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 br...
Jun 13, 2023•32 min
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? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...
Jun 12, 2023•25 min
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 chee...
Jun 09, 2023•28 min
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...
Jun 08, 2023•32 min
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 no...
Jun 07, 2023•32 min
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 mil...
Jun 05, 2023•31 min
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 mil...
Jun 02, 2023•26 min
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...
May 30, 2023•26 min
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, pri...
May 29, 2023•37 min
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 wo...
May 26, 2023•34 min
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 ...
May 25, 2023•30 min
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 ...
May 24, 2023•34 min
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 re...
May 23, 2023•22 min
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...
May 22, 2023•27 min
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, ...
May 18, 2023•30 min
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? A...
May 16, 2023•40 min
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...
May 15, 2023•1 hr 9 min
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...
May 12, 2023•33 min
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 ...
May 11, 2023•27 min
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 ...
May 10, 2023•35 min
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 “com...
May 09, 2023•22 min
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 re...
May 08, 2023•27 min
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 ...
May 04, 2023•36 min
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 medi...
May 02, 2023•34 min
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, spark...
Apr 28, 2023•32 min
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 p...
Apr 27, 2023•27 min
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 infrast...
Apr 25, 2023•33 min
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 & Kashmi...
Apr 24, 2023•33 min
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 wit...
Apr 21, 2023•30 min
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 d...
Apr 20, 2023•38 min
