The growing popularity of gaming platforms like Dream11 and Paytm First Games raise questions about whether they are proxies for online gambling as they can involve financial transactions though are currently classified as ‘games of skill’. We discuss the current legal position in India on games of skill versus games of chance, the size of the gambling industry, and issues of regulation. Guests: Vidushpat Singhania , Managing Partner of Krida Legal and specialises in sports and gaming laws; Jay ...
Oct 02, 2020•44 min
Three farm Bills — the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill (commonly referred to as the APMC Bypass Bill), and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill — were cleared by Parliament amid protests from the Opposition. We discuss the implications of the controversial Bills . Guests: Arindam Banerjee , Associate Professor at the School of Liberal Studies at Ambedkar Unive...
Sep 25, 2020•51 min
As India faces China’s challenge over the ground situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), we discuss whether a maritime coalition in the Indo-Pacific, the Quadrilateral , comprising India, the U.S., Japan and Australia, an effective counter? Guests: Tanvi Madan , director of The India Project at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and author of Fateful Triangle: How China Shaped U.S.-India Relations during the Cold War ; Ashok Kantha, director of the Institute of Chinese Studies...
Sep 18, 2020•31 min
On Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) under which “every Indian will get a Health ID card.” He said: “Every time you visit a doctor or a pharmacy, everything will be logged in this card.” The NDMH seeks to create an ecosystem under which health records will be digitised. The government has clarified that this would be voluntary, data will be stored locally, and only anonymised data will be shared upwards. We discuss w...
Sep 11, 2020•39 min
In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the government will soon take a decision on the age of marriage of women. Earlier, a task force had been formed to consider raising this from 18 years to 21. Guests: Jayna Kothari, Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Policy Research and Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court. Madhu Mehra, Executive Director of Partners for Law in Development India, and co-founder of the National Coalition for Advocating for Adoles...
Sep 04, 2020•59 min
Zomato, one of India's largest food delivery firms, has announced a new paid menstrual leave policy for its employees, 35% of whom are women. While this is not the first time that a company is announcing such a policy, it has triggered a sharp debate among women themselves on whether this is a progressive move, mere tokenism, or a regressive move. Guests Barkha Dutt, senior journalist and Editor of Mojo. Kavita Krishnan, CPI (ML) Politburo member and All India Progressive Women’s Association sec...
Aug 21, 2020•22 min
The world is still struggling to come to terms with the unprecedented impact that COVID-19 has had on every aspect of human life. The pandemic has forced cities and towns to go into lockdowns. The attendant side effects — including the rather sudden withdrawal of certain social support services — have affected large groups of people. For a good proportion of the working population, working from home is not an option and they have been summoned to their workplaces. And, the usual structures that ...
Aug 14, 2020•44 min
The new National Education Policy (NEP), approved by the Union Cabinet last week, seeks to align itself with the Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education for all in the next 20 years. The policy has brought into its ambit children in the age group of 3 to 18 years. There are concerns that the policy abandons the state’s commitments under the RTE Act. Additional Reading: The Hindu Explains | What has the National Education Policy 2020 proposed? Guests : L...
Aug 07, 2020•33 min
Following years of breathtaking subscriber growth, tele-density is showing signs of strain. Some telecom players are facing an existential crisis due to brutal competition and the government demanding unpaid dues. At the same time, investors of different hues are lining up to invest in the space, signalling a belief that the industry still holds prospects of juicy returns. In a conversation moderated by K. Bharat Kumar , former Chairman and Managing Director of VSNL B.K. Syngal and International...
Jul 31, 2020•1 hr 6 min
The Ministry of Human Resources Development’s insistence, based on new University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines, that final year examination in all universities and institutions be held in spite of the risk posed by COVID-19, has also led to a debate on open-book examinations. Do open book examinations offer a way out of the student evaluation crisis thrown up by the pandemic? Guests: Yoginder K. Alagh, former Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University Ramakrishna Ramaswamy, Visiting Pr...
Jul 24, 2020•50 min
Two Congress leaders discuss the role of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and the future of the Party. These two guests have been part of the Congress Party, yet are not party insiders. Host: Varghese K George Guests: Kumar Ketkar, Rajya Sabha legislator Rajeev Gowda, who recently completed his first term as an MP in the Rajya Sabha Search for Parley by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in
Jul 17, 2020•35 min
A discussion on the vulnerability of Internet freedom at a time of national security risks. This comes in the backdrop of the government’s decision to block 59 Chinese apps, something that followed the escalation of tensions at the border between the two countries. Host: Sriram Srinivasan, Strategy & Digital Editor, The Hindu Guests: Arghya Sengupta, Research Director at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. Raman Chima, Asia Policy Director and Senior International Counsel at Access Now. Searc...
Jul 10, 2020•40 min
Patanjali Ayurveda’s claimed cure for COVID-19 has been criticised for making unsubstantiated claims of efficacy. However, can Ayurveda, or alternative medicine in general, be evaluated in the same way as modern medicine? Host: Jacob Koshy Guests: Dr. Bhavana Prasher, senior scientist at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. Dr. S.P. Kalantri is a Professor at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha Search for Parley by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feed...
Jul 02, 2020•45 min
The COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted the academic year, cancelled classes and examinations across the country. To ensure that students do not miss out on their studies, schools moved classes online, forcing students to attend lectures via their gadgets. However, this has also sparked a debate on whether the increased amount of screen time helps students learn or if it impedes their progress. While Maharashtra has banned online classes from pre-primary to Class II, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh hav...
Jun 25, 2020•29 min
The border clashes with China and the COVID-19 pandemic have reignited questions about India’s dependence on Chinese manufacturing. India’s imports from China in 2019-2020 reached $65 billion, out of $81 billion two-way trade. Is the pandemic, as Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said last month, a “blessing in disguise” for Indian manufacturing? Will companies be able to move deeply integrated supply chains out of China? And if so, will they choose India? In a discussion moderated by Ananth Krishnan...
Jun 19, 2020•33 min
The Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdowns have made work from home an imperative for several industries. Clearly, some job profiles lend themselves to work from outside the office. Others, where human interaction is necessary, obviously do not. For those industries and job profiles for which work from home is possible, has the concept come to stay, is the question before us now… Running up to 2025, a large IT services firm in India has said it would have about 75% of its 4.5 lakh employe...
Jun 17, 2020•1 hr 2 min
In the midst of the massive protests that have erupted in the U.S., social media platform Twitter decided to do something it had avoided for several years: call out some of President Donald Trump's tweets as being incorrect information and as being against its policies. This prompted Mr. Trump to warn social media platforms of stricter controls via an Executive Order. It also prompted another social media giant, Facebook, to state that they did not want to take similar action since they did not ...
Jun 17, 2020•34 min
India has never spent more than 2% of its GDP on healthcare. And healthcare facilities across the country straddle several levels of efficiency and sufficiency. The infrastructure facilities and services are at best patchy. While States such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu fare better, the impact of a virulent COVID-19 has shaken even the States that traditionally have done well. With COVID-19 having put the country’s heathcare system to the test, Dr. Abhay Shukla , national convener of the Jan Swasthy...
May 08, 2020•36 min
In the last few weeks, France and Australia have taken significant steps to make news aggregators such as Google pay for the re-use of news. The beneficiaries will be news publishers, who for years have been struggling to make the digital transition. While the competition regulator in France has effectively pushed Google into negotiating a remuneration deal with publishers, Australia has proposed to make platforms pay for the use of news. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen , Director, Reuters Institute for th...
May 01, 2020•35 min
This week, we discuss the global Coronavirus pandemic that has effectively brought normal life to a full stop in India through a Centre-enforced lockdown. The importance of social distancing cannot be stressed enough. But this also has huge repercussions on our livelihoods and the economy, which has already been suffering a slowdown over the last year. To discuss this, are Dr. Naushad Forbes (former president, Confederation of Indian Industry; co-chair, Forbes Marshall) and M. Govinda Rao (econo...
Mar 27, 2020•51 min
On March 2, a 43-year-old Muslim man was charged with sedition after he allegedly chanted pro-Pakistan slogans in front of the mini Vidhan Soudha at Kundapur in Karnataka’s Udupi district. Last month, the police arrested a teacher and a parent in Bidar for an allegedly seditious play against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Over the last few months, many people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act have been charged with sedition all across the country. Senior Supreme Court advocate San...
Mar 06, 2020•29 min
The massive restructuring of the military command structure has dismantled the old civil-military relationship, with far greater powers in decision-making now being bestowed on the armed forces. In a conversation moderated by Atul Aneja, Madanjit Singh and Anit Mukherjee weigh in on this highly complex transformation which is likely to lead to a complete overhaul of the military command structure. ( Madanjit Singh is Vice Admiral (retd.), former head of the Western Naval Command and member of th...
Mar 05, 2020•43 min
After the Central government cited physical and physiological reasons for why women could not be given commanding positions in the Indian Army, the Supreme Court had last week observed that there was a need for a “change of mindset” and display of “administrative will”. In this episode of Parley, moderated by Dinakar Peri, Lieutenant Generals Syed Ata Hasnain (Chancellor, Kashmir University) and Deependra Singh Hooda (former Northern Army Commander) discussed the issue of granting permanent comm...
Feb 17, 2020•30 min
Presenting the Union Budget for 2020-21 in Parliament, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said it would boost common people’s income and enhance their purchasing power. Ananth Narayan (Professor of Finance, S.P. Jain Institute for Management Research) and veteran banker V. Srinivasan discuss whether the proposed changes in direct taxes and other measures are likely to spur consumption and investment in the economy. Hosted by Suresh Seshadri, Business Editor , The Hindu Search for Parley by The ...
Feb 07, 2020•25 min
The past few weeks have been the most polarising in recent memory with regard to freedom of expression norms. FIRs were registered against students for stating their political opinions even as political leaders actively indulged in hate speech. This brings into focus the tug-of-war between morality and state security, freedom and responsibility. Should statements by civil society and politicians be made chargeable offences or should our idea of free speech expand to accommodate the full range of...
Feb 01, 2020•30 min•Ep. 3
Over the past few weeks, several actors have spoken out against the Citizenship Amendment Act-National Population Register-National Register of Citizens (CAA-NPR-NRC) as well as the attack on students and faculty in Jawaharlal Nehru University. In a conversation moderated by Radhika Santhanam, Malayalam actor Parvathy Thiruvothu and communications consultant Dilip Cherian discuss why so many celebrities are suddenly speaking up and whether their voices make a difference. Search for Parley by The...
Jan 17, 2020•35 min•Ep. 2
Open Source has been part and parcel of software programming in India for a while now. Free sharing has been an ideal for a long time. But have Big Tech proprietary firms co-opted the open-source platforms along the way? Venkatesh Hariharan (Senior Fellow, IDFC Institute) and Sangeeta Gupta (VP, National Association of Software and Services Companies) discuss the history of the Open Source movement in India. Host: Jacob Koshy Search for Parley by The Hindu . Write to us with comments and feedbac...
Jan 14, 2020•36 min•Ep. 1
