In Focus by The Hindu

The Indian government fixes a Minimum Support Price or MSP for 22 crops - paddy, wheat, several pulses, oilseeds and millets are a part of this list. The objective of declaring MSP is to help farmers get a good price for their produce and to procure food grains for public distribution. However, recent data shows that the cost of production is rising.  

A recent report by Infomerics Ratings notes that the value of MSP for paddy has increased over time, reflecting the rising overall cost of production. However, it also notes that the input costs have also increased drastically. 

It also notes that there are significant disparities between States when it comes to production and procurement. This has a big impact on farmer incomes. There is also an increasing demand for a legally binding MSP.  

In fact, the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing in its report on 'Demands for Grants (2024-25)' of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on the 17th December 2024, noted that the implementation of MSP is a focal point in the dialogue surrounding agricultural reform and farmers welfare in India.  

It goes on to note that, "Since the Committee believe that implementing a robust and legally binding MSP in the country could play a crucial role in reducing farmer suicides in India by providing financial stability, protecting against market volatility & alleviating debt burdens, they recommended implementation of the same." 

We speak to Dr. Manoranjan Sharma, Chief Economist at Infomerics Ratings, about rice production in the country, how MSP is calculated, and about the health of the rural economy. 

Guest: Dr. Manoranjan Sharma, Chief Economist at Infomerics Ratings 

Host: Nivedita V 

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian 

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The Great Nicober Island is the southernmost island in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago in the Bay of Bengal. It is home to species of flora and fauna not found anywhere else on the earth. It is designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It is also the habitat of indigenous communities, including the Nicobarese and the Shompen, a ‘Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group’ (PVTG). The island is located on a seismically high-volatile zone, and experiences on an average one earth quake a week, of varying magnitude.

The government of India has planned a ₹72,000 crore mega-infrastructure project on this island. The project plan, piloted by the Niti Aayog, includes a ₹40,000 crore International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT), a greenfield international airport, a gas-and-solar-based power plant, and a township stretching over 16,610 hectares. This proposed project will decimate 131 sq km of pristine tropical evergreen forest, destroy the primary nesting place of the giant leatherback turtle, and settle 350,000 people on an island whose current population is 8,500. Yet it has got environmental and forest clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

How serious are the risks of this project? How rigorous are the Environment Impact Assessments that were done? Do the strategic and developmental gains from this project outweigh the environmental costs and risks of this project?

Guest: Dr. Pankaj Sekhsaria, a researcher and academic writer who has written extensively on the Andaman and Nicobar islands for over three decades and has curated the anthology, ‘The Great Nicobar Betrayal’.

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

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

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After battling insurgency for 13 years, the Bashar al Assad regime has collapsed in Syria. Assad and his family have fled to Russia where they have been given asylum. An Al Qaida affiliate that today goes by the name of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has taken control of the Syrian capital Damascus.

The immediate future of Syria now depends on the leader of the HTS, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, a man who was handpicked by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to establish a branch in Syria.

What were factors behind the sudden overthrow of the Assad regime, which not many had foreseen? What are the implications of this for Russia and Iran, Assad’s biggest backers? What are the implications for the various minorities such as Shias, Christians and the Syrian Kurds? And what does this mean for Palestinians in Gaza and for Lebanon?

Guest: Iftikhar Gilani, a senior journalist who has reported for three decades from South Asia and the Middle East and is currently based in Ankara.

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

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

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For the past month, the news has been filled with headlines about Delhi’s toxic air. Air quality levels deteriorated so sharply that a number of emergency measures had to be put in place, from shutting down school to halting construction activity, just to bring the levels down from ‘very poor’ to ‘poor’. But apart from the many respiratory issues that residents of Delhi, NCR and other parts of India face due to breathing in polluted air, did you know that air pollution could also lead to heart disease? One study indicates that outdoor air pollution from all sources accounts for 2.18 million deaths per year in India – of which 30% are attributable to heart disease. 

As pollution levels rise across the country and the burden of heart disease, especially among the young grows in India – we speak to Dr K. Srinath Reddy, cardiologist and distinguished professor of public health, Public Health Foundation of India about the links between air pollution and heart disease and how this can be tackled. 

Guest: Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, cardiologist and distinguished professor of public health, Public Health Foundation of India 

Host: Zubeda Hamid 

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

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Five people were killed and many were injured in clashes that followed protests over a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Chandausi, in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district.

The police have arrested dozens of people and registered cases against 400 people. The UP government has ordered a judicial probe into the violence.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has described the survey and the violence as a “well-planned conspiracy aimed at hurting communal harmony”. There are also multiple versions of who fired at the protesters, causing their deaths.

So, why did the civil court order a survey of the Jama Masjid? What was the chain of events that led to the deaths of five young men? What is the constitutional basis for raising legal questions over religious structures? Can any and every religious structure be surveyed if someone files a petition claiming it’s built on the site of another place of worship? 

Guest: Ziya Us Salam, Associate Editor, The Hindu.

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

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

(Background construction noise was unavoidable, which impacted the audio quality of this recording. We apologize for the inconvenience.)

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The fifth meeting of the UN’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) has ended without delivering a legally binding treaty to address global plastic pollution. The talks, which began in March 2022, were supposed to have produced a treaty by the end of 2024 but they haven’t.

The discussions saw a sharp divide between two camps – a large coalition of about 100 countries that wanted caps on plastic production, and a smaller set of oil-producing nations that wanted to focus only on plastic waste management. With the two camps unable to reach a compromise, the conference concluded on December 1 with an agreement to meet again at a later date. In the meantime, the world remains on track to keep producing 20 million metric tonnes of plastic waste every year, and triple plastic production by 2050.

So, what are the chances of a plastics treaty happening any time soon? What is the link between the climate change talks, the fossil fuel industry, and the plastics crisis? And why can’t the majority of countries that are serious about combating plastic pollution just go ahead without the small minority that are resisting an effective treaty?

Guest: Satyarupa Shekhar, a public policy advocate who works on urban governance, data justice, and plastics pollution.

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

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

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Today, we are discussing an important topic concerning the elections in Maharashtra. Now after the results that were announced on the 23rd of this month, we have seen that there have been several doubts which have been raised with respect to the results concerning the EVMs. Even today Maharashtra Congress president Nana P submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission speaking at an in-person hearing raising several doubts. We thought let us understand what the issues are let us understand how the voting process is conducted and what these doubts are and what the election commission has to say about it. To discuss all these issues which are pertinent to the political events and happenings in Maharashtra and to the several doubts that people have with respect to impartial elections in the state, I have with me S. Chokalingam who is the chief electoral officer of Maharashtra.

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In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, the Maha Vikas Agadi (MVA) won 30 out of the 48 seats, while the Maha Yuti could get only 17 seats. But in the just concluded Assembly elections, the Maha Yuti won a landslide, with 235 out of the 288 seats. The Maha Yuti alliance’s main constituent, the BJP alone won 132 seats, with the other two, the (Ajit Pawar-led) NCP and the (Eknath Shinde-led) Shiv Sena garnering 41 and 57 seats respectively.

None of the MVA parties could win enough seats to even qualify for the position of leader of the Opposition – the first time this has happened in six decades. The Shiva Sena (Uddhav Bal Thackeray) got 20 seats, the Congress won 16, and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) won 10 seats respectively.

So, what changed so dramatically in a matter of five months – from June to November 2024 -- that the Maha Yuti swept the state? How serious are the MVA’s complaints that question a post-5pm voter surge and the data mismatches between votes polled and counted?

Guest: Vinaya Deshpande, The Hindu’s Maharashtra Chief of Bureau.

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

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

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The connection between the gut and the brain has for long been established, but recent research is increasingly finding that problems in the gut are linked to problems in the brain. A paper published by researchers from Harvard Medical School along with others, for instance, has found that the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease was 76 percent higher among those with damage to the lining of their upper gastrointestinal tract than among those without such damage. In fact, the researchers found that symptoms in the gut could begin years or even decades before symptoms of Parkinson’s set in.

Research has also indicated links between gut health and other neurological conditions and even, between the gut and mental health.

So how does the gut-brain connection work? What does a healthy gut microbiome look like, and how is this linked with the overall health of the body? What is the role your diet plays in this, and how important is it? Are you, essentially, what you eat?

Guest: Dr Ennapadam S. Krishnamoorthy, neuropsychiatrist and founder of Buddhi Clinic, Chennai

Host: Zubeda Hamid

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

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The COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan has concluded without a proper agreement on the New Quantified Collective Goal (NCQG) on climate finance. NCQG refers to the money that would be given by the developed countries to developing countries to meet their climate mitigation and adaptation transition goals. Instead of an NCQG deal, the rich nations have agreed to pledge $300 billion annually as a base figure to lead efforts – including by developing countries -- to raise $1.3 trillion annually from 2035. But developing countries have called this deal an “insult” as it seems to shift the onus of climate finance on to developing countries.

Apart from this, there was also an agreement reached on global standards for carbon markets and trading. Further, the COP29 Presidency launched the Reducing Methane from Organic Waste Declaration, which saw over 30 countries declaring their commitment to set sectoral targets for reducing methane from organic waste.

How do we assess COP 29 in terms of progress on climate finance? And how do we understand the outcomes with regard to carbon markets, the drawdown on fossil fuel consumption, and loss and damage funds?

Guest: Nagraj Adve, a founder member of Teachers Against the Climate Crisis (TACC).

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

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

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