For anyone who drives a vehicle in this country, the nightmare scenario is the same: an accident involving another person. India has one of the worst road accident rates in the world – in 2022, the country reported over 4,60,000 road accidents, with over half taking place on national and State highways. Clearly, road safety is an area of huge concern. Recently, new provisions related to hit-and-run accident cases were brought in under the new penal code, the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita or BNS. These provisions however evoked massive protests from truck drivers across the country at the beginning of this year – truckers said the penalties were unfair, imposed very heavy fines and jail sentences and did not take into account the many issues on Indian roads – the bad conditions of the road, lighting and visibility factors, mob violence in some cases where accidents take place and the behaviour of other motorists and pedestrians on the road itself. The protests only ended after the Union Home Secretary said these provisions would only be implemented after consultations with transport bodies.

So what are the new provisions for hit and run accident cases in the law? What constitutes rash and negligient driving and what are the penalties for it? Do the laws need to take into account contributing factors to accidents, and does there need to be a graded system for penalties?

Guest: Prof GS Bajpai Vice Chancellor, National Law University Delhi.

Host: Zubeda Hamid

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramnian.

India and Iran have deep cultural and historical connections. But relations between the two nations have atrophied in recent times.

US sanctions on Iran have been a big factor, leading to India largely curtailing its engagements with the country. But recent developments – visa-free travel for Indians, and Iran’s entry into BRICS -- seem to provide reason for cautious optimism.

What are the key concerns and objectives for Iran and for India when it comes to bilateral engagement? To what extent does American, Israeli and Arab concerns influence India’s approach to Iran, notwithstanding its proclaimed doctrine of ‘strategic autonomy’? And what outcomes should India be aiming for through its engagements with Iran? Tune in to find out.

The RBI has imposed major restrictions on the operations of Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL). It has directed Paytm Payments Bank to stop accepting deposits or top-ups in customer accounts, wallets, FASTags, and other instruments after February 29.

An RBI circular stated that this action follows an audit report and a compliance validation report by external auditors, which revealed “persistent non-compliances and continued material supervisory concerns in the bank, warranting further supervisory action”.

The Paytm founders have written to the RBI governor and the finance minister asking them to reconsider the regulatory action against them.

What exactly are the allegations against Paytm? What does the RBI action mean – for Paytm, for the fintech sector, and for ordinary users? What are the issues with the regulatory framework for the digital payments ecosystem?

Guest: Srikanth Lakshmanan of Cashless Consumer, a consumer collective that works on fintech.

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

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

If you or your child has a bad cough, the first thing you’ll probably do is reach for a cough syrup. It’s easy, it's available over the counter and there’s no fuss about taking it. But does it work? Is it at all effective to help your cough go away? Last year, a panel of the US Food and Drug Administration came to the agreement that phenylephrine, a common ingredient used in a number of cough and cold medicines is completely ineffective.

Health bodies across the world emphasise that over-the-counter cough and cold medication should not be given to very young children – but this continues to be a common practice in India, despite the fact that research has pointed out that it may not even work for them.

Two months ago, the Indian government too issued an order with regard to this – it said that a cold medicine combination that contained two ingredients, chlorpheniramine maleate and phenylephrine, should not be used for children under the age of four and these drugs should be labelled accordingly.

So should over-the-counter cough/cold medications be stopped for young children? Are they safe for older children to take? If they are ineffective, why are they being prescribed and sold? What can adults use instead? Tune in to find out.

Pakistan goes to the polls on the 8th of February to elect members of what will be its 16th lower House or National Assembly.

The polls come just as former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been convicted in two successive cases and stands debarred from contesting elections. His party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, or PTI as it is known, is fighting with its back to the wall.

Pakistan Muslim League leader Nawaz Sharif fancies his chances of becoming Prime Minister for an unprecedented fourth term. Many analysts believe that he has the blessings of the Army establishment on this occasion.

The Pakistan People’s Party of Bilawal Bhutto and Asif Zardari is also in the electoral fray, with Bilawal Bhutto training his guns on Nawaz Sharif.

A far-right Islamist Party, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, could cut votes of mainstream parties. It is a party to be watched.

In the past few weeks, there has been a surge of complaints from passengers about Digiyatra. Their main complaint is about security personnel and airport staff collecting their biometrics for the app, using coercion and deception.

According to travellers, CISF personnel at the entry gates were asking them to scan their boarding pass and capturing their photos, and then enrolling them in the Digi Yatra app without even informing them. The element of coercion is especially startling as the Ministry of Civil Aviation, when it unveiled the Digi Yaytra policy in 2018, had made it clear that it would be entirely voluntary.

Digital rights experts have highlighted several other concerns about the Digi Yatra app, related to privacy, surveillance, exclusion, lack of transparency and accountability, and violation of the passenger’s dignity and autonomy. The Ministry, on its part, has said that the only objective of the Digi Yatra’s biometrics-enabled, digital processing of passengers is to usher in “paper-less and seamless movement through various checkpoints” at airports.

Is the Digi Yatra app safe? Is it reliable? How do airports in other countries process passengers? And is Digi Yatra really worth it or should it be withdrawn?

This is a crossover episode

On February 1, the BJP-led government will place its Interim Budget in Parliament, seeking a vote on account.

Has the NDA government’s economic performance in its second term fared better than its first? Here we discuss the question.

The Australian Open likes to call itself ‘the Happy Slam’ and this year’s edition sure turned out to be a happy one for India. Rohan Bopanna became a Men’s Doubles Grand Slam champion for the first time and claimed the World No. 1 ranking at the age of 43. In Men’s Singles, Sumit Nagal made it to the main draw after coming through three qualifying rounds and scored an upset victory over 31st seed Alexander Bublik in the first round – the first time in nearly 40 years that an Indian has beaten a seeded player at a major.

The first slam of the year also produced a new Grand Slam champion in Jannik Sinner, while Aryna Sabalenbka mounted a successful defense of the title she won last year.

With the Australian Open setting the tone for the rest of the season, some intriguing questions arise. Will 2024 be the year that Gen X finally takes over from the Big Three? How can Sumit Nagal build on his Australian Open exploits to move further up the rankings? And who are the exciting new names to watch out for in the months to come? 

This year’s Annual Status of Education Report or ASER, ‘Beyond Basics’, surveyed over 34,000 young people aged between 14 and 18, in 28 districts across the country, to get an inkling into: what are the young people of India currently doing? What are their basic maths and reading abilities like? And how do they navigate the digital world through smartphone use?

The results were perhaps not very surprising given that ASER, which is brought out by the NGO Pratham, has been flagging concerns about reading and numeracy levels among primary school children. It showed that about 25% of these teens could not read a second standard text fluently in their regional language and over 50% struggled with a fourth standard-level division problem.

It also showed however, that over 85% of these teenagers were enrolled in an educational institution, and that digital awareness skills are high – nearly 90% had access to a smartphone and knew how to use it.

What do these results indicate about the education system in India? How is the country doing with regards to the Nipun Bharat Mission which aims towards foundational literacy and numeracy? Will the gaps in education hurt the employment prospects of young people and how can they be fixed? Can their ease with digital devices be harnessed towards bettering their education? Tune in to find out.

India’s public distribution system – its ration shops – through which subsidised food grains are distributed to the poor is the largest such welfare programme in the world. It is a lifeline that saves millions from hunger. But for the past few years, the Union government has been running pilot projects where fortified rice --- rice enhanced with iron and vitamins – is being distributed instead of natural grains. The reason given by the government for this switch is that it will reduce anaemia in the population.

But a great number of the poor – especially the adivasi communities – do not like it, calling it ‘plastic rice’. Public health experts have also advised caution on giving this rice to people with sickle cell anaemia and thalassemia – and there is a high incidence both among the beneficiaries of the PDS in India.

Despite problems at the pilot stage, and reports about lack of adequate quality control and testing infrastructure, the government has a target of scaling up fortified rice universally from March 2024.

Is there scientific evidence that fortified rice is the best solution for anaemia? Does a poor person who cannot consume fortified rice for medical reasons have an alternative? And what exactly is driving the mega-push towards fortified rice in a country where local grain varieties with higher iron content are available?