Parley by The Hindu
By TheHindu
Parley by The HinduOct 09, 2020
Is the crypto asset boom sustainable?
One of the defining economic trends of the year has been the rise of cryptocurrencies. After the Supreme Court’s decision last year overturning the Reserve Bank of India’s 2018 order banning financial institutions from enabling cryptocurrency transactions, there has been a huge rush of retail investors into cryptocurrencies. Yet, the risk of the government cracking down on private currencies has remained. On Wednesday, the Centre announced that it will introduce a bill in the upcoming winter session of Parliament seeking to ban private cryptocurrencies, albeit with a few exceptions. Many commentators see the rise of cryptocurrencies as a bubble, while enthusiasts of cryptocurrencies see it as unstoppable.
Here we discuss the government’s move.
Guests: Akshat Shrivastava, a serial entrepreneur and an investor in cryptocurrencies; Parag Waknis, an Associate Professor at Ambedkar University
Host: Prashanth Perumal J.
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Can cricket fandom be conflated with patriotism?
The recent ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates once again showed us the glorious uncertainties of cricket. The sport’s twists were evident when title-favourite India got knocked out. Immediately, the knives were sharpened on social media. Worse had happened earlier following India’s loss to Pakistan. Some fans who had celebrated Pakistan’s triumph were arrested and despicable remarks were made about Indian speedster Mohammed Shami’s Muslim identity, which raised the question: can patriotism be conflated with the Indian men’s cricket team? Isn’t sport a medium that cuts across boundaries?
Here we discuss these questions.
Guest: R. Kaushik, a veteran sports writer, having reported more than 100 Tests and multiple World Cups. He also co-authored V.V.S. Laxman’s biography 281 and Beyond; W.V. Raman, a former Indian cricketer and acclaimed coach, who recently coached the Indian women’s team. He is also the author of The Winning Sixer
Host: K.C. Vijaya Kumar, Sports Editor, The Hindu
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Is the economy still reeling from demonetisation?
On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that from midnight, ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes would no longer be considered legal tender in India. The government’s stated aim was to curb corruption and the pervasion of black money in the economy, as well as the proliferation of fake currency which was also being used in terror funding. Pronab Sen discusses with Vikas Dhoot the after-effects of the demonetisation gamble and whether the intended outcomes have been achieved.
Here we discuss about the economy after the demonetisation:
Guest: Pronab Sen, is the country Director for the India Programme of the International Growth Centre and was previously India's chief statistician.
Host: Vikas Dhoot
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Will Air India’s sale smoothen the privatisation runway?
Earlier this month, the Tata Group emerged as the winning bidder for Air India, the debt-laden national carrier. In this year’s Budget, the government unveiled a bold new disinvestment policy that envisages a bare minimum presence of government-owned businesses even in the strategic sectors. The government is also pursuing the sale of its entire stake in public sector firms such as BPCL, Shipping Corporation of India, IDBI Bank, two other public sector banks and one general insurance company this financial year. Given India’s recent disinvestment record, this is an ambitious target.
Here we discuss the implications of the sale of Air India on the future of India’s public sector.
Guests: Arvind Mehta was Secretary to the Fifteenth Finance Commission and also served in the Department of Disinvestment in two separate stints; Ashok Chawla served as Permanent Secretary to the Government of India in Ministries such as Civil Aviation and Finance and retired recently as Chairperson of the Competition Commission of India
Host: Vikas Dhoot
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Are bad banks good?
Last month, the Union government set up the National Asset Reconstruction Company Limited (NARCL) under the Companies Act. It thus delivered on its promise to set up a ‘bad bank’ to clean up the balance sheets of commercial banks. Under the new set up, the NARCL will take over loans worth almost ₹2 lakh crore from the books of commercial banks at a mutually agreed price. The NARCL will pay 15% of the price of these loans upfront in cash to banks and then issue security receipts in lieu of the remaining amount. The NARCL will then try to resolve these bad loans in a time-bound manner with help from the India Debt Resolution Company Limited (IDRCL). In case the IDRCL is unable to sell these bad loans at a satisfactory price to make good on the security receipts, the Centre will step in and fund the gap, but within a budget limit of ₹30,600 crore.
Here we discusss the bad bank proposal.
Guests: C.P. Chandrasekhar, Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, JNU; Ajit Ranade, chief economist at the Aditya Birla Group
Host: Prashanth Perumal J.
Should universities avoid teaching controversial texts?
Kannur University has decided to retain lessons on the works of V.D. Savarkar and M.S. Golwalkar — Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? by Savarkar and A Bunch of Thoughts by Golwalkar — in the post-graduate course, Governance and Politics, after a controversy erupted over an earlier decision to ban the texts from the syllabus.
Here we discuss the larger implications of such bans.
The Parley discussion was conducted when the Kannur University’s ban on the texts of Savarkar and Gowalkar was still in force.
Guests: Yogendra Yadav member, and former president of Swaraj India; Kuldeep Kumar, a bilingual journalist, and a Hindi poet who writes on politics and culture
Host: Anuradha Raman
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Does NEET privilege the privileged?
With the Tamil Nadu government seeking to ‘dispense’ with the requirement for candidates to qualify in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to undergraduate medical courses in the State, the controversy over NEET is alive again. T.N.’s position is rooted in the conclusions of the Justice A.K. Rajan Committee report, which claims that NEET has undermined diverse social representation in MBBS admissions. J. Amalorpavanathan and Sumanth C. Raman discuss whether NEET has adversely affected the disadvantaged groups, in a conversation moderated by Ramya Kannan.
Is the BJP high command calling the shots in States?
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has changed five Chief Ministers in four States this year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home State, Gujarat, is the latest to see a change of guard. Are these changes a sign of anti-incumbency or are they a sign of concentration of power in the hands of the Central leadership?
Here we discuss the issue.
Guests: Sudheendra Kulkarni, political commentator; Harish Khare, senior journalist and former Editor of The Tribune
Host: Sandeep Phukan
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Why hasn’t marital rape been criminalised in India yet?
In 2017, the Supreme Court, in Independent Thought v. Union of India, refused to delve into the question of marital rape of adult women while examining an exception to Section 375 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which allows a man to force sex on his wife. Recent rulings by High Courts have been contradictory — one backed marital rape as a valid ground for divorce, while another granted anticipatory bail to a man while concluding that forcible sex is not an “illegal thing”.
Why do differences persist despite the Justice J.S. Verma Committee recommendation to criminalise marital rape? Here we discuss why marital rape has not been criminalised in India yet.
Guests: Manuraj Shunmugasundaram, advocate, Madras High Court, and spokesperson of the DMK; Shraddha Chaudhary, lecturer, Jindal Global Law School, Sonepat, and Ph.D candidate (law), University of Cambridge
Host: Sudipta Datta
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Is monetising public assets a good idea?
Last week, the Centre released the ‘National Monetisation Pipeline’, a document listing the various public assets that will be leased out to private companies over the next four years. The government believes that monetising underutilised public assets will bring in almost ₹6 lakh crore to the government and help build new infrastructure to boost the economy. The Opposition has accused the government of selling off valuable national assets to “crony capitalists”.
Here we discuss this move.
Guests: Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Deputy Chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission; Ajay Shah, Professor at the National Institute for Public Finance and Policy
Host: Prashanth Perumal J.
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Has the first-past-the-post system polarised Indian politics?
India’s parliamentary democracy is going through a phase of intense confrontation between the dominant ruling party and a weakened but belligerent Opposition. Is this situation a consequence of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, where a party with the the highest votes gets the seat even if it doesn't win a majority?
Here we address this question.
Guests: E. Sridharan, Academic Director and Chief Executive at the University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India, and Editor-in-Chief of India Review; Suhas Palshikar taught political science at Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, and chief editor of Studies in Indian Politics
Host: Srinivasan Ramani
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Why are government schools not the first choice?
The public education system is the primary option for millions of students in India. These institutions have become more important as the pandemic takes a toll on the economy, putting fee-charging schools beyond the reach of many and forcing thousands to move to government schools. The Patna High Court recently asked for data on how many IAS and IPS officers have enrolled their wards in government schools.
Here we discuss the quality of public education.
Guests: Uma Mahadevan, Principal Secretary, Panchayati Raj, Government of Karnataka; Anita Rampal, Professor and former Dean, Faculty of Education, Delhi University.
Host: G. Ananthakrishnan
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Are the Taliban returning to Kabul?
After 20 years of fighting, the U.S. is set to end its military operations in Afghanistan by August 31. Since May 1, when U.S. troops started withdrawing from Afghanistan, the Taliban have made rapid territorial gains in the country. They have taken control of dozens of northern districts and several of the country’s key border crossings, mounting pressure on the Ashraf Ghani government.
Here we discuss the Afghan situation, India’s options, and the prospects for a peaceful settlement.
Guests: Avinash Paliwal, Deputy Director of the SOAS South Asia Institute, London; Jayant Prasad, a former Indian civil servant, who had served as India’s envoy in Kabul.
Host: Stanly Johny
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Will the new e-commerce rules really favour consumers?
In June, the Union Consumer Affairs Ministry came out with a list of proposed amendments to the Consumer Protection Act of 2019. These include appointment of a Chief Compliance Officer and a Resident Grievance Officer, provisions of fall back liability, registration of e-commerce entities and seeking an end to flash sales. The Centre claims that these amendments try to rein in unfair trade practices adopted by e-commerce companies and intend to take care of the interests of consumers. But not everyone agrees.
Here we discuss the proposed amendments in a conversation moderated by.
Guests: Prithwiraj Mukherjee, an Assistant Professor at IIM, Bangalore; Anupam Manur, an Assistant Professor at the Takshashila Institution.
Host: Prashanth Perumal J
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Is the Indian stock market in a bubble?
Since the nationwide lockdown announced by the Prime Minister in March 2020, the Indian economy has faced its worst contraction in history. Yet, the country’s stock indices, the Sensex and the Nifty, have almost doubled in price from the low that they hit in April 2020. Many analysts and even the Reserve Bank of India now believe that stocks are in a bubble.
Here we discuss the current state of Indian markets.
Guests: Alok Jain, a SEBI-registered investment adviser and a momentum investor; Anand Srinivasan, a value investor and the author of Ordinary Stocks, Extraordinary Profits
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Should only elected legislators be eligible for chief ministership?
The option provided in the Constitution should be used with honesty, not just to tinker with politics.
The sudden exit of Tirath Singh Rawat as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, a development the Bharatiya Janata Party sought to explain in terms of a constitutional roadblock to being elected as a legislator with in six months, has led to thickening speculation about the fate of West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, another unelected Chief Minister.
Here we discuss the road ahead.
Guests: M.R. Madhavan, is President and co-founder of PRS Legislative Research, a public policy research institution; S.Y. Quraishi, served as 17th Chief Election Commissioner of India from July 2010 to June 2012.
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Can the CBSE’s plan objectively assess students of Class 12?
The CBSE has prepared a tabulation scheme to determine the marks that students of Class 12 will be awarded in this pandemic year, upon completion of schooling. How reliable is such a scheme against the backdrop of the digital divide, and can it be improved?
Here we discuss the road ahead for assessing students.
Guests: Uday Gaonkar, a teacher in a rural school in Karnataka’s public system who has worked in science teaching and learning; Anita Rampal, Professor and former Dean, Faculty of Education, Delhi University.
Host: G. Ananthakrishnan
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Should India accept Islamic State returnees?
In 2016-18, four women from Kerala accompanied their husbands to join the Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan's Khorasan Province. Their husbands were killed in different attacks and the women are now lodged in an Afghanistan prison. Authorities in Afghanistan want to return the women to India, but the Indian government has not indicated what it proposes to do in this matter.
Sources say security agencies have advised against taking them back. What do international laws say about foreign fighters returning to their countries? Here we discuss the question.
Guests: Kabir Taneja, a Fellow with the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation and author of The ISIS Peril; K.P. Fabian, a former diplomat author and Professor at the Indian Society of International Law.
Host: Suhasini Haidar
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Should retired officials be barred from disclosing information?
Last week, the Government of India prohibited retired officials of security and intelligence organisations from publishing anything about their work or organisation without prior clearance from the head of the organisation. Serving civil servants are barred from expressing their personal opinion on policy matters and criticising the government. But once they retire, many of them take part in public debates and enrich our conversations.
Here we discuss whether there should be any restrictions on the freedom of expression of a specific category of retired government officials. And if yes, what the limits of such restrictions should be.
Guests: Syed Akbaruddin, India’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Dean, Kautilya School of Public Policy; G.K. Pillai, a former Home Secretary of India.
Host: Varghese K. George
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IT Rules: a case of overreach?
Last week, WhatsApp decided to legally challenge one of India’s new Information Technology rules which requires messaging platforms to help investigative agencies in identifying the originator of problematic messages. WhatsApp reckons this would break end-to-end encryption and undermine people’s right to privacy. The government responded saying it is committed to ensuring the right of privacy for all its citizens, and that it also has to ensure national security.
Have these new rules been framed to adequately address the privacy versus security balance, especially in the context of social media intermediaries such as WhatsApp? Here we discuss this question.
Guests: Parminder Jeet Singh, Executive Director, IT for Change; Rishab Bailey, Technology Policy researcher at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy
Host: Sriram Srinivasan
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Is the two-state solution to Israel-Palestine conflict still alive?
The 11-day fighting between Hamas and Israel, coupled with protests across the Palestinian territories and Israeli cities, have turned the spotlight once again on the Palestine question. The internationally accepted solution to this crisis is the so-called two-state solution. This would mean that an independent, sovereign Palestine state and an independent, sovereign Israeli state would coexist in peace. But on the ground, since the Oslo Accords were signed, there has been little progress on the two-state solution and Israel has only tightened its occupation of Palestine over the years.
Here we discuss the past, present and future of the Palestine question.
Guests: A.K. Ramakrishnan, a professor of international relations at the Centre for West Asian Studies, JNU, New Delhi; Nathan Thrall, the author of The Only Language They Understand and a contributor to The New York Times Magazine and the London Review of Books.
Host: Stanly Johny
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Can the economy survive the second COVID-19 wave?
As the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and the State-level lockdowns batter the economy, Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das this week noted that the impact of the second wave is likely to be less severe than the first one. He said that businesses and people have started to adapt to lockdowns and that the hit to demand would be much lower this time.
Here we discuss the two COVID-19 waves, and how they have impacted the economy.
Guests: Radhika Pandey, an economist and consultant at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy; Vivek Kaul, a business journalist and author of India’s Big Government: The Intrusive State & How It’s Hurting Us
Host: Prashanth Perumal J.
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Should political prisoners be released during the pandemic?
As the second wave of the pandemic rages across India, the country’s overcrowded prisons are in danger of becoming major hotspots for the spread of the disease. Dozens of political prisoners, mainly civil rights activists, continue to languish in prison indefinitely with no possibility of their trials commencing any time soon.
Here we discuss the issue of overcrowded prisons during the pandemic.
Guests: Sanjay Hegde, is a Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India; V. Suresh, is a National General Secretary for the People’ Union for Civil Liberties.
Host: Jayant Sriram
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Is the government committed to vaccine equity?
Here we discuss India’s vaccination policy and its challenges.
Guests: K.M. Gopakumar, a is Legal Adviser, Third World Network. He works on the global intellectual property regime and its impact on developing countries; K. Sujatha Rao, a former Union Health Secretary, is the author of the book, Do We Care? India’s Health System.
Host: G. Ananthakrishnan
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Should election campaigns be made virtual?
India is witnessing a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, with record numbers of new cases and deaths every day. At the same time, States holding Assembly elections have seen mass rallies by political parties. In most such rallies, especially in West Bengal, which still has two phases to go and where campaigning is still on, COVID-19 protocols such as masking and physical distancing are blatantly flouted.
In view of the COVID-19 surge, and the fact that public rallies are super-spreader events, should campaigning be restricted to virtual mode — at least until the pandemic is behind us? Here we explore this question.
Guests: Neelanjan Sircar, an Assistant Professor of political science at Ashoka University, and Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi; Sanjay Kumar, a political analyst, psephologist, and co-director of the Lokniti Research Project at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi.
Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu
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How can India contain the second wave?
After daily new COVID-19 cases peaked on September 16, 2020, during the first wave, new cases and deaths in India began to increase from the third week of February 2021, marking the beginning of the second wave. The rise in daily cases and deaths has been steep since April 1. On April 14, India reported nearly 2 lakh cases. The seven-day average test positivity rate has also been climbing.
Here we discuss what will it take to contain the second wave?
Guests: Giridhara Babu, an epidemiologist at the Public Health Foundation of India and a member of the Karnataka COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee; Gautam Menon, a Professor of Physics and Biology at Ashoka University.
Host: R. Prasad, Science Editor, The Hindu
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Should governments regulate online platforms?
Australia’s new News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code will force platforms like Facebook and Google to pay local media outlets and publishers to link their content in news feeds or search results. The Australian law is being seen as one of the early shots fired in the coming battle by countries to regulate tech giants to take back some of the control they have on global communications.
But is it an ideal regulatory model? Won’t regulating the platforms affect free speech? Is regulating platforms the way to save the news media business that is in the doldrums? Here we discuss the issue.
Guests: Dwayne Winseck, Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University, Canada; Jeff Jarvis, Director, Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at City University of New York’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.
Host: P.J. George
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Is India criminalising comedy and entertainment?
Producers of entertainment content, especially stand-up comedians, are increasingly becoming the target of legal action. To take just two examples, while Kunal Kamra is facing contempt proceedings for remarks about the Supreme Court, fellow comedian Munawar Faruqui had to spend more than a month in jail on vague charges before getting bail.
Are Indians so lacking in humour that their first response to a joke is to take offence and then file a case? Here we explore this question.
Guests: Arti Raghavan, an advocate practicing at the Bombay High Court and also the counsel for Kunal Kamra in the criminal contempt proceedings before the Supreme Court; Agrima Joshua, a Mumbai-based stand-up comedian.
Host: G. Sampath
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Is India’s Digital Services Tax discriminatory?
Last month, a United States Trade Representative investigation report found India’s Digital Services Tax to be discriminatory. It said the tax is “inconsistent with prevailing principles of international taxation”, and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce. India has denied these charges. The bone of contention is a 2% tax that India has charged since April 2020 on revenues from digital services, applicable only to non-resident companies.
Here we discuss this issue.
Guests: Nikhil Kapoor, a Research Fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy; Suranjali Tandon, an Assistant Professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy
Host: Sriram Srinivasan
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Board exams in the midst of a pandemic
With the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting the academic year 2020-21, for the first-time, students of class X and XII are set to face board examinations based on knowledge gained almost entirely from virtual teaching.
Here we discuss the challenges in conducting board examinations now.
Guests: K. Devarajan, a former Director of Government Examinations, Tamil Nadu; Chandra Bhushan Sharma, Professor, School of Education, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi
Host: D. Suresh Kumar
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Why haven’t other sports reached the heights of cricket?
On January 19, precisely a month after being bowled out for its lowest Test score of 36 against Australia, India bounced back to script one of the more memorable series triumphs in cricketing hiistory.
Dealing with injuries and insult in varying degrees, the squad fought gallantly to beat the odds and a full-strength opponent to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The series-clinching three-wicket win at Brisbane — the first for a visiting team since 1988 — was achieved by a team that was missing nine of the regular players who formed the playing XI in the first Test at Adelaide.
This fitting finale to India’s tale of guts and glory brought with it the admiration of not only cricket-playing nations but also sports-lovers across disciplines.
Here we discuss why India has not replicated or even remotely matched the success of cricket in other sports?
Guests: R.B. Ramesh, a British championship–winner, a Commonwealth champion, a Grandmaster-turned-coach, and former chief of the National Selection Committee; Sharath Kamal, a two-time Asian Games–medallist, a Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, and a Commonwealth champion.
Host: Rakesh Rao
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Are courts encroaching on the powers of the executive?
On January 12, the Supreme Court stayed the implementation of three controversial farm laws passed recently, and ordered the constitution of a committee of experts to negotiate between the farmers’ bodies and the Government of India.
Rather than deliberating on the constitutionality of the three laws, the court appears to be trying to move both the parties towards a political settlement, thereby wading into the domain of the government.
Here we discuss whether the court has abdicated its constitutional duty mandate in this case, and is this in a growing trend?
Guests: Anuj Bhuwania, Professor at the Jindal Global Law School, is the author of Courting the People: Public Interest Litigation in Post-Emergency India; Arun Thiruvengadam, a Professor of Law at the School of Policy and Governance, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru
Host: Jayant Sriram, Assistant Editor, The Hindu
Do we have a grip on disinformation in 2021?
Disinformation, or “fake news” in common parlance, is a malaise born amid the infodemic of the social media age. In the last few years, it has been used as an effective weapon to polarise communities and upset democratic processes.
As we begin 2021, we discuss the current state of the malady.
Guests: Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Professor of Political Communication at the University of Oxford; Pratik Sinha, co-founder of Alt News, a fact-checking website.
Host: P.J. George, Deputy Internet Editor, The Hindu
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Is the Special Marriage Act losing out to the bogey of ‘love jihad’?
The Special Marriage Act (SMA), 1954 is seen as a progressive law enacted to help inter-faith couples. But with States such as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh framing laws that target inter-faith marriage, the procedural requirements of the SMA — such as the need to give prior notice, and allowance for ‘objections’ — seem to be undermining its original intent by opening the doors to violent moral policing by vigilante groups.
Can the SMA come to the rescue of inter-faith couples, who, in addition to the old challenge of parental opposition, today also have to contend with the bogey of ‘love jihad’? Here we discuss the issue.
Guests: Veena Gowda, a women’s rights lawyer who has been practising in the High Court of Bombay, Family Court and other trial courts for more than two decades; Faizan Mustafa, Vice-Chancellor of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.
Host: G. Sampath
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Are children being introduced to coding too early in life?
The number of coding and programming bootcamps that are being offered by educational technology (Ed Tech) companies for children as young as four or five years has increased exponentially in recent times. Ed Tech companies argue that careers in the 21st century will be based on technology, for which children should get a head start. There have also been ringing endorsements from celebrities for this trend.
Should we at all be concerned about this? What are the repercussions of increasing screen time for young children? Here we discuss this issue
Guests: Latha Madhusudhan, an educator for over 30 years, is the founder of ‘Prakriti - A Waldorf Kindergarten’, a Waldorf-inspired school in Bengaluru; Pritika Mehta, a data scientist and entrepreneur who leads initiatives to teach coding to young children via interactive games
Host: Mandira Moddie
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Are IT project managers facing an existential crisis?
Despite the years of experience and expertise that the middle management layer brings to the Indian IT services industry, it has been facing an existential crisis for a while now. Stories abound of clients preferring senior code writers over project managers, and of tech CEOs aiming the axe at this layer first every time a sizeable lay off is planned. The pandemic has not made it any easier.
Have enough project managers made the change to agile methodologies that steer clear of the traditional, and sequential, more rigid ‘waterfall’ approach while working with clients? Here we discuss the question about their future.
Guests: Srini Srinivasan, Managing Director, PMI South Asia; R. Srikrishna, CEO and Executive Director, Hexaware Technologies.
Host: K. Bharat Kumar
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Does India’s neighbourhood policy need reworking?
Recent visits by Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to countries in the region appear to show new energy in India’s neighbourhood policy. Over the past few years, there have been many strains in ties with neighbours — for instance, with Nepal over its Constitution in 2015 and now over the map, and with Bangladesh over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
Here we discuss India’s neighbourhood policy.
Guests: Constantino Xavier, a nonresident fellow in the India Project, and is currently a fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress; Shyam Saran, a former Foreign Secretary and is currently Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research.
Host: Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu
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Are tougher laws the answer to check online abuse?
Following widespread criticism, the Kerala government decided early this week to put on hold an Ordinance that gives unbridled powers to the police to arrest anyone expressing or disseminating any matter that it deems defamatory.
However, the move to introduce such a law in the first place shows that State governments believe that existing laws are not adequate to deal with social media abuse. We discuss to what extent is this true.
Guests: Rishab Bailey, a lawyer working with the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, an autonomous research institute established by the Ministry of Finance; Vrinda Bhandari, a litigating lawyer in Delhi. She is Of-Counsel for the Internet Freedom Foundation, and specialises in the field of digital rights, technology, and privacy
Host: Jayant Sriram
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Is India facing a two-front war?
While the India-China stand-off continues in eastern Ladakh, the Line of Control (LoC) is yet again on the boil. We discuss whether India faces the prospect of a two-front war.
Guests: Harsh V. Pant, Director, Studies at the Observer Research Foundation and Professor of International Relations, King’s College London; Lieutenant General D.S. Hooda (retd.), a former Northern Army Commander.
Host: Dinakar Peri
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Can the right to work be made real in India?
As economies around the world struggle to recover from the double whammy of a pandemic and a lockdown, unemployment is soaring. In India, the land of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the promise of jobs and the politics of unemployment have a long history.
Can a citizen demand work as a right, and is it the state’s responsibility to provide employment? We discuss the possible policy approaches to the right to work.
Guests: Amit Basole, Head, Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru; Reetika Khera, Associate Professor of Economics at IIT-Delhi.
Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu
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Are there indications of an economic revival in India?
After India’s economy collapsed in the first quarter of 2020-21 following the nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, some economic indicators from September and October, from power consumption to GST collections, suggest that things are improving.
We discuss whether there is a sustainable recovery under way, or it's just an expression of pent-up demand combined with India’s festive-season spending.
Guests: M. Govinda Rao, a former member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and the Fourteenth Finance Commission; Naushad Forbes, a former president of the Confederation of Indian Industry and co-chairman of Forbes Marshall
Host: Vikas Dhoot
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Is the U.S. on the wane as a superpower?
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said that China and Germany are soon going to be superpowers as U.S. influence wanes globally. Today, as the U.S. is on the cusp of a new presidency, after a remarkable almost four years under President Donald Trump, it is worth examining whether its superpower status endures in the realms of politics, economics, military and diplomatic power, and culture.
We discuss why the U.S. faces an ideational problem despite having an unparalleled position militarily and economically.
Guests: Richard Lachmann, a Professor of Sociology at the University at Albany of the State University of New York; Robert J. Lieber, a Professor of Government and International Affairs at Georgetown University.
Host: Narayan Lakshman, Associate Editor, The Hindu
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Has India passed the COVID-19 peak?
Since mid-September, the number of daily new COVID-19 cases recorded has been reducing from the peak of 90,000-odd cases. A few days ago, the COVID-19 India National Supermodel Committee, constituted by the Department of Science and Technology, based on mathematical modelling studies, concluded that India had passed the COVID-19 peak in September. It also found that there will be fewer than 50,000 active cases from December and if proper safety protocols continue to be followed, the pandemic can be “controlled by early next year” with “minimal” active symptomatic infections by end-February. We discuss whether India has gone past the peak.
Guests: Giridhara R. Babu, a Professor of Epidemiology at the Public Health Foundation of India, Bengaluru, and a member of the Karnataka COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee; Gautam Menon, a Professor of Physics and Biology at Ashoka University and co-author of COVID-19 modelling studies.
Host: R. Prasad, Science Editor, The Hindu
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Should the government regulate TRPs?
Last week, the Mumbai Police said that a TRP (Target Rating Points) racket involving three news channels had been busted by its Crime Detection Branch. Since then, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), which monitors the TRPs, has suspended ratings of news channels for three months.
The alleged scam has once again highlighted the need for regulation. Television channels are driven by TRPs and it is viewership that drives their business. We discuss how TRPs are manipulated and what could be the solution.
Guests: Sashi Kumar, the founder and editor in chief of Asiaville, a digital multimedia platform. He was also the founder of Asianet television channel; S.Y. Quraishi, a former Chief Election Commissioner and former Director General of Doordarshan.
Host: Anuradha Raman
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Should Indian startups take on global Internet giants?
Online payments company Paytm recently announced that it was building a ‘Mini App Store’ which would ‘empower Indian developers’. This move came days after Paytm was removed from Google’s Play Store over apparent violation of its policies. Though it was reinstated later, Paytm and several other Indian Internet startups allege that Google is using its market dominance to arbitrarily enforce policies and target competitors. The Play Store is the key app store for Google’s Android operating system, which runs over 90% of smartphones in India. Google also announced that it will start enforcing a 30% commission on all payments made for digital services in apps from its Play Store. Though the implementation of this plan has since been postponed to next year, it has caused much heartburn in the Indian startup environment. There is discontent brewing against tech giants in their home country as well, with a similar tussle going on between Apple and some game developers in the U.S., and the government readying an anti-trust lawsuit against Google. Is the Indian startup ecosystem is ready to take on the giants on whom they are dependent for crucial infrastructure?
Guests
Jayadevan P.K. is a startup founder and writes on technology. He now works on brand building for startups.
Thillai Rajan is a Professor in the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
Host
P.J. George, Deputy Internet Editor, The Hindu
Should online gambling in India be regulated?
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 Sayta who has has extensively tracked issues pertaining to the gaming industry and gaming laws over the last decade and now advises several gaming companies on policy, regulatory, tax and legal issues.
Host: Jayant Sriram
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Will the farm bills give farmers a choice?
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 University; Sudha Narayanan, Associate Professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research.
Host: Vikas Dhoot
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Is the Quad rising after China’s challenge at the LAC?
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, and former Ambassador to China.
Host: Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu
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How much is too much when collecting data for planning?
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 whether real-time capturing of demographic data and broad health indicators will lead to benefits that outweigh the perceived and real risks of erosion of privacy.
Guests: A.R. Nanda, a demographer who served as Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India as well as Health Secretary. Venkat Srinivasan, a Boston-based technology entrepreneur, who deploys AI in finance, accounting, health and education.
Host: Varghese K. George, Associate Editor, The Hindu
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Should the age of marriage for women be raised to 21?
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 Adolescent Concerns.
Host: Jagriti Chandra, Principal Correspondent, The Hindu
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