Parley by The Hindu

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 layoff is planned. The pandemic has not made it any easier. Have e...

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 (...

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...

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: D...

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 discu...

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 fes...

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....

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...

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 TRP...

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 policie...

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: V...

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...

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...

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 v...

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 Partn...

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 o...

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 ho...

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. Addit...

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 modera...

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: Yoginde...

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...

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...

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 Inst...

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...

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...