In Focus by The Hindu

On this news update podcast today, we discuss various aspects of the coronavirus crisis that the country is still very much in the grip of. We focus particularly on the quality of data that the government is using as it plans its way forward. The big question on everyone's minds now is when this deadly second wave will peak, and cases will see a downturn. However, there are already projections for...

We recorded this episode to coincide with a series of articles that we will carry in The Hindu over the course of this week explaining the verdicts in the four States — West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam — and the Union Territory of Puducherry that went to the polls in March-April 2021. These articles are part of post poll survey done by the polling and research organisation, CSDS-Lokniti that...

In this episode we’re discussing fire safety rules in public buildings, including hospitals. Over the past few weeks there have been deadly fires in hospital buildings, including those treating COVID-19 patients, compounding what is already a severe crisis that the country is facing. The most recent incident was on May 1, when at least 18 people died after a fire broke out in a COVID hospital in B...

The Covid-19 crisis continues to dominate our news coverage, as it rightly should, and on this podcast and elsewhere in The Hindu we are working to get you the most relevant news and the best reporting. However, we switch focus on the podcast briefly today to look at international affairs. We’re going to be discussing something that happened in 1915 during the course of the First World War -- the...

In our last episode we looked in detail at the foreign assistance now pouring in for India by way of critical medical supplies and whether this would help us tackle the current coronavirus crisis that we face. Today we look at how things are shaping up with the logistics of managing the crisis domestically. Shortages of medical oxygen continue to be reported from across the country and as registra...

Over the next couple of episodes, we turn our attention to the coronavirus emergency in the country and we look at the crucial question of medical supplies. On all fronts now the country seems to be grappling with major shortages but even as we are looking to ramp up domestic production over the weekend various countries around the world have expressed support and have pledged to send urgent medic...

In this weekend edition of In Focus we discuss sports and look at the controversial rise and rapid implosion of the European super league. Right off the bat, there are a couple of odd things about this story. The first is that it seemed to run an entire cycle in just a few days. Plans for the super league or ESL as it was dubbed, were announced last weekend. The backlash by players, fans, pundits,...

In today’s episode we discuss the Iran nuclear deal and look at where things stand with regard to its possible revival. The Iran nuclear deal or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was an agreement struck under the Obama administration in 2015 and which the US then withdrew from in 2018 under President Donald Trump. That withdrawal had huge geopolitical consequences as does the question...

The second wave of COVID-19 infections in India has seen record-highs of over 2,000 deaths and nearly 3 lakh cases recorded on a single day. Health systems in many parts of the country are completely overwhelmed, reports of oxygen shortage are pouring in, and as cases surge, some States have imposed local lockdowns. How is the second wave in India, which began this year, much later than second wav...

In this episode we’re discussing the withdrawal of U.S troops from Afghanistan and how that will affect India and more broadly, what it means for the region around us. U.S. president Joe Biden has declared that he will withdraw all remaining U.S troops from Afghanistan by September 11. It's been 20 years since the terror attack on U.S. soil that precipitated their war in Afghanistan. Biden has sai...

In this episode of the podcast we discuss various issues related to India’s vaccine shortage, the recent decision to grant emergency use authorisation to a host of foreign-produced vaccines and the stand-off between the Centre and States over vaccine supply Guest: Jacob Koshy, Deputy Science Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

India-China relations stand at a crossroads after the border crisis in 2020. Where do relations go from here, and how should India engage with China going forward even as it confronts a widening power gap with its neighbour? A new paper by a group of six authors including a former Ambassador to China, economists and scientists outline what the authors believe to be the optimal short-term and long-...

On Friday (April 9), India said it protested a U.S. decision to conduct a navy patrol in India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the western Indian Ocean. The Ministry of External Affairs highlighted India's position on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that the Convention does not authorise other States to carry out military manoeuvres or exercises in the EEZ without t...

In the last episode of our series analysing each State where Assembly elections are taking place, we’re looking at Assam and giving you an overview of the major issues at play there. The battle for Assam has big implications for the Congress and BJP. For the latter, gaining a second term in Assam would cement the party’s hold on the northeast where it rules either directly or in an alliance in all...

We recorded this episode on the day that Kerala is going to vote in the 2021 Assembly Elections to recap the major issues and dynamics at play in the election. The CPM-led LDF is hoping to buck Kerala’s long anti-incumbency trend by returning to power on a combination of factors such as efficient administration, welfare programmes and heavy investments in the social sector. Ranged against them are...

In this episode, we continue our state by state analysis of this set of assembly elections currently underway and we look at Tamil Nadu which goes to vote on April 6. We often frame the question, for each state, in terms of what has changed politically since the last assembly election in 2016 and nowhere has the change been as dramatic as seismic as in Tamil Nadu where the intervening years saw th...

In this episode, we look at China's plans for a Digital Currency, officially titled the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP), also known as the digital RMB (the Renminbi is China’s currency). In February, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) launched the latest round of pilot trials, with reported plans of a major roll-out by the end of the year ahead of the February Winter Olympics in Beijing....

Last year, after several months of COVID-19 positive cases on the rise, India saw a decline in cases after September, even though lockdown restrictions were lifted, and economic and other activity resumed. From March onwards this year however, there has once again been a steep rise in infections, in what many are terming the country's 'second wave'. Earlier this week, Niti Aayog member V.K. Paul s...

In this episode, we begin our state-by-state analysis of the Assembly elections and we begin with the biggest story perhaps, of this whole election cycle, the battle for Nandigram in West Bengal where polling took place today. And that battle is of course between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamamta Banerjee and her one-time close aide Shuvendu Adhikari who had defected to the BJP. We’ll discuss how...

Over the course of this week and the next we begin our detailed analysis of the assembly elections in four states and one union territory where voting has already begun in some cases and some where it is just around the corner. Before we look in some detail at each state going to the polls though and break down the flavour of each contest we thought we would use this episode to take a broader pers...

In this episode, we examine the takeaways from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day visit to Bangladesh, and the range of bilateral issues on the agenda from the Teesta river waters and border killings to trade and connectivity. We also explore the broader significance and political symbolism of the visit, which was timed to mark the 50th anniversary celebrations currently underway in Bangladesh...

In today’s episode, we give you some immediate reactions and then a larger grounding to understand today’s decision by the Supreme Court not to stay the sale of electoral bonds before Assembly elections in five States. The judgment by a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde said that since the scheme began in 2018 and continued in 2019 and 2020 without any impediments, the court said...

On March 23, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva adopted the resolution on ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’ with 22 member states of the 47-member Council voting in its favour. India was among 11 member states that abstained on the vote, which Sri Lanka had been opposing. What will be the impact of the UNHRC vote on Sri Lanka? Is it merely symb...

We have had a few busy weeks in foreign policy and international relations. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in New Delhi a few days ago as part of his first trip abroad, the first summit level Quad meeting was held earlier this month, and the U.S. and China held their first bilateral meeting last week. All these interactions and relationships are deeply interconnected. To help us unpack...

In today’s episode we look ahead to a crucial session of the United Nations human rights council on March 22 which will take up a resolution against Sri Lanka. This draft resolution as it is called is based on a damning report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights) which warned that Sri Lanka’s failure to address human rights violations and war crimes committed i...