In Focus by The Hindu

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Days ahead of this week's upcoming first in-person meeting in Washington of the leaders of the Quad -- India, Australia, Japan and the U.S. -- Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. made a surprise announcement of a new landmark trilateral security partnership. Dubbed AUKUS, the initiative will see Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines with help from the U.K. and the U.S. The announcement is already making waves, drawing a strong reaction from France, which lost its submarine deal with Australia as a result, and responded by saying it would recall its ambassadors from Australia and the U.S. In this episode, we break down what the AUKUS deal is about, the implications for India and the Quad, and what it means for the broader evolving security environment in the Indo-Pacific region. We also look ahead to this week's Quad summit in Washington.

Host: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu

Guests: Suhasini Haidar, National Editor and Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu; Dinakar Peri, Defence Correspondent, The Hindu

Episode Notes

Suhasini Haidar, Five Main Issues On the Quad Agenda

The Hindu editorial, Three is Company

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On September 9, American automobile major Ford announced that it was shutting down manufacturing operations in India, leading to the loss of around 4,000 jobs. Ford is only the latest in a series of automobile companies who came to India with great expectations, but decided to leave in a few years. This runs counter to our government’s Make-in-India initiative, which aims to turn India into a preferred global destination for manufacturing.

What exactly is ailing India’s automobile sector? Is there a mismatch between production capacity and consumer demand? Are there regulatory issues? Or are there other constraints that compel foreign auto majors to pull the plug on India, which, incidentally, is still one of the largest car markets in the world?

Guest: Puneet Gupta, Director of Automotive Sales Forecasting at IHS Markit

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

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What caused these tigers to change their stripes, and in such a short period of time? Is it the result of shrinking habitat and inbreeding? Does this make them more susceptible to extinction? We discuss these in this podcast.More than 50 years ago, when tribals in Similipal reported seeing tigers so dark, their stripes almost fused together in patches, threatening to erase parts of their orange coats, nobody believed them. Since then, there have been numerous sightings of pseudo-melanistic tigers--as they are called-- at Similipal Tiger Reserve, but we didn’t know what caused them to change their stripes. Until now.Scientists at the National Centre for Biological Studies, Bengaluru have unravelled the mystery of these ‘black tigers’ and their findings were published earlier this week in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Guests: Dr. Uma Ramakrishnan, molecular ecologist and professor at the National Centre for Biological Studies, Bengaluru; Vinay Sagar, PhD student and lead author of the paper.

Host: Anjali Thomas, City Editor-Bengaluru, The Hindu

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Pakistan is a key player in the politics of Afghanistan. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is seen as a strategic victory for Pakistan, one of the three countries that recognised the Islamic Emirate in 1997.

How critical is Western recognition and aid for the survival of the Taliban and the Afghan people? Will Pakistan come under pressure from the rest of the world if the Taliban continue to exclude women and minorities from the governance structure? Will the Taliban continue its previous policy of sheltering the Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups? Or will they show a new face to the world?

Guest: Shuja Nawaz, distinguished fellow at the South Asia Centre of the Washington-based Atlantic Council. Brother of former Pakistani Army Chief Asif Nawaz, and author of "Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army, and the Wars Within".

Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

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The BJP has changed chief ministers four times in three states, in just the last seven months. The latest change happened this week in Gujarat, with Vijay Rupani making way for Bhupendra Patel as CM. Before this, the BJP changed the Karnataka chief minister in July, and the Uttarakhand CM was changed twice, in March and again in July.

Where the person occupying the CM post is a senior leader or a veteran who is popular and wields political clout in his region, it would presumably be tough to replace him/her mid-way through a term. But when CMs are changed at will, it is generally seen as symptomatic of a ‘high command’ culture, where a party’s national leadership calls the shots.

Has the BJP, known for strong CMs in the past, fully embraced the high command culture – something traditionally associated with the Congress? If so, what are the real reasons behind the replacement of the CMs in these states?

Guest: Varghese K George, Resident Editor - Delhi, The Hindu

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

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There's been a lot of talk of and concerns raised, about food fortification recently -- which is the adding of one or more nutrients to a staple food, aiming to compensate for deficiencies in large populations. In in his Independence Day speech this year, Prime Minister Modi said that all rice distributed in the government systems, including in the public distribution system and for midday meals, would be fortified by 2024. Considering the burden of anaemia in India, iron is to be one of the nutrients added to rice. The government has already launched a pilot programme in 15 districts, using fortified rice for distribution. But does all our rice need to be fortified? Is iron deficiency the only cause of anaemia? How big is our anaemia burden? And is there evidence to show that iron fortification will work, or are there other steps that policy-makers could try?

Guest: Dr Anura Kurpad, professor of physiology and nutrition at St John’s Medical College, Bengaluru

Host: Zubeda Hamid

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The Sri Lankan government declared an economic emergency last week. The immediate trigger seems to have been rising food prices, with reports of shortages of essential items such as milk powder, sugar and kerosene.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has called in the army to manage the crisis by rationing the supply of essential goods, and take action against hoarders. He has also appointed a former army general as Commissioner of Essential Services, who will have the power to seize food stocks held by traders and retailers, and regulate their prices.

So, how did Sri Lanka end up with a food crisis? And what exactly is ailing the Sri Lankan economy? Is it just the COVID-effect or is it something deeper?

Guest: Meera Srinivasan, Sri Lanka correspondent, The Hindu

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

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Last month, the Union government announced that it would invest ₹11,000 crores under a centrally sponsored scheme, The National Mission on Edible Oils—Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), to promote oil palm cultivation. The stated objective of this scheme is to reduce India’s dependence on edible oil imports by boosting domestic production of oil palm.

Many, however, have expressed concerns over this push for oil palm cultivation, especially in bio-diversity hotspots such as the Andamans and the North-east. Critics have claimed that the monoculture of commercial oil palm plantations would destroy bio-diversity as well as the livelihood autonomy of farmers. How valid are these fears and what are the likely outcomes of the government’s ambitious plans to boost oil palm production?

Guest: Sudhir Kumar Suthar, Assistant Professor at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

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

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After a gap of more than a year, the Nipah virus is back in Kerala. After a 12-year-old boy died of the infection in Kozhikode district, 11 more people have shown Nipah symptoms. A team from the National Centre for Disease Control has been rushed to the State to help manage the outbreak.

Kerala is already caught in a tough battle against COVID-19, with the state still accounting for almost half of all new infections in the country. In this scenario, the outbreak of one more deadly viral infection has everyone worried. Also, this is the third outbreak of Nipah in Kerala, with the state having encountered the virus in 2018 and 2019. So, how serious is the current outbreak? How prepared is Kerala to handle it? Will the outbreak remain localised, or is it likely to spread further?

Guest: Jacob Koshy, Deputy Science Editor at The Hindu.

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

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