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 w...
Oct 20, 2023•34 min
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? ...
Oct 19, 2023•29 min
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 ...
Oct 18, 2023•28 min
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 ...
Oct 16, 2023•26 min
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...
Oct 13, 2023•36 min
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 a...
Oct 11, 2023•49 min
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 o...
Oct 10, 2023•44 min
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 punis...
Oct 09, 2023•39 min
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 culti...
Oct 06, 2023•29 min
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 alongsid...
Oct 05, 2023•34 min
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?...
Oct 04, 2023•31 min
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 tea...
Sep 29, 2023•35 min
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 o...
Sep 28, 2023•19 min
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. Learn more about your ad c...
Sep 27, 2023•18 min
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 t...
Sep 22, 2023•35 min
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 ev...
Sep 20, 2023•24 min
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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 18, 2023•16 min
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 infe...
Sep 15, 2023•25 min
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 ra...
Sep 14, 2023•26 min
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 nati...
Sep 13, 2023•27 min
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...
Sep 12, 2023•23 min
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 ...
Sep 11, 2023•38 min
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 the...
Sep 08, 2023•32 min
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 a...
Sep 07, 2023•24 min
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 s...
Sep 04, 2023•32 min
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 conce...
Aug 30, 2023•29 min
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 particu...
Aug 29, 2023•32 min
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 perfo...
Aug 25, 2023•29 min
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 ...
Aug 22, 2023•27 min
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 fo...
Aug 18, 2023•22 min
