Innholdsfortegnelse for October 7, 2024 i India Today

Our brand-new highways are a matter of pride as they cover an increasing part of our landscape. A key component of our development agenda, their expansion is crucial to maintaining or even increasing our GDP growth rate. However, it has been accompanied by a negative side-effect that’s rising alarmingly—highway accidents, often involving a pile-up with multiple high-speed vehicles and high fatalities. This is a sign of our overall regulatory systems not keeping pace with development. Annually, accident fatalities on Indian highways now range over 100,000. That means 274 people dying daily or 11 every hour. Despite the fact that national highways account for barely 2.1 per cent of the 6.3 million km of roads across India, they share a vastly disproportionate 36 per cent of the overall fatality burden. The…

BJP ↘ ₹2,100 per month to all women; LPG cylinder for ₹500 ↘ Free ₹10 lakh health cover for each family; additional ₹5 lakh for each elderly (70+) ↘ Free dialysis in govt hospitals, diagnosis in all hospitals ↘ Guaranteed government jobs to 200,000 youths and Agniveers from Haryana ↘ 500,000 houses for the poor in urban and rural areas ↘ Scooter for every college going student in rural areas ↘ Welfare boards for 36 small backward communities ↘ Full scholarship to OBC/SC students studying medicine and engineering in any government college in India CONGRESS ↘ ₹2,000 per month to every woman (18-60 years), LPG cylinder for ₹500 ↘ ₹6,000 monthly pension to the elderly, disabled and widows; reinstating the OPS ↘ 300 units of free electricity, free medical cover…

On September 18, despite opposition from political parties and civil society, the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre decided to move forward with the ‘One Nation, One Poll (ONOP)’ plan, with the Union Cabinet accepting recommendations from a high-level committee led by former president Ram Nath Kovind. The panel proposed that Lok Sabha and assembly elections be held together, with municipal and panchayat elections following within the next 100 days. It also recommends a single electoral roll and Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) database to govern voting to elections to all three tiers of legislative bodies. But simultaneous elections will require 18 amendments to existing laws, including 15 to the Constitution—e.g. in Article 82 (delimitation), Article 83 (duration of Houses of Parliament), Article 85 (dissolution of Lok Sabha by the President),…

What is a diamond without its sparkle? Well, a slump in demand and drop in prices are robbing it of some of its sheen even as the new kid on the block—the lab-grown diamond or LGD—is increasingly gaining global acceptance among consumers. And nowhere is it more apparent than in Surat, the hub of the diamond industry in the country. Ask Suresh Solanki, a 30-year-old highly skilled diamond polisher, who once earned a comfortable Rs 60,000 a month. Today, he struggles to make Rs 300 a day doing odd jobs. In the cramped, windowless 20 sq. ft room he shares with his wife and three children in Gujarat’s diamond city—where the kitchen, bed and wash area all blur together—life feels rougher than ever. His wife’s workstation, a defunct sewing machine…

It’s raining accolades for Lisa Mishra. On the day we catch up for this interview, the OTT series in which she has made her India debut, Call Me Bae, is number one in the country and all across South Asia on Prime Video. And the song ‘Yaara Tere Bin’ that she composed for the series is already topping the charts in Mumbai. If you’ve watched the series, you’ve probably noted the inherent talent and good looks of the Indian-born, American-bred musician and actor, who plays the role of channel producer Harleen. Not only will you be seeing more of her in the upcoming series Royals and at the Lollapalooza India 2025 music fest in Mumbai, she’s definitely going to be slaying it all round in the years to come. Living…

India’s Ebrahim Alkazi was one of the truly great generative cultural figures of post-Independence India. Born into a wealthy family, he made maximum use of his good fortune, uniting that with sharply intelligent hard work to contribute massively, particularly in the fields of theatre and the visual arts. Beginning his career in Bombay during that city’s most fecund period as India’s cultural capital, he then moved to Delhi, becoming instrumental in transforming the bureaucratic backwater into a zone of huge artistic dynamism. For those of us who grew up in the decades between 1960 and 1980, Alkazi was already a legend, someone who seemed to be sitting at a great unreachable height atop the country’s cultural peaks. Written by his daughter Amal Allana, this biography humanises Alkazi, allowing us to…

Politics can turn foes into friends. And when it’s the poll season, unforeseen overtures become all the more common. At a rally in the dusty town of Tohana on September 23, Union home minister Amit Shah amplified precisely such a counter-melody, one that has pepped up the Haryana assembly election, imparting a late twist to a contest that was being seen as all done and dusted. The speech was peppered with invocations of the work done during the decade-long rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), both in the state and at the Centre. But the real juice was the concern he showered upon Sirsa MP Kumari Selja—the Dalit face of the party seen to be in pole position, the rival Congress. As the Grand Old Party smells power after a…

IT was his maiden I-Day address, but Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had little good news for his people. “Telangana’s debt burden has gone up by 10 times since the state was created in 2014. Total debt was Rs 75,577 crore then…it was Rs 7 lakh crore in March,” he said. That said, there was apparently a way out: during his US tour in early August, the World Bank had shown interest in retiring some of the high-cost loans. This, the CM hoped, would lessen the burden imposed on the state by the “indiscriminate borrowings” of the earlier K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) regime. The Congress government has now released a white paper on the state’s finances. “My government will not commit the mistakes of borrowing funds at high interest rates, putting…

PROS ↘ Cost efficiency: Conducting simultaneous elections will reduce expenses ↘ Seamless governance: Frequent polls along with Model Code of Conduct disrupt governance ↘ Administrative streamlining: A single electoral roll and synchronised elections would reduce burden on administrative and security forces ↘ Focus on development: Continuous polls make governments focus on short-term populist policies rather than longterm development CONS ↘ Blow to federalism: Simultaneous polls can centralise power and weaken regional parties, as national issues overshadow local ones ↘ Logistical challenge: Organising simultaneous polls across the large, diverse country presents a logistical nightmare in terms of security and administrative personnel ↘ Midterm poll complications: In case a government falls before its term ends, holding fresh elections will disrupt the synchronised cycle. Midterm polls will complicate the system…

Arecent retrospective of master sculptor and Padma Shri-awardee Biman B. Das is a homage spanning five decades. Showcasing a collection of the veteran artist’s works from 1974 to 2024, it includes sculptures in bronze, terracotta, marble and wood as well as paintings in watercolour. Das’s sculptures traverse four major themes—Hindu mythology, Buddhism, abstraction and portraiture. Inspired by the representations of gods and goddesses in temples and manuscripts, he sculpts his own interpretation of their traditional forms. “He is as much a sculptor as he is a devotee, and his works are an ode to the divine conceived through serene contemplation. They are as such not merely art but moments in his journey within,” says Geeta Singh, director, Art Pilgrim gallery. The historic town of Tamluk in West Bengal where Das…

They say politics and sports don’t mix, but then they don’t know India very well. The latest arena for the joust was the Assam Olympic Association election on September 22, which was taking place after 30 years. In one corner was now Union minister and dormer chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, in the other, current CM Himanta Biswa Sarma. While Sonowal got a walkover for the president’s post, the lesser seats saw a cage match between the two BJP factions. Things got so spicy that Sarma had to tell some of his MLAs to back off, leading to some awkward last minute withdrawals. In a quid pro quo, Sarma’s brother and IPS officer Sushanta Biswa Sarma got to become vice-president. In the end, both sides split the spoils. In politics, unlike…

IMPROVE ROAD DESIGN: Regular safety audits of all national and state highways must identify and rectify blackspots. States must ensure all clearances have been taken at the design stage itself MONITOR VEHICLES BETTER: States must implement Vehicle Scrapping Policy, 2021, to ensure that old and unfit vehicles are off the roads. Manufacturers, too, must provide safety enhancement features across models, not just in luxury segment STRICTER ENFORCEMENT OF TRAFFIC RULES: No concession must be given to traffic violations, strict penalties must be enforced for deterrence TOUGHER LICENCE NORMS: States must set up driving schools and test centres, clearing which should be made mandatory for a person to get a driving licence POST-ACCIDENT MEASURES: Set up a universal helpline number for accident victims; improve response time of ambulances and ensure they have…

At 79, Asha Puthli is having the busiest year of her career. In August, the US-based Indian singer wrapped up her first-ever world tour that covered the US, Australia and the UK and included a main stage slot at the Glastonbury Festival. The end of this month will see the release of acclaimed British-Bahraini dance music duo Dar Disku’s self-titled debut album on which she features on the Hindi disco-pop song ‘Baar Baar’. Then, in November, she will return to London to play the prestigious 100 Club. “I guess what motivated me to do it is to show people that you can be creative no matter what age you are,” she says over a Zoom call from her home in Palm Beach, Florida, when asked why she decided to take…

A new exhibition in the capital celebrates the vibrant artistic spirit of Baroda. Often known as one of India’s important art hubs, the city has supported art that boomed and flourished during the rule of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III in the 19th century. An artist group that was founded in 1956 by N.S. Bendre, the Baroda School comprises artists associated with the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. The school marked a move away from the Revivalist inclinations of groups such as the Bengal School as well as the academic realism practised by European schools. The exhibition aims to plug into the current art trends that are emerging from the city, which has supported artists since Independence. Emerging from these studios are a number of artistic languages ranging from…

Q. Can you tell us briefly what Our City That Year is about? The book traces the corrosion of common human decency and the growth of a divisive relationship full of mutual suspicion, intolerance and violence and hatred between the two major communities that have coexisted in this country for centuries. It worries about the rise of narrow prejudices which have begun to colour the language even of the so-called secularists. Q. How involved were you in the translation process? Daisy [Rockwell] and I have developed a wonderful rapport. We go into discussions and clarifications alongside the translation and then the final call is taken. Usually hers, unless I have a huge objection, which is rare. Q. How do you view translation? Do you feel certain nuances get lost in…