Truth vs Hype

Skill India is one of the government's most ambitious plans, with a target to skill 40 crore workers in seven years. This week, Truth vs Hype examines the questions it raises: Do we have the capacity to skill so many workers while maintaining quality? And are industries willing to pay premium for skill? And there are also deeper questions: whether simply possessing a skill is enough given the dramatic changes unfolding in India's workforce, where a new generation of workers are coming to new uncertainties?

Truth vs Hype this week looks at whether this government, like previous ones, has fallen prey to the malaise of interfering with educational and research institutions. We investigate the reasons behind the abrupt resignation of the head of NCERT, the body that frames school textbooks. What explains the continuing acrimony in India's premier history research institute? And what is Baba Ramdev doing at IIT Delhi?

Through 2007, as a series of blasts rocked Indian cities, investigators charged a core group of Sangh Parivar activists for the attacks. But now, there are worries that the cases are under threat of falling apart. First, Special Prosecutor in the Malegaon blast, Rohini Salian, says she was asked to go soft by officials of the National Investigation Agency after a new government came to power. Now, 'Truth vs Hype' finds that the Ajmer blast case, where again the accused are affiliated to the Sangh may be at the risk of collapse with key witnesses turning hostile.

Truth vs Hype comes at the end of a week when the BJP government is grappling with its first major political crisis, triggered by allegations that its senior leaders did special favours for Lalit Modi, the former IPL boss who being investigated for a raft of charges in India. We take a hard look at the defence being offered by the ruling regime: the support they offered was justified, that Mr Modi is technically not a fugitive from law, and that there was no quid pro quo. And also does the Congress' high ground undermined by their own actions, or lack of them, in bringing Lalit Modi to justice.

As the Modi government attempts to jump start the economy, we focus on one area of the financial system that could threaten to slow down economic revival, one that gets far less scrutiny than it should: corporate debt. A mountain of cash stuck in projects half complete or yet to get off the ground, weighing down the banking system. Will the urgency to get stalled projects back on track lead to the mistakes of the past being repeated, with little or no interest in establishing how crores of public money were lent so recklessly, and where it has all gone?

As the Modi government turns a year old, we focus on one of its most ambitious projects: Make in India, which promises to turn India into a global manufacturing hub. But is Make in India a recycling of the UPA's manufacturing scheme? And will it be able to create the millions of jobs it promises?

Jayalalithaa is back as chief minister after the Karnataka High Court acquitted her in a case of unaccounted wealth. But there are serious questions that have surfaced over the logic of the judgement - not just mathematical errors but as an exclusive NDTV investigation has found, several graver lapses. These lapses have in turn only intensified the allegations of politics at play, clouding over the investigation from the very start.

The anniversary of the Modi Sarkar will be marked by the inevitable highlighting of its achievements, especially its marquee schemes Jan Dhan - opening bank accounts for the poor; and Swacch Bharat -building crores of toilets. Both these schemes were modeled closely on UPA-era programmes which fell short because they prioritised the meeting of targets over actual delivery. This week, we take a hard look at whether the NDA's ambitious planners have learnt from past errors, or will they repeat the UPA's mistakes at an even larger scale?

This week, Truth vs Hype travels to Scotland after UK's surprise election results saw a separatist party, the Scottish National Party, claim a strong voice for the first time in Parliament, dampening David Cameron's victory celebrations. NDTV speaks to political pundits, SNP leaders and the people of Edinburgh to find out if the reasons for Scottish resentment are really justified and if, as many believe, the future of a United Kingdom is at threat.

This week Truth vs Hype travels to India's grain bowl, where instead of bustle of harvest season there is concern over mounting debt, ruined crop, and even talk of suicides. The government says this is the right time to implement the findings of a controversial report which wants major changes in India's food distribution system. But others say that the report will only make food producers and consumers more vulnerable.