Innholdsfortegnelse for June 29, 2020 i India Today

Word is that a key member of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family will cross over to the BJP ahead of the 2022 assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. The speculation started after the Yogi Adityanath government recently provided ‘Y’ grade security—of 11 armed police personnel—to Mulayam’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav. Aparna, 31, had unsuccessfully contested the 2017 UP polls on an SP ticket. She sought police protection last year. In recent years, Aparna’s position on issues, such as the Citizenship Amendment Act, has been pro-BJP. She has even publicly opposed brother-in-law and SP president Akhilesh Yadav. In March 2017, Adityanath visited a cow shelter run by a trust where Aparna and husband Prateek are patrons. The game’s on.…

Hizbul Mujahideen, the separatist militant outfit active in Jammu and Kashmir since 1989, may be in terminal retreat. The past five months have seen a decimation in their numbers, with the J&K police claiming that of the 94 militants taken out by the security forces during this period, as many as 51 were from the Hizb alone. The week to June 14 was the bloodiest, claiming 19 Hizb men in five encounters in southern Kashmir. The strikes in Shopian, Kulgam and Pulwama, considered the epicentres of homegrown militancy, have shaken the three-decades-old outfit to the core. “The security forces are on top and the tanzeems (militant outfits) are on the run,” says Zulfiqar Hassan, additional director general of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). “Hopefully, this will have a demoralising…

2014 July: Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Chinese president Xi Jinping for the first time on the sidelines of the 6th BRICS summit, in Fortaleza, Brazil September: President Xi makes his first official visit to India, with PM Modi greeting him on arrival in Ahmedabad. Xi promises investments of $20 billion into India over five years 2015 May: PM Modi visits China. A total of 24 bilateral deals are signed relating to railways, education and trade, among other areas of common interest July: PM Modi and President Xi meet on the sidelines of the 7th BRICS summit and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Ufa, Russia 2016 June: PM Modi and President Xi meet at the SCO summit in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. They discuss India’s bid for membership to the…

IT was in late March that Dr N.N. Mathur, director of Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC), was informed that the hospital in central Delhi would serve as a Covid facility, but largely to supplement the testing and treatment capacity of the two major Covid hospitals in the National Capital Region—the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Jhajjar and Delhi’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital. It took Dr Mathur’s team around two weeks to set up 60 beds and 17 ventilators for the new facility. “We didn’t initially anticipate more [patients than this] because of the lockdown,” he recalls. But, as on June 16, LHMC had treated twice that number of Covid patients, set up 100 more beds at the nearby YMCA premises, added 60 ‘Covid suspect’…

Photon in a double-slit. Read what you will into the social media bio of Sushant Singh Rajput, but it does indicate that the young actor was a thinking man. His death by suicide at the age of 34 on June 14 has left the entertainment industry shaken, triggering introspection and heated debate on the endless opportunities for the privileged and the many obstacles for the outsider. “The Bollywood Privilege Club must sit down and think hard tonight,” wrote filmmaker Anubhav Sinha on Twitter. In a video rant, actress Kangana Ranaut, apart from the big stakeholders, also blamed the media for maligning his image with malicious gossip. “His mistake was that he believed when they said he was worthless,” she said. For those who had worked with him, such as actor…

Just before the interview, Zeeshan Nabi, a 27-year-old singer-songwriter-composer from Kashmir, said he didn’t have Zoom, but would quickly download it. ‘4G is not banned here,’ he typed on WhatsApp, followed by a laughing emoji. ‘Here’ meant Delhi. “When you grow up in Kashmir, you go through stages. In the first, you’re naïve, then you understand how your geopolitical position changes you. As a teen, you become aware of your PTSD and, finally, you normalise it. Then you leave the Valley and see how different your situation is from the outside world. Suddenly, it becomes a joke, dark humour,” says Nabi, revealing his fears as well as his propensity for humour. Nabi’s band Ramooz recently released its first song from its upcoming untitled album recorded in Kashmir with his two…

As India continues to witness an alarming increase in COVID-19 cases, parents and students across the country are worried about the board exams for classes 10 and 12. The exams, conducted by various central and state boards, were interrupted by the national lockdown, imposed on March 25. While some state boards, such as the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education, completed pending exams in the first half of June, the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) and CISCE (Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations) exams are slated for July—a month in which COVID-19 cases are expected to peak, according to Randeep Guleria, director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Many parents have taken to social media to express concerns about the health hazard. One group released a…

THE GALWAN VALLEY DISPUTE The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) occupies parts of the Valley on India’s side of the LAC. It builds up in strength along the Valley to reinforce China’s claim to the area On June 6, PLA officials agree to disengage from the location at the Commanders’ meet at Moldo On June 15, a group of Indian soldiers goes to verify whether the PLA has withdrawn from the area. Fighting breaks out. 20 Indian soldiers killed, several seriously injured Beijing accuses the Indian Army of violating the LAC, claims the entire Galwan Valley THE PANGONG LAKE DISPUTE PLA troops occupy area between Finger 4 and Finger 8 in disputed territory and build a road there Violent clashes between hundreds of Indian Army and PLA personnel at the lake…

A MILLION CASES SOON Estimates based on India’s doubling rate of 17.4 days (as on June 12) suggest the number of Covid cases will touch 1 million on July 18 THE CRUCIAL TEST A seven-day analysis in the five worst-affected states shows the ascending positivity rate—which better testing protocols might have averted…

Pavitra Rishta (2009-11) In only his second and last TV drama, Sushant earned a fan following for his earnest portrayal of Manav. His exit midway led to a dip in ratings Kai Po Che! (2013) Made an assured debut as the cricket-crazy, perennial dreamer Ishaan in this adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s popular novel, The 3 Mistakes of My Life MS Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016) A masterful performance which went beyond impersonation to truly inhabiting a character Sonchiriya (2019) Rajput saw his work as a brooding bandit in this Chambalset action drama as one of his best yet Chhichhore (2019) In this IIT-based friendship drama, Rajput plays a father who tells stories about his eventful student days to his teenage son, to teach him that one should savour life and…

Kolkata’s intellectualism can sometimes feel invented, but when it loves someone or something, it almost always does so effusively. Watching the documentary If Not for You, one is struck by how deeply the city loves Bob Dylan, its affection bordering on obsession. Dylan posters line the room of musician Susmit Bose, whom filmmakers Jaimin Rajani and Vineet Arora interview. He speaks of how a lover in Kolkata broke up with his girlfriend by leaving her with the lyrics of Dylan’s ‘To Ramona’. Rahul Guha Roy, who plays with alternative rock band Cassini’s Division, says if it weren’t for Dylan, Calcuttans might not play the guitar. Filmmaker-songwriter Anjan Dutt even compares him to Rabindranath Tagore. When asked why Dylan’s music resonated so strongly with all his interviewees, Arora, 45, spoke like…

3 Indian universities ranked in the top 200 in the 2021 worldwide ranking by British higher education industry analysts Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, at 172, is the highest-ranked Indian university, followed by the Indian Institute of Science (185) and IIT Delhi (193). Only 21 Indian institutions were ranked in the top 1,000 global universities, with 13 ranked below 500. 51 Chinese universities made the top 1,000, including 4 in the top 50 and 26 in the top 500. 853 government, government-aided and low-cost private schools across 28 of Karnataka’s districts were surveyed by NGO ‘Dream a Dream’. The results show a lack of readiness to resume operations: 95% said they wanted board exams postponed and 97% said they needed support with digital learning and…

On Monday, June 15, it seemed like the stand-off with the Chinese PLA (People’s Liberation Army) in eastern Ladakh was drawing to a close. Nine days earlier, commanders from both sides had held a first-ever meet at the Moldo border post opposite Chushul in Ladakh, and the Chinese, according to the Indian army, had agreed to pull back in the Galwan Valley. That evening, a group of soldiers from the 16 Bihar Regiment camped in the valley went to verify whether the PLA had indeed withdrawn from Patrol Point 14, a spot on a ridge above the valley which the latter had occupied since early May. This was the point in the valley on India’s side of the LAC to where border patrols usually walked up to and returned. Like…

“The states have so far borrowed only 14 per cent of the limit authorised. They are still asking for a special increase. The Centre has decided to accede to the request of the states to increase the borrowing limit from 3 to 5 per cent for 2020-21”NIRMALA SITHARAMAN Union finance minister “It is clear that states will have to take care of themselves. I have found ways to improve state finances in the past and will do it again. It’s a challenging task, but it has to be done if the Centre is indifferent”ASHOK GEHLOT Rajasthan chief minister The pandemic figures till mid-June show that Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh are the five states with the largest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India. Together, these states…

The office of Studio Durga is hidden away in the basement of a once-busy residential colony in South Delhi. Days before the city went into lockdown, Rajorshi Basu and his team of 20-somethings folded their hands and said “Namaste” when we met there. “This is the one good thing to come out of the coronavirus scare,” said Basu with a smile. The 28-year-old, who runs India’s first anime studio, looks like a typical millennial, dressed in slouchy pants and sporting a trendy beard. He hopes to release Karmachakra this year, a full-length anime movie, the first 20 minutes of which have been released as a mini-series on YouTube to test the Indian audience’s palate for Japanese anime. It has more than 26,000 views—not a large number, but for the studio,…

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988) Wondrous things happen after sisters Satsuki and Mei befriend the cuddly spirit Totoro. With an instant cult following, the film made its director Hayao Miyazaki a household name in and outside Japan PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997) Afflicted by a deadly curse, Prince Ashitaka ventures out into the forest. Here he meets San, the self-proclaimed Princess Mononoke, a human raised in the forest by the wolf goddess Moro KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE (1989) Training to be a witch, Kiki, 13, climbs her broomstick to leave home for a year. As she sets up her own ‘Witch Delivery Service’, she is accompanied by her ever-faithful companion, Jiji, a talking cat…