In Focus by The Hindu

The new anti-viral drug brought out by Merck Pharmaceuticals, Molnupiravir, seems to be a promising development in the global fight against COVID-19. Early results from the phase-3 trial of the drug report that it halves the chances of hospitalisation in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19. It is also an oral medication -- it can be taken in pill form, unlike other anti-viral drugs that have to administered intravenously, usually in a hospital setting. Merck has now applied for emergency use authorisation for its drug in the United States. It has also, meanwhile, tied up with eight Indian drugmakers for the manufacture of molunupiravir.

How does this drug work? Will it become a significant tool to combat COVID-19, which continues to kill people both in India and abroad? Will it accessible and easily available to those who need it?

Guest:  Dr. Satyajit Rath, adjunct professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune

Host: Zubeda Hamid

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Chief Justice of the Supreme Court N.V. Ramana recently spoke of the need to ‘Indianise’ the justice system. He said that there were a lot of practices that have been carried over from the colonial period – including language practices, and lengthy, often technical judgments – that alienate the common man from the judiciary. He stressed that the justice system needs to minimise procedural barriers so that accessing justice becomes simpler.

Coming from the highest justice officer of the country, his remarks naturally made the headlines. There is no doubt that India’s justice delivery systems need improvement, and any debate on what needs to change is most welcome. However, ‘Indianisation’ is an odd way of framing the reforms needed to make justice delivery more efficient. What exactly did the CJI mean by ‘Indianisation’? How useful is it as a conceptual frame for identifying reforms? And if we were to interpret ‘Indianisation’ as a synonym for ‘people-friendly’, what kind of changes should we aim for?

We explore these questions and more in this episode.

Guest: Arti Raghavan, an advocate who practices at the Bombay High Court.

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

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The world's first malaria vaccine is here. The World Health Organisation, earlier this month, endorsed RTS,S/AS01 or Mosquirix, developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative. The vaccine, which acts against P. falciparum, believed to be most deadly malaria parasite globally, took nearly 30 years to make.

Malaria is an ancient disease -- it has been around for centuries, affecting populations around the world. Though many countries have been successful in eliminating the disease, which is caused by a parasite and transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito, it still continues to affect some countries in Africa and Asia.

In 2019, there were an estimated 229 million cases of malaria, with 94% of the burden in the African region. About 67% of the deaths were of children under the age of 5.

India, according to the WHO, recorded a significant decrease in its malaria burden, with cases declining from 20 million in the year 2000 to about 5.6 million in 2019. Deaths too, have decreased. But India still accounts for over 80 percent of all malaria cases in the SE Asia region. It also bears the largest burden of Plasmodium vivax in the world at 3.5 million cases a year -- a parasite for which a vaccine has not yet been found.

How will the vaccine help combat malaria globally? How effective is it? Will other malaria control measures continue to be needed?

Guest: Dr Daniel Chandramohan, professor of public health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Host: Zubeda Hamid

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The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021, published last week by Concern Worldwide, an Irish aid agency, and Welt Hunger Hilfe, a German non-profit, has ranked India at 101 out of 116 countries, in its assessment of how successful countries have been in combating hunger. Only 15 countries – many of them marked by violent strife – have performed worse than India.

The government of India has been quick to dismiss this report as “devoid of ground reality and facts”. It has also questioned the methodology used by the GHI to assess the prevalence of hunger. The GHI researchers have defended their methodology, stating that it follows international norms.

What exactly does the GHI report say about India? Are we in the midst of a major hunger crisis? How have the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change impacted hunger and nutrition levels in India? We explore these questions in detail in this episode.

Guest: Reetika Khera, Associate Professor of Economics at IIT, Delhi.

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

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On October 8, the Centre announced that the struggling State airline, Air India, was being sold to the Tata group for Rs. 2,700 crore in cash and Rs. 15,300 crore in debt. Some analysts believe that the sale of Air India provides a major fillip to India’s privatisation programme.

Will the Tatas be able to turn around Air India, especially when they have invested heavily in Vistara and Air Asia India? Are the terms of the sale such where employee interests will also be protected?

We try to answer these questions in this episode.

Guest: Probir Chandra Sen, former Chairman Air India and former Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Airlines.

Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

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Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s assertion that she is a full-time, hands-on chief executive at the party’s working committee meeting should silence the critics of the Gandhi family for the moment. She also asked dissidents to speak to her directly and not through the media.

Will these unusually assertive comments after months of silence from Sonia Gandhi galvanise the party ahead of crucial elections, including to the all-critical Uttar Pradesh state assembly? Will the party be able to present a united front or will it remain a divided house? We discuss these developments within the Congress party in this episode.

Guest: Sandeep Phukan, Deputy Editor, The Hindu

Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

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Earlier this week, on Thursday, Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida dissolved the lower house of Parliament, paving the way for general elections, which are scheduled for October 31.

Japanese politics has been dominated by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for much of its post-war history. Under Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest serving Prime Minister who stepped down in September 2020, the LDP has moved further to the right. Abe’s successor, Yoshihide Suga, lasted just a year. His growing unpopularity meant that the party did not want to go to elections under his leadership. So he stepped down last month, making way for former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida to take over.

Under Kishida, the LDP has built a sizeable lead in approval ratings, and the party is expected to win. But Kishida has some tough challenges facing him – while COVID-19 has still not gone away, the economy has been battered by the pandemic, and the rich-poor divide has grown sharper.

Is it going to be an easy win for Kishida? And even if the LDP wins, will he enjoy a stable tenure? How will the new regime navigate the growing hostility between the US and China, given that China is one of Japan’s largest trading partners and a powerful neighbour as well?

As the world’s third largest economy heads to the polling booth, we explore these questions in this episode.

Guest: Stanly Johny, International Affairs Editor at The Hindu.

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

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With about 29% of India’s population fully vaccinated, the government’s Subject Expert Committee (SEC) has now recommended Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for children aged 2-18 years. This is the second vaccine in India to be cleared for children. Earlier, Zydus Cadilla’s vaccine got authorization for kids above 12.

While the timeline for the supply of Covaxin for children is still unclear, its availability as an option has raised some critical questions: Is it really necessary to expose children to a vaccine authorised for emergency use, when it is evident that they only contract a mild infection and don’t face the threat of mortality? Secondly, is WHO clearance for Covaxin a mere formality or should it be a matter of concern that a vaccine that is yet to get WHO clearance for adults has already got approval for children in India?

We explore these issues in this episode.

Guest: Jacob Koshy, Deputy Science Editor at The Hindu

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

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Virat Kohli has announced that he will step down from T20 captaincy of the Indian team after the T20 World Cup in November. He is also stepping down as captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) after IPL 2021. Both the nature and the timing of these decisions have raised a lot of questions.

For instance, wouldn’t it have been better to make these announcements after the T20 World Cup, or after the 2021 IPL was over? Were these decisions Kohli’s own or was he under pressure? Is this the beginning of the end of the fairly successful Kohli-Ravi Shastri partnership? What is the ‘road map’ for the future that the BCCI has been talking about in the context of Kohli’s decision?

We look for answers to these and other questions in this episode.

Guest: Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor (Sports) at The Hindu

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

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A Kashmiri Pandit chemist Mohan Lal Bindroo, a Sikh school principal Supinder Kaur and her Hindu colleague from Jammu have been killed in targeted attacks in Srinagar recently. A large number of Muslims too have been killed in such attacks, laid at the door of The Resistance Front, widely believed to be a front of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Many Hindus who stayed back after the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s are scared and have been advised by the authorities to stay inside their houses. An estimated 300 Pandits have left.

This is possibly the most serious crisis in the Valley after the BJP Government at the Centre abrogated Article 370 and sliced the state of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories in 2019.

In this podcast, we explore the current situation and the possible reasons behind it.

Guest: Mohammed Sayeed Malik, veteran journalist

Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

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