In Focus by The Hindu

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 20...

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, t...

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 a...

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 r...

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 countr...

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...

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...

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 c...

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 placemen...

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 f...

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 t...

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 t...

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 e...

 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 s...

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 sc...

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, di...

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 promi...

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 st...

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 m...

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...

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....

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...

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 h...

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 Pharma...

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 realistical...