News and Views

The first batch of electoral bonds – Modi government’s new scheme for ‘transparent’ political funding – were released for ten days between 1-10 March. The Quint, with the help of a State Bank of India (SBI) employee, examined an original bond worth Rs 1 crore and can confirm that they are not serialised.

An implication of this, according to financial experts and Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers, could potential misuse of these bonds to channelise black money and further corruption.

Countries can be poor for a variety of reasons, such as insufficient natural resources, lack of human and cultural capital, periodic devastating natural disasters, protracted internal strife, routine foreign aggression, etc. None of these need to be “deserved” in any sense; it’s just bad luck. However, that’s not the case for India. India doesn't have to be pathetically poor. India’s poverty is by design.

Three individuals, three countries and their emerging relationship are likely to dominate global geopolitics for the next few years: President Donald Trump in the US, embarking on the second year of his turbulent term, President Xi Jinping in China, newly anointed, in effect, Supreme Leader for life, and President Vladimir Putin in Russia, writes Shashi Tharoor.

Bollywood's latest trend of rehashing and remixing old classics merits a deeper engagement. With the viewers divided, the impending question then is whether the rehashing and remixing of old songs points towards an absolute bankruptcy of creativity or is it just smart commerce?

Mansplaining is a thing even in cinema. Have you noticed how most of the “But, hum wahan jayenge kaise?” queries are asked with complete naïveté by the woman, while the man peremptorily explains? Can you think of too many mixed groups where the man asks the woman the best way to take someone down, and the woman rattles off battle plans? I know I can’t. Think recent ‘action’ movies a la Baaghi, Baby, Bang Bang.

Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament on Tuesday, 20 March, that the government found DNA proof regarding the death of 39 Indian workers who went missing in June 2014 from Mosul, Iraq, after ISIS took over the city. Her announcement ended years-long speculation, mostly from the government’s part, on the fate of the missing.

In a huge blow to the BJP just a year before the next Lok Sabha elections, the party has lost Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls to the SP-BSP duo in Uttar Pradesh. BJP also failed to wrest the Araria Lok Sabha seat in spite of all their big claims and a weakened RJD after Lalu’s jail term.

When Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Chief Chandrababu Naidu pulled out his ministers from the Modi government a week ago, little did he anticipate that his hands would be forced by bête noire Y S Jagan Reddy in a little over seven days. Naidu had withdrawn his ministers ostensibly over the Modi government’s categorical no to confer a special category status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh, but in actuality, it was to steal a march over Jagan Reddy.

It was a beautiful sunny day in Cambridge, and as I was rushing hastily to attend a talk when I saw the much-talked-about wheelchair and the legendary man speeding through the university lane around DAMTP (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge). It was none other than the great Prof Stephen Hawking. This was my first glimpse of him in real life.