In Focus by The Hindu

The COVID-19 pandemic caused not only a health emergency in the country, but also led to mass economic distress with the loss of jobs and livelihoods. India already one of the lowest rates of women in the workforce, and the pandemic worsened this situation -- it forced women into jobs that paid lower rates than pre-pandemic and it added significantly to their domestic work burden -- with schools remaining closed, women were forced to stay at home to care for children. In the April-June 2020 quarter, during the lockdown, the percentage of women in the labour force was only 15.5%. But this problem has persisted for years -- despite increasing educational levels among women and decreasing fertility levels, India continues to have not as many women in the workforce as even our neighbouring countries. What are some of the reasons behind this? How is a country's economy impacted when 50% of its population is left out of economic activity? How can policies be changed in order to encourage more women into the workforce?

Guest: Sona Mitra, principal economist, Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy, lead, Krea University

Host: Zubeda Hamid

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Just a few weeks ago, we were celebrating India’s best ever medals tally at the Tokyo Olympics. And now India has produced its best performance ever at this year’s Paralympics. We have already bagged 10 medals, with two gold, five silver and three bronze. This has generated a lot of curiosity, both about these successful para-athletes and about the Paralympics itself.

For para-athletes, the rules and requirements of competition, as well as the challenges, are different from what they are for the able-bodied. They come under the spotlight whenever the Paralympics are held but are mostly forgotten in the intervening years. Will the Indian contingent’s superlative achievements at the Tokyo Paralympics change this pattern?

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

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

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The United States has literally fled Afghanistan. Other Western nations, most of them part of the G-7 had wanted an extension beyond August 31 so that repatriation flights could continue, but U.S. President Joe Biden put his foot down.

What will be the international status of Afghanistan now? Who will represent the country in the U.N.? What are the options of the international body while dealing with the Taliban? How will the U.S. deal with the Taliban? Will Russia and China have a better grip on the Taliban than the western powers?

Guest: Syed Akbaruddin, formerly India’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations in New York and currently Dean of the Kautilya School of Public Policy in Hyderabad.

Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu

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The price of petrol is more than ₹100 per litre in several parts of the country – the highest it’s ever been. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has blamed the UPA-era oil bonds for the high fuel prices. She has claimed that the ₹1.4 lakh crores worth of oil bonds issued by the UPA government have to be serviced, and that’s why the government has had to tax fuel at high rates. Opposition parties have, of course, disputed her claims. So, what exactly is the truth about oil bonds, and how credible is the government’s claim that oil bonds are to blame for the high fuel prices? Guest: Vivek Kaul, business columnist and author of five books, including the bestselling Easy Money trilogy Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

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Afghanistan continues to hog the headlines. Nearly two weeks after the Taliban drove into Kabul, and former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, the world is still debating whether the Taliban have turned a new leaf. As analysts, experts and journalists try to figure out the Taliban’s intentions, wait and watch appears to be the default mode. Will the Taliban actually allow women and girls to work and study? Will music be allowed? Will there be elections? Or will there just be a soft veneer hiding the very same iron fist that we saw during the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001? Guest: Michael Semple, Professor at The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen's University in Belfast. He has worked as deputy to the European Union Special Representative in Afghanistan. He also served as an honorary adviser to the Afghan High Peace Council. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Write to us at [email protected]

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Earlier this month, the Union Education Ministry told a parliamentary panel that the plan to serve breakfast to students in government schools had to be shelved as the Finance Ministry had refused to sanction the Rs. 4,000 crore the programme needs. The refusal comes at a time when the country is facing a malnutrition crisis -- data from the latest National Family Health Survey shows an increase in stunting, in 13 of the 22 States and Union Territories that were covered. As this was 2019 data, experts believe that food insecurity during the pandemic could have worsened, especially with the immense disruption in services such as the mid-day meals, as well as due to economic distress.

Where does India stand on addressing malnutrition? Have government schemes such as the flagship programme to address malnutrition, POSHAN Abhiyaan, worked? What have been the efforts made during the pandemic, and what more needs to be done to address a problem that not only affects children, but has long-lasting consequences upon the health and wellbeing of the nation?

Guest: Dr. Dipa Sinha, assistant professor, School of Liberal Studies, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Delhi

Host: Zubeda Hamid

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Since good health is both a pre-condition and an outcome of sporting activity, is there a case to be made for linking sports policy to public health? Can this be done in a way that makes commercial sense as well? And most critically, does it make sense for a nation like India, with limited means but high Olympic ambitions, to concentrate public money on elite sports and success in elite competitions? Or should it focus more on building a sporting culture as such, by boosting community participation in sports and ‘physical literacy’, as we have seen in sporting nations such as Australia, which also tend to do better in elite events such as the Olympics?

Guest: Hans Westerbeek, Professor of International Sport Business and Head of the Sport Business Insights Group at Victoria University, Melbourne.

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

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The return of the Taliban and the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan has raised a lot of new questions. We’ve discussed some of them in different InFocus podcasts over the past week. We’ve looked at why the Afghan army almost melted away, what the Taliban’s likely course of action is going to be, what are India’s options in Afghanistan now, especially the nature of the relationship with a Taliban-controlled regime.

One of the things we haven’t covered so far is the geo-political ramifications of the American withdrawal. The exit of a superpower is bound to create a power vacuum that the other big powers in the region, most notably Russia and China, and regional powers such as Iran and Pakistan, would be scrambling to fill. And each of them has their own set of priorities. It’s a rather complicated strategic scenario. We unpack the web of macro-level geo-political issues linked to the U.S.’s withdrawal from Kabul in this podcast.

Guest: Stanly Johny, International Affairs Editor, The Hindu

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

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In the wake of the Taliban takeover and U.S. exit, attention has focused on what role China is likely to play in Afghanistan. Beijing was among the first countries to say it "stands ready" to work with the new Taliban regime, while in late July, China hosted a Taliban delegation committing economic cooperation. What will China's game plan be? Will Beijing remain cautious or step up its presence, particularly in the economic domain? What of China's long-standing concerns of the Taliban's links to Jihadist groups, including those blamed for attacks in China's Xinjiang region, which borders Afghanistan? Will the new situation in Afghanistan see a deepening China-Pakistan nexus, and what will be the implications for India?

Guest: Andrew Small, Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund and author of "The China Pakistan Axis"

Host: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu

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The Parliament cleared the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021 on August 11th. The Bill seeks to amend the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act, 1972, and thereby enable the privatisation of the public sector insurance companies regulated under the 1972 Act.

Apart from privatization, the Bill’s stated objectives include enhancing the penetration of the insurance sector, providing social protection by securing the interests of the policyholders better, and contributing to faster economic growth. It is not quite clear how this Bill would manage to achieve all these objectives. Also, is the Bill driven purely by an impulse to generate funds through disinvestment, or does it also further consumer interest?

Guest: Harsh Roongta, founder and head of Fee Only Investment Advisers, LLP, a SEBI-registered Investment Advisory firm.

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

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