How do monsoons really

Now a research paper has come up with an intriguing explanatory concept: atmospheric memory. The study was conducted by two scientists -- Anja Katzenberger & Anders Levermann -- from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Titled ‘Monsoon Hysteresis reveals Atmospheric Memory’, it was published recently in the scientific journal PNAS.

The study showed, for the first time, that the atmosphere can store moisture over extended periods, creating a physical memory effect.  In other words, the atmosphere can ‘remember’ its previous state by storing physical information in the form of water vapour.” The paper also talks about how there is a tipping point in the system that determines monsoon rainfall.

So, how does this discovery change our understanding of how

Guest: Anders Levermann, Professor of

Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu.

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

On May 7, India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ in response to the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 in which 26 civilians were killed.

Over three days, India and Pakistan launched missiles and drones at each other. There was also an extended aerial warfare involving fighter jets of both the countries. And on May 10, around midday, a ceasefire was announced – not by India or Pakistan, but by President Donald Trump.

On May 12, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an address to the nation, announced that India has established a ‘new normal’ in the fight against cross-border terrorism. He outlined a new three-point doctrine: India reserves the right to respond to terrorism with military action; no tolerance for nuclear blackmail from Pakistan; and no distinction shall be made between terrorists and their sponsors.

These developments are significant and raise a lot of questions in the military, geopolitical and diplomatic domains.

Guest: Sushant Singh, lecturer in South Asian Studies at Yale University and expert on strategic affairs and national security.

Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

Produced by Jude Francis Weston

The petitions challenging the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, are set for hearing on May 15. They will be heard by a Bench led by the Chief Justice designate B.R. Gavai. 

Earlier, a three-judge Bench led by outgoing Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna had refused to put an interim stay on the amendments. But it did receive two assurances from the Union government: one, that no Waqf, including Waqf-by-user, shall be de-notified or suffer any character change until the next date of hearing; and secondly, no appointments would be made to the Central Waqf Council or the State Waqf Boards under the amended Sections 9 and 14 of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, which allowed the inclusion of non-Muslims, till the Court takes up the matter again. 

What are the apprehensions and general perceptions about how Waqf boards operate? What is the status of Waqf properties while the challenges to the law are being heard? What are the key issues raised by the petitions for adjudication? 

Guest: Shahrukh Alam, Supreme Court Advocate 

Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu 

Recorded by Sabika Syed and Jude Weston 

Edited by Shivraj S 

Produced by Jude Weston 

When it comes to food, most Indians cannot imagine a day without rice. Lunch is rice, and rice is lunch – and rice is also sometimes breakfast or dinner or just part of a number of other food items we consume. But how healthy is the rice we are eating? Scientists have known for a while now that a lot of rice contains some amount of arsenic. A new study that was published in The Lancet Planetary Health last month, however, had some newer, more worrying findings: it found that with rising carbon emissions and rising temperatures, the arsenic levels in rice will rise. The study was conducted over a 10-year period on 28 different strains of paddy rice at four different locations in China. Arsenic is a known carcinogen – it is linked to cancers including lung and bladder cancer as well as to other serious health conditions.

So what does this study mean for India, which is a large rice-growing and rice-eating country and one that is also experiencing climate change effects? What does arsenic do to your body in the long term? Are there methods to grow rice that decrease the amount of arsenic in it? What can you do to make the rice you are eating at home safer?

Guests: Lewis Ziska, associate rofessor, environmental health sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University and Keeve Nachman, professor of environmental health and engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Host: Zubeda Hamid

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

The Union cabinet has announced that the next population Census will also include questions on caste. This is a sharp departure from the ruling BJP’s long-standing opposition to a caste census.

How do we understand this U-turn? How would this caste census differ from the last one, conducted in 1931? Given the massive scale and logistics involved, what are the challenges involved, and how do we ensure the integrity of the exercise and the data collection process?

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramian

The world of science was rocked early last month when U.S. company Colossal Biosciences announced that it had resurrected the dire wolf—a species that went extinct more than 10,000 years ago. Three pups, named Remus, Romulus, and Khaleesi are now living on a 2,000-acre enclosure in a secret location. Videos of the wolf pups howling went viral across the internet, as did photographs of their snowy white fur.

How did Colossal achieve this? Through genetic editing. After first extracting DNA from an ancient dire wolf skull and tooth and studying its genome, the company claims it then took the genome of a grey wolf, the closest living ancestor of the dire wolf, and made precise edits at 20 locations across 14 genes. Most of these edits were cosmetic changes—to do with fur colour and size. The modified genome was then implanted in embryos, and surrogate dog mothers gave birth to the wolf pups.

While the science sounds immensely exciting, several experts have contested the claim that these pups are dire wolves. Can a few edits in a genome truly recreate a lost species? Can these wolves behave just as the real dire wolves did, given that the ecology and environment that the dire wolves existed in no longer exist? The company claims that it wants to secure the health and biodiversity of our planet’s future—its next project is to ‘de-extinct’ the woolly mammoth. Is this the right way to go about conservation, and can it even work?

Guest: Kartik Shanker, Professor & Chairperson, Centre for Ecological Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru

Host: Zubeda Hamid

Produced by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

According to Section 53 (2) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, if there is only candidate contesting an election, then she can be declared elected unopposed. Now a legal think tank, the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of this provision. 

It cites the 2013 order of the Supreme Court which held that the right to cast a negative vote by choosing ‘NOTA’ was protected under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution. It argues that this right is independent of how many candidates are contesting – therefore, not holding the election on the grounds that there is only one candidate deprives voters of this right.

Last week, the Supreme Court, while hearing this petition, suggested that in cases where there is only one candidate, there could be a requirement that the candidate should win a prescribed minimum of vote share – be it 20% or 25% or whatever – in order to be declared as elected.

But the Election Commission seems keen to retain the status quo, arguing that cases of candidates winning unopposed are rare and therefore the court should not entertain such a petition.

Is the Election Commission right? What if the phenomenon of candidates standing unopposed becomes more widespread in the future? What happens to the NOTA option then?

Guest: Arghya Sengupta, Founder and Research Director at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, Delhi. 

Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu.

Edited by Shivaraj S and Sharada Venkatasubramnian

In a controversy that seems to have divided the art world in India, Mumbai-based poet-activist Aamir Aziz has accused well known artist Anita Dube of using his poem without his consent, and profiting from it without giving him credit or compensation.

The poem in question is ‘Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega’, which became an anthem of the anti-CAA protests and later a global phenomenon after English rock musician Roger Waters read it out at an event in London.

While Dube has admitted to an “ethical lapse” and reportedly offered some remuneration to Aziz, the dispute has acquired a legal dimension, with Aziz sending her a legal notice.

What does the copyright law say in a case like this – where an artist may feel she has the right to ‘fair use’ of a text, but another artist feels that his copyright has been violated?

Guest: Shantanu Sood, a lawyer who specialises in intellectual property-related issues.

Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

Recorded by Aniket Singh Chauhan

Edited by Shivaraj S

Produced by Jude Francis Weston

Recently, a debate about appointing judges has gained momentum in light of cash allegedly being found in the house of a Delhi High Court judge. What began as a discussion about transparency in judicial appointments has widened into a broader conversation about the functioning of India’s justice system, which is already strained by millions of pending cases. 

But concerns run deeper than just courtrooms. A recent report, called the India Justice Report 2025, flags critical issues across four pillars of the justice system: police, judiciary, prisons, and legal aid. The report shows that no State or Union Territory has fulfilled its own commitments for improving representation, particularly for women and SC/STs, within the police force. Vacancy rates remain alarmingly high, regular training is neglected, and appointments to the judiciary continue at a sluggish pace, weakening public trust in institutions meant to uphold the rule of law. 

Against this backdrop, two critical questions emerge: How can India strengthen the foundations of its justice delivery system? What institutional reforms are urgently needed to ensure fairness, inclusivity, and efficiency for all? 

Guests: Maja Daruwala, chief editor, IJR and Valay Singh, Lead, IJR

Host: Nivedita V

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

For the first time since 2018, the United States and Iran are holding high level negotiations.

What Iran wants is clear: an end to US sanctions, and resumption of economic engagement. But the US has been speaking in different voices, ranging from a maximalist position of complete dismantlement of the Iranian nuclear program, to a more moderate goal of capping

the weaponistion of it.

President Donald Trump has also given a two-month deadline to Iran to make a deal. If it doesn’t, he has threatened military strikes.

So, what can we realistically expect from these talks? How real are American threats to bomb Iran if it doesn’t agree to a deal in two months? And is Iran negotiating from a weaker

position than it was in, say, 2015 when the previous deal was signed?

Guest: Stanly Johny, International Affairs Editor, The Hindu

Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

Edited by Sharmada Venkatsubramanian