In Focus by The Hindu

Bangladesh is in the midst of tumultuous change. After former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge as ‘Chief Adviser’ to an interim government. Meanwhile, with Hasina out, the future of the Awami League looks uncertain. The Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is back in the reckoning, and so is the Jamaat-e-Islami.

What do the people of Bangladesh expect from the interim government? Will there be changes to the Constitution in the near future? Did Indian foreign policy miss a trick or two in anticipating and/or responding to these changes in its neighbourhood? What is the situation with regard to the safety of minorities?

Guest: Kallol Bhattacherjee from The Hindu’s Delhi Bureau

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

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

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The last Grand Slam of the year, the US Open kicks off on Monday, with all the top players in attendance on both the men’s and women’s section. The draw is out, and interestingly for Novak Djokovic, who will be seeking a 25th Slam, his three biggest challengers – Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner – are all on the opposite side of the draw, which means he won’t meet them before the final.

World No. 1 Sinner enters the event under the cloud of a doping controversy, and it remains to be seen if that affects his game or preparations. On the women’s side, as usual, the Big Three – Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina -- remain the favourites, with a couple of dark horses in the likes of Jessica Pegula and Jasmine Paolini.

Who are the stars in form? Which are the match-ups to look out for? And what are the prospects for Indian hope Sumit Nagal?

Guest: N Sudarshan from The Hindu’s Sports Bureau.

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

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

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Another public health emergency has hit the world, and this time it’s mpox, previously known as monkeypox. The outbreak is sweeping through west, central and east African countries, and in the past few days cases have also been reported closer home, in Pakistan and Thailand. 

While mpox has been around for decades, this time around, a deadlier and far more transmissible strain—known as Clade 1b—has driven the recent surge in cases. This strain is believed to cause death in about 3.6 per cent of the cases, with children being the most vulnerable, according to the World Health Organisation. 

The Indian government has said there is no call for alarm as of now but has also said that hospitals have been alerted and large-scale testing is being looked into if the need arises. 

So what is mpox—how is it caused and how does it spread? How do you know if you have mpox and what are the signs and symptoms? What are the treatment options and is there a vaccine available? And importantly, how concerned should India be about this latest zoonotic viral disease? 

Guest: Dr V Ramasubramanian, consultant infectious diseases specialist, Apollo Hospital, Chennai and medical director, Capstone Multispecialty Clinic, Chennai 

Host: Zubeda Hamid 

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian. 

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A few weeks ago, Donald Trump told Black journalists in Chicago, USA, that Kamala Harris had identified herself as Indian, not Black. He was trying to suggest to Black journalists and voters that Kamala Harris was not "Black enough." While that criticism has been made against Kamala as well as Obama, for that matter, it also threw into focus Indian-Americans who form a small part of the overall population in America but who are now quite visible in American politics, government, business and academia today. 

We have Vijay Prashad, academic, author and activist who is executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and author of the book Karma of Brown Folk about Indian-Americans to talk to us about this.

Host: M Kalyanaraman

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

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In 2020, the Indian government issued a directive that made changes to its FDI policy. The Directive, called Press Note 3, made it mandatory for companies that are based in countries that India shares a land border with to get the government's approval before investing in India.

Experts saw this as a move to curtail Chinese investments into India and protect Indian companies from hostile takeovers. Chinese investments in India have fallen to a nearly two-decade low as a result. However, it is important to note that China is not a major investor in India, only $4 billion of Chinese FDI has entered the country in two decades. 

Over the last couple of months, several reports, including the Economic Survey, have made a case for urging the govt to allow Chinese investments in India.  “To boost Indian manufacturing and plug India into the global supply chain, it is inevitable that India plugs itself into China’s supply chain. Whether we do so by relying solely on imports or partially through Chinese investments is a choice that India has to make," the Economic Survey stated.

Several media houses, including from The Hindu businessline, reported that the government is willing to relook this policy, even though the government has denied this. This could help get more investments in India. Meanwhile, India's net FDI inflow dropped by 62.17% to $10.58 billion in 2023-24 (FY24), a 17-year-low, from $27.98 billion the previous year, data from the RBI showed.

Can such a move benefit India? We discuss this in the episode. 

Guest: Santosh Pai, Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies

Host: Nivedita V

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

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The fifth of August changed the course of history in Bangladesh. The images of a once-powerful Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fleeing the country in a helicopter will remain etched in memory for the momentous change it marked.

A government led by the high-profile Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, once the target of Sheikh Hasina’s high-handed actions, has taken charge of the country. It has, significantly, two young leaders from the student movement that took the county by storm and led to the far-reaching changes.

Mr. Yunus and his government are taking steps to assure the minority Hindu community that they are safe in the country in the wake of attacks in many places. As the euphoria of change dims, the spotlight will be on how the interim government performs. What the students do in the days and weeks ahead will also be watched. They have already demonstrated their influence.

So, what do all these life-changing events spell for Bangladesh? We discuss this in the episode. 

Guest: Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star newspaper. 

Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu. 

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

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How did the rapid decline in the population of vultures in India affect human beings? A new study, published in the American Economic Review, says that because these birds went nearly extinct, India had about 500,000 additional deaths from the year 2000 to 2005 and the economic damages to the country amounted to about 69.4 billion dollars annually.

How did this happen? Up until the early 1990s, vultures were a familiar sight in India – estimates indicate the country had about 30 to 50 million vultures. In the 20 years following 1994 however, the vulture population has been decimated – only a few thousand now exist, and they are listed as a critically endangered species. What happened to them? Diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, began to be used by farmers to treat their cattle. When vultures consumed, as they always do, the dead animals or carcasses that were treated with this drug, they began to die as this drug was poisonous to their systems. It took some years for the link between the drug and the vulture deaths to be established and the drug was eventually banned for animal use, but too late for the vultures of India.

So how did the loss of vultures affect the sanitation system of India? What happened to the carcasses of farm animals that were once effectively cleaned up by vultures? Did the population of dogs and rats increase because of the vulture deaths? And importantly, how did this contribute to human deaths?

Guest: Eyal Frank, assistant professor, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago, and co -author of the paper

Host: Zubeda Hamid

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

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The devastating landslides in Wayanad that left over 400 dead and over 100 still missing shocked not just Kerala but the entire country. Almost immediately, a blame game began – Union Home Minister Amit Shah said adequate warning had been given to Kerala, but the government of Kerala disputes this – it said the warning came after the landslide had occurred. Experts in the meantime have pointed to a number of factors that could have acted as the trigger, including the 570 mm of rainfall received in the region on July 30 and 31st. The tragedy has also brought back into the news the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, led by Madhav Gadgil, whose report in 2011 recommended that the entire region of the Western Ghats – 1,29,000 sq km across six States be declared an ecologically sensitive zone. The report recommended three zones for ecologically sensitive areas, with strict restrictions on development activities in the first two. This report generated backlash from the States as it would significantly impact livelihoods and economic growth.

Following the landslide, the Central government brought out, for the sixth time in 10 years — a draft notification classifying parts of the Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive areas. Concerns of the States are now to be addressed by a separate committee.

What were the actual triggers of the landslide? How are the Western Ghats and other hilly regions in India particularly vulnerable? How much of a role has climate change played and will this continue in the near future? What can be done to make modelling and prediction systems better?

Guest: Raghu Murtugudde is a professor of climate studies, IIT Bombay, and an emeritus professor, University of Maryland.

Host: Zubeda Hamid

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

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The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee announced on Thursday (August 8) to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5% in its August 2024 meeting for the ninth consecutive time. It maintained its inflation projection for FY25 at 4.5 per cent.

While announcing the MPC policy, Governor Shaktikanta Das noted that headline inflation reached 5.1 per cent in June 2024, driven by unexpected factors. Fuel prices remained in deflation for the tenth consecutive month, but food inflation surged. Food inflation contributed over 75 per cent to headline inflation in May and June. Vegetable prices alone accounted for roughly 35 per cent of June's inflation.

Governor Das said that that the MPC cannot afford to ignore this, espicially in an environment of persisting high food inflation.

Vegetables and pulses have kept headline retail inflation has been over 5 per cent for eight months in the last one year. However, retail core inflation — the non-food and non-fuel segment — moderated to a four-year low of 4.3 per cent in FY24. In fact, core inflation saw a historic low during May and June.

Some experts believe that high food inflation is stopping the RBI from cutting rates. In fact, the Economic Survey has suggested that "India’s inflation targeting framework should consider targeting inflation, excluding food."

The argument for the change is that core inflation is muted, meaning the domestic demand is weak. Core inflation measure the change in the cost of goods and services, but it does not include the food and energy sectors. A rate cut would help boost demand. Others say that food inflation is a very important component and it can't be excluded.

In this podcast, V Nivedita spoke to Dipti Deshpande, Director and Principal Economist at CRISIL Limited, to decode the debate - should the RBI focus on core inflation while forming its monetary policy?

Guest: Dipti Deshpande, Director and Principal Economist at CRISIL Limited

Host: V. Nivedita

Edited by Jude Weston

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Kamala Harris’s late entry in the Presidential race leaves her with just three months to roll out her campaign. What kind of campaign strategy will work best for Harris given her vulnerabilities, especially on the immigration issue, and her record as attorney general in California?

As for the Republicans, their entire Presidential campaign had been designed keeping in mind a race against Biden. According to the Washington Post, Trump’s running mate JD Vance reportedly told donors in a private meeting that the Biden to Harris switch is a “political sucker punch”. What adjustments will the Trump campaign need to make, given that Harris doesn’t carry the ‘baggage’ that Biden does? 

We take a close look at how Team Trump and Team Harris are approaching the coming months of the Presidential race – what issues they would seek to highlight, what strategies they will adopt, and how they define their political vision. 

Guest: Varghese K George, The Hindu’s Resident Editor in New Delhi.

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

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

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