In Focus by The Hindu

Another assembly election is done and dusted. And the Opposition has lost yet again – this time it was decimated. The NDA won 202 out of the 243 seats in Bihar, with a vote share of 46.5%. The Mahagathbandhan could secure only 35 seats, with a vote share of 37.6%.

Before the results were out, no one had predicted that the NDA would cross 200 seats. But post-facto, we are hearing sophisticated hypotheses about the so-called ‘index of unity’, caste arithmetic, etc that apparently benefited the NDA. And once again, the Election Commission’s role is in the spotlight, especially with the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

What does this verdict mean for Bihar, and for the Opposition parties, which, in 2026, face a series of assembly elections preceded by SIR, just like in Bihar?

Guest: Professor Kumar Sanjay, who teaches history at Swami Shraddhanand College. Delhi.

Host: G. Sampath

Shot by Tayyab Hussain

Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston

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Surrogacy, is back in the news. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court agreed to look into the Surrogacy Act, following a petition from a couple facing secondary infertility. At present, the Act does not allow for couples who already have a biological child to use surrogacy unless certain criteria are met, and the court will have to examine if this amounts to a restriction on the reproductive choices of citizens. A little over a month ago, there was another case before the court involving surrogacy: at that point, the Court had ruled that couples who began their surrogacy process before the enactment of the Surrogacy Act could proceed even if they were over the age limit set by the law.

How is the Supreme Court going to examine the recent petition? Are the restrictions in the Surrogacy Act sufficient to weed out exploitative surrogacy? How well implemented has the Act been over nearly four years? And do surrogates and egg donors need more protection than the Act provides?

Guest: Prof. Prabha Kotiswaran, Professor of Law and Social Justice at King’s College, London

Host: Zubeda Hamid

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

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This episode of InFocus unpacks the complexities behind low conviction rates in POCSO cases, revealing why these numbers don’t always tell the full story. Featuring Vidya from Tulir, we explore the impact of POCSO laws on young people, social challenges faced by accused families, and potential legal reforms. Tune in for a nuanced discussion on justice, consent, and data-driven solutions.

Guest: Vidya from Tulir, a Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse

Host: Vignesh Radhakrishnan

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

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Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. and its allies have rolled out sweeping sanctions — freezing Moscow’s central-bank assets, cutting major banks off SWIFT, and capping Russian oil prices through export bans and trade restrictions.

These moves have reshaped global energy flows, with India emerging as one of Russia’s top oil buyers — importing record volumes of discounted crude despite mounting Western pressure.

Under the Biden administration, Washington led these coordinated efforts to choke off funding for Russia’s war. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has used the threat of sanctions to discourage trade with Moscow, a move that’s largely targeted India’s continued oil imports.

Now, fresh U.S. tariffs and the threat of secondary sanctions are complicating New Delhi’s effort to secure affordable fuel. For India, discounted Russian oil has become both an opportunity and a diplomatic test.

What do these sanctions mean for India’s decades-old partnership with Moscow?

Guest: Vasabjit Banerjee, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee.

Host: Nivedita V

Edited and produced by Jude Weston

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Last month, a tragic incident took place in Jharkhand. Five children with thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder contracted HIV, following a blood transfusion. Initial investigations revealed that the blood they were given, was contaminated. While the Jharkhand government swung into action, suspending officials and announcing compensations – the fact remains that the blood that the children were given from a blood bank was unsafe. Blood is a critical compound – it is used across thousands of hospitals every day and there are regulations in place with regard to testing protocols to ensure that infected blood is not given to any patient. So where did the lapses occur? What kind of testing mechanisms do we have in place and are they sufficient? What is the ‘window period’ when it comes to infections and how can this be shortened? And how do we ensure safe blood for every patient in need?

Guest: Dr Rizwan Javed, transfusion medicine expert, Kolkata

Host: Zubeda Hamid

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

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The civil war in Sudan has taken more than 150,000 lives. It has displaced at least 13 million people. The UN has confirmed famine in parts of the country. There is widespread malnutrition, especially among children. And peace is nowhere in sight. The two warring sides -- the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group under General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have been fighting since April 2023. Last month, the RSF captured El Fasher city in Darfur, which used to be a SAF stronghold. It sparked a fresh wave of atrocities, deaths, rapes and displacement. A US-backed ceasefire proposal on the table, but Sudan remains a humanitarian black hole for now. What is behind this endless violence? Does the ceasefire proposal hold promise? What can be done to mitigate the humanitarian tragedy? 

Guest: Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s Internatinal Affairs Editor

Host: G. Sampath

Edited and produced by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

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Earlier this week, a video purportedly showing a group of people offering namaz at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru ignited a political controversy in Karnataka, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party taking exception to the incident and demanding accountability from the State government. Around the same time, in Uttar Pradesh, the police began removing unauthorised sound systems from mosques and temples in some areas.

In India, it is common to see Navratri celebrations at the airport, namaz on railway platforms, commemoration of Sikh Gurus’ Jayanti on the roads of Delhi, hear azaan on a loudspeaker five times a day, and jagrans all night long. India is undeniably demonstrative about religion in public space. Should public celebrations or expression of devotion be avoided? Here we discuss the question.

Guests: Tanika Sarkar, Professor of History at JNU and Sanjay Hegde, Senior Advocate designated by the Supreme Court of India.

Host: Ziya Us Salam

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There was a time when women like Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand and Angela Merkel in Germany seemed to rewrite the rules of leadership. They led with calm, empathy and reason.But the picture has changed. Across countries, a new generation of women leaders is rising. There's Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France, Alice Weidel in Germany and now Sanae Takaichi in Japan. They’re shattering glass ceilings while standing on nationalist, conservative platforms.So what does this really mean for women? Is their rise a step forward or just another version of the old power?

Guest: Suhasini Haider, National Editor, The Hindu
Host: Anupama Chandrasekaran

Edited and produced by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

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The Election Commission of India has announced the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across 12 States, including poll-bound Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Kerala. The first phase of the SIR in Bihar has already been subjected to intense legal scrutiny in the Supreme Court, with the poll body defending the exercise even as petitioners alleged mass disenfranchisement and raised concerns over transparency.

What has the Supreme Court’s intervention in the Bihar SIR achieved so far? With polling already underway in the State, is the challenge to its constitutional validity now a fait accompli? And what can be expected from the petitions filed by Opposition parties, including the DMK, CPI(M), and the Congress, challenging the exercise in other States?

Guest: Prashant Bhushan, advocate practising before the Supreme Court.

Host: Aaratrika Bhaumik

Recorded by Aniket Singh Chauhan and Lipi Vats

Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston

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In today’s world, relations between the United States and China is perhaps the most consequential of all bilateral ties. They are both economic superpowers. Their geopolitical footprints cover almost the whole planet. Naturally, the trade war between the two has affected economies around the world – troubling markets, disrupting supply chains, bringing more uncertainty than businesses are comfortable with. But an understanding reached between them also carries upsides and downsides for different nations. 

In this context, how do we understand the agreement that came out of the Trump-Xi meeting in South Korea? What are the concerns on the American and Chinese side going forward? And how do we understand Trump, and then Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, referring to the meeting as a coming together of ‘G-2’ – a term that suggests the idea of an exclusive club with common interests? 

Guests: Max Baucus, a former US Senator who served as Ambassador to China, and James Chau, President of the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), based in Hong Kong.

Host: G Sampath

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

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