifting of the suspension: one, repeal of the Supreme Court’s order mandating the setting up of the Committee of Administrators, or CoA, that is currently supervising AIFF’s functioning, and two, the AIFF must regain full control of its daily affairs.  The government of India immediately requested the Supreme Court for an early hearing, and on August 17, the Court passed an order directing the government to work proactively with FIFA and ensure that the AIFF suspension is lifted and the Under-17 Women’s World Cup takes place as scheduled.  What sparked this suspension by FIFA? Why did the Supreme Court want a CoA to be set up to oversee reform of the AIFF? Does the current crisis represent an opportunity for India to fix football governance in the country?

It's a debate that refuses to go away. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi lit into the culture of government "freebies" or Revdi as he called it in Hindi, the matter has now gone to the Supreme Court. What is the difference between freebies and welfare? In a poor country like India, isn't State intervention for, say, scholarships for students not in the public interest? Who decides what is a freebie and what is welfare? Can a court of law do it or should it be in the domain of individual governments and local bodies?

As the title, Violent Fraternity: Indian Political Thought in the Global Age, suggests, Shruti Kapila’s latest book deals with fraternity, violence and sovereignty. Her core argument is that violence has not been as distant from India’s politics as we have been told. In this episode, Kapila talks about the role of violence in the making of the Indian republic. Zeroing in on the ‘power of ideas’ in instituting the political foundations of modern India, Kapila also looks at the role of Buddhism.

A possible berthing call by a Chinese surveillance vessel, the Yuan Wang 5, at Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port, has led to Beijing protesting loudly about New Delhi’s suggestion to Colombo that the tracking ship be denied entry. Colombo has said that it had asked Beijing to defer the call by the Yuan Wang 5 at a time when the country faces a dire economic crisis. After Indian concerns, the Chinese in a harsh statement asked New Delhi not to disrupt “normal exchanges” between Colombo and Beijing. The Chinese ambassador to Sri Lanka also had a meeting with President Ranil Wickremesinghe about the issue. Can India ensure that the Yuan Wang 5 does not come calling to Hambantota? Haven’t Chinese submarines and a warship come to Sri Lankan ports earlier? Don’t American ships come to Trincomalee? 

Earlier this month, the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee raised the benchmark interest rate by another 50 basis points in its ongoing efforts to rein in inflation that has persistently stayed above the central bank’s upper tolerance band of 6% for six months running. The interest rate increase takes the policy repo rate to 5.4%, and, more significantly, to a level last seen in the pre-pandemic second quarter of fiscal 2019-20.  Guest: Abheek Barua, Chief Economist at HDFC Bank  Host: K. Bharat Kumar Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Nitish Kumar has done it again. He probably holds a record for the number of times he has ditched his allies, only to ally with them again, in India’s politics. There is, clearly, nothing ideological about his choice of partners – Nitish Kumar’s decisions seem governed by one goal alone – how to keep his seat of power warm. As he becomes chief minister for the eighth time in 22 years, Nitish Kumar has clearly dominated the politics of Bihar – with or without the BJP – and with or without the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Will the new alliance with the RJD and Congress hold? Does this new bonding hold anything for India’s politics beyond Bihar? Can Nitish Kumar become the face of the Opposition in Lok Sabha 2024? 

The last day of the 2022 Commonwealth Games proved to be a good one for India, as a flurry of medals pushed India’s tally to 22 golds medals and a fourth place in the medals table, behind Australia, England and Canada. The difference between Canada and India was four gold medals. In 2018, when India finished third, it had seven golds from shooting alone, and it’s clear that if shooting hadn’t been dropped this time, India would again have finished third. But that was not to be, and despite that, the Indian contingent did produce enough moments of joy and brilliance for its millions of supporters back home. In this podcast, we take a closer look at India’s performance at CWG 2022 in different disciplines and what it bodes for the future. 

On July 27, the Supreme Court pronounced its verdict on a batch of around 200 petitions that had challenged various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The judgment, titled Vijay Madanlal Choudhury & Ors vs Union of India & Ors, has led to grave concerns about further erosion of constitutional protections for personal and civil liberties. The Opposition has said that it will move a review petition on the verdict and that all the amendments made to the Act in 2010 through the money Bill route should be nullified. What are the problematic provisions of the PMLA? What has been the apex court’s reasoning in upholding those provisions? How will it impact constitutional safeguards for liberty going forward? 

Taiwan has for long been a flashpoint in US-China relations. The visit to Taiwan by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi once again ratcheted up tensions between the two big powers. Despite China making its displeasure clear in the strongest terms – or perhaps because of it – Pelosi went ahead with her visit. China condemned her visit as “extremely dangerous”. It has also launched aggressive military drills that encroach on Taiwan’s territorial waters. The Chinese Communist Party has made no secret of its intention to integrate Taiwan with the People’s Republic of China. The U.S., while formally claiming to respect the ‘One China’ policy, has indicated it may respond with force if China undertook any military action against Taiwan. But with China aspiring to achieve – if not surpass – military parity with the US, how long can the current equilibrium hold? Has Pelosi’s visit raised the stakes in Taiwan for both China and the U.S.? What are the likely long-term consequences of China’s unprecedented military drills that effectively encircled Taiwan? Guest: Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu’s China correspondent. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

The targeted killing of al-Qaeda chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, by an American missile in Kabul on July 31 has raised many questions about the possible impact of this assassination. It comes nearly 11 years after the U.S. took out al-Zawahiri’s boss, Osama bin Laden, in a ground operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A point of interest in both killings is that bin Laden and al-Zawahiri were hiding in plain sight in cities – one Pakistani and the other Afghan. Will this lead to a weakened al-Qaeda, unable to engage in terrorist actions abroad? Will the killing give a boost to al-Qaeda offshoots like the Islamic State? Was the Taliban giving shelter to al-Zawahiri in Kabul or did they tip the Americans off about his presence? Will the Taliban now get further isolated? Guest: R. Kumar, who retired as Special Secretary from India’s external intelligence agency, the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW), and spent long years working on counter-terrorism and Pakistan-related issues. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

The 5G spectrum auctions ended on Monday, Aug 1 and have helped the government garner Rs. 1.5 lakh crore compared with the reserve price of Rs. 4.3 lakh crore. While the government says the bid value has exceeded expectation, could it have earned more if the reserve prices had been more benign? Because reserve prices were high for some bands and hence ignored by telecom operators, would the quality of service to subscribers be impacted?  Let’s hear what Dr. V. Sridhar has to say about the use and sale of spectrum as a national resource.  Dr Sridhar is Professor, Centre for IT and Public Policy at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore. He is also the author of 'Data Centric Living: Algorithms, Digitization and Regulations’ that was published recently. 

Too much seems to be happening in Pakistan on the political, judicial and army fronts. After the comprehensive victory of Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, in the recent byelections to the Punjab Assembly, an intervention by the country’s Supreme Court allowed PTI’s alliance partner, Pervaiz Elahi, to take oath as Chief Minister of Punjab on July 27. A damning report in London’s Financial Times newspaper accused former Prime Minister Imran Khan of accepting funds for his party from a UK-based charity, something prohibited under Pakistani law. Very public differences have surfaced over the past few days among top judges of Pakistan’s Supreme Court over the appointment of judges to the apex court. Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa took the unusual step of speaking to an American State Department official seeking IMF funds for Pakistan, setting off a fresh round of criticism against the very civilian role of the Army in Pakistan. Will Shehbaz Sharif be able to hang on as Prime Minister till the next elections in 2023? Or will elections have to be advanced? Is it advantage Imran Khan? Who will be the new Army chief when Bajwa finally retires in November this year?  Guest: Rana Banerji, retired Special Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, and former IAS officer. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu.

India’s top sports bodies are in trouble. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is facing suspension by the International Olympic Committee if it doesn’t hold elections very soon. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) could get banned by FIFA if it doesn’t get its governance-related issues sorted. Hockey India, too, is in trouble – the International Hockey Federation has threatened to strip India of its hosting rights for the 2023 hockey World Cup. All this comes close on the heels of match-fixing allegations against the Table Tennis Federation of India. What is going on with India’s sports bodies? What happens to Indian athletes if these suspensions come to pass? Where does the buck stop when it comes to holding our sports administrators accountable? 

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, has spoken of the “advancing erasure” of women from public life under a new look Taliban regime. Twenty-three out of Afghanistan’s 40 million people are in need of food assistance, he said in a recent statement. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA as it is known, pointed out in a July report that seven hundred people have been killed and a little over 1400 wounded in the country since the Taliban takeover in August last year. At least 160 instances of extra-judicial killings have been reported of former government and security officials and more than 120 media workers have faced arbitrary arrest or detention. Eighty per cent of all women journalists have been fired from their jobs. All secondary schools remain closed for girls. 

The 22nd edition of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) is taking place in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8th. After the Tokyo Olympics, where India returned with its best ever medals tally, expectations from the Indian contingent are high. In the 2018 Commonwealth Games, India finished third in the medals tally, behind Australia and England, with 66 medals. Our best performance ever was in the 2010 Games held in Delhi, where we won over 100 medals. What are India’s prospects in Birmingham? Who are our most bankable contenders? And with shooting out of the CWG this year, can India finish in the top 5 in the medal standings? 

By undertaking only his second visit abroad since the February invasion of Ukraine, to Iran, Russian President Vladimir Putin has underlined the importance of Teheran in Moscow’s strategic calculus. Is there a budding alliance between the world’s two most sanctioned countries? Will they also be able to complete the Astara-Rasht-Qazvin railway line linking the two countries through Azerbaijan? Do Russia and Iran have Chinese backing as they deal with sanctions and the fallout of the Ukraine war? Guest: D.B. Venkatesh Varma, former Indian Ambassador to Russia. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Europe is reeling under a severe heat wave, with temperatures soaring past the 40-degree mark in many parts of the continent. One major side-effect has been a sharp spike in incidents of wildfires. Countries such as France, Spain, Portugal and Greece have reported hundreds of fires. Thousands of hectares of lush forest lands have been destroyed, and a great many have had to be evacuated. With rainfall receding, some regions in countries such as Italy and Germany are also witnessing drought conditions. Are all these problems due to climate change? What is the relationship between heat waves and forest fires? Could the wildfires have been prevented? How is Europe’s drought situation related to global warming? 

On June 28, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFC) notified an updated version of Forest Conservation Rules, under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. The changes have prompted criticism that the rules will now empower private developers to divert forest land for commercial purposes without first taking the consent of forest dwellers, as required by the Forest Rights Act, 2006. What exactly are the changes brought about by the Forest Conservation Rules, 2022? Do they really a pose a threat to the rights of forest-dwelling Adivasi communities? How will they change the approval procedures under the Forest Conservation Act? 

India’s external debt coming up for closure in the coming months has caused consternation in some quarters. And with the global environment being what it is, the multiple challenges - of monetary conditions tightening worldwide, investment outflows from India and consequent rupee depreciation - are exacerbating the external debt situation for our country. Is India truly teetering on the edge or does it have the strength to withstand these challenges? Guest: Tanvee Gupta Jain, UBS India Economist Host: K. Bharat Kumar Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Since the executive presidency came into play in Sri Lanka, no President has ever resigned his office till Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to do so by the people on the 13th of July. A week later, on the 20th of July, the Acting President and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected the President. He will serve out the remainder of Gotabaya’s term – that is till 2024.  Given the mood of the people, will Mr. Wickremesinghe be able to steer Sri Lanka out of its current economic mess? It’s evident that he enjoys the support of the Rajapaksa clan and their political outfit. He also has years of administrative experience as Prime Minister. Can he deliver? Guest: Ambika Satkunanathan, human rights practitioner and Chairperson of the Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust.  Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor and former Sri Lanka Correspondent, The Hindu  Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Joe Biden has just concluded his first visit to the Middle East as American President. His four-day visit included stops in Israel, the West Bank, and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia where he held talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and attended a meeting with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. What exactly was the purpose and agenda of Biden’s tour? Is it about further normalising relations between Israel and the Arab States with an eye on Iran? Is it about mending relations with Saudi Arabia? Or is it about getting Saudi Arabia to increase its oil production? 

A list of words deemed to be unparliamentary has created a storm as the monsoon session of India’s parliament commenced. Words like baloney, betrayal, bloody, chamcha, cheat, chhokra, corruption and even sexual harassment have been included in a compilation of unparliamentary words by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.   Is this a routine exercise? If that’s the case, why are Opposition members of Parliament up in arms? Who decides what words get to be used by MPs and MLAs in our democratic system? Should there be wider consultation before such a list is circulated? 

Twitter has moved the Karnataka High Court challenging multiple content-blocking orders from the government of India. Twitter’s petition has sought the quashing of as many as 39 blocking orders, issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act (IT Act). It wants them overturned on the grounds that they are both “procedurally and substantially” non-compliant with relevant legislation - Section 69A of the IT Act. The petition also argues that the blocking orders are unconstitutional, and violate the principles of online speech and intermediary liability. What has prompted Twitter to go to the court? Do the blocking orders satisfy the parameters of natural justice? Is there any problem with the government’s interpretation of the law, or with the itself? We with speak Alok Prasanna from the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.

A recent study by scientists at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, and Center for Prototype Climate Modeling, New York University, Abu Dhabi showed that climate change will likely impact efficiencies of solar and wind energy production – that is, the very tools we might depend on to combat climate change, may be affected by climate change in the interim!   The study came to the conclusion that some parts of India, especially the West and Northwest where large pools of wind energy farms are currently located, may see diminishing wind speeds. Also, solar radiation, which aids solar energy output, may diminish across almost all of India, save for some pockets. This means that the industry has to look at increasing efficiencies of wind and solar power technologies for better energy capture. Fortunately, we do have time on hand, for, the study has looked at data models for the next 50 years. If we do not act, though, our promise to the world of going net zero emissions by 2070 may be under threat. 

A few weeks ago, in the In Focus podcast, we discussed the controversy over India being ranked 180th out of 180 countries in the Environment Protection Index. Now, soon after being ranked worst in the world for environmental protection, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has proposed changes to the four key laws that govern environmental protection and pollution – the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, and the Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991. The changes, according to the government, are an attempt to “decriminalize” minor infringements of environmental regulations. So, what exactly are these changes? Will they help the cause of Environmental protection? Or will they embolden violators to adopt a pollute-and-pay approach, as some critics seem to fear? 

On July 9, the people of Sri Lanka took democracy into their own hands and ensured the departure of the last of the Rajapaksa brothers – President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who had to flee his Colombo residence as tens of thousands of people gathered outside. The private residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was torched. Both leaders have now promised to resign formally. But the question remains – are Sri Lanka’s political parties and political leaders up to the task of steering the country out of its economic crisis that has crippled the lives of ordinary people? To answer these questions, joining from Colombo is Amal Jayasinghe, veteran Colombo-based journalist and Bureau Chief of the French news agency, AFP. 

Delhi University’s English teachers are up in arms. They are upset that under the National Education Policy-compliant-Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF), their work load is set to be drastically curtailed - by as much as one-third. In other words, many of these teachers, who are ad hoc employees, could be made redundant. Delhi is a city teeming with mom-and-pop establishments promising to improve your ‘English communication skills’ in 30 days or less – a clear indication of a market for the teaching of English. How do we then explain, that in such a state, hundreds of highly qualified English teachers are staring at mass unemployment? How will the removal of English from Ability Enhancement Courses (AEC) impact students from the North-east and foreign students? What are the implications of this move in terms of language politics and the political economy of public-funded higher education? 

Finally, finally, Boris Johnson had to resign as British Prime Minister. He clung onto power for as long as he could, quitting after a long procession of Ministers and MPs resigned their jobs. While resigning, Johnson expressed no regrets for his conduct, describing the behavior of his colleagues as “eccentric” and blamed their actions on herd mentality. So, why did Johnson finally go? And who is likely to succeed him? In this episode, we are joined from London by Andrew Whitehead, journalist and commentator, to discuss these issues.

Last week, on the eve of the NATO summit in Madrid, Turkey, which had threatened to veto Finland and Sweden’s bid to join NATO, signed a tripartite agreement with the two countries. Under the agreement, Turkey has agreed to reverse its stand and endorse Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership application, in exchange for the two Nordic countries agreeing to stop supporting what Turkey calls Kurdish “terrorists”, who are apparently enjoying safe haven in Finland and Sweden. But three days later after signing this deal, Turkey again warned that it could still block the two countries’ NATO membership if it sees they do not meet Turkey’s expectations. What exactly does Turkey want from Sweden and Finland? What is the substance of the tripartite agreement? And what are these Kurdish ‘terrorist groups’ that Finland and Sweden have supposedly given safe harbor to? Guest: Stanly Johny, International Affairs Editor, The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

Late last month, the RBI came out with a circular that effectively barred non-bank issuers of prepaid payment instruments (PPI) from loading these instruments with credit. If you have a digital wallet, for example, you could only load it using the balance in your bank account or credit card. Non-bank providers will not be allowed to add funds that function as loans to you. This has created a flutter in the fintech industry whose captains feel the regulation may stifle financial reach and innovation. To help us with some perspectives today, we have with us Mr. G. Padmanabhan, former Executive Director at the Reserve Bank of India. In his capacity as Executive Director, he was in charge of the Departments of Information and Technology, Payment and Settlement Systems and Foreign Exchange. He was also later chairman at Bank of India. 

A new government headed by Shehbaz Sharif has taken power in Pakistan and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has called for re-opening dialogue with India. The bilateral dialogue has hit many potholes since India and Pakistan agreed to use this route to settle their differences in Simla 50 years ago – in July 1972. Differences between the two countries after India altered the status of Jammu & Kashmir in August 2019 have meant that the bilateral relationship, including trade, is at a standstill. Contacts at the level of national security advisors have, however, taken place. Can Pakistan and India pick up the threads of a formal dialogue again? 

As Sri Lanka faces endures its worst ever economic crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has just concluded a 10-day visit to island nation. The purpose of the visit was to study the situation and hold talks with Lankan government officials regarding some kind of a relief package. But help from the IMF comes with conditions attached, and they are not always what the recipient likes. What kind of help is Sri Lanka likely to get from the IMF? What is life like for ordinary people right now? How are the Rajapaksas still in power, despite the widespread misery, and in the face of fierce and sustained protests?

On June 25, after weeks of intense fighting, Russia managed to take control of Severodonetsk, the last major city in the Luhansk region that was in Ukrainian hands. While Russia has claimed that this is a major strategic victory, Ukraine has said that they have tactically withdrawn to protect their fighters and regroup in the neighbouring city of Lysychansk, which has now become the next big battleground. What are the actual implications of the fall of Severodonetsk? Has Russia already expended too much manpower and resources in these victories to be able to make much progress in its military campaign in the long run? Can Ukraine resist the capture of the whole of the Donbas region? We speak with Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s International Affairs Editor. 

The 2022 Environment Performance Index (EPI), which evaluates countries on their track record in mitigating climate change, improving environmental health, and protecting ecosystem vitality, has ranked India last – at 180th out of 180 countries. The government of India has rejected the Index, claiming that it is based on “biased metrics”. The report, produced by researchers from Yale and Columbia Universities, has ranked Denmark at the top with a score of 77.90, while India is at the bottom with a score of 18.90. So, what is the EPI all about? How valid are the government’s claims that its metrics are biased and unfair to India? Can it reshape environmental policy, or change the way countries take decisions that impact the environment? Guest: Kanchi Kohli from the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), New Delhi Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

This year’s Wimbledon has been overshadowed by controversy, and is going to be a little different from other editions of the event in recent years. It has banned players from Russia and Belarus, and in retaliation, the ATP has withdrawn ranking points from the event. This means Wimbledon this year will be as good as an exhibition event, with both the men’s and women’s draw weakened by the absence of several top players. However, there will be no impact on the prize money, or the prestige value attached to the event. The spotlight will continue to be on the rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Will Nadal manage to add to this tally of 22 Grand Slams and stay on course for a calendar Slam? Can Djokovic defend his title? Or will one of the NextGen players steal the thunder? We speak with N Sudarshan from The Hindu’s Sports Bureau. 

Less than two months after being re-elected as the President of France, Emmanuel Macaron finds himself missing a parliamentary majority, one that will require him to seek political allies to govern. Both the Left and the far Right find themselves strengthened as President Macaron’s supporters managed only 245 seats in Parliament, well short of the 289 required for a majority.   Ironically, Mr. Macaron is the first French President to be re-elected since 2002 but now finds himself under attack from both the Left and the far Right. As he looks either for more allies, or to run a minority government, Mr. Macaron also faces an uncertain international climate with the invasion of Ukraine looming large over Europe and the rest of the world.  Guest: Kanwal Sibal, former Foreign Secretary and Indian ambassador to France.  Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu.  Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

New recruitment rules for the Army, Navy and Air Force have met with fierce protests by potential recruits to the services and resistance from respected commentators from the military’s retired ranks. Trains have been burnt and public property destroyed across several Northern states and in Telangana. So, what exactly is agitating these young people who wanted to make a career out of the armed forces. Is it the contractual nature of their four-year employment? Will they miss the pension and perks available to jawans currently serving in the services? Is Agnipath, as the scheme is called, basically a cost-cutting measure from the Government? Guest: Ajai Shukla, writer and commentator on defence and strategic issues. He retired as a Colonel in the Indian Army. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

The IPL auction for media rights began on June 12 and went on for three days. The auction was for TV broadcasting and digital streaming rights for the next five year cycle – from 2023 to 2027. The BCCI has made a mind-boggling ₹ 48,390 crore from this auction. BCCI President Jay Shah has claimed that this makes IPL the second most lucrative media property in the world, after the US’s National Football League, and ahead of the English Premier League. How is IPL able to generate such a huge valuation? And how will this massive injection of liquidity impact the sport going forward? Guest: Vijay Lokapally, Editorial consultant with Sportstar magazine Host: G. Sampath, G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

The Indian rupee has been battling downward pressure from multiple forces –Foreign Portfolio Investors pulling out, the rising cost of international crude oil prices and a strong dollar. The currency has been frequently hitting historical lows and has breached the 78-marks What does this mean beyond export and import bills? Guest: Ananth Narayan, Associate Professor, Finance at SPJIMR Host: K. Bharat Kumar Edited by Reenu Cyriac

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, under fire for partying during Covid-19 restrictions in his country, managed to defeat the no-confidence vote against his leadership on June 6. The margin – 211 votes in his favour to 148 against. While Mr. Johnson has survived a leadership challenge, nearly 40 per cent of Conservative Party MPs have no confidence in him. What does this mean for Mr. Johnson’s future? Is “partygate” the only issue that is bothering Tory MPs and the electorate? What happens next? Guest: Andrew Whitehad, former Editor of the BBC’s World Service, currently a freelance journalist and lecturer. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Rafael Nadal, who in January became the first man ever to win 21 Grand Slam titles, has added one more to his kitty by winning the French Open, his 14th title at Roland Garros. However, not too long ago, things were looking rather grim for him, as he missed both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year due to injury, and many were wondering if he was going to retire. Until this January, among the Big Three of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, it was Djokovic who was expected to reach 21 titles first. But against all expectations, and against the odds, it is Nadal who has raced ahead to 22, and looks set to add even more. In this edition of In Focus, we discuss how Nadal manages to do what he does, despite his chronic injury troubles, and his prospects in the coming months, especially at Wimbledon. Guest: Preethi Ramamoorthy, who has written on tennis and covered the U.S. Open in 2017 and 2018 for The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Last week, the government announced that India had met the target of 10% ethanol blending with motor fuel ahead of time. The target for 20% blending had earlier been brought forward to 2025 from 2030. But is this the path that India should choose? Are there better alternatives to ethanol? What is the downside to the use of ethanol? Guest: Dr. Charles Worringham, an Australia-based former academic and now independent researcher and a guest contributor for Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, the IEEFA, with a special interest in India’s energy transition Host: K. Bharat Kumar Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

From this year onwards, admissions to undergraduate courses in 45 central universities will happen through a Common University Entrance Test, or CUET, as it’s come to be known. The test is scheduled to take place in July. About 1.3 crore students are expected to take the test for around 5.4 lakh seats that are at stake. The test will be administered by the National Testing Agency (NTA) in 13 languages, and consist of objective-type, multiple-choice questions (MCQ). Why has the UGC come up with CUET? Will it make the schools redundant, by giving a bigger role to coaching centres? Will it further undermine a student’s capacity for original thinking in favour of rote-learning? Will it make higher education even more out of reach for the underprivileged? Guest: Dr Maya John, Professor, Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Kashmiri Pandits, many of whom were given government jobs and brought to the Valley a decade ago, have started to flee following targeted killings of their colleagues by terrorists. Not just Kashmiri Pandits, but other Hindus have also been killed. As have Muslims. In August 2019, when Article 370 was reduced to a shell, and the state of Jammu & Kashmir whittled down to a Union Territory, the Central government promised to turn it into the most developed state in the country within five years. Long a part of the BJP’s ideological agenda, Home Minister Amit Shah said on the floor of Parliament at the time that Article 370 was the biggest hurdle in the path of normalcy in Kashmir. Where do things stand now as minorities flee and terrorist killings continue? Guest: Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak (retd.) is part of a group of concerned citizens regarding Jammu and Kashmir Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

The technology services industry has had a tremendous run these past couple of years. Customer’s acceptance of technology and services from remote likely spurred the trend. In tandem, as demand from customers rose, the war for talent too intensified. The industry has gone through these cycles multiple times over the years. Guest: Francisco D’Souza, co-founder and managing partner at Recognize, a growth fund. Frank was formerly vice-chairman of IT services firm Cognizant Host: K. Bharat Kumar Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Last week, Broadcom announced its decision to acquire VMWare for a humongous $61 billion. VMWare is known in technology circles for its specialisation in virtualising hardware assets. It offers app modernisation, and services across cloud, networking and security technologies. Broadcom designs, develops and manufactures a range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. What did Broadcom see in this target firm? Is there complementarity? How can VMWare help Broadcom scale its offerings and/or raise revenue potential? Guest: Naveen Mishra, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner Host: K. Bharat Kumar Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

A high-profile Indian Administrative Service couple – Sanjiv Khirwar and Rinku Dugga – were shunted out of Delhi to Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh a few days ago. Their transfers came soon after ‘The Indian Express’ newspaper published a photo showing the couple walking their dog in New Delhi’s Thyagaraj stadium at a time when athletes should have been using the sports facility’s tracks. The transfer orders likely flowed from an official desire to punish the couple for doing wrong. They also stirred up a hornets’ nest by pointing to both Ladakh and Arunachal as dumping grounds for erring officials. It is not for the first time that a government has resorted to a punishment posting. In this episode, we decode this issue and the emotions that go with it. Guest: Pradip Phanjoubam, Imphal-based senior journalist and editor of the Imphal Review of Arts and Politics Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

The Union Government last week cut excise duties on fuel sales in a bid to temper galloping inflation. Is such a move enough to tame retail inflation? Are there other factors that are spurring retail consumer prices? If so, are there levers that the government can move to arrest a further deterioration? Guest: Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist, ICRA Ratings Host: K. Bharat Kumar Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

After almost a decade, the Labour Party is back in power in Australia. In the federal elections on May 21, the ruling Liberal-National coalition led by Scott Morrison conceded defeat and the Labour Party’s Anthony Albanese is now the new Prime Minister. So what does the return of Labour mean for Austalian domestic politics, and what changes, if any, can we expect in Australian foreign policy? Guest: Professor Amitabh Mattoo from the School of International Studies at JNU Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Umran Malik, the 22-year-old tearaway fast bowler from Jammu and Kashmir has been making waves in the IPL. Now he has received a much anticipated call-up to the Indian national team. He has been picked for the five-match T20 series against South Africa next month. One of the reasons there is so much excitement around Umran Malik is that for the first time India has a quickie whose speed is within touching distance of the 160 kmph-mark. Malik’s emergence also comes at an interesting time for India – despite a long tradition of spin bowling, India is now facing a scenario where there seems to be a surfeit of fast bowling talent but the cupboard is close to empty in the spin department. How do we understand this trend? And given that India has a history of young fast bowling talent that tends of fade away fast, how good really is Umran Malik? Guest: Vijay Lokapally, editorial consultant with Sportstar Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Trade relations between the US and China haven’t been at their best in the past few years. Add to it supply chain disruptions brought on by the pandemic, exacerbated now by the war in Ukraine... disruptions that have made global majors look beyond China for manufacturing bases or partners, in an approach strategy now named the ‘China PLUS One Strategy’. Guest: Srivats Ram, MD, Wheels India Host: K. Bharat Kumar Edited by Reenu Cyriac

The March 21, 2022 crash of China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 was one of China’s worst aviation disasters, killing all 132 people on board. Investigations are on-going to determine how a Boeing 737-800 suddenly plunged into a near-vertical descent into the mountains of southern China from cruising altitude in normal weather conditions. On May 17, 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing U.S. investigators, that flight data indicated someone in the cockpit intentionally crashed the plane. In this episode, Mohan Ranganathan explains how pilot suicides have caused air disasters in the past, how a pilot can bring down a plane, and the lessons for aviation going forward. Guest: Mohan Ranganathan, air safety expert, former airline pilot and instructor on Boeing 737s, former member of Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council Host: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

One of the primary justifications given by Russian for its invasion of Ukraine was the relentless eastward expansion of NATO. But now two more countries in Russia’s neighbourhood – Sweden and Finland – have announced their decision to join NATO. Finland shares a 1,340km long border with Russia. This means that even as Russia is trying to build a buffer between Russia and a pro-NATO Ukraine in the Donbas region, Russia’s land border with NATO is set to double. How does Finland and Sweden joining NATO change the strategic dynamics of the region? And what are Russia’s options in terms of a response? Guest: Stanly Johny, International Affairs Editor, The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

It looks as if the saga of the National Register of Citizens, or NRC as it is called, will not be ending anytime soon for the people of Assam. Despite a final NRC created under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court of India, BJP governments at the Centre and State continue to stonewall its implementation. At stake is the citizenship status of a little over 19 lakh persons whose names did not figure in the final NRC published under Supreme Court orders in August 2019. Nearly three years have passed, but the persons left out – both Muslims and Hindus – haven’t had the opportunity to address their citizenship status. For long, the immigrant issue has been used to play political football with the lives of the people of Assam. It appears that the ruling BJP doesn’t want to implement the final NRC as the numbers don’t suit its political orientation. Of late, Assam’s NRC coordinator, Hitesh Dev Sarma, has written to judges in the Foreigners Tribunals, saying that the NRC as published, under the express orders of the Supreme Court, not be treated as final. At least one of the judges has responded to Mr. Sarma by asking him not to interfere in the functioning of the Tribunals, which was beyond his jurisdiction. So, where does the NRC and those affected by it, go from here? To discuss these issues, I am joined from Assam by Sanjoy Barbora, who teaches at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Guwahati. Guest: Dr. Sanjoy Barbora is Professor at the Guwahati campus of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

India’s triumph at the Thomas Cup seems to have caught the nation – and many even in the badminton community – by surprise. For the longest time India has struggled to make it past the quarter-finals, but this time we achieved back-to-back victories over former champions Malaysia and Denmark to make it to the final, and in the final, against all odds, we blanked 14-time champions Indonesia 3-0. This is a historic achievement. It has already been compared to India’s 1983 triumph at the cricket world cup. So how was this success story scripted? What were the odds? And how can India build on this spectacular achievement? Guest: Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor (Sports), The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Everything that can go wrong with a country is in full play in Sri Lanka. Anger and violence at food and fuel shortages, power cuts, collapsing purchase power, and above all a demand for the ruling Rajapakse clan to quit the island nation’s politics is growing. President Gotabaya Rajapakse has sacrificed his brother, Mahinda, to cling onto power as the Go, Gota Go, cries in the streets of Sri Lanka continue to be heard. In desperation, the United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has been appointed Prime Minister in place of Mahinda Rajapakse. Can this six-time Prime Minister get Sri Lanka out of its current economic and political mess? Can the President continue in office? Is Mr. Wickremesinghe serious about abolishing the executive presidency in Sri Lanka, which many believe lies at the root of the country’s problems. Guest: Dr. Paikiasothy Sarvanamuttu, Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, and former Sri Lanka correspondent, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

The still unofficial victory of Bongbong Marcos, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, in the Philippine presidential election, is both comprehensive and complete. A family that had to flee the country is now back in power. For those familiar with the country’s politics, it doesn’t come as a surprise. Powered by Facebook and other forms of social media, the narrative around the Marcos family was carefully altered over the years. Bongbong replaces strongman President Roberto Duterte, a polarizing figure in the country’s politics. Will Bongbong be like his father or Duterte in his political practice? Or will he prove to be a surprise package? The Philippines, which has had a long-standing alliance with the United States, has to contend with an increasingly assertive China. What will be Bongbong’s foreign policy? Guest: Ravi Velloor, Singapore-based columnist and Associate Editor of .The Straits Times Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, and former Southeast Asia Correspondent, The Hindu. Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

John Lee, a former security chief of Hong Kong, has been appointed as the city’s new Chief Executive. He will replace the current leader Carrie Lam on July 1. Known to be a pro-Beijing administrator, he oversaw the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2019. His appointment comes at a significant time in Hong Kong’s history --- this year marks 25 years since Hong Kong’s was handed over by the British to China, under the broad governance principle of ‘one country, two systems’. What does John Lee’s term mean for the future of civil liberties in Hong Kong? And what’s the mood like in the city in the year of the 25th handover anniversary? Guest: Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu’s China correspondent. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

The semiconductor ecosystem in India has been abuzz with energy ever since the government announced a ₹ 76,000 crore scheme to incentivise semiconductor and display system manufacturers to set up shop in India. Corporate announcements have also started trickling in. Vedanta has allied with Foxconn for its foray. The ISMC of Israel has signed an MoU wit Karnataka. In all this, there still lingers the question, should India seriously spend its funds and effort over setting up such an ecosystem? After all, semiconductor manufacturing requires consistent power supply and a significant amount of clean water. If India should, indeed, get in manufacturers, what lessons could it take away from similar efforts made in the past, which had largely fizzled out? Guest: Niju Vijayan, Partner at Avanteum Advisors. He has had long years of exposure to the ESDM (Electronic System Design & Manufacturing) industry, of which semiconductors are a part. Host: K. Bharath Kumar

Five months have passed without the Government appointing a Chief of Defence Staff. The post fell vacant after Gen. Bipin Rawat died in a tragic helicopter crash on December 9. It was speculated that the former Army Chief Gen. Manoj Mukund Naravane would be appointed the new Chief of Defence Staff but he retired from service at the end of April. Why has the Government not appointed a new Chief of Defence Staff? Can a retired chief be appointed to the job? Or will the post created with much fanfare go to either the serving Air Force or Navy chief given that Gen. Manoj Pande has just been appointed the chief of army staff? Guest: Rahul Bedi, senior Journalist and defence analyst Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

In March this year, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his counterpart from Meghalaya Conrad Sangma signed an agreement in New Delhi to partially resolve the 50-year-old border dispute between the two states. Reports indicate that matters have been resolved in six out of the 12 border locations that had disputes. At the same time, Home Minister Amit Shah has said that 70% of the border disputes between the two states have been resolved by this agreement. Subsequently, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam decided to form district-level committees for settling their boundary disputes. There are now hopes that, following the ‘50-50’ model that Assam and Meghalaya followed, the disputes between Assam and Arunachal will also see resolution. Assam has border disputes with most of its neigbouring states. But in this edition of InFocus, we take a closer look at the causes of its disputes with Meghalaya and Arunachal, and whether the Assam-Meghalaya agreement can serve as a template for resolving all the other border disputes in the North-East. Guest: Patricia Mukhim, the editor of Shillong Times. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

In the last week of April, Twitter’s Board of Directors unanimously accepted billionaire businessman Elon Musk’s buyout offer of $44 billion. The deal is currently pending regulatory approval. But as and when it goes through, it will allow Musk to take Twitter private, giving him complete control over what he has described as a “de facto public town square”. Will the SpaceX and Tesla CEO do a good job of managing a politically sensitive platform like Twitter? Musk has said that he is a ‘free speech absolutist’ but many have interpreted it to mean that Twitter may stop censoring hate speech and flagging disinformation the way it does now. As Twitter changes hands, what are the likely implications for users? Guest: Apar Gupta, advocate and Executive Director at the Internet Freedom Foundation Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Wheat procurement in the country by the Food Corporation of India and State government agencies is expected to be about 22 million tonnes – just half of the 44 million targets set for this season. News reports suggest that exports are causing wheat prices to rise beyond the Rs. 20 per kilo of the minimum support price fixed by the Central government. What are the challenges for wheat procurement and production and will exports impinge in any way on the country’s food security? Guest: Devinder Sharma, distinguished writer and commentator on food and agriculture Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Political entrepreneur, politician, election guru – there are many ways to describe Prashant Kishore – who clearly enjoys a larger than life status in the country’s politics. Is he really that important that party after party is courting him to help them win elections? Are there any others like him? Why did he decide not to join the Congress party despite a firm offer? Guest: Javed Ansari is a Delhi-based political journalist and analyst. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Reenu Cyriac

It is now exactly two months since the start of the Ukraine war. What many expected to be a quick assault resulting in Russian control over Ukraine has devolved into a grinding war of attrition. While Russia has made territorial gains, it has also suffered heavy losses. The Ukrainian armed forces have been putting up a stiff fight, especially around urban centers, and the national capital of Kyiv is still free. In the meantime, the West, led by the U.S. and NATO, has been supporting the Ukrainian resistance in two ways: by keeping up a steady supply of military and economic aid, and by imposing heavy economic sanctions on Russia. Russia, on its part, has been recalibrating its military strategy. So far, diplomatic efforts – including the Istanbul talks, which raised hopes of a ceasefire — to broker peace have failed. Meanwhile, civilian casualties continue to mount. So, where do the parties to the conflict stand after two months of heavy fighting? How have their stakes changed? Have their political positions hardened or softened, compared to two months ago? Guest: Stanly Johny, International Affairs Editor, The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said recently that Akhand Bharat would be a reality in the next 20 or 25 years. In his remarks, the RSS chief said nobody could stop India’s march forward. “Those trying to impede the country’s march forward will either move away or be removed from the scene,” he was quoted as saying. Mr. Bhagwat is an important man as the RSS-affiliated BJP has been in power for the last eight years. So what does the RSS chief mean? Guest: Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay is a senior journalist and author, whose latest book is The Demolition and the Verdict: Ayodhya and the Project to Reconfigure India (2021). He has also authored The RSS: Icons of the Indian Right (2019) and Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times (2013). Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Early in March, a public interest litigation petition came up in the Supreme Court -- two retired CRPF personnel said that between 2007 and 2019, 148 Central Armed Police Forces personnel, deployed in Naxal-affected Bastar district, died by suicide. This is not the only statistic about defence personnel dying by suicide -- from 2014 to 2021, nearly 800 Army, Navy and Air Force personnel died by suicide. In August last year, the Rajya Sabha was informed that 680 paramilitary personnel had died by suicide over the previous six years -- this was higher than the 323 personnel who died due to encounters. This apart, between 2014 and 2021, there were 20 cases of fratricides -- where defence personnel have turned on their colleagues, killing them and in many cases, then killing themselves too. The government has said that difficulty in dealing with family problems from a distance, conflict trauma, the strain of deployment in conflict and border zones, all contribute to mental health stress among personnel. It has also pointed to a number of measures initiated -- such as psychological counselors in combat zones, better food and clothing, a ‘buddy system’ and a liberalized leave system, along with suicide prevention policies. Some retired officers however, point to other, internal issues: poor leadership and not being able to avail of leave when they need it, are some concerns raised. There is also a significant difference in the services available to those in the military forces and those who serve in the paramilitary forces. How does stress play out in arguably one of the most difficult professions there is? How much of a role does stigma play in the seeking of mental health care? And what can be done to help tackle this issue? Guest: Dr. Soumitra Pathare, consultant psychiatrist and director of the Centre for Mental Health Law & Policy at Indian Law Society in Pune Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Reenu Cyriac

At a time when most parts of the world are easing COVID restrictions and even mask mandates, Shanghai is in the middle of a brutal lockdown. There have been reports of a sharp spike in the number of cases, although reported deaths are and restricted to the very old. Shanghai’s 25 million residents seem to be increasingly fed up with the government’s ‘Zero COVID’ policy, which has caused supply chain bottle necks resulting in shortages of food and other essentials, and denial of medical care for patients with non-COVID illnesses. There have also been reports of little children getting separated from parents forcibly sent away to quarantine shelters. Until this March, there was a general sense that China had managed the pandemic way better than the West, especially when viewed in terms of the total case load and mortality numbers. So how did thing things get out of hand all of a sudden? Is it a case of the ‘Zero COVID’ strategy backfiring? Is it the Omicron variant? Given that President Xi Jinping has taken personal ownership of the ‘Zero COVID’ strategy, is China likely to make a course correction in view of the economic fallout and public disenchantment with the stringent lockdown measures? Guest: Ananth Krishnan, China Correspondent, The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Earlier this month, telecom regulator TRAI announced its recommendations to lower the reserve price for spectrum auctions. Now, overall reserve prices for the spectrum auctions would be up to 40% lower than recommended earlier. Of this, spectrum for 5G telecom services will be 35% cheaper. The question is, are these prices low enough for an industry that has been plagued by financial woes for a while now? Guest: Dr. V. Sridhar, Professor at the Centre for IT and Public Policy at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore. Host: K. Bharat Kumar Edited by Reenu Cyriac

A new Prime Minister in India or Pakistan usually means new opportunities for dialogue and engagement. Congratulatory messages are exchanged, and in the days when India and Pakistan engaged in dialogue, restating your commitment to a dialogue process usually followed. India-Pakistan relations have always been topsy-turvy but the August 2019 decision by the Modi Government to denude Jammu and Kashmir’s special status drew a furious response from Pakistan. Even bilateral trade was suspended. Hardly any visitors come and go. Barring the back channel, the relationship is at a standstill. Given that the new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif heads a coalition government and Pakistan faces elections next year, we are unlikely to see a government in full flow. The Pakistan economy is a major concern and former Prime Minister Imran Khan is in full agitation mode. What could happen in India-Pakistan relations now? We discuss in this episode. Guest: Sharat Sabharwal is a former Indian High Commissioner and Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu, who has worked as the newspaper’s Pakistan correspondent Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

The University Grants Commission (UGC) announced on April 12 that students can now pursue two full-time academic courses in physical mode, simultaneously. It has also issued a set of guidelines for the same. What prompted the UGC to come up with this option – was there a demand for it from students or educational institutions? Will this option increase the competitive pressure on all students – to spend their under-graduation years slogging away on two degrees rather than one? And will the two modes of education – formal (in classroom) and informal (online/distance learning) – deliver the same quality and level of credentials? Guest: Dr. Maya John, who teacher of history at Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

The first round of the French Presidential elections got over last Sunday, and two candidates, President Emmanuel Macron, and leader of the far-right National Rally, Marine Le Pen emerged on top with the highest tally of votes. While Macron won the first round with 27.8% of the votes, Le Pen secured 23.2%, while the leftist politician Jean Luc Melenchon finished a close third with 22% of the votes. Interestingly, all the three candidates have bettered their first round performance from 2017, where Macron had received 24% of the votes, Le Pen had 21.3% and Melenchon had 19.6%. The Presidential run-off, which is scheduled for April 24, will decide whether Macron gets a second term as President or Le Pen manages to unseat him. So, as things stand today, what do the chances look like for either candidate? All those who did not vote for either Macron or Le Pen in the first round – who will they support in the second round? And what are the possible implications for Europe in case of either outcome – if Macron gets reelected, or if Le Pen manages to win? Guest: Vaiju Naravane, Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Ashoka University, and currently a visiting faculty at Sciences Po in France Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

If there is one story that defines India’s foreign policy after the 1998 nuclear tests, it is that of New Delhi’s engagement with Washington across Prime Ministers – Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and now Narendra Modi. The tango is yet to end and the dance masters remain committed to the relationship. Despite India’s membership of mutually antagonistic clubs like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Quad, New Delhi found it need not make public choices till the February invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The situation today is dramatically altered – choices will have consequences. While External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar pointed to India’s oil purchases from Russia as being minimal compared to Europe, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made a pointed reference to human rights abuses at their recent press conference in Washington. So, where is the Indo-U.S. relationship headed? We discuss in this episode. Guest: Dr. Atul Bhardwaj, independent foreign policy researcher and author of ‘India-America Relations (1942-62): Rooted in the Liberal International Order’ Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

In its latest assessment report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has laid out several scenarios on the steps that ought to be taken to keep temperatures below 2°C. It warned that even temporarily exceeding the warming level of 1.5°C over the next two decades would mean additional severe impact, some irreversible. Arunabha Ghosh, founder and CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) discusses the latest report by the IPCC, its implications for India and what the Expert Groups strive to achieve. Guest: Arunabha Ghosh, founder and CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water Host: Jacob Koshy Edited by Reenu Cyriac

The lead headline in ‘The Indian Express’ newspaper after Pakistan’s National Assembly voted out a Prime Minister for the first time ever said it all. “Imran Khan goes, kicking & screaming”, it read. Refusing to read the writing on the wall, Mr. Khan tried desperately to hang on to power even on the 9th of April, delaying a vote in the National Assembly after the country’s Supreme Court, in a unanimous verdict, had ordered that the no-confidence motion against him be taken up again. Finally, in the early hours of the 10th of April, and after a dramatic resignation by Speaker Asad Qaiser, the National Assembly voted out Mr. Khan as Prime Minister. The Pakistan Muslim League (Noon) leader Shehbaz Sharif is expected to be elected the new Prime Minister. We discuss these developments in this episode. Guest: Fahd Husain, columnist for the Pakistani newspaper, Dawn, and anchor for the Dawn News television channel. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu, who worked as the newspaper’s correspondent in Pakistan from 1997 to 2000. Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Delhi reaffirmed India’s decision not to join the sanctions regime against Russia, despite a string of emissaries from the US, EU and other countries calling on India to shift its position in the Ukraine crisis. Guest: D.B. Venkatesh Verma, former Indian Ambassador to Moscow Host: Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Mortgage lender HDFC Ltd is all set to merge with HDFC Bank. Under the terms of the deal, which is one of the biggest in the Indian financial sector, HDFC Bank will be 100% owned by public shareholders, while existing shareholders of HDFC Ltd will own 41% stake in HDFC Bank. The news immediately led to a sharp spike in the share prices of both the companies. So, what exactly is the financial rationale for this merger? How do either of these companies benefit from this deal? Given that this is a merger between two different kinds of companies – one is a retail bank and the other is a Non-Banking Financial Company – what are the implications for shareholders, employees and customers? Guest: Suresh Seshadri, Business Editor, The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

As anticipated by many, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan did not go by the book and ensured that his handpicked Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri did not put the pending vote of no-confidence against him to vote on April 3. Instead, the Prime Minister advised Pakistani President Arif Alvi to dissolve the country’s National Assembly and four provincial assemblies, which was done with lightning speed. The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Umar Ata Bandial, has taken suo motu cognizance of this development and will rule on the constitutionality of the Deputy Speaker’s actions. Opposition parties, meanwhile, have elected their own Speaker and are proceeding with their vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly. Mr. Imran Khan said that an “outside conspiracy” fueled by bags of money could not decide the fate of Pakistan while the Army clarified that it had nothing to do with the day’s developments. Guest: Murtaza Solangi, Executive Editor, Nayadaur Media, and former Director-General of Radio Pakistan. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor and former Pakistan correspondent, The Hindu. Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Up until January this year, only two people were ever reported cured of HIV/AIDS. And now, researchers have said there may be a third case -- an African American woman, who was diagnosed with HIV in 2013, and started on anti-retroviral therapy. In 2017, she was diagnosed with leukaemia and received embryonic stem cells, in the form of cord blood, from a donor who had a rare mutation that naturally blocks HIV from infecting the body’s cells. She also received adult blood stem cells from a relative. Now, doctors say, the woman shows no signs of HIV in her blood and has no detectable antibodies either, making the 60-year-old woman possibly the third case of a person who has been cured of the virus -- the other two cases, both men, received bone marrow transplants as well, from donors with the rare mutation. Unlike the other two cases, however, the woman did not develop graft vs host disease -- a condition where the donor stem cells attack the recipient. Could this be because of the use of embryonic stem cells with adult stem cells? Her doctors believe this may possibly be a factor. Stem cell therapy, exciting as it is in the field of medicine, is not accessible or possible in the case of a vast majority of persons living with HIV/AIDS in the world. Anti-retroviral therapy or ART, however, has ensured that those with access to the medicines now have long lifespans, comparable to those without HIV/AIDS. A vaccine against the virus would be an ideal solution, offering a potential cure, but close to 40 years since researchers first began to study it, the world still does not have a vaccine for this virus, though there are recent reports of a potential vaccine based on the mRNA platform. In India, as of 2019, an estimated 23.48 lakh people live with HIV/AIDS -- the prevalence among adult males is estimated at 0.24% of the population and among adult females, the prevalence is 0.20%. Worldwide, over 37 million people live with HIV/AIDS. So what is the potential stem cell ‘cure’ all about? What is the rare mutation that naturally blocks HIV from entering cells? Why is a vaccine so hard to make, and does the mRNA platform, first used for a COVID-19 vaccine, offer hope? Guest: Dr Akhil C Banerjea, emeritus professor, National Institute of Immunology and former director, Institute of Advanced Virology, Kerala Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Reenu Cyriac

On March 28, the government introduced a new Bill in the Lok Sabha – the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022. The Opposition vehemently opposed it, going so far as to seek a division of votes. But it failed to defeat the introduction of the Bill, as it could muster only 58 votes against, with 120 votes in favour of the Bill. On the face of it, the Bill proposes to empower police and prison authorities to take “measurements of convicts and other persons for the purposes of identification and investigation in criminal matters”. The term “measurements” includes finger-impressions, palm-print impressions, foot-print impressions, photographs, iris and retina scan, and even biological samples. Criticism from the Opposition has broadly followed two strands. One thread argues that the Bill violates certain constitutional principles and guarantees and that it goes beyond the House’s “legislative competence”. The other set of criticisms dwell on the fact that it gives too much power to the executive, with very little accountability, raising the temptation for abuse of this law’s provisions. So, does India really need a Bill of this kind, and how does the current draft of the Bill fare when assessed against constitutional norms? Guest: Apar Gupta, Executive Director at the Internet Freedom Foundation, a Delhi-based non-profit that conducts advocacy on digital rights and liberties Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Earlier this week, on March 27 and 28th, the Negev desert in Israel saw a summit of foreign ministers from six countries. Along with Israel’s foreign minister Yair Lapid and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, also in attendance were the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Morocco and Bahrain. Hailed as a ‘historic summit’ by Israel, the meeting is widely seen as an attempt to present a unified front against Iran. But why this summit now, and what are its implications in the context of the ongoing Ukraine war, and the negotiations over a possible resurrection of the Iran deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Guest: Stanly Johny, International Affairs Editor, The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine crosses the one-month mark, there have been calls for cessation of hostilities from across the world even as the devastating human and physical toll of the conflict become increasingly clear. While there is a glimmer of hope in the form of potential negotiations between Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin of Ukraine and Russia respectively, some of the complex geopolitical questions underpinning the crisis, including those relating to the role of NATO, remain unresolved. Guest: Suriya Jayanti, former U.S. diplomat and energy advisor who served as the U.S. Energy Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv until 2020. She is now the co-founder of an alternative energy and decarbonization firm working in Ukraine and elsewhere. Host: Narayan Lakshman, Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

For quite some time now, Indian badminton’s biggest success stories have mostly been women, with the headlines dominated by the likes of P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal. Titles by the men haven’t always come at the highest level or consistently. But 20-year-old Lakshya Sen has surprised everyone with consistent performances at the highest level over the past nine months. His run to the final of the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham last week marks the first time in 21 years an Indian male shuttler has made it to the finals of this prestigious event. So what makes Lakshya Sen, who has now broken into the top 10, different from the rest? And given that he is only 20, does he have the potential to stay at the top for a long time? Guest: Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor (Sports), The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

A little less than four years into his term, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan faces a make or break no-confidence motion against his government in the country’s parliament, or National Assembly on March 25. Nearly a dozen of his lawmakers, or MNAs as they are known, have announced a parting of ways with the Prime Minister. Mr. Khan’s Army backers appear to be taking a hands-off approach towards his continuing in office. Will he go or will he stay? That’s the central question in Pakistan’s national discourse currently. We discuss in this episode of In Focus podcast. Guest: Mehmal Sarfraz, a Lahore-based journalist, who has contributed articles for The Hindu in the past. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu, who worked as the newspaper’s correspondent in Pakistan from 1997 to 2000. Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

There has been a lot of debate over the Karnataka High Court’s verdict upholding a ban on the wearing of hijab in educational institutions. In a nutshell, the High Court’s judgment appears to hold that the hijab is not an essential part of Islam and therefore the right to wear it cannot be protected under the Constitutional right to freedom of religion guaranteed by Article 25. It has been recognized that this case involves a number of key constitutional rights and principles, such as the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, the right to privacy, the principles of equality and non-discrimination, and the principle of secularism, to name a few. The judgment delivered by the three-judge Bench does engage with these principles. But not everyone is convinced that it has applied the Constitutional provisions correctly. Has the court advanced the cause of women’s emancipation and secularism, as the verdict claims, or is it possible that it may have misconstrued certain Constitutional principles? Guest: Anup Surendranath, teacher of constitutional law at National Law University, Delhi Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

We are now into the fourth week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and there is still not much clarity or consensus on whether and to what extent, Russia has been able to execute its military objectives in this time period. While there is no doubt that Ukraine has decisively won the propaganda war, with the world’s sympathy overwhelmingly in its favour, not many seem to be buying Russia’s line that Ukrainian atrocities in the Donbas region had necessitated what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation”. Nonetheless, it does appear as though Russia’s military operations are focused on securing the Donbas, and perhaps turning the two self-proclaimed republics of Luhansk and Donetsk into some kind of a buffer zone against a militarily defanged yet hostile Ukraine. So, how do we assess Russia’s military campaign? Are the Russians concerned about running out of time? And how do their military successes, or the lack of it, play into their negotiation tactics with the Ukrainians? Guest: Stanly Johny, International Affairs Editor, The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Talmiz Ahmed speaks to us on the steps that India can take to insulate itself from price shocks and what are the chances that OPEC nations will ramp up supply and stabilise global crude prices. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has begun to have a major impact on the world energy markets. Ever since the conflict started, and especially after the announcement of economic sanctions on Russia, crude prices have been steadily climbing. They have risen most sharply in Europe, which is heavily dependent on Russian natural gas. U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to ban Russian oil is further set to roil energy markets. Since oil and natural gas are key inputs for almost every industry, there are fears of worldwide inflation. India, which relies on imports for the bulk of its energy needs, is especially vulnerable to changes in global crude prices. So, what does the war and the sanctions mean for fuel prices and inflation in India? What steps can India take to insulate itself from price shocks? And what are the chances that OPEC nations will ramp up supply and stabilise global crude prices? Guest : Talmiz Ahmed, a former diplomat who holds the Ram Sathe Chair in International Studies at Symbiosis International University, Pune. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has scored a landslide victory in the Punjab Assembly elections. Punjab is a state that has traditionally been dominated by two parties – the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress. But this time the AAP has blown away both these old contenders to win 92 seats in the 117-member Assembly. What were the factors behind Punjab’s embrace of AAP? What are the main expectations that the AAP is expected to fulfill? And what does this election victory mean for the future of politics in the State? Guest: Amandeep Sandhu, author of ‘Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines’ (2019) Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

The BJP’s victories in State Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand are both comprehensive and complete. Its dominance over north India’s most populous and politically significant State has been re-emphasised. The Samajwadi Party fought the good fight but it was no match for the BJP. The Bahujan Samaj Party cut a sorry figure. In Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party, a relatively fresh face in the State’s politics, won four-fifths of the seats – making it the second state after Delhi where AAP now has a government. Whether the party is able to advance beyond these two States is a question being posed by analysts and ordinary people alike. In Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand, the BJP managed to buck anti-incumbency and return to power, cutting the Congress to size once again. We discuss the causes and effects of these results in this episode.  Guest: Gilles Verniers teaches politics at Ashoka University and is Co-Director of the Trivedi Centre for Political Data. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

After two years of the pandemic, just when people were hoping for a semblance of normalcy, the world has been rocked by a massive war that could have catastrophic effects way beyond the conflict zone and probably change the post-Cold War world order. One question that just doesn’t go away is: could this war have been avoided? What exactly is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s game plan – why did he not stick to the path of diplomacy, instead of launching a full scale war? How will this war affect his position within Russia? And what is the thinking and mood in Russia at the moment? Does the sanctions regime portend Russia’s decisive pivot to the East, away from Europe, with which it has a long, shared history? We look for answers to these questions in this episode of In-Focus podcast. Guest: Danil Bochkov, strategic expert with the Russia International Affairs Council (RIAC), a Moscow-based think tank Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Over the last 10 days, desperate students from India have been asking to be evacuated from Ukraine, as the fighting there gets increasingly worse. On Tuesday, a 21-year-old MBBS student from Karnataka was killed in the eastern Ukranian city of Kharkiv, reportedly by Russian firing, when he was waiting outside a grocery store. As of Wednesday evening, at least 2,000 Indian students are believed to still be stranded in the country that is in the midst of an invasion by Russia. Students from India, have, for many years now, gone abroad to study. But apart from the destinations one usually thinks of – such as the United States, UK, Canada and Australia, an increasing number of students are also studying in Russia, China, Ukraine, the Philippines, Kazhakastan and other countries, many for medical degrees. An estimated 18,000 Indian students were studying in Ukraine when the conflict broke out, again, a majority of them at medical universities, many from tier-2 and tier-3 cities of India. Students, parents and educational consultants say the primary driving factor is the costs – while a medical education in Ukraine is estimated to cost around Rs. 20 lakh for the entire course, in India, costs at a private medical college can range from Rs. 50 lakh to upwards of Rs. 1 crore. And how many medical aspirants get into Indian medical colleges? As per government data there are 88,120 MBBS seats available in the country, but only half of these are in the government sector, where the college fees are relatively low. Just last year, over 15 lakh candidates registered for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test or NEET, which determines admission to medical colleges – which means that a majority of those who attempt the exam will not be able to secure a seat. And the distribution of medical colleges in India too, is skewed – most are in the southern States and Maharashtra, with very few colleges in many northern parts of the country. Even when students do come back after obtaining a medical degree in Ukraine, they cannot immediately practice – they have to write the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination, the pass percentage of which, as per reports, is only around 15%. Over the last five years however, there has been a three-fold increase in the number of candidates attempting this exam. So why is it that medical education continues to remain unaffordable to thousands of our students? Prime Minister Modi, a few days ago, asked why the private sector couldn’t get into this field, and why States couldn’t allot land for medical colleges as many our students were going to small countries abroad to study. Are more private medical colleges in the country the answer or do State governments need to do more to set up government colleges? Are our regulatory frameworks too stringent in the norms required to set up medical colleges? Is capping fees at private colleges, as the National Medical Commission has proposed, for at least some seats, the answer? And can India achieve its commitment of having 1 doctor per 1,000 people as recommended by the World Health Organisation later this decade? Guest : Dr Rajib Dasgupta, Professor at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has not only shocked the world but shaken the foundations of the world order. Lakhs of refugees, both Ukrainian nationals and foreigners, are trying to cross the country’s borders to safety even as Russian troops shell and bomb major cities. Russia’s end game is not clear even as it faces the full wrath of the West. Sanctions and isolation are the order of the day. What will the sanctions achieve when the West could not even bring Myanmar and Afghanistan to heel? Did Russian President Vladimir Putin believe that the U.S. and the rest of the West will acquiesce to turning Ukraine into a client state? Guest: Syed Akbaruddin, former Indian Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, and currently Dean, Kautilya School of Social Policy, Hyderabad Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Russia’s actions against Ukraine have attracted severe blowback from Western nations, especially in the form of economic sanctions. While Russia has lived with sanctions for years now, the new set of sanctions are decidedly harsher. Many Russian banks have been cut off from the SWIFT transactional system, Russia-registered flights have been banned from EU air space, and assets of the Russian central bank are being frozen, and these measures are expected to affect world trade that involves Russian goods or services. It is a truism that in the three decades following the end of the Cold War, the world has become closer, more networked and more inter-dependant – a process that’s come to be known as globalization. But now, are these sanctions about to turn the clock back? How will the West ensure that all countries – not just in Europe but also Asia, Africa and Latin America abide by the sanctions? How is this likely to impact countries that are dependant on imports from Russia or for whom Russia is a major trade partner? Guest : Arun Kumar, Malcolm S Adiseshiah Chair Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has led to a flurry of diplomatic activity, with every country sort of compelled to take an official position on the conflict. While the Western world has been unanimous in condemning Russia for violating Ukraine’s sovereignty, some countries have stopped short of outright condemnation. Among these nations which have tried to do a balancing act are India and China. Given that relations between India and China have been frosty in recent times, it is interesting that they seem to be on the same page on what appears to be the most dangerous geo-political conflict today. A few days ago, when the UN Security Council voted on a draft resolution condemning Russia for its actions against Ukraine, India and China, along with the UAE, were the only countries that abstained. So, what are the considerations that are driving India and China to adopt the positions that they’ve taken? With Russia getting increasingly isolated, and the sanctions getting progressively harsher, will India and China change their positions in the coming days or weeks? Guests: Suhasini Haidar, National Editor and Diplomatic Affairs Editor at The Hindu, and Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu’s China Correspondent. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Just as the Omicron wave of the pandemic was ebbing in India and case numbers were dropping significantly, there were some concerns about an Omicron sub-variant BA.2. Earlier this week, the World Health Organisation said that it was closely monitoring BA.2, believed to be more transmissible than the BA.1 strain, but said there was no cause for alarm as this sub-variant does not seem to cause more severe disease. As of Tuesday, the country reported just over 15,000 new cases and the number of active cases has fallen below the 2 lakh mark - indicating the receding of the third wave of COVID-19 and the gradual return to normalcy. Booster or third doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, which have been on many minds since the third wave began, have so far been given only to healthcare and frontline workers and vulnerable adults over the age of 60 - the NITI Aayog recently said a decision on a third dose for all other adults would only be taken based on scientific need. So is there a scientific need for booster doses in India? What happens to those patients who experience long Covid - those who develop long-term symptoms after being infected? And crucially, what next can we expect of the pandemic and will COVID-19 become endemic in the country - with the virus sticking around but not affecting large numbers? Guest: Dr. Lancelot Pinto, Consultant Respirologist & Epidemiologist, P.D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Mumbai Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Reenu Cyriac

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), in a recent order, has penalised the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and its former MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna for violating securities contract rules. Ramkrishna was the CEO from April 2013 to December 2016. The key violation seems to be her role in the appointment of Anand Subramanian as group operating officer and advisor to the MD. Along with Ramkrishna, her predecessor Ravi Narain has also been accused of violating the rules. Among the various findings of the SEBI investigation, the one that has garnered the maximum attention is that Ramakrishna, as the MD and CEO, had been guided in her decisions by a ‘yogi’ or spiritual guru sitting in the Himalayas. It was this same ‘yogi’ who made her appoint Subramanian on an exorbitant salary and allegedly made her keep increasing his compensation at regular intervals. While Ramakrishna and her associates are under further investigation, the whole saga has raised a lot of questions. Given that the yogi had been communicating via email, why is his identity still unknown? Did the NSE suffer material losses as a result of this breach of confidentiality rules? Apart from Subramanian, did any other entity enjoy material gain from the yogi’s apparent hold over Ramkrishna? Guest: Suresh Seshadri, Business Editor, The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

It’s an ancient disease that has been mentioned in history across the world, but one that is now largely forgotten. Leprosy however, continues to exist in India. As per data, in 2020-21, the country saw 65, 147 new cases of leprosy, down from 1,14,451 cases in 2019-20 -- but whether this data is a reflection of ground reality is not known, as the Covid-19 pandemic hampered detection of cases, patients were unable to access healthcare services due to the lockdowns and almost all public health efforts were directed towards combating the pandemic. The disease, caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae, primarily affects the skin and the nerves under the skin. It causes lesions, and if left untreated, leads to deformities and disabilities. Despite free treatment available across the country in the government health sector, leprosy continues to be stigmatised and patients discriminated against, often in their own homes and communities. In 2005, India officially eliminated leprosy as a public health problem -- as less than 1 in 10,000 people contracted it in a year. But some States in the country continue to have higher rates -- parts of Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and a few others make up a sizeable chunk of all cases in the country. So what happened to leprosy services in India after 2005? And what happened during the pandemic? Why does India still account for a significant proportion of the world’s leprosy cases? Guest: Dr. Joydeepa Darlong Head, Knowledge Management, The Leprosy Mission Trust India Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

The Delhi High Court, after hearing a case filed by table tennis star Manika Batra, has suspended the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI). It has appointed a three-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) to run the sport for the time being. In the absence of a regular federation to administer the sport, players face an uncertain future. The High Court order has also put the spotlight on the mismanagement that seems to plague many of our sports federations. So, why did the TTFI get suspended? And what is the likely effect of the High Court order on other sports federations? Guest: Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor (Sports), The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

With the dust yet to settle on the whole debate around the Aadhaar project, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY) has now proposed a new model of ‘Federated Digital Identities’. The idea is to link a citizen’s multiple unique IDs such as PAN, driving licence, passport and so on to one unique ID. This proposal is part of several digital governance initiatives that the government is considering under the India Digital Ecosystem Architecture or InDEA 2.0 framework. Why exactly do we need federated digital identities? What is the InDEA 2.0 framework all about? Does our digital governance architecture imbibe the constitutional principles that govern traditional governance? Are there any privacy or surveillance concerns that ordinary citizens need to worry about? We look for some answers to these questions in this episode. Guest: Srinivas Kodali, inter-disciplinary researcher with special interest in data standards, cities, cyber security, and the internet. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Cricket’s Indian Premier League, known popularly as IPL, is valued at a staggering 50,000 crore rupees. In 2008, when the IPL was launched, not many would have thought it would not only be a mega commercial success but become a magnet for international players. Another round of player auctions has just been concluded with a top sale tag of over 15 crores for an individual cricketer. So, what makes the IPL tick and tick loudly? Guest: Joy Bhattacharjya, CEO of Prime Volleyball League and former Team Director of Kolkata Knight Riders. He is also an analyst for cricbuzz.com. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

In February 2019, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court, challenging Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. This section, which deals with ‘restitution of conjugal rights’, essentially forces a wife who has left her husband, to return and cohabit with him. Although it is gender neutral (applying to either spouse), it is back in focus partly owing to the growing spotlight on criminalising marital rape. The petition challenging this law, titled Ojaswa Pathak vs Union of India, was last heard on July 8, 2021 and has been pending since then, with the Supreme Court website showing no further dates. Justice Rohinton Nariman, who led the Bench which heard the case, has also retired. Meanwhile, adding another twist to the discourse around sexual autonomy of the married woman in India, the Centre has conveyed to the Delhi High Court that India should not “blindly” follow the West in criminalizing marital rape. With the petition against Section 9 pending in the Supreme Court for so many months without a hearing, there is a growing clamour for an early resumption of hearings. What exactly do the provisions of Section 9 say? What has been their impact so far, and how did we end up with such a law in the first place? Guest: Arti Raghavan, practicing advocate at the Bombay High Court Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

The anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) has released the 2021 Corruption Perception Index, or CPI. This Index ranks 180 countries on their perceived levels of corruption in the public sector. Countries are evaluated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 is very clean and 0 is very corrupt. This latest CPI has revealed that globally, corruption remains at high levels, with the average score at 43 out of 100. Out of the 180 countries, 131 have made no progress against corruption, two-thirds scored below 50, indicating that corruption is a major problem, while 27 slipped to their lowest score ever. Although India’s rank improved from 86th to 85, its score of 40 is lower than the global average of 43, which seems to indicate that corruption in India is higher than in most other countries. The report also states that rising corruption is an enabler of human rights abuse and authoritarianism. For a better understanding of CPI, global trends in corruption, and what the report has to say about India, we speak to Venkatesh Nayak. Guest: Venkatesh Nayak, development sector veteran who has worked on transparency and public audit mechanisms, and is currently with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI). Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Last week, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights told the Supreme Court that close to 1.5 lakh children in the country are in need of care and protection after losing at least one of their parents to COVID-19 and other diseases during the pandemic period, while over 10,000 children have lost both parents. The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns not only pushed thousands of Indians into poverty, it also made services that generally safeguard children, unavailable in large parts of the country, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. Thousands of migrant workers returned to their villages, schools have been shut for the better part of two years, and families, desperate to survive, have gotten into the clutches of money-lenders, which makes them easy prey for traffickers. In July last year, the Union Home Ministry issued guidelines for the urgent setting up of Anti Human Trafficking Units or AHTUs, and asked States to upgrade the infrastructure of existing ones. As per the National Crime Records Bureau, there are 696 functional AHTUs and 20 States/Union Territories have achieved their target of setting up AHTUs in all districts. In the meantime, children have been rescued from trains and buses, from workplaces across the country, from sexual exploitation and child marriage in the thousands by child rights organisations. Childline, a helpline for children in distress, received 1,92,000 distress calls between March and August 2020, most to do with cases of child labour. And yet NCRB's data from AHTUs recorded only 1,714 cases of human trafficking in 2020. What really happened to vulnerable children during the pandemic? How do the AHTUs work and are they effective? What happens to rescued children and how long does it take for the rehabilitation process to work? And what are the urgent gaps the government needs to fill to protect children in our country from being trafficked? Guest: Dhananjay Tingal, executive director, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a movement for the protection of children that works with government agencies and policy-makers to strengthen the system Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Reenu Cyriac

With elections coming up in five states, it was expected that the Union Budget for the financial year 2022-23 would focus on addressing the crisis of unemployment. One of the things that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman needed to do in this regard was to increase government spending, and she appears to have done so, increasing the capital expenditure outlay by 35.4%, But will this be enough to draw in adequate amounts of private investment and ensure job creation on a massive scale? Also, how do we understand the logic behind the cuts in subsidies, with fertilizer, food and petroleum subsidies all witnessing a marked decline? While job creation remains a primary concern, the allocation for MGNREGA – which saw a surge in demand during the pandemic – has not been increased. How do we assess the Budget on the welfare front – in the domains of health, education and farmer welfare? In this podcast, we look to unpack the numbers of the Union Budget and get to the core of what it means for the common man. Guest: Arun Kumar, economist and Malcolm S. Adiseshiah Chair Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

The National Commission for Women has said it had seen a 30% rise in complaints of crimes against women in 2021, compared to 2020. Nearly 31,000 complaints of crimes against women were received by the Commission for last year, the highest since 2014. Of these, over 6,000 were related to domestic violence and over 4,000 were to do with dowry harassment. In 2020 also, the Commission had received a record high number of complaints, one quarter of them related to domestic violence -- in just April and May of that year, during the nation-wide lockdown, 47.2% of the cases it received were of domestic violence, by comparison, barely 21% of cases received between January and March were to do with this. Domestic violence has sometimes been referred to as the 'shadow pandemic' -- as the world faced an unprecedented crisis and lockdowns became the norm in several countries, not only did women find themselves locked in with their abusers at home, they also lost access to support services outside. The economic distress faced by millions exacerbated the problem. In India, organisations working with women have reported a huge spike in cases -- men and women lost their jobs, many members of a family were forced to stay together often in small quarters -- not only did women have more household work than usual, they also had little access to the outside, and their support systems dwindled. At the same time, many girls and young women who would ordinarily have been in school and college, have been confined to their homes -- potentially increasing their vulnerability to violence and also to the threat of cyber crimes. Did we have any mechanisms in place to help support survivors of violence through the pandemic? What legal and social structures do we need to have? What happens when fewer women use public places, and will this have an effect on women's safety in the future? And how well has the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 been implemented? Guest: Swarna Rajagopalan, founder of Prajnya, a non-profit that works in the area of gender equality Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Reenu Cyriac

China, the world’s factory, is worried by its dipping population growth – a figure that has fallen to its lowest level in six decades despite ending its 35-year “one child policy” in 2016 and replacing the “two child policy” with the “three child policy” last year. Just under 11 million babies were born in China in 2021 while a little over 10 million deaths were reported in the year gone by. As a result, China recorded a population growth of 0.34 per thousand – the lowest since 1960. What are the implications of this obvious population crisis? Why aren’t more children being born in China? The country’s ageing population is better educated, more skilled and healthier than before. Will the country be able to cope with lesser numbers? We discuss all these issues in this episode.  Guest: Ananth Krishnan, Hong Kong-based China correspondent of The Hindu. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

If one can rank Assembly elections in order of importance, after Uttar Pradesh it has to be Punjab in the five States going to polls. Punjab Assembly 2017 was a three-cornered contest with the Congress getting a thumping majority. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who could not believe that AAP had lost the polls. The Akali Dal-BJP alliance came third in the 2017 race. In 2022, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has allied with the BJP, some victorious farmers who forced the BJP government to withdraw the three contentious agricultural laws have entered the fray, the Akalis are now in alliance with the BSP while the Congress and AAP remain serious contenders for power. Guest: Kanwar Sandhu, former Chandigarh-based Resident Editor of The Indian Express and Hindustan Times newspapers. Outgoing MLA in the Punjab Assembly, not seeking re-election. Suspended by AAP for alleged anti-party activities. Also, former Executive Editor of The Tribune newspaper. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associated Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

The poll bugle has been sounded for Uttar Pradesh’s seven-phase Assembly election between February 10 and March 7. Along with Uttar Pradesh, four other states, including Punjab, are also in election mode to elect new State Assemblies. Candidates have been announced for the first few phases in Uttar Pradesh by the BJP, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress and a first round of defections has also taken place. Swami Prasad Maurya, a senior minister and OBC face of the BJP, has jumped ship to the SP. As have two other Cabinet Ministers from the Yogi Adityanath government. We discuss the stakes in this all-important election in this episode. Guest: Gilles Verniers, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Co-Director, Trivedi Centre for Political Data, Ashoka University. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

According to the ‘Tek Fog’ expose by the news portal The Wire, the BJP has access to a secret app called ‘Tek Fog’ that can hijack social media, automate hate, and targets thousands of accounts with just a click. The report, when it came out, created a sensation. While A TMC MP has said Tek Fog “has serious ramifications and could jeopardise national security,” a parliamentary panel headed by a Congress leader has sought a response from the Home Ministry. So, what exactly is Tek Fog? How does automated trolling work, and is it really scalable? What does the Tek Fog expose mean in the context of investigative journalism that straddles the domains of technology, privacy, free speech and politics? We explore these questions in this episode. Guest: Samarth Bansal, an independent journalist who runs The Interval, a fortnightly newsletter Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

On January 17, two Indians and a Pakistani were killed in a massive explosion in Abu Dhabi. The blast is believed to have been the result of a ‘drone attack’ by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. This attack on the capital of UAE has once again drawn the spotlight to a conflict that has been going on in the region for seven years – the war in Yemen. This war, which broke out in late 2014 during a period of political instability in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring protests, has become really complicated, with multiple warring factions –the Saudi-backed coalition, the Houthis, the Southern Transitional Council, or the STC, which is another separatist group, besides other countries such as France and the UK which have been helping the Saudi-backed coalition. All of this has triggered what is believed to be the worst ongoing humanitarian crisis in the world. What are the factors driving this conflict? What is at stake for the different players? And is there any chance of peace returning to the region any time soon?  Guest: Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s International Affairs Editor Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Kazakhstan, the largest and richest of the Central Asian republics, is in turmoil. The country has been rocked by massive protests since the start of the New Year. The protests have also been marked by violence and looting. While the immediate trigger seems to be a hike in LPG prices, they protesters did not relent even after the government announced that it will roll back the price hike. As violence escalated, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev gave orders to shoot at the protesters without warning. He has also claimed that foreign elements are behind the protests. He turned to Russia for help in quelling the protests, and things seemed to have settled down somewhat, after 2,500 Russian troops landed in the country. What exactly are the factors driving these protests? Is there really some foreign involvement? What are the geo-political implications of Russian troop presence in Kazakhstan? We discuss all this and more in this episode. Guest: Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s International Affairs Editor Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, or the FCRA, has been in the news once again. India’s NGO sector had an unpleasant start to the new year as it emerged that around 6,000 of them had lost their FCRA licence. NGOs and other institutions that do charitable work have to register under the FCRA to be able to receive foreign donations. Hence, cancellation or loss of an FCRA licence could mean that they may no longer be able to continue their day-to-day work, to pay salaries, and may even be forced to shut down. This has livelihood implications for people employed in the social sector. In this edition of In Focus, we get to the fundamentals of the whole FCRA phenomenon. Why do NGOs need an FCRA licence? Do other entities that receive donations, such as political parties, for example, face the same level of regulatory scrutiny? How transparent is the process of granting or cancellation of licences? Guest: Kabir Dixit, an advocate-on-record at the Supreme Court who has been handling FCRA matters Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

On January 3, India began vaccinating a section of its teenagers, with Covaxin. About 7.4 crore children, between the ages of 15 and 18, are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. As of Saturday, over 2 crore children had received the first dose of their vaccine. Only Covaxin was approved for use in this age group, even though, last October, India's first DNA vaccine, ZyCoV-D, had been granted emergency use authorisation for use in children above the age of 12. Some experts have argued that since COVID-19 in children is, in general, not severe, the entire adult population should have been vaccinated first -- over 90% of the eligible population has received the first dose, but second dose coverage remains less than 70%. However, others have pointed out that now that adult vaccination is well underway and progressing, the programme needed to be opened to children as well.  India has also announced precautionary doses -- a third dose of the vaccine -- for healthcare and frontline workers as well as adults aged above 60 with co-morbidities. The move comes amidst a global surge in COVID-19 cases, with new variant of concern, Omicron, dominating. Unlike some other countries however, India will give beneficiaries the same dose they had for the first two -- either Covishield or Covaxin, without any mixing of the vaccines. So how did the children's vaccination programme come about, and how is it progressing? Do all adults need a booster dose or will only those at risk require it at present? How does the precautionary dose help protect vulnerable individuals? And will we see more variants in the future? Guest: Dr Srinath Reddy, President of the Public Health Foundation of India  Host: Zubeda Hamid  Edited by Reenu Cyriac

The first big event of the Badminton calendar in this year is happening in New Delhi – with the 2022 India Open set to take place from January 11 to 16. There is a great deal of anticipation around the event as it could see a potential rematch of the two finalists of the World championships last month – Kidambi Srikanth and Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew. There is also a lot of excitement as India suddenly seems to have a great number of high quality male shuttlers and some excellent prospects, including the likes of Lakshya Sen. Given the abundance of talent, what are India’s prospects at the India Open and for the rest of the Badminton calendar in 2022? Can Kidambi Srikanth reverse the outcome of the World Championship final if he runs into Loh at the India Open? And how are the chances for PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal? We discuss these questions and more in this episode. Guest: Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor (Sports) at The Hindu. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

The top-ranked tennis player in the world and arguably one of the all-time greats Novak Djokovic was held for four days in a detention centre in Australia, apparently because his unvaccinated status rendered his entry visa invalid. The showdown between the Australian federal agencies and Novak Djokovic was today settled in court, with a Federal Circuit Court judge ruling in Djokovic’s favour. It quashed the cancellation of Djokovic’s visa and ordered his immediate release from detention. While details of the events at the airport leading to Djokovic’s detention are still emerging, the whole episode has raised questions about vaccination, sport, and how rules are imposed, or not imposed. We don’t know, for instance, why Australia did not inform Djokovic earlier that his ‘medical exemption’ was not valid or that it was not enough to guarantee him entry into Australia. Why wait until he was already on Australian soil? And what about the effect of all this on his preparations for the Australian Open, assuming he gets to play it? We discuss all these questions in detail in this episode. Guest: Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor (Sports) at The Hindu. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Sudan, a country ravaged by repression and instability for a long time, is again in turmoil. Civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced his resignation in a televised address on January 2. Since 2019, Hamdok had been leading a transitional government in which power was shared between the military and the civilian leadership. But the military overthrew the government in a coup in October, and Hamdok was kept under house arrest. Following international pressure, the military made a deal with Hamdok, and on November 21, he returned as Prime Minister. And now, he is gone again, leaving the military fully in command of the levers of power. Why exactly did the military pull the plug on the joint civilian-military governance arrangement in October? Why did Hamdok make a deal with the military in November, only to quit a few weeks later in January? And what are the chances of Sudan making a successful transition to democracy? We explore all these questions with Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s International Affairs Editor. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Guest: Stanly Johny, International Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by: Ranjani Srinivasan

The Department of Posts under the Ministry of Communications has released a Draft Approach Paper for creating a Digital Address Code or DAC for each and every address in the entire country. The DAC is to do for addresses for Aadhaar has done for identity – create a unique ID, using geo-spatial coordinates. The idea of a digital address code is a very ambitious one. While it can potentially transform the available national infrastructure for business, it also has implications for conduct of the Census, National Population Register and conduct of elections. Strangely, the proposal for this massive undertaking is yet to be widely debated. Why does India need a Digital Address Code? Who are likely to be its likely beneficiaries? Will it further exacerbate privacy concerns? Will it increase the possibilities of surveillance? How have other countries approached the idea of a digital access code? We look for answers to all these questions and more in this episode. Guest: Srinivas Kodali, an inter-disciplinary researcher with a special interest in data standards, cities, cyber security, and the internet. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Schools began opening across the country in September this year, following the devastating second wave of COVID-19. By then, most of India's 24 crore students, had been out of schools for close to 18 months -- most children in kindergarten and first standard had never set foot in a classroom. The Annual Status of Education Report 2021, released last month, throws up some important facts about how students and teachers have fared over the pandemic years. Significantly, there was an increase in the proportion of children not enrolled in school, compared to pre-pandemic figures from 2018. Government schools saw a rise in enrolments, up from 64.3% in 2018 to 70.3% in 2021, while private schools recorded a dip -- from 32.4% in 2018 to 24.4% in 2021. Another important factor the survey highlighted was that online education, demonstrably, did not work for all -- while smartphone availability in homes almost doubled from 2018 to 2021, and 67.6% of students on average had a device at home, over a quarter of them had no access to it at all. But what needs to be done, going forward, in what is, arguably an unprecedented situation? A vast number of children may not be at the level that their grade and curriculum demand. What can schools and teachers do to deal with this? Do States need to frame policies and guidelines to help children get back on their feet, academically? Do we need to move away from a narrow, curriculum-driven approach that our school systems presently focus on? Guest: Dr. Rukmini Banerji, Chief Executive Officer of Pratham Education Foundation Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by: Ranjani Srinivasan

The ghastly killing of six innocent coalminers and another nine civilians and a soldier on December 4 in the Mon district of Nagaland has sent shockwaves through the Northeast and the rest of the country. The clamour for the withdrawal of the draconian Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act has grown, with the chief ministers of Nagaland and Meghalaya, both allied to the BJP, demanding that the Act be withdrawn. The Oting village incident also raises a question mark on the fate of the still-to-be-made-public 2015 “framework agreement” signed between Naga insurgent groups and the Centre in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Also in the spotlight is the state of the 1997 ceasefire between the Centre and the NSCN-IM, the principal Naga insurgent group. Much will depend on how the Modi government acts to prosecute the soldiers responsible for the Oting killings. A change of tack on security policies that undermine the elected government and state police will also be under the scanner. We discuss these and more in this episode. Guest: Rahul Karmakar, Guwahati-based Special Correspondent of The Hindu Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu.

Tensions have been rising at the Ukraine-Russia border. There has been a massive troop build-up on the Russian side, within 300 km of the Donbas region in Ukraine. This is a live conflict zone where the Ukrainian government has been battling Russia-backed separatists. While the West has accused Russia of trying to intimidate Ukraine, the Kremlin has, in turn, accused the West of manufacturing ‘anti-Russia hysteria’, holding that troop mobilization within Russian borders is no one else’s business. Another dimension of the rising tensions is that last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that there had been a coup plot against his regime by a group of Russians and Ukrainians. Russia, however, has denied any role in the alleged coup attempt. So, what exactly are the points of conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and what does Putin hope to achieve through this troop build-up? We explore these questions and more in this episode. Guest: Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s International Affairs Editor. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

There is much that is still unknown about Omicron, the newest Sars-CoV-2 variant, that has been designated as a 'variant of concern' by the World Health Organisation. The variant was first reported in South Africa on November 24, and has since, spread to over 15 countries or regions, as of now. In response, several countries have begun imposing travel restrictions and closing borders, similar to what we saw happening last year, during the initial waves of the pandemic.  Omicron is a heavily mutated strain, with over 32 mutations in the spike protein of the virus, some in part of the protein required for binding to human receptor proteins for entry into cells. This has raised concerns that the variant may be more transmissable and also that it may hamper the efficacy of our current treatments for the disease. Another concern has been that the variant may have vaccine escape properties. However, scientists will require possibly several more weeks before they can determine whether any of these concerns are valid. What do we now know about the variant? Are travel restrictions and bans really effective, given that the new variant is already spreading? With India having vaccinated nearly 80% of the eligible population with the first dose and about 38% with both doses, what more needs to be done to take measures against the new variant?  Guest: Dr. Shahid Jameel, Virologist and Fellow at OCIS and Green Templeton College, University of Oxford Host: Zubeda Hamid

Over the last decade, India has seen the emergence, or re-emergence, of a number of infectious diseases. Not only have seen an alarming surge in the number of dengue and chikungunya cases, we've had Zika and Nipah virus cases, and even an Ebola scare. This is in addition to existing diseases that we are still battling -- such as tuberculosis, malaria, Kala Azar and others, and all while India battled the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years. Some estimates indicate that about 60 per cent of infectious diseases and 70 per cent of emerging infections of humans are zoonotic in origin, with two-thirds originating in wildlife. India, a tropical country, that is still, in many parts, grappling with inadequate sanitation, overcrowding, and lack of adequate access to healthcare, has also, of late, been subject to extreme climate events -- all of these, and other factors such as human encroachment into wildlife terrain may also be playing a role in the emergence of infections or surge in cases. What do we know about why these infections come in spurts? Are there any vaccines for them and if not, why not? Is India particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases? And what can the government do to prepare and strengthen our already over-burdened healthcare systems? We speak about this and more in the podcast. Guest: Dr Priscilla Rupali, Professor Department of Infectious Diseases Christian Medical College, Vellore Host: Zubeda Hamid 

The sudden televised withdrawal of the three contentious farm laws by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 19 was as dramatic as pushing through the three Bills by voice vote in the Rajya Sabha in September last year. Gripped by a still-to-be explained urgency, these three laws were issued as Presidential Ordinances in June 2020.  There is little doubt that Mr. Modi’s hand was forced by the relentless agitation launched by the farmers of Punjab, Western U.P. and Haryana, who have been sitting on Delhi’s borders since November last year, demanding the complete withdrawal of the three laws. The writing on the electoral wall, as many analysts have pointed out, has also been clearly read by the Prime Minister as the states of U.P. and Punjab slip into election mode.  Farmer leaders, meanwhile, are firm that minimum support price, or MSP, should be given statutory shape by the Centre even as they have deferred a decision on whether or not to withdraw their agitation to the end of November.   We discuss the future of agricultural reforms in this episode. Guest: Ajay Vir Jakhar, Chairman, Bharat Krishak Samaj  Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu 

The welfare of convicts who have been sentenced to death is probably the last, if at all it figures, in anyone’s list of welfare priorities. Since their entire identity gets reduced to one act -- the crime they are accused of – they are generally dehumanised, and people find it difficult to understand why we should care about the mental health of someone convicted of, say, gang-rape or a brutal murder – the ‘rarest of rare’ cases where the death penalty is invoked. But there are problems in the way the criminal justice system deals with the mental health of under-trials and prisoners, and perhaps nobody is more victimised by systemic issues than prisoners on death row. A new report, titled, ‘Deathworthy: A Mental Health Perspective of the Death Penalty’ has come up with empirical data on mental illness and intellectual disability among death row prisoners in India. The study, which is the first of its kind, has found that an alarming 62% had a mental illness and 11% had intellectual disability. Given that most of these convicts are from marginalized communities with poor socio-economic and educational indicators, the report raises some hard questions about equity, justice and the responsibility of the courts, the prison system, the State and society at large towards protecting the dignity of those deemed ‘deathworthy’. We speak with the project head and lead author of this study in this episode. Guest: Dr Maitreyi Misra, Founder of Project 39A at National Law University, New Delhi Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

Every year in November and December, the residents of Delhi and the National Capital Region, find it hard to breathe. Toxic air chokes the lungs, doctors advise people to avoid outdoor walks and runs, hospital outpatient services overflow with people facing respiratory problems, and there is a call for emergency measures to bring the air quality index down from severe to satisfactory. Meteorological conditions such as cold air and a drop in wind speeds combine with the year-long emanation of pollutants into the air from industries, vehicles, construction as well as stubble smoke, along with festive firecrackers -- and together they contribute to the noxious air that prevails across the Indo-Gangetic plain at this time of the year. What happens to your lungs and body when you breathe in polluted air on a daily basis? How does this impact our health long term? Where does India stand in its pollution levels compared to the rest of the world? And what urgent action can governments take to protect, and help provide cleaner air for future generations? We speak on this and more in this episode.  Guest: Vivek Chattopadhyaya, Sr Program Manager, Clean Air and Sustainable Mobility of the Centre for Science and Environment Host: Zubeda Hamid

These days, if you turn on the TV, there is no escaping the flood of advertisements urging you to invest in cryptocurrencies. Everyone seems to be busy getting rich from bitcoin and other cryptos. A host of crypto-exchanges have attracted funding from global investors and are promising the moon to retail investors. But these crypto-exchanges themselves are not comparable to a conventional stock exchange such as the BSE or the NSE, which bear some of the risks of a trade, whereas the crypto-exchanges don’t. However, the government has allowed this sector to mushroom in a regulatory vacuum. How real are the risks for investors putting their money into an unregulated ‘asset class’? When is a regulatory regime likely to kick in? And how likely is it that we can transition to a regulated ecosystem without some pain to retail investors? We seek to answer these questions and more in this episode. Guest: Vivek Kaul, business journalist and author who has written extensively on the recent crypto-currency boom in India Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

On November 2, Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai shared a post on micro-blogging site Weibo accusing a senior Communist party leader, Zhang Gaoli, of sexual assault. The post was immediately censored, and there has been no news about Peng Shuai since then. Peng, who was ranked world number 1 in doubles in 2014, is a big star in China. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and several tennis stalwarts, from Chris Evert to Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka, have expressed concerns about Peng’s whereabouts and safety. They have also called on Chinese authorities to investigate her allegations. But in a strange twist, on Wednesday, Chinese state media shared an email purportedly written by Peng Shuai to WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon, in which she says that the allegations of attributed to her are not true and that she was just “resting at home and everything is fine.” Simon, in response, has questioned the authenticity of this email, and said that “Peng Shuai must be allowed to speak freely, without coercion or intimidation from any source.” It is not often that senior Party members face public accusations of sexual wrongdoing. So, who is likely to face repercussions over these allegations – is it going to be Peng herself, for going public about a Party official, or will it be Zhang Gaoli, for causing embarrassment to the Party? And where does the Chinese Communist Party stand with regard to feminist politics and the #MeToo movement? We look for answers to these questions in this episode. Guest: Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu’s China correspondent. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

The issue of prohibition has always been a contentious one in India. Five years ago, the state of Bihar imposed total prohibition – a policy that reportedly got Chief Minister Nitish Kumar votes from women electors. Reports of illicit liquor deaths have been coming in regularly from Bihar since the prohibition policy was imposed. Around Diwali, as many as 40 persons died from drinking illicit liquor in the districts of Samastipur, Gopalganj and West Champaran. Should there be a total ban on liquor? Do bans help or turn people to drinking more dangerous forms of liquor? When the world is moving towards legalizing drugs like marijuana, why are Indian states banning the sale of liquor? Guest: Nikhil Dey, founder member of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan and the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

The rise of China is a global reality that has upset many international calculations. To understand the growing Chinese footprint, it’s important to understand the internal dynamics of the Chinese Communist Party.  The Hindu’s China Correspondent Ananth Krishnan has been reporting on the passage of what has been called “Resolution on the Major Achievements of the Party over the Past Century” by the sixth plenum, or closed-door meeting, of the Party’s Central Committee.  The resolution elevates the country’s current president and general secretary Xi Jinping to the status of Mao Zedong and reformer Deng Xiaoping. The writing on the wall also suggests that Mr. Xi will have a third term as President and party leader unlike his immediate predecessors Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin.  We talk about what these changes mean for the functioning of the party and the country in this episode.  Guest: Ananth Krishnan, China Correspondent, The Hindu  Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu 

After the Taliban took over Afghanistan by force earlier this year, India, like many other countries, was forced to deal with the new realities in the country. The change was emphasized by India hosting as many as seven regional national security officials from around Afghanistan on November 10. Pakistan and China were conspicuous by their absence.  India’s influence in Afghanistan has clearly waned after the Taliban took over. Is the regional route the best route to keep itself relevant in Afghan affairs for India? Are there any other options besides engaging the Taliban? How does this sit with the deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan?  We discuss these issues in this episode. Guest: T C A Raghavan, former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan and Joint Secretary who dealt with Afghanistan.  Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu 

Ethiopia is in the middle of a civil war. In November 2020, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, ordered what seemed like a limited military operation in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. It was expected to be a quick, low-key war. But the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), an ethno-nationalist paramilitary group-cum-political party, managed to turn the tables on federal forces. It has now taken two key cities on the highway to the national capital, and is threatening to capture the national capital, Addis Ababa. Prime Minister Ahmed has called upon all civilians to sign up for military training and join the fight against the Tigrayan rebels. In the meantime, hundreds of civilians have died, thousands injured, and there is a food and communications blockade against the Tigray region, including its capital Mekelle, which is home to half a million people. There have also been reports of massacres and rapes by security forces. What exactly triggered this conflict? How did a Nobel Peace prize-winning Prime Minister end up leading his country into war? With neither side keen on talks just yet, what is the likely roadmap to a lasting peace? We look for answers in this episode. Guest: Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s International Affairs Editor Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

Even as India is recovering from its battering by COVID-19, there has been a significant rise in cases of another viral disease: dengue. States across the country are seeing a spurt in cases of the disease, transmitted by the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito, and several are witnessing multiple deaths, even as hospitals fill up rapidly. As per government statistics, there have been 60,112 cases of dengue recorded in the country as of September this year, an increase from the 44,585 recorded for all of last year.  Director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research, Dr Balram Bharagava, said last month that a majority of the deaths in parts of Uttar Pradesh were due to the D2 strain of dengue, which can cause haemorrhaging that can be fatal. On Monday, November 1, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya chaired a review meeting to take stock of the dengue situation across the country, and said expert teams were being sent to States that had seen an increase in cases. Why has India had such bad dengue season this year? Is it linked to the delayed withdrawal of the southwest monsoon and the floods that many parts of the country experienced? Are the dengue statistics accurate or is there under-reporting and how do you tell if your symptoms are of dengue or COVID-19? We discuss these and more in this episode. Guest: Dr Subramanian Swaminathan, Director, Infectious Diseases, Gleneagles Global Hospital, Chennai Host: Zubeda Hamid

Facebook has had its share of problems over the years, from privacy issues to data leaks to fake news. Now, internal documents made public by former Facebook employee Francis Haugen show that these problems may have been more systematic. They suggest that Facebook may have been aware of the problems that it was causing while doing little about it. Reporting on these internal documents, the New York Times said that in India, Facebook was facing an amplified version of its problems with misinformation and hate speech but allocated very little resources to deal with it. So what are the wider issues that these papers raise? What is the answer to the problems that Facebook causes, considering the outsize influence it has? We discuss these and more in this episode. Guest: Mishi Choudhary, founder and Legal director of the Software Freedom Law Centre Host: P.J. George

With Punjab just a few months away from assembly polls, former Congressman Captain Amarinder Singh has announced that is launching launching a new party. When the Captain was unceremoniously replaced as Punjab CM by Charanjit Singh Channi in September, people expected that he would make the Congress pay. This week, he made his intentions clear with two statements: that a large number of Punjab Congressmen are set to join his party, and that he will work out a seat-sharing arrangement with the BJP. What kind of challenge would Amarinder’s party pose to the Congress, and to the other contenders – the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Akali Dal? And has the Captain’s exit resolved the internal strife within Punjab Congress? We explore these questions in this episode. Guest: Amandeep Sandhu, author of Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines (2019) Host: G Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

The 26th Conference of parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), or CoP 26 as it is popularly called was held a few days ago in Glasgow, Scotland. At the summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India will aim to attain net zero emissions by 2070. He also announced that India will draw 50% of its consumed energy from renewable sources by 2030, and cut its carbon emissions by a billion tonnes by the same year. This announcement of a net zero date by India is considered a surprise move by many. What exactly is net zero and why is it important? What has been India's stance on it so far, and what does the new announcement by PM Modi mean? We discuss these in this episode. Guest: Jacob Koshy, The Hindu's Deputy Science Editor Host: P.J. George

After presenting a picture of being on the same page for a considerable length of time, the appointment of a new chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, Directorate, created a very public void between Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. It appears that the appointment of a new chief was as important as the shunting out of the old one, Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed, after his very public statements to the press in Kabul days after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Though Imran Khan finally approved the appointment of Lt. Gen. Anjum on October 27, many Pakistani analysts believe that there could be more to come in the ongoing saga of civil-military relations in Pakistan. We discuss this issue in this episode. Guest: Rana Banerji, former IAS officer and retired Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

The Reserve Bank of India’s new norms and guidelines for recurring payments came into effect this month. One of them, for instance, lays down that banks should send a pre-debit notification to credit card holders 24 hours before an actual debit is done. There are other requirements as well with regard to the nature and duration of an e-mandate for recurring payments. What all this means is that, from October 1st, standing instructions with one’s payments provider may not work without some additional steps. This has already affected certain subscription services, including media and OTT subscriptions, and unless all merchants and banks are fully equipped to meet the new requirements, the disruptions would continue. So, what exactly are these new requirements for recurring transactions? What prompted the RBI to come up with them? How will they change the subscription economy going forward? And are there any privacy implications of these new norms? We explore these questions and more in this episode. Guest: Srikanth Lakshmanan of CashlessConsumer, a consumer collective that works on digital payments Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor The Hindu

German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz has started a new model of retail in India – what it calls ‘Retail of the Future (ROTF), under which it is now selling its cars directly to customers. Traditionally, a car-maker would sell cars to a dealer, and the dealer would then sell the car to the customer. Customers had the option of visiting different dealerships, comparing prices, and pitting one dealer against the dealer in a bid to get the best discount. But now, in this new model, they would have to purchase the cars directly from Mercedes-Benz. What is the business logic behind this new model of retail? How does it change things for the customer? How does it change the business for dealers? And most critically, is this something that will remain restricted to the luxury segment or, are we likely to see even mass market car-makers make the shift to selling the cars directly to customers? We explore all these questions in this episode. Guest: Puneet Gupta, Director of Automotive Sales Forecasting at IHS Markit Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

The new anti-viral drug brought out by Merck Pharmaceuticals, Molnupiravir, seems to be a promising development in the global fight against COVID-19. Early results from the phase-3 trial of the drug report that it halves the chances of hospitalisation in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19. It is also an oral medication -- it can be taken in pill form, unlike other anti-viral drugs that have to administered intravenously, usually in a hospital setting. Merck has now applied for emergency use authorisation for its drug in the United States. It has also, meanwhile, tied up with eight Indian drugmakers for the manufacture of molunupiravir. How does this drug work? Will it become a significant tool to combat COVID-19, which continues to kill people both in India and abroad? Will it accessible and easily available to those who need it? Guest:  Dr. Satyajit Rath, adjunct professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune Host: Zubeda Hamid

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court N.V. Ramana recently spoke of the need to ‘Indianise’ the justice system. He said that there were a lot of practices that have been carried over from the colonial period – including language practices, and lengthy, often technical judgments – that alienate the common man from the judiciary. He stressed that the justice system needs to minimise procedural barriers so that accessing justice becomes simpler. Coming from the highest justice officer of the country, his remarks naturally made the headlines. There is no doubt that India’s justice delivery systems need improvement, and any debate on what needs to change is most welcome. However, ‘Indianisation’ is an odd way of framing the reforms needed to make justice delivery more efficient. What exactly did the CJI mean by ‘Indianisation’? How useful is it as a conceptual frame for identifying reforms? And if we were to interpret ‘Indianisation’ as a synonym for ‘people-friendly’, what kind of changes should we aim for? We explore these questions and more in this episode. Guest: Arti Raghavan, an advocate who practices at the Bombay High Court. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu.

The world's first malaria vaccine is here. The World Health Organisation, earlier this month, endorsed RTS,S/AS01 or Mosquirix, developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative. The vaccine, which acts against P. falciparum, believed to be most deadly malaria parasite globally, took nearly 30 years to make. Malaria is an ancient disease -- it has been around for centuries, affecting populations around the world. Though many countries have been successful in eliminating the disease, which is caused by a parasite and transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito, it still continues to affect some countries in Africa and Asia. In 2019, there were an estimated 229 million cases of malaria, with 94% of the burden in the African region. About 67% of the deaths were of children under the age of 5. India, according to the WHO, recorded a significant decrease in its malaria burden, with cases declining from 20 million in the year 2000 to about 5.6 million in 2019. Deaths too, have decreased. But India still accounts for over 80 percent of all malaria cases in the SE Asia region. It also bears the largest burden of Plasmodium vivax in the world at 3.5 million cases a year -- a parasite for which a vaccine has not yet been found. How will the vaccine help combat malaria globally? How effective is it? Will other malaria control measures continue to be needed? Guest: Dr Daniel Chandramohan, professor of public health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Host: Zubeda Hamid

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021, published last week by Concern Worldwide, an Irish aid agency, and Welt Hunger Hilfe, a German non-profit, has ranked India at 101 out of 116 countries, in its assessment of how successful countries have been in combating hunger. Only 15 countries – many of them marked by violent strife – have performed worse than India. The government of India has been quick to dismiss this report as “devoid of ground reality and facts”. It has also questioned the methodology used by the GHI to assess the prevalence of hunger. The GHI researchers have defended their methodology, stating that it follows international norms. What exactly does the GHI report say about India? Are we in the midst of a major hunger crisis? How have the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change impacted hunger and nutrition levels in India? We explore these questions in detail in this episode. Guest: Reetika Khera, Associate Professor of Economics at IIT, Delhi. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

On October 8, the Centre announced that the struggling State airline, Air India, was being sold to the Tata group for Rs. 2,700 crore in cash and Rs. 15,300 crore in debt. Some analysts believe that the sale of Air India provides a major fillip to India’s privatisation programme. Will the Tatas be able to turn around Air India, especially when they have invested heavily in Vistara and Air Asia India? Are the terms of the sale such where employee interests will also be protected? We try to answer these questions in this episode. Guest: Probir Chandra Sen, former Chairman Air India and former Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Airlines. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s assertion that she is a full-time, hands-on chief executive at the party’s working committee meeting should silence the critics of the Gandhi family for the moment. She also asked dissidents to speak to her directly and not through the media. Will these unusually assertive comments after months of silence from Sonia Gandhi galvanise the party ahead of crucial elections, including to the all-critical Uttar Pradesh state assembly? Will the party be able to present a united front or will it remain a divided house? We discuss these developments within the Congress party in this episode. Guest: Sandeep Phukan, Deputy Editor, The Hindu Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

Earlier this week, on Thursday, Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida dissolved the lower house of Parliament, paving the way for general elections, which are scheduled for October 31. Japanese politics has been dominated by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for much of its post-war history. Under Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest serving Prime Minister who stepped down in September 2020, the LDP has moved further to the right. Abe’s successor, Yoshihide Suga, lasted just a year. His growing unpopularity meant that the party did not want to go to elections under his leadership. So he stepped down last month, making way for former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida to take over. Under Kishida, the LDP has built a sizeable lead in approval ratings, and the party is expected to win. But Kishida has some tough challenges facing him – while COVID-19 has still not gone away, the economy has been battered by the pandemic, and the rich-poor divide has grown sharper. Is it going to be an easy win for Kishida? And even if the LDP wins, will he enjoy a stable tenure? How will the new regime navigate the growing hostility between the US and China, given that China is one of Japan’s largest trading partners and a powerful neighbour as well? As the world’s third largest economy heads to the polling booth, we explore these questions in this episode. Guest: Stanly Johny, International Affairs Editor at The Hindu. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

With about 29% of India’s population fully vaccinated, the government’s Subject Expert Committee (SEC) has now recommended Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for children aged 2-18 years. This is the second vaccine in India to be cleared for children. Earlier, Zydus Cadilla’s vaccine got authorization for kids above 12. While the timeline for the supply of Covaxin for children is still unclear, its availability as an option has raised some critical questions: Is it really necessary to expose children to a vaccine authorised for emergency use, when it is evident that they only contract a mild infection and don’t face the threat of mortality? Secondly, is WHO clearance for Covaxin a mere formality or should it be a matter of concern that a vaccine that is yet to get WHO clearance for adults has already got approval for children in India? We explore these issues in this episode. Guest: Jacob Koshy, Deputy Science Editor at The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

Virat Kohli has announced that he will step down from T20 captaincy of the Indian team after the T20 World Cup in November. He is also stepping down as captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) after IPL 2021. Both the nature and the timing of these decisions have raised a lot of questions. For instance, wouldn’t it have been better to make these announcements after the T20 World Cup, or after the 2021 IPL was over? Were these decisions Kohli’s own or was he under pressure? Is this the beginning of the end of the fairly successful Kohli-Ravi Shastri partnership? What is the ‘road map’ for the future that the BCCI has been talking about in the context of Kohli’s decision? We look for answers to these and other questions in this episode. Guest: Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor (Sports) at The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

A Kashmiri Pandit chemist Mohan Lal Bindroo, a Sikh school principal Supinder Kaur and her Hindu colleague from Jammu have been killed in targeted attacks in Srinagar recently. A large number of Muslims too have been killed in such attacks, laid at the door of The Resistance Front, widely believed to be a front of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Many Hindus who stayed back after the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s are scared and have been advised by the authorities to stay inside their houses. An estimated 300 Pandits have left. This is possibly the most serious crisis in the Valley after the BJP Government at the Centre abrogated Article 370 and sliced the state of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories in 2019. In this podcast, we explore the current situation and the possible reasons behind it. Guest: Mohammed Sayeed Malik, veteran journalist Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

As early as this month, India may see the rollout of ZyCoV-D, the world's first DNA vaccine against COVID-19. Pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila has received Emergency Use Authorisation for this vaccine, which is also the first in the country to be approved for children above the age of 12. How do DNA vaccines work, and how are they different from the vaccines we have now -- Covishield and Covaxin? What sort of immunity will the DNA vaccine provide? Will the three-dose regimen pose a problem, logistically, in administering ZyCoV-D? Sero-surveys across the country have shown us that in the most populated of regions 70% of the population may have COVID-19 antibodies already -- what does this mean for children, and do they need to be necessarily vaccinated at this stage? Guest: Dr Gagandeep Kang, Professor of Microbiology at Christian Medical College, Vellore. Host: Zubeda Hamid

With four farmers being run over by SUVs that were part of a convoy of vehicles involving Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra on October 3 in Lakhimpur Kheri, and four others dying in the violence that followed, western Uttar Pradesh is waiting and watching to see what’s happening next. The matter has reached the Supreme Court. Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait brokered a deal that allowed for the cremation of the bodies and compensation to be paid. After detaining Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, the Adityanath government finally allowed her and brother Rahul Gandhi to visit the families of the dead. In this podcast, we did into what exactly happened in Lakhimpur Kheri on that fateful day. Guests: Omar Rashid, The Hindu’s correspondent in Lucknow; Priscilla Jebaraj covers agriculture or The Hindu and has extensively reported on the farmers’ agitation from Delhi. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

On September 15th, the Union Cabinet approved a series of reforms and relief measures for the telecom sector. The most significant of these is a four-year moratorium on payments stemming from the Supreme Court’s September 2020 judgement on Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR). Another one is the decision to remove all non-telecom revenue from AGR. The telecom sector is also now allowed to receive 100% FDI through the automatic route – up from the 49% that was permitted earlier. Taken together, these policy changes are expected to help the telecom majors overcome short-term liquidity issues, and raise capital, enabling them to keep their debts under control and invest in capacity-building. However, questions remain. What is the actual quantum of relief on offer? Will it be adequate for those players who are under a mountain of debt? And can the reforms package sustain a three-player market? We explore these questions in this episode. Guest: Ankit Jain, Assistant Vice President and Sector Head, Corporate Ratings, at ICRA Limited Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

In February this year, over 200 persons were killed and the 13.2 MW Rishiganga project was washed away. The 512 MW Tapovan-Vishnugadh hydro project was damaged. Even as Uttarakhand deals with the impact of climate change, the Environment Ministry has permitted the construction of seven hyro projects in Uttarakhand. What does this mean for the vulnerable Himalayan State? We answer these and other questions on the sustainability of hydro projects in this episode. Guest: Ravi Chopra, founder Director of the People’s Science Institute in Dehradun. A well-known environmentalist, Ravi is a graduate of IIT Bombay. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan set the cat among the pigeons on September 25 when he said people living along the tribal belt in his country had affinity with the Taliban not because of their religious identity but because of Pashtun nationalism. He claimed that Pakistani Pashtuns had affinities and sympathy with the Afghan Taliban. Mohsin Dawar, a member of Pakistan’s National Assembly from North Waziristan, responded in a tweet. Quote: “Just shocked at how the PM of Pakistan can describe Taliban as Pashtun nationalists. The Taliban is a project of Pakistan’s generals for decimating Pashtun nationalism”. Unquote. So what’s the reality? How true are Prime Minister Imran Khan’s claims made in his recent at the United Nations General Assembly? Guest: Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa, Research Associate at the SOAS South Asia Institute in London. A former member of Pakistan’s civil service, she is the author of “Military Inc. Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

The Indian women’s cricket team will be playing a pink-ball Test match starting Thursday against Australia in Queensland. This is a special occasion for the Indian women’s team as it will be their first ever Test under lights, and this is also only the second pink-ball Test in the history of women’s cricket. However, India’s women players have rarely gotten opportunities to play the long format of the game, unlike the men, who are in demand everywhere. This isn’t peculiar to India alone. Majority of cricket playing countries rarely or never organize women’s Tests. In this podcast, we explore why this is so. Guest: Karunya Keshav, independent journalist and co-author of "The Fire Burns Blue", a comprehensive history of women’s cricket in India Host: Kanishkaa Balachandiran

In this episode, we go deep into the crisis at Chinese real estate giant Evergrande and examine the reasons and fall-out. The property developer's debt woes have made headlines around the world, and sparked broader fears about the state of China's real estate market, which is a key driver of growth in the world's second largest economy. Will Chinese authorities be able to contain the Evergrande crisis? Are there likely wider ramifications for China's economy, as well as for countries, including India, which counts on China as its largest trading partner with a trading relationship predicated on continued Chinese appetite for commodities? What do the Evergrande crisis, as well as the moves to address the debt problem, tell us about Xi Jinping's broader goals for China's economy? We also discuss other significant recent regulatory moves by Chinese authorities taking aim at the private sector, from the investigations into the Alibaba group and Tencent, to the crackdown on the private education sector, to ask how Xi is remaking China's economy. Guest: Dexter Roberts, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Asia Security Initiative, author of "The Myth of Chinese Capitalism" Host: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu Episode Notes The Hindu Profiles, Evergrande | The 'grey rhino' of China's property boom

What can schools, colleges and policy-makers do to tackle this?Even as schools and colleges begin reopening across the country, teachers and educationists are faced not just with the academic challenges of educational institutions having remained shut for over a year, but mental health challenges as well. The lack of access to friend groups, the complete digital mode of learning and the various lockdowns have affected the mental health of our young people. Competitive exams have added to pressure and anxiety -- recently, Tamil Nadu saw a number of young students who died by suicide following the medical admission exam, NEET.India has the highest rate of suicide in SouthEast Asia, and in 2019 alone, over 8,000 children between the ages of 14 and 18 died of suicide as per National Crime Records Bureau data. Guest: Dr. Lakshmi Vijayakumar, founder, Sneha, a suicide prevention organisation based in Chennai Host: Zubeda Hamid

The Quad has met in person for the first time in Washington and Prime Minister Narendra Modi Modi has had his first bilateral meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden too. A detailed joint statement was issued after the Quad meeting that detailed cooperation on a range of issues, including tackling terrorism, Afghanistan and Myanmar, while talking of increasing cooperation with ASEAN. The “C” word – or China – was missing from the 17-para statement issued by the United States, India, Japan and China – but make no mistake it’s all about dealing with China. China has described the nascent Quad grouping as a “clique” and also hit out on the eve of the meeting at India for triggering the deadly June 2020 Galwan Valley clash. What is the direction that the Quad is taking and what is its relevance in the context of the new alliance in the Indo-Pacific that the U.S. has announced? Has the Quad cooperation been enhanced after the first in-person meetings of the national leaders? We answer these questions in this podcast. Guest: Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor and National Editor, The Hindu Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

Punjab was one of the States where the Congress was perceived to have a strong regional leader, with Capt Amarinder Singh leading the party to victory in the 2017 Assembly elections. But now he has been replaced before the end of his term. Charanjit Singh Channi, a Dalit Sikh MLA, has been sworn in as the new Chief Minister, with just a few months to go for the Assembly elections in early 2022. What prompted this vote of no-confidence, as it were, against Capt Amarinder Singh? Where does the choice of Channi leave Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was widely seen as a contender and alternative to Singh within the Congress party, in the scheme of things? And how does this change affect the party’s chances in the forthcoming elections. Guest: Amandeep Sandhu, author of Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines (2019), and two novels, Sepia Leaves (2008) and Roll of Honour (2012) Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

Hello In Focus listeners, today we are featuring an episode of another podcast from The Hindu, Worldview with Suhasini Haidar. In this episode, with both the SCO and Quad summit meetings within a week, our Diplomatic Affairs Editor Suhasini Haidar deals with the question: can India walk the non-aligned tightrope or is it attempting to put its foot in two boats? If you like this episode, do not forgot to subscribe to Worldview with Suhasini Haidar. You can follow the series on: Spotify Apple Podcasts Google Podcast YouTube

Days ahead of this week's upcoming first in-person meeting in Washington of the leaders of the Quad -- India, Australia, Japan and the U.S. -- Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. made a surprise announcement of a new landmark trilateral security partnership. Dubbed AUKUS, the initiative will see Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines with help from the U.K. and the U.S. The announcement is already making waves, drawing a strong reaction from France, which lost its submarine deal with Australia as a result, and responded by saying it would recall its ambassadors from Australia and the U.S. In this episode, we break down what the AUKUS deal is about, the implications for India and the Quad, and what it means for the broader evolving security environment in the Indo-Pacific region. We also look ahead to this week's Quad summit in Washington. Host: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu Guests: Suhasini Haidar, National Editor and Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu; Dinakar Peri, Defence Correspondent, The Hindu Episode Notes Suhasini Haidar, Five Main Issues On the Quad Agenda The Hindu editorial, Three is Company

On September 9, American automobile major Ford announced that it was shutting down manufacturing operations in India, leading to the loss of around 4,000 jobs. Ford is only the latest in a series of automobile companies who came to India with great expectations, but decided to leave in a few years. This runs counter to our government’s Make-in-India initiative, which aims to turn India into a preferred global destination for manufacturing. What exactly is ailing India’s automobile sector? Is there a mismatch between production capacity and consumer demand? Are there regulatory issues? Or are there other constraints that compel foreign auto majors to pull the plug on India, which, incidentally, is still one of the largest car markets in the world? Guest: Puneet Gupta, Director of Automotive Sales Forecasting at IHS Markit Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

What caused these tigers to change their stripes, and in such a short period of time? Is it the result of shrinking habitat and inbreeding? Does this make them more susceptible to extinction? We discuss these in this podcast.More than 50 years ago, when tribals in Similipal reported seeing tigers so dark, their stripes almost fused together in patches, threatening to erase parts of their orange coats, nobody believed them. Since then, there have been numerous sightings of pseudo-melanistic tigers--as they are called-- at Similipal Tiger Reserve, but we didn’t know what caused them to change their stripes. Until now.Scientists at the National Centre for Biological Studies, Bengaluru have unravelled the mystery of these ‘black tigers’ and their findings were published earlier this week in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Guests: Dr. Uma Ramakrishnan, molecular ecologist and professor at the National Centre for Biological Studies, Bengaluru; Vinay Sagar, PhD student and lead author of the paper. Host: Anjali Thomas, City Editor-Bengaluru, The Hindu

Pakistan is a key player in the politics of Afghanistan. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is seen as a strategic victory for Pakistan, one of the three countries that recognised the Islamic Emirate in 1997. How critical is Western recognition and aid for the survival of the Taliban and the Afghan people? Will Pakistan come under pressure from the rest of the world if the Taliban continue to exclude women and minorities from the governance structure? Will the Taliban continue its previous policy of sheltering the Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups? Or will they show a new face to the world? Guest: Shuja Nawaz, distinguished fellow at the South Asia Centre of the Washington-based Atlantic Council. Brother of former Pakistani Army Chief Asif Nawaz, and author of "Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army, and the Wars Within". Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

The BJP has changed chief ministers four times in three states, in just the last seven months. The latest change happened this week in Gujarat, with Vijay Rupani making way for Bhupendra Patel as CM. Before this, the BJP changed the Karnataka chief minister in July, and the Uttarakhand CM was changed twice, in March and again in July. Where the person occupying the CM post is a senior leader or a veteran who is popular and wields political clout in his region, it would presumably be tough to replace him/her mid-way through a term. But when CMs are changed at will, it is generally seen as symptomatic of a ‘high command’ culture, where a party’s national leadership calls the shots. Has the BJP, known for strong CMs in the past, fully embraced the high command culture – something traditionally associated with the Congress? If so, what are the real reasons behind the replacement of the CMs in these states? Guest: Varghese K George, Resident Editor - Delhi, The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

There's been a lot of talk of and concerns raised, about food fortification recently -- which is the adding of one or more nutrients to a staple food, aiming to compensate for deficiencies in large populations. In in his Independence Day speech this year, Prime Minister Modi said that all rice distributed in the government systems, including in the public distribution system and for midday meals, would be fortified by 2024. Considering the burden of anaemia in India, iron is to be one of the nutrients added to rice. The government has already launched a pilot programme in 15 districts, using fortified rice for distribution. But does all our rice need to be fortified? Is iron deficiency the only cause of anaemia? How big is our anaemia burden? And is there evidence to show that iron fortification will work, or are there other steps that policy-makers could try? Guest: Dr Anura Kurpad, professor of physiology and nutrition at St John’s Medical College, Bengaluru Host: Zubeda Hamid Write to us at [email protected]

The Sri Lankan government declared an economic emergency last week. The immediate trigger seems to have been rising food prices, with reports of shortages of essential items such as milk powder, sugar and kerosene. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has called in the army to manage the crisis by rationing the supply of essential goods, and take action against hoarders. He has also appointed a former army general as Commissioner of Essential Services, who will have the power to seize food stocks held by traders and retailers, and regulate their prices. So, how did Sri Lanka end up with a food crisis? And what exactly is ailing the Sri Lankan economy? Is it just the COVID-effect or is it something deeper? Guest: Meera Srinivasan, Sri Lanka correspondent, The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

Last month, the Union government announced that it would invest ₹11,000 crores under a centrally sponsored scheme, The National Mission on Edible Oils—Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), to promote oil palm cultivation. The stated objective of this scheme is to reduce India’s dependence on edible oil imports by boosting domestic production of oil palm. Many, however, have expressed concerns over this push for oil palm cultivation, especially in bio-diversity hotspots such as the Andamans and the North-east. Critics have claimed that the monoculture of commercial oil palm plantations would destroy bio-diversity as well as the livelihood autonomy of farmers. How valid are these fears and what are the likely outcomes of the government’s ambitious plans to boost oil palm production? Guest: Sudhir Kumar Suthar, Assistant Professor at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

After a gap of more than a year, the Nipah virus is back in Kerala. After a 12-year-old boy died of the infection in Kozhikode district, 11 more people have shown Nipah symptoms. A team from the National Centre for Disease Control has been rushed to the State to help manage the outbreak. Kerala is already caught in a tough battle against COVID-19, with the state still accounting for almost half of all new infections in the country. In this scenario, the outbreak of one more deadly viral infection has everyone worried. Also, this is the third outbreak of Nipah in Kerala, with the state having encountered the virus in 2018 and 2019. So, how serious is the current outbreak? How prepared is Kerala to handle it? Will the outbreak remain localised, or is it likely to spread further? Guest: Jacob Koshy, Deputy Science Editor at The Hindu. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

The COVID-19 pandemic caused not only a health emergency in the country, but also led to mass economic distress with the loss of jobs and livelihoods. India already one of the lowest rates of women in the workforce, and the pandemic worsened this situation -- it forced women into jobs that paid lower rates than pre-pandemic and it added significantly to their domestic work burden -- with schools remaining closed, women were forced to stay at home to care for children. In the April-June 2020 quarter, during the lockdown, the percentage of women in the labour force was only 15.5%. But this problem has persisted for years -- despite increasing educational levels among women and decreasing fertility levels, India continues to have not as many women in the workforce as even our neighbouring countries. What are some of the reasons behind this? How is a country's economy impacted when 50% of its population is left out of economic activity? How can policies be changed in order to encourage more women into the workforce? Guest: Sona Mitra, principal economist, Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy, lead, Krea University Host: Zubeda Hamid Write to us at [email protected]

Just a few weeks ago, we were celebrating India’s best ever medals tally at the Tokyo Olympics. And now India has produced its best performance ever at this year’s Paralympics. We have already bagged 10 medals, with two gold, five silver and three bronze. This has generated a lot of curiosity, both about these successful para-athletes and about the Paralympics itself. For para-athletes, the rules and requirements of competition, as well as the challenges, are different from what they are for the able-bodied. They come under the spotlight whenever the Paralympics are held but are mostly forgotten in the intervening years. Will the Indian contingent’s superlative achievements at the Tokyo Paralympics change this pattern? Guest: Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor (Sports), The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

The United States has literally fled Afghanistan. Other Western nations, most of them part of the G-7 had wanted an extension beyond August 31 so that repatriation flights could continue, but U.S. President Joe Biden put his foot down. What will be the international status of Afghanistan now? Who will represent the country in the U.N.? What are the options of the international body while dealing with the Taliban? How will the U.S. deal with the Taliban? Will Russia and China have a better grip on the Taliban than the western powers? Guest: Syed Akbaruddin, formerly India’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations in New York and currently Dean of the Kautilya School of Public Policy in Hyderabad. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

The price of petrol is more than ₹100 per litre in several parts of the country – the highest it’s ever been. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has blamed the UPA-era oil bonds for the high fuel prices. She has claimed that the ₹1.4 lakh crores worth of oil bonds issued by the UPA government have to be serviced, and that’s why the government has had to tax fuel at high rates. Opposition parties have, of course, disputed her claims. So, what exactly is the truth about oil bonds, and how credible is the government’s claim that oil bonds are to blame for the high fuel prices? Guest: Vivek Kaul, business columnist and author of five books, including the bestselling Easy Money trilogy Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

Afghanistan continues to hog the headlines. Nearly two weeks after the Taliban drove into Kabul, and former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, the world is still debating whether the Taliban have turned a new leaf. As analysts, experts and journalists try to figure out the Taliban’s intentions, wait and watch appears to be the default mode. Will the Taliban actually allow women and girls to work and study? Will music be allowed? Will there be elections? Or will there just be a soft veneer hiding the very same iron fist that we saw during the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001? Guest: Michael Semple, Professor at The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen's University in Belfast. He has worked as deputy to the European Union Special Representative in Afghanistan. He also served as an honorary adviser to the Afghan High Peace Council. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

Earlier this month, the Union Education Ministry told a parliamentary panel that the plan to serve breakfast to students in government schools had to be shelved as the Finance Ministry had refused to sanction the Rs. 4,000 crore the programme needs. The refusal comes at a time when the country is facing a malnutrition crisis -- data from the latest National Family Health Survey shows an increase in stunting, in 13 of the 22 States and Union Territories that were covered. As this was 2019 data, experts believe that food insecurity during the pandemic could have worsened, especially with the immense disruption in services such as the mid-day meals, as well as due to economic distress. Where does India stand on addressing malnutrition? Have government schemes such as the flagship programme to address malnutrition, POSHAN Abhiyaan, worked? What have been the efforts made during the pandemic, and what more needs to be done to address a problem that not only affects children, but has long-lasting consequences upon the health and wellbeing of the nation? Guest: Dr. Dipa Sinha, assistant professor, School of Liberal Studies, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Delhi Host: Zubeda Hamid Write to us at [email protected]

Since good health is both a pre-condition and an outcome of sporting activity, is there a case to be made for linking sports policy to public health? Can this be done in a way that makes commercial sense as well? And most critically, does it make sense for a nation like India, with limited means but high Olympic ambitions, to concentrate public money on elite sports and success in elite competitions? Or should it focus more on building a sporting culture as such, by boosting community participation in sports and ‘physical literacy’, as we have seen in sporting nations such as Australia, which also tend to do better in elite events such as the Olympics? Guest: Hans Westerbeek, Professor of International Sport Business and Head of the Sport Business Insights Group at Victoria University, Melbourne. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

The return of the Taliban and the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan has raised a lot of new questions. We’ve discussed some of them in different InFocus podcasts over the past week. We’ve looked at why the Afghan army almost melted away, what the Taliban’s likely course of action is going to be, what are India’s options in Afghanistan now, especially the nature of the relationship with a Taliban-controlled regime. One of the things we haven’t covered so far is the geo-political ramifications of the American withdrawal. The exit of a superpower is bound to create a power vacuum that the other big powers in the region, most notably Russia and China, and regional powers such as Iran and Pakistan, would be scrambling to fill. And each of them has their own set of priorities. It’s a rather complicated strategic scenario. We unpack the web of macro-level geo-political issues linked to the U.S.’s withdrawal from Kabul in this podcast. Guest: Stanly Johny, International Affairs Editor, The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

In the wake of the Taliban takeover and U.S. exit, attention has focused on what role China is likely to play in Afghanistan. Beijing was among the first countries to say it "stands ready" to work with the new Taliban regime, while in late July, China hosted a Taliban delegation committing economic cooperation. What will China's game plan be? Will Beijing remain cautious or step up its presence, particularly in the economic domain? What of China's long-standing concerns of the Taliban's links to Jihadist groups, including those blamed for attacks in China's Xinjiang region, which borders Afghanistan? Will the new situation in Afghanistan see a deepening China-Pakistan nexus, and what will be the implications for India? Guest: Andrew Small, Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund and author of "The China Pakistan Axis" Host: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

The Parliament cleared the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021 on August 11th. The Bill seeks to amend the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act, 1972, and thereby enable the privatisation of the public sector insurance companies regulated under the 1972 Act. Apart from privatization, the Bill’s stated objectives include enhancing the penetration of the insurance sector, providing social protection by securing the interests of the policyholders better, and contributing to faster economic growth. It is not quite clear how this Bill would manage to achieve all these objectives. Also, is the Bill driven purely by an impulse to generate funds through disinvestment, or does it also further consumer interest? Guest: Harsh Roongta, founder and head of Fee Only Investment Advisers, LLP, a SEBI-registered Investment Advisory firm. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

With events moving so fast in Afghanistan, officials and analysts have all been caught napping. The Taliban took their first provincial capital on August 6 and by August 15 they had taken over Kabul. Why did the Afghan Army, which the Americans had spent billions of dollars on, disappear without a resistance in this period? The UN has said that the Taliban will have to shed its terror links. But will the Taliban do that? What is Pakistan's role now? And what should India's strategy be now? Guest: Jayant Prasad, former Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan and Nepal, and Director of the Manohar Parikkar Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

The fall of Kabul and the Taliban's rapid takeover has plunged Afghanistan into uncertainty. In this episode, we look at the return of the Taliban and what it means for the country, for India, and for the region. How did Kabul fall so rapidly? Is Afghanistan set to return to the dark days of the late 1990s? What will the Taliban's links to jihadist groups mean for the region's security? What does the dramatically changed landscape mean for India's relations with Afghanistan and for its broader neighbourhood? Guests: Suhasini Haidar, National Editor and Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu; Stanly Johny, Foreign Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu Episode Notes Analysis | How Kabul fell by Stanly Johny Taliban takeover: 5 issues facing the Modi government by Suhasini Haidar Write to us at [email protected]

As of August 16, 8.8 % of India's population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 30.9% has received at least one dose. Earlier this month, the country saw a huge achievement in coverage -- the 50-crore mark in vaccine doses administered was reached. But as India continues to report over 30,000 new cases a day, and concerns mount about the Delta variant in other parts of the world, how much faster does our vaccination campaign need to be? Can we meet the government's estimated deadline of covering all beneficiaries over the age of 18 by December 2021, and do we have enough supply to meet this target? Can our two main vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin be mixed for better results? And what is the latest on that tricky subject, herd immunity? Guest: Dr. K Srinath Reddy, president, Public Health Foundation of India Host: Zubeda Hamid Write to us at [email protected]

The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2021 amends the Constitution to allow states and union territories to prepare their own list of socially and educationally backward classes. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 9, 2021 and passed unanimously by the Lower House of Parliament on August 10. It was passed with cross-party support in the Rajya Sabha on August 11. The 127th Amendment Bill restores the system prior to the Supreme Court judgment of May 2021. The "state list" will be completely taken out of the ambit of the President and will be notified by the State Assembly as per the proposed Bill. The passage of the Bill meets the demands of regional parties that have sought autonomy in determining their own list of socially and economically backward classes. In this podcast, we discuss what this means for the OBC communities across the country, and how it will affect social justice as well as caste politics. Guest: Prof Badri Narayan, Director and Professor, Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

On August 9, Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked India’s stint as a rotating president of the UN Security Council for the month of August by presiding over an open debate on enhancing maritime security. In this episode, we look at the significance and main takeaways, and India's message on maritime security. We also examine India's broader agenda at the UNSC under its Presidency, from terrorism to peacekeeping, and ask what the status of the long pending reform to expand the UNSC's permanent members is. Episode notes: PM Modi outlines five-point framework for maritime security debate at UNSC Biden administration non-committal on support for permanent UNSC seat for India Guest: Sriram Lakshman, U.S. correspondent, The Hindu Host: Ananth Krishnan, China Correspondent, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

The Tokyo Olympics is finally done and dusted. The Indian contingent has come back with its best ever Olympic haul – of one gold, two silver and four bronze medals. This edition of the Games has been historic for India not only for its highest ever medals tally but also for its first ever track and field gold. While these are great positives, there have also been near-misses, and some disappointments. We take a step back from the celebrations to take a dispassionate look at two aspects: Did our athletes perform to their potential? And does the performance at the Tokyo Olympics herald something new for Indian sport? Guest: Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor, Sports at The Hindu. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

The Tribunals Reforms Bill, 2021 was passed in the Lok Sabha on August 3. Once it comes becomes law, it will replace the Tribunals Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2021. The Bill, among other things, seeks to abolish several appellate tribunals, ranging from the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal and the Airports Appellate Tribunal to the Authority for Advanced Rulings, Intellectual Property Appellate Board, and the Plant Varieties Appellate Tribunal. The Bill also introduces changes in the terms of service of the officials serving in tribunals. There was hardly any discussion in Parliament before the Bill was passed. But some key questions merit a proper debate: What was the need for this Bill? Will the abolition of tribunals increase the workload of the judiciary? How will the Bill impact our tribunals’ independence from executive influence? Guest: Prachee Mishra, Head of Research at PRS Legislative Research, a New Delhi-based independent research non-profit. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

Host: Zubeda HamidSince March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic first struck India, a majority of our health resources have been allocated towards battling the virus. The country went through a first wave last year with an intense lockdown in place and faced a brutal second wave this year. But while we needed all available healthcare systems to fight COVID-19, what has happened to patients with other diseases who were in need of frequent care? Some studies from last year indicated a decrease in the number of surgeries and patient consultations at hospitals, affecting patients with cancer, those with kidney disease who require dialysis as well as those with a host of other conditions. Lack of transport options during the various lockdowns in States, fear of contracting the virus and the loss of incomes may all have contributed to fewer patients seeking care. Some children missed out on important, routine vaccinations though the government has made efforts to ensure that missed children get their doses. Since it looks as if COVID-19 may be with us for some time more, what can governments do, moving forward, in order to ensure healthcare services do not suffer? Do we need better primary health systems in our country, and what are the steps that can be taken to achieve this? Guest: Dr. Rajib Dasgupta, Professor at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Host: Zubeda Hamid Write to us: [email protected]

Flood devastation is mostly associated with developing countries in tropical zones. But over the past fortnight, some of the world’s richest and technologically most advanced countries with sophisticated flood alert systems were devastated by flash floods. Nearly 200 people have died in floods in Germany and Belgium. There have been similar reports of flood devastation from Henan province in China, from London, and Maharashtra, where it’s almost an annual feature. Do these geographically disparate natural disasters have something in common? Are they all linked to climate change? And if they are, what are the most feasible mitigation measures? Guest: G Ananthakrishnan, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Write to us: [email protected]

Guest: Anurag Behar, CEO, Azim Premji Foundation Earlier this month, the Indian Council of Medical Research's director general, Dr Balram Bhargava, said that once the country begins to consider re-opening schools, it would be wise to open primary schools before secondary schools, provided all school teachers and staff were vaccinated. A vast majority of schools in India have been shut for over 15 months now, since March 2020, affecting 24 crore students. Various states have opened temporarily for senior classes, sometimes only to shut again when COVID-19 cases rose. Online classes have been around as a substitute, but with less than 25 percent of Indian households having access to the internet as per the National Sample Survey 2017-18, how far can digital learning go? Have our students lost a year of learning and are they potentially going to forget what they learnt before the pandemic struck? Does India need a roadmap for the reopening of schools and how can it do so safely? Guest: Anurag Behar, CEO, Azim Premji Foundation Host: Zubeda Hamid Write to us: [email protected]

We are now past the halfway point of the Tokyo Olympics, which is a good time to pause and take stock. India started off well, with an early silver for Mirabai Chanu in weightlifting. But there were several disappointments thereafter, especially in shooting, and in boxing as well. In the run-up to the Games, many in India believed that this would be India’s best Olympics ever in terms of medal haul. Our most successful Games so far, purely in terms of the number of medals won, was the 2012 London Olympics, when we came back with six medals, two silver and four bronze. So, at the halfway mark of the Tokyo Games, how do we stand in terms of beating, or at least matching, that record? In this podcast, we get some answers as well as the reasons for the underwhelming results the past week. Guest: Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor (Sports), The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

Basavaraj Bommai became Karnataka’s 30th Chief Minister of Karnataka on July 28. He went from being Home Minister in the Cabinet of B.S. Yediyurappa to displacing him as the Chief Minister in a matter of 48 hours. Several reasons have been trotted out as to why BJP felt the need to replace Yediyurappa – his age, the fact that dissidence against him was on the rise within the party, and that corruption allegations had made him vulnerable. But while all these may have played a role they do not, in themselves, provide a convincing explanation as to why Yediyurappa’s departure was in the party’s best interests. So, what explains the departure of the BJP’s tallest leader in the State in the middle of his term as Chief Minister? What are the implications of the choice of Basavaraj Bommai as Yediyurappa’s successor? And will Yediyurappa fade away into retirement or continue to play a role in active politics? Guest: K.V. Aditya Bharadwaj Host G. Sampath

On Wednesday, July 28, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited India and held key meetings with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, NSA Ajit Doval, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as representatives of civil society organisations. In this episode, we look at the main takeaways of the visit and ask where India U.S. relations are headed as they deal with shared concerns on Afghanistan and China among other issues. We also ask how the Biden administration's strong emphasis on promoting democratic values abroad figured during the visit, and how New Delhi views its approach to democracy and the contrast from the previous Trump era. Guest: Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu Host: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu Read more:  https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/antony-blinken-holds-talks-with-nsa-ajit-doval-meets-civil-society-representatives/article35577671.ece https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/indian-democracy-is-powered-by-its-freethinking-citizens-blinken/article35583397.ece

There has been considerable debate over the Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2021, which is likely to be introduced in the ongoing monsoon session of the Parliament. The objective of the Bill is “to prevent and counter trafficking in persons, especially women and children, to provide for care, protection, and rehabilitation to the victims, while respecting their rights, and creating a supportive legal, economic and social environment for them, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has said. The National Investigation Agency, a counter-terrorism agency, has been made the nodal investigative agency for trafficking crimes. The Bill also states that the consent of the victim could be immaterial, leading to concerns that it would criminalise. Other concerns raised include draconian penal provisions, including death for some offences, and a heavy-handed approach that does not adequately address the root cause of trafficking -- poverty. Guest: Kaushik Gupta, an advocate practicing in Kolkata who heads a team of lawyers from West Bengal and Maharashtra, at the anti-trafficking collective Tafteesh. Host: Zubeda Hamid

In this episode, we are examining the rise of what's being called China's wolf warrior Diplomacy, referring to an increasingly assertive brand of fiery diplomacy from many of Beijing's diplomats and foreign envoys. What exactly is wolf warrior diplomacy? Is this new diplomacy a change in merely style, or also a change in substance? What does history tell us about how domestic political trends in China shape Beijing's external behaviour? What do these changes mean for countries like India and their relations with China? Guest: Peter Martin, journalist and author of China's Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy. Host: Ananth Krishnan, China Correspondent, The Hindu

With the Tokyo Olympics finally kicking off this week, one year late, there is both excitement as well as uncertainty around the event. Tokyo is still under a COVID emergency, and there are many who worry that the Olympics shouldn’t become a public health catastrophe. In Japan itself, public opinion is sharply divided. In fact, one of the biggest Olympic sponsors, Toyota, has said that they won’t be running TV ads in Japan – which is one indicator of the public mood about the Games. But despite the misgivings around the pandemic, the show is set to go on, and in India, there is already plenty of buzz about medal prospects. We try and get a sense of what’s in store in the coming weeks in Japan, both within the sporting arena and beyond. Guest: Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor, Sports, The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

During the recent Cabinet reshuffle, the government announced the creation of a Ministry of Cooperation. The Ministry’s mandate, the government says, “is to provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the co-operative movement in the country”. Opposition parties have called it an attempt by the Centre to take over a a domain that comes under the State governments. Critics have also read political significance into the fact that this ministry is being headed by Home Minister Amit Shah. So, why do we need a Ministry of Cooperation, and how will it impact the vast universe of India’s co-operatives? Guest: Professor C. Shambu Prasad, Institute of Rural Management, Anand Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

An international group of news publications are reporting that a spyware known as Pegasus has been used to spy on politicians, journalists, and activists in at least 10 countries. Reports from the group, which includes The Wire in India, The Guardian in the U.K., and Washington Post in the U.S. among others, suggest that in India, at least 40 journalists, sitting Cabinet Ministers, and holders of Constitutional positions were possibly subjected to surveillance. The Pegasus spyware is graded as a cyberweapon and NSO states that its clients include only authorised government entities from various countries. This leads to some problematic inferences, particularly in India where the target list includes Opposition leaders, social activists from leftist organisation, journalists who have written against the government and constitutional officers who have reportedly not toed the government line. In this podcast, we discuss the constitutionality of electronic surveillance in India and whether the laws that govern them are robust enough. Guest: Apar Gupta, lawyer and Executive Director of the Internet Freedom Foundation. Host: P.J. George