Innholdsfortegnelse for August 17, 2020 i India Today

The looming threat of a Covid surge in rural India was not unforeseen. As early as in June, WHO (World Health Organization) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan had flagged the possibility and advised that India use the time the virus takes to reach the hinterland to ramp up its primary healthcare system. As of July 16, the pandemic had spread to 98 per cent of all districts in the country; only 13 of 640 had reported no cases. Many health experts believe the return of millions of migrant workers in June played its part. “With so many people being asymptomatic carriers of Covid, one will never know for certain the extent to which migrants carried the virus back with them. Many states did not test every returnee; they only isolated them…

ON March 24, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the nationwide lockdown, the Covid count around the world was truly alarming. The US had reported 52,690 cases and 681 deaths; Italy 69,176 cases and 6,820 deaths and Germany 27,436 cases and 114 deaths. India, at that time, had 519 cases and 10 deaths. As the country shut down, the impact was felt all across—essential supplies began to run short, hundreds of thousands of daily wagers lost their livelihood sources and healthcare services for other illnesses were disrupted. All the while, the Covid count continued to rise. Today, India’s Covid tally might be the third highest in the world, but given the size of the country and its population, this was perhaps unavoidable. However, our gains from fighting the pandemic are quite…

As the pandemic raged and governments around the world were forced to lock down, and as cricket-playing nations were cut off from each other as an inevitable consequence, the disruption in the sporting calendar was on the minds of all stakeholders—from cricket boards to players to broadcasters to sponsors to fans. For a large number of players, the fate of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was of particular interest—and concern. For good reason too. Certainly, the cancellation of the ICC (International Cricket Council) Twenty20 World Cup, which was to be played in Australia in October, was topmost on the minds of most cricket boards. After all, a large percentage of the revenues of many lesser cricketing nations comes from ICC events. But for the players themselves, and especially the biggest…

JUL. 2009 GUJARAT Over 150 people killed in Ahmedabad DEC. 2011 WEST BENGAL At least 167 killed in Diamond Harbour FEB. 2012 ODISHA Over 30 people killed in Cuttack and Khurda districts OCT. 2013 UTTAR PRADESH Over 40 people killed in Azamgarh JUN. 2015 MAHARASHTRA Over 100 killed in Mumbai’s Laxmi Nagar slum in Malad SEP. 2015 WEST BENGAL At least 15 are killed in Midnapore AUG. 2016 BIHAR At least 15 people are killed in Gopalganj FEB. 2019 UTTAR PRADESH, UTTARAKHAND Over 100 die in Saharanpur and areas along the border with Uttarakhand FEB. 2019 ASSAM Over 165 killed in Golaghat and Jorhat districts JUL. 2020 PUNJAB Over 117 killed in Tarn Taran, Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts THE LATEST TRAGEDY July 29, 2020, Mucchal, Punjab On the night of…

On August 5, residents of Ayodhya, their excitement clearly brimming over and not to be restrained by anything as mundane as physical distancing in the time of a pandemic, gathered at the mythical Ram ki Paidi ghats in the evening. There, they lit some 350,000 diyas, in a new ‘deepotsav’ to mark the beginning of the construction of the Ram temple. After all, a “new chapter in India’s history” was beginning, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said earlier in the day after performing the bhoomi poojan and laying the foundation stone for the temple. A 22.6 kg brick of pure silver was used to consecrate the occasion. The constraints imposed by the pandemic were visible here, though; PM Modi shared the dais with just four other people—RSS chief Mohan…

On April 1 this year, the diplomatic lines between New Delhi and Beijing were clogged with messages of peace and friendship. Exactly 70 years ago, India had done what seemed unthinkable for a non-socialist bloc country at the time—it recognised the government of the Communist Party of China which had only the previous year overthrown the Chinese Nationalist Party. In his letter to Chinese president Xi Jinping in April, President Ram Nath Kovind observed how the two sides had “made considerable progress especially in the last few years in enhancing our bilateral engagements in a number of areas, including political, economic and people-to-people ties”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his message to Chinese premier Li Keqiang, referred to the two countries as two ancient civilisations with a long history of…

Q. WERE LOK SABHA ELECTIONS HELD TODAY, WHAT WOULD THE RESULTS LOOK LIKE WITH A STRONGER PRE-POLL UPA? Structure: 17 new parties, including SP, BSP, TDP, Left parties, AIUDF and RLD, join UPA Result: The BJP loses majority on its own NDA: BJP, SAD, AGP, AIADMK, LJP, JD(U), AJSU, DMDK, PMK, AD (Apna Dal), AINRC (All India N R Congress), BDJS (Bharat Dharma Jana Sena), KC-T (Kerala Congress-Thomas), PNK (Puthiya Needhi Katchi), PT (Puthiya Tamilagam), Tamil Maanila Congress, RLP (Rashtriya Loktantrik Party), BPF (Bodoland People’s Front), SDF, NDPP (Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party), NPF (Naga People’s Front) UPA: (Current allies) INC, AIMIM, DMK, HAM, IUML, JD(S), NC, JMM, JVM, KC(M), NCP, RJD, RLSP, RSP, SWP (Socialist Workers Party), VCK (Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi) + (New allies) FB, AIUDF, BSP, CPI, CPI(M), INLD,…

Travis Scott The most prominent “virtual” concert in recent months wasn’t exactly a livestream but American rapper Travis Scott’s nine-minute performance within the online videogame Fortnite in April. It was watched by more than 27 million unique players, which, in some way, makes it the “gig” with the highest attendees ever. BTS K-Pop group BTS gained another entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the “most views” for a paid livestreamed concert. No less than 756,000 fans from over 100 countries, including India, bought tickets to see Bang Bang Con: The Live, which they performed from a studio in Seoul in June. Tomorrowland It isn’t a fair comparison but the digital edition of electronic dance music festival Tomorrowland beat even BTS. A million revellers around the globe tuned into…

Starting August 4, distressing visuals of a flooded city, landslides and walls collapsing began emerging from Mumbai after the city was hit by heavy rainfall and gusty winds of speeds upto 107 kmph. According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the city recorded 215.8 mm rain within just 12 hours on August 5. In a press release issued on August 6, the Indian Meteorological Department said that Colaba in South Mumbai had received the highest rainfall of 331.8 mm within a period of 24 hours. This is the second-highest volume Colaba has received in a day after July 5, 1974, when it recorded 575.6mm of rain. Even neighbourhoods that escaped flooding were not spared by the strong winds and witnessed uprooted trees and lamp posts along with considerable property damage.…

This year, governments across the world had a difficult choice thrust upon them. Covid-19 allowed them to save either the maximum number of their citizens’ lives or the highest number of their livelihoods. Like most, the Indian government chose the former. In doing so, it faced one of the most challenging situations the country has seen post-Independence—the economy spiralling deeply into the red. While most analysts say that the bad run will be limited to a few quarters, ruling out a full-blown recession, there is no getting away from the fact that India’s growth rate is deeply in negative territory. And while there are debates over the size of the impact—whether the country’s growth rate has fallen by five per cent or much more—the economic damage done by the nationwide…

It’s been a torrid year for the Indian National Congress since the May 2019 drubbing in the Lok Sabha election. The country’s main Opposition party has lost out to the BJP’s machinations in two states where it had won elections—Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh—and is fighting to save its government in another—Rajasthan. It has helplessly watched one of its most promising leaders, Jyotiraditya Scindia, defecting to the BJP while another one, Sachin Pilot, is almost on the verge of quitting. Optimists will point out that the party has also become part of the government in two states, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, though there is a caveat to this—in both states, the Congress is a junior partner. And seven months into power, the Jharkhand unit of the party is now witnessing some turbulence.…

Q. WERE LOK SABHA ELECTIONS HELD TODAY, WHAT WOULD THE RESULTS LOOK LIKE WITH AN EVEN STRONGER PRE-POLL UPA? Structure: Three major parties—Shiv Sena, TMC, AAP—join the additional 17 Result: The trio adds 59 more seats to UPA tally; brings NDA down to slim majority NDA: BJP, AD, AGP, AIADMK, AINRC, AJSU, BDJS, BPF, DMDK, JD(U), KC-T, LJP, NDPP, NPF, PMK, PNK, PT, RLP, SAD, SDF, TMC(M) UPA: (Current allies) INC, AIMIM, DMK, HAM, IUML, JD(S), NC, JMM, JVM, KC(M), NCP, RJD, RLSP, RSP, SWP, VCK + (New allies) FB, AMMK, AIUDF, BSP, BVA, CPI, CPI(M), GGP, INLD, JCC, PDP, MDMK, MNF, MNM, RLD, SP, TDP, AAP, TMC, Shiv Sena Others: BJD, TRS, YSRCP, IND, Others *The rest is the sum of all political parties other than the BJP and…

Alkazi Sahib, the Badshah of Indian theatres, was my guru. Whatever I have learned as a human being and an actor is courtesy him. Under his leadership at the National School of Drama in Delhi, many fine actors emerged, including Surekha Sikri, the late Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Rohini Hattangadi, Pankaj Kapur and directors such as Vijaya Mehta and Ratan Thiyam. He taught us to appreciate poetry, painting, books, culture; he made us humans. Gadhe ko ghoda bana diya [He made horses out of donkeys]. He brought dignity to the lives of actors and raised the respect people had for theatre. In 1974, I had applied to the National School of Drama but was rejected. I then joined the year-long course at the Department of Indian Theatre in Panjab University,…

Before 2014, Chaitanya Tamhane was just another aspiring filmmaker. And then came Court, which not only made the ‘best-of-the-year’ lists but even the ‘best-of-the-decade’ ones. After winning two awards at the Venice Film Festival, including best film in the Orizzonti section, Court became that rare directorial debut to win the nation’s highest cinematic honour: the National Award for Best Film. Tamhane was 27 at that time. After six years, during which he produced an animated short and spent two years with Oscar-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, courtesy the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, Tamhane is ready with his second film, The Disciple. It’s the first Indian film since Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding (2001) to be in the Venice Film Festival’s main competition. The Marathi film will also screen at the…