In Focus by The Hindu

A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down the Centre’s electoral bond scheme. Electoral bonds enabled anonymous political donations, which the apex court has termed as “unconstitutional”. It stated categorically that the scheme violates the right to information under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.

What was the reasoning behind for this verdict, and what are its implications for Indian democracy going forward?

Guest: Jagdeep S Chhokar from the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a nonprofit that works in the field of electoral and political reforms.

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

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

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The Uttarakhand assembly passed the State’s Uniform Civil Code last week. Titled ‘The Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand, 2024’, the Bill was one of the BJP’s poll promises during the 2022 Assembly election campaign.

Although its applicability is supposed to be uniform, the law exempts tribal populations, and also the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) from its purview.

What’s the legal history and background of this legislation? How does this law affect minority communities? And what’s controversy around its provisions concerning live-in relationships?

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The Union Finance Ministry has come out with a ‘White Paper’ on the changes in the Indian economy in the past 20 years. In the 58-page document, which it presented in Parliament, the government compares the 10 years of UPA-rule from 2004 to 2014 with 10 years of NDA rule from 2014 to 2024. It claims that the NDA government in 2014 inherited a “deeply damaged economy” marked by “governance, economic and fiscal crises”. It further claims that the in the past 10 years, the NDA government has “turned around” the economy and “rebuilt” it from the foundations for long-term growth.

Incidentally, this is the second such major paper from the government making significant claims in the economic domain. Earlier, the Niti Aayog had released a paper claiming that multidimensional poverty declined in India during the NDA years. We did a podcast on that paper as well, and you can check it out here (hyper link here).

What are the various claims made in the White Paper, and how do they stand up to scrutiny?

Guest: economist Professor Arun Kumar.

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

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

Listen to the episode on the Niti Aayog report here.

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The people of Pakistan have spoken. They have reposed their faith in democracy and cast their vote against the establishment’s efforts to decimate the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Independents backed by his party, PTI as it’s known, have won 93 seats in a House of 264, with the Muslim League Nawaz notching up 75. The Pakistan People’s Party has won 54 seats.

It looks likely that a coalition government will take power in the country. Talks have begun between the Nawaz League and the PPP to form a coalition government even as the mandate appears to be for the PTI.

So, what lies ahead for Pakistan? What does the mandate of February 8 mean? Will Imran Khan be out of jail like Nawaz Sharif for a fresh lease of life in politics? Or is it too early?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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