In Focus by The Hindu

On Tuesday, the world’s tallest mountain added a few more centimetres to its already lofty peak after Nepal and China jointly announced the new height of Mount Everest as being 8,848.86 metres, revised from the earlier 8,848m that has been recognised since 1954. And with that, Mt. Everest has officially gained 86 centimetres, or roughly three feet. The new height was announced at a high-profile virtual ceremony, with the Presidents of China and Nepal exchanging letters, foreign ministers in attendance, all aimed at showcasing a deepening strategic relationship between the two countries, for whom the height of the mountain has been a matter of long-running debate. Host: Jayant Sriram Guest: Ananth Krishnan, former China correspondent, The Hindu. Find the In Focus podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. Search for ‘In Focus by The Hindu’. Write to us with comments and feedback at [email protected].

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In this first of two episodes on COVID-19 vaccines, we give you a quick explainer on what to expect from vaccine trials and how to interpret news around it. Concerns have risen around Bharat Biotech’s vaccine candidate after Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij, who participated as a volunteer in the phase 3 trials for Covaxin, tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks after receiving the shot.

As more vaccine candidates emerge, we are likely to hear of more such incidents. But it is important to remember, as we learn in this episode, that infections arising among some participants is actually part of the clinical trial design for most vaccines.

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

Coronavirus | About 130 Covaxin trial volunteers may test positive, says Bharat Biotech

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This podcast was recorded on December 3, amid the continuing standoff between farmers’ groups and the Central government in Delhi and its fourth round of talks with not just Punjabi and Haryanvi farmers, but representatives from other parts of the country too. The farmers fear the recent agricultural reforms passed by the government will lead to the deregulation of crop-pricing, deny them fair remuneration for their produce and leave them at the mercy of corporations. The government, on the other hand, argues that the new laws will give farmers more autonomy in selling their produce, lead to better pricing, and free them from unfair monopolies.

In this episode, we delve further into aspects of minimum support price and the APMC mandi system, which the new laws seek to bypass. These are currently the most proximate to the talks between the farmers groups and government. And we also discuss a possible way forward for both sides as the negotiations continue.

Guest: R. Ramakumar, Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

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Two senior Indian officials travelled to Nepal and Sri Lanka last week as part of India’s ongoing efforts to repair relations in the neighbourhood. In Nepal, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla said India and Nepal “need” each other, making a pitch to halt the downward slide in relations that set in following particularly the Kalapani border dispute. In Sri Lanka, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval discussed key bilateral issues including Indian investments and regional security with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. How successful have India’s efforts been to repair the recently deteriorating relations in the neighbourhood, and how is India responding to China’s growing political, and especially economic, influence in South Asia?

Guests: Suhasini Haidar, National Editor and Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu; Meera Srinivasan, Sri Lanka Correspondent, The Hindu.

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The assassination last Friday of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh has triggered the possibility of a new crisis in West Asia.

This latest development comes at a crucial time for Iran. There are hopes that Joe Biden, the incoming American President, would return to talks with Iran, ending months of “maximum pressure”, a policy adopted by the outgoing President Donald Trump, which took both countries to the brink of war after the killing of General Qasem Soleimani in January this year by the United States.

There are other powers in the middle east, notably Israel and Saudi Arabia, who have long seen Iran as a threat and would not welcome the U.S returning to talks or easing economic sanctions on Iran. So, there are many possible motivations for this latest assassination and many factors at play.

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

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Although weeks have passed since the 2020 United States presidential election, the ferment in politics continues in Washington as outgoing President Donald Trump refuses to concede power and facilitate an orderly peaceful transition. The broader transition to a new arrangement in the White House will also be impacted by the choice of officials that President-elect Joe Biden picks to serve in his Cabinet, as much as it will by the policy paradigm that the new team adopts. Here we try to explain the risks and opportunities of this sometimes opaque presidential transition process.

Guest: Professor Karen Hult of Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, who is also a board member of the White House transition project.

Host: Narayan Lakshman, Associate Editor, The Hindu.

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Pakistan is moving to grant full statehood to Gilgit-Baltistan, which appears as the northernmost part of the country in its official map. Should that happen, G-B would become the fifth province of Pakistan, although the region is claimed by India as part of the erstwhile princely State of Jammu & Kashmir as it existed in 1947 during its accession to India.

In fact, elections were held on November 15 that will pave the way for fuller political rights for the roughly 1.2 million residents of the region, though there have been protests in the region over how the elections were conducted. What implications do the recent moves on G-B have for India vis-a-vis China?

Guest: Suhasini Haidar, National and Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu.

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On June 12, 2020, an Internal Working Group was set up by the Reserve Bank of India to review the current licensing and regulatory guidelines regarding ownership and control of banks in India. This working group shared its report on the RBI website last week for comments. Its most significant recommendation was that corporate houses could be given banking licences. Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and former RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya have, in a blogpost titled “Do we really need Indian corporations in banking?”, strongly criticised the RBI report, asking whether there is any need to open up the banking sector to corporate houses now; what new information has prompted a need for a change in our bank-licensing guidelines? So, why is the RBI interested in allowing corporate houses into the banking sector, and what are the risks involved? We explore these questions in a discussion with Vivek Kaul, well-known business columnist and author of five books, including the bestselling Easy Money trilogy. His most recent book is called Bad Money: Inside the NPA Mess and How it Threatens the Indian Banking System. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Find the In Focus podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. Search for ‘In Focus by The Hindu’. Write to us with comments and feedback at [email protected]

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The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest trade bloc of 15 countries including the 10 ASEAN members, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, was signed on November 15 without India, which was part of the long-running negotiations until it withdrew last year. While the agreement leaves the door open for India to join, that appears unlikely for now. The day after the signing, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar criticised past trade agreements for “deindustrialising” some sectors and not being advantageous to India. What is behind India’s reasoning to stay out of RCEP? How much of a factor was the presence of China?

Is India now likely to turn away from regional free trade agreements in the future, and what will doing so mean for India’s trade and investment prospects?

Guests: R. Ramakumar, NABARD Chair Professor, School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai; Amitendu Palit, Senior Research Fellow and Research Lead (Trade and Economics), Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.

Host: Ananth Krishnan, former China Correspondent, The Hindu.

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A conflict is taking place in Ethiopia, where the country’s Nobel Prize–winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has started a military operation in the rebellious Tigray region earlier this month. Mr. Abiy has said it would be a limited campaign focussing on the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the militia-cum-political party that runs the region. However, almost two weeks into the conflict, Ethiopia risks falling into an ethnic civil war with major regional implications.

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

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