Innholdsfortegnelse for March 9, 2020 i India Today

IF you missed US president Donald Trump’s two-day state visit to India earlier this week, you were either living under a rock or lost in the Himalayas. I’ve rarely seen any head of state being given the kind of welcome Trump received in India—a roadshow and a raucous T-20 style final, held, somewhat appropriately, in the world’s largest cricket stadium. In the grand finale that evening, the former real estate developer from Manhattan saw the monument that has inspired his garish casino in Atlantic City. It is a visit the showman-president and master of impulsive diplomacy is unlikely to ever forget. Last October, we saw a sombre but significant welcome for Chinese president Xi Jinping in Mahabalipuram, as he arrived for the second India-China informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra…

The government’s recent effort to promote digital transactions—by making them cheaper for consumers—looks to have come at a cost to banks. Effective January 1 this year, the government has waived the merchant discount rate (MDR)—a fee paid by merchants to banks for the infrastructure that allows them to accept digital payments—on transactions made using RuPay cards and through BHIM-UPI apps. RuPay is a domestic card payment scheme launched in March 2012, while BHIM is a mobile payment app launched in December 2016, both by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Historically, a well-defined revenue-generating structure has underpinned card payments. The bulk of the revenue—which comes from MDR fees paid by merchants—went to the banks that issued the cards and accepted the payments, with network providers like Visa, Mastercard or…

For all his depredations, notorious forest brigand Veerappan, gunned down in a police encounter in 2004, had big dreams for his children. He wanted Vidya Rani and Prabha Rani to become either IAS officers or doctors. But fate seems to have other plans. With the Tamil Nadu election due next year, political parties are making a beeline for the sisters. BJP leader Muralidhar Rao inducted older daughter Vidya, 30, into the party at an event held recently in Krishnagiri district. Younger daughter Prabha, 27, is reportedly being wooed by the DMK.…

At his first press conference in Patna on February 18, election strategist Prashant Kishor said he was in the state to get the ‘Baat Bihar Ki’ initiative off the ground, the centrepiece of his pitch being a developmental push to secure for Bihar a place “among the top 10 states”. PK insisted he was not there “to form alliances or stitch election strategies”, but just two days later, he was spotted in a Delhi hotel, meeting with three leaders of the state’s erstwhile ‘grand alliance’—former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), ex-chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi of the Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) and Mukesh Sahni of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP). Although the three leaders have not said so on record, and PK maintained his…

The day after US president Donald Trump departed from New Delhi after a 36-hour state visit, external affairs minister S. JAISHANKAR sat down for an exclusive interview with Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa. In one of his most detailed interviews to date, the foreign minister put the Indo-US relationship in perspective, outlining India’s new foreign policy engagement with the world. Among other things, he expounded on the ‘Modi Doctrine’, the extraordinarily complex relationship with China, dealing with terrorism emanating from Pakistan, the abrogation of Article 370, the challenges of explaining the Citizenship (Amendment) Act to the world and the impact of the economic slowdown. Excerpts: Raj Chengappa: What has been the big takeaway for India in this visit by the US president? S. Jaishankar: This is the seventh visit by…

1 Group of Ministers formed to monitor the Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) crisis 2 The Health ministry issues advisories for the public, for health workers and for laboratory and airport staff 21 international airports and 12 major ports screen passengers from high-risk routes; 2,315 flights and 249,447 passengers screened till date 3 23,259 people have been brought under community surveillance 4 The Home ministry puts the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on standby 5 The NDRF distributes 100 bio-hazard suits to its 12 battalions; sensitises airport immigration staff 6 World Health Organization identifies The National Institute for Virology Pune as one of the 15 global testing labs for the virus 7 State health departments are made first responders for confirmed cases; each state has a disaster management fund available to them…

Q. Do you feel the success of Succession is partly due to a cultural shift that questions, and often ridicules, virtues and politically correct morality? There is an element of that. It is a morality tale, Chaucerian in its ambition, and reflects the mores of the time. We are living in ludicrous times… the rise of the right, the idiocy of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, the ridiculousness of Vladimir Putin; and, in India, the move towards radical Hinduism, which is actually the opposite of what Hinduism is about. The zeitgeist of the time creates a show as extraordinary as ours. Q. As someone playing a patriarch on the show, do you think it is imperative that children outshine parents in terms of achievements? The demands Logan makes of his…

One of the first records of the artist James Wales is from 1777. Aged 30, he was evicted from his two-room tenement for failing to pay rent. According to the Edinburgh City Archives, his belongings were auctioned for £11 to pay off his landlady. In 1783, Wales moved to London and set himself up as a portrait and landscape painter. A chance meeting with the artist James Forbes led to a commission to complete Forbes’s sketches of India and, in 1791, with permission from the East India Company, Wales, by then 44 years old, boarded a ship for Bombay. Uday S. Kulkarni’s book is a painstakingly detailed and fulsomely illustrated account of Wales’s career in India, where he lived from July 1791 till his sudden death in November 1795. India…

A disturbing video circulating on social media has brought to public attention the violence to which Dalits are subject, seemingly at the whims of their upper-caste neighbours. On February 16, in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district, two young men were held by a group of Rajputs and severely beaten, one was stripped and (in effect) sexually assaulted with a screwdriver dipped in petrol. Had it not been filmed, the victims say, they would not have filed a police complaint because their assailants had already threatened them with dire consequences. For their part, the assailants accused their victims of theft. In Rajasthan, this latest atrocity is part of a growing trend of crimes against Dalits, with figures from the state reported to be at their highest in a decade. According to National Crime…

The book is significant, not for its revelations but as a record—it tells the story of India’s transformation from a flailing economy to a respectable racehorse Two lions have roamed for decades in the corridors of power, both born in what later became Pakistan. One rose from being chief economic advisor to the finance ministry to prime minister. The other rose from being an economic advisor to the vice-chairman of the Planning Commission. Both celebrities have hitherto been unfailingly reticent. The first one, when he was prime minister, read out speeches full of thousands of meaningless words of propriety churned out by assistants. The second one circulated an incognito tract within the government in 1990, proposing a radical departure from its pseudo-socialism. A roving journalist then, I had speculated that…

The Rajasthan government, in its 2020-21 budget, has earmarked Rs 4 crore to renovate four heritage properties of the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC)—in Alwar, Sawai Madhopur, Nathdwara and Pushkar. This, however, looks like a drop in the ocean as the bankrupt RTDC, by one estimate, needs Rs 100 crore for revival. The RTDC’s luxury trains, too, have gone off track. While the ‘Royal Rajasthan on Wheels’ has stopped operations, the ‘Palace on Wheels’ is no longer attracting tourists. Another state entity, the Rajasthan State Hotels Corporation Ltd (RSHCL), is in dire straits, with a part of its heritage property in Jaipur’s Khasa Kothi being rented out to a university. Calls for disinvestment are growing, but will Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot bite the bullet? ₹ 171 CRORE Accumulated losses of…

That the title of Lilly Singh’s show sounds like a pun is no coincidence. Last year, Singh became the first Indian-origin, openly bisexual woman of colour to host a late night talk show, titled A Little Late with Lilly Singh. “The double meaning was on purpose,” says Singh—the show airs at 1.35 am in the US (and 11 pm in India), but the name also alludes to it being a little late for such milestones in showbiz. After the collective euphoria came the initial mixed reviews. For instance, there were comments about games on the show being complicated. “I think the key to making a good show and being a good creator is not to pay attention only to the positive feedback. There is value in listening to criticism,” she…

IT DOESN’T TAKE time—or dialogue—for Sooni Taraporevala to get to the point in her second feature film after Little Zizou (2009). Aerial shots of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link segue into a view from the “other” side—a little fishing village that signifies the salty origins of the shining new Mumbai. The story pivots around the volatile Asif and the soft-spoken Nishu, two young talents who emerge from the city’s slums and are catapulted to an esteemed ballet school in the US, propelled by their Israeli-American teacher, Saul (played by British actor Julian Sands). In Yeh Ballet, Sooni Taraporevala, a sensitive photographer herself, has created a visually immersive piece Within the larger plot, the foes-turn-bros track makes for interesting viewing. The film does occasionally err on the side of heavy drama, but…

When musician and activist T.M. Krishna wrote his treatise on Carnatic music years ago, he left out the place of instrument makers in its long and clamorous history. In Sebastian & Sons, he partly fills that gap by telling the story of those who make the mridangam, the percussion instrument that today anchors every Carnatic performance. Krishna’s approach is characteristically thorough and earnest to a fault as he traces the evolution of the instrument and its makers. He explores the bylanes in which the makers live, with cousins, nephews, grand-nephews in the adjoining streets, all in the business of transforming pieces of animal skin from an untouchable object to the voice of the divine. He traces the families from Thanjavur, Madras, Andhra Pradesh, Palakkad and even Bangalore who engage in…

A campaign is building up against Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa in the ruling BJP in Karnataka. This follows the denial of ministerial berths to several party old-timers in the February 6 cabinet expansion and the chief minister’s reported bid to secure an influential post for his son B.Y. Vijayendra in the party organisation. For over a week now, two unsigned letters (in English and Kannada) have been circulating in BJP circles, citing Yediyurappa’s age and ‘failing health’ and his attempts to empower his son, and demanding the appointment of a new chief minister. Yediyurappa, who turns 77 on February 27, has drawn the ire of senior BJP leaders, such as Umesh Katti, Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, Murugesh Nirani, M.P. Renukacharya, Siddu Savadi, Sanganna Karadi and Anand Mamani, as they were left…

1. NEIGHBOURHOOD CONNECTIVITY Since Narendra Modi first took over as prime minister in 2014, his government has invested heavily in connectivity projects in Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Myanmar, building roads, railways, ports and telecom networks AFGHANISTAN Operationalised Chabahar port in Iran, now used to ferry aid to Afghanistan; also an air freight corridor with the country. Completed the Afghan parliament building in Kabul in 2015 NEPAL Provided development financing for 6 cross-border rail links; operationalising 4 integrated check-posts, developing inland waterways and building road links MYANMAR Investments in two trilateral highway projects and the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project. Inland water terminals in Sittwe and Paletwa completed SRI LANKA Upgraded Colombo-Matara railway line ($99.77 mn Line of Credit); laid rail tracks in the Omanthai-Pallai, Madhu Church-Tallaimannar and Medawachchiya-Madhu…

Vinaya Chandran knew exactly what he wanted to do even before he was released from the army quarantine camp in Manesar, Haryana—eat a home-cooked meal with his family in his hometown Alappuzha in Kerala. “The camp has looked after us well. We have all become close friends. But the food is not what I am used to,” says the 31-year-old medical student from Wuhan University, China. He and the 647 other Indians evacuated from Wuhan on January 30 and February 1 in two batches were released on February 19 after they tested negative for the Novel Coronavirus (nCoV). However, to avoid taking chances, each person has been home quarantined for an additional 14 days, with their respective district hospitals monitoring the situation. With over 80,239 cases worldwide and 2,700 deaths…

If Gulshan Devaiah’s decade-long filmography is anything to go by, it’s clear he can not only follow Bollywood’s commercial formula (Hate Story, Goliyon ki Raasleela, Ramleela and Commando3), but can also do justice to its indie spirit(Shaitan, Hunterrr, A Death in the Gunj). Interestingly, he says, he wouldn’t have had it any other way. “Sometimes, actors do something, and one wonders why did they do that?” said Devaiah. “I have not been obligated to do something because I need the money to maintain my lifestyle. I have managed my expectations and expenses well so far.” If there’s one indulgence, then it is shoes—he has over a hundred pairs. Devaiah began 2020 on a high note. His zombie act in Dibakar Banerjee’s socially relevant short in Netflix’s Ghost Stories stood out…

By the late 18th century, Indian artists found it increasingly difficult to earn a living from the declining centres of the Mughal court or its successors. Meanwhile, they began receiving commissions from patrons affiliated to the East India Company. The art these painters created for expatriates has never received its due. As the sun set on the British empire, these were no longer displayed proudly in the UK, nor studied much in a newly independent India. In 2014, when art historian B.N. Goswamy picked out 101 images for his Spirit of Indian Painting, only one was a Company commission. These works should serve as a reminder that modernity in India began as colonial modernity The very name ‘Company School’ betrays its emphasis on the colonial patrons “while excluding any reference…

Q. What was your vision for Junoon and how has it shaped up? We wanted to see an urban landscape across India that has the arts as a fundamental part of its social life. We believe it is critical for a healthy society and we are taking baby steps towards it. What we believe we can do is be the conduit, and we do it through our several programmes. Like all start-ups, we had ambitious plans initially, but alongside we did smaller, practical things which are continuing. Q. How have you gone about doing this? Through programmes, like, the Mumbai Local (an interactive session organised by Junoon). We have done over 200 talks by artists. The other thing we delight in is curating. You can plan an event, get an…