Innholdsfortegnelse for September 20, 2021 i India Today

However much we deny it, India remains a caste-ridden society even after 75 years of Independence and considerable economic progress. It is em-bedded in our society and most definitely in our politics. Indians, it is often said, don’t cast their vote so much as vote their caste. This convergence of caste and politics makes most self-serving politicians want this state of play to continue. Caste politics assumed national centre stage when the then prime minister V.P. Singh’s decision to implement the Mandal Commission recommendations triggered nationwide protests in 1989-1990. His action did not come out of any love of social justice but was a cynical calculation to ensure the survival of his coalition government. The decision earmarked 27 per cent of government jobs for OBCs or the Other Backward Classes.…

Q. What is hallmarking? Hallmarking is a purity certification of the gold and silver used in jewellery, and also serves as a tracking mechanism. The hallmark includes four pieces of information—the BIS mark, the gold/silver purity and fineness, the A&H centre’s ID and the jeweller’s ID. Hallmarking rates are Rs 35+GST per piece for gold jewellery and Rs 25+GST per piece for silver jewellery. Q. What items are exempted from hallmarking? Exempted articles include those meant for export or those intended for use in medical, scientific or industrial sectors. Certain categories of jewellery (Kun-dan) as well as products like watches and fountain pens, are also exempted. Q. How many hallmarking centres does India have? There are about a thousand functional hallmark centres in the country. The BIS has proposed subsidies…

OBC MPs IN THE LOK SABHA The BJP’s comprehensive victories in the past two Lok Sabha polls have coincided with a resurgence of upper caste MPs and the gradual increase in the OBCs’ share Source: CSDS and Lok Sabha data HOW OBCs HAVE VOTED IN THE LOK SABHA POLLS OBC support for the BJP has doubled in the past decade while it declined substantially for the Congress and other parties WHY OBC VOTE MATTERS IN UP AND BIHAR While the BJP cornered a major chunk of the OBC vote in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, the party lost backward votes to the RJD in Bihar in the 2020 Vidhan Sabha (VS) poll THE YADAV CHALLENGE The Yadavs, who account for a major share of the OBCs in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,…

FIVE MEMBERS OF THE AFGHAN-ISTAN-BASED terrorist group, Islamic State of Iraq and Levant-Khorasan province (ISIL-K), who had migrated from Kerala in 2016, have contacted their families and said they wish to return home. In their last communication on August 30, they said the situation was grim, with food supplies limited and the Kerala ISIL-K faction scattered. This is an unusual development because most of the 36 people who had migrated from Kerala to Afghanistan between May and August 2016 were presumed dead (assuming these five are part of the same cell). Central intelligence sources say among those believed to be alive are Kasargod district native Mohammed Sajid, who worked with the Islamic Bank, Sharjah; Shihas Abdul Rahiman, 34, also from Kasargod, who worked with the Peace Foundation in Kozhikode; and…

Q. What challenges does the AICTE face in engineering education? A. The Indian education system faces a major employability challenge since the curriculum is not relevant to the needs of industry or the society. We continued with the British legacy for a long time. It has not contributed to anything innovative, which is why we have the New Education Policy (NEP). But transformation in engineering education started before NEP. We faced two challenges. From the mid-1980s to 2015, the number of engineering institutions grew exponentially, leading to over-capacity and a high number of vacant seats. The recent trend of engineering colleges closing down or reducing the number of seats will lead to consolidation and ensure sustained quality in the years to come. Q. What other changes have been introduced? A. Since…

INDIA’S MEDAL TELLY GOLD 5 SILVER 8 BRONZE 6 TOTAL 19…

For sharp analysis on topical issues by the editors of INDIA TODAY, log on to www.indiatoday.in/india-today-magazine-insight Why retailers are looking to the festive season for demand recovery by M.G. Arun Businesses are taking heart from the fact that daily Covid cases in most states are under control, even as vaccination drives continue https://bit.ly/3h9yTkz Why India could be leasing a second nuclear powered attack submarine from Russia by Sandeep Unnithan New Delhi signed a $3 billion lease deal with Moscow in 2019 for the Chakra-3. But with growing Chinese naval presence and delays in its own nuclear submarine project, India needs as many submarines as it can get https://bit.ly/38PpA4u Rs 360 crore scam in the making of NRC, says Assam NGO by Kaushik Deka The NGO whose PIL led to the…

HOME TURF Although West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to win the September 30 Bhowanipore bypoll—she has already served two terms as MLA for this south Kolkata constituency—many Trinamool Congress (TMC) heavyweights are jostling to be seen as the most ardent champions of her campaign. Transport and housing minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Madan Mitra, for example, were seen painting the election graffiti themselves. However, while Mamata is in a strong position, the TMC is taking no chances—it has drawn up a list of 20 star campaigners for the effort, seven of whom are former or current actors or sportspersons. IN GOLD WE TRUST Tamil Nadu’s Hindu and Religious Charitable Endowments minister P.K. Sekar Babu is reviving a scheme to net revenue for the state’s temples. Gold offerings…

When Samira (name changed) struggled with childhood obesity three years ago, her lawyer mother took her to a dietician in their home city of Kolkata. Samira was able to maintain a normal BMI (body mass index) up to February 2020, when she turned 13. Then, Covid19 struck and on March 25, the country went into total lockdown. Like much else, Samira’s exercise classes, too, came to a stop. The teenager, who had a mobile phone of her own, found herself surrounded with bags of ‘emergency food’ such as biscuits, cake, bread and chocolate. As the months progressed, Samira’s mum found it increasingly difficult to control her daughter’s calorie intake. “It got so stressful, and the pandemic was so demotivating that as a family we began to order in more food,…

IN continuation of the special focus on the higher education institutes of north India, here are the best private colleges of the region across nine streams—arts, science, commerce, medical, engineering, architecture, law, BBA and BCA. These rankings have been derived from the 2021 India Today Best Colleges rankings prepared in association with the Marketing and Development Research Associates (MDRA). STREAM-WISE RESULTS ARTS RANKS & SCORES OF COLLEGES SCIENCE RANKS & SCORES OF COLLEGES COMMERCE RANKS & SCORES OF COLLEGES COMMERCE RANKS & SCORES OF COLLEGES MEDICAL RANKS & SCORES OF COLLEGES ENGINEERING RANKS & SCORES OF COLLEGES ENGINEERING RANKS & SCORES OF COLLEGES ARCHITECTURE RANKS & SCORES OF COLLEGES LAW RANKS & SCORES OF COLLEGES BBA RANKS & SCORES OF COLLEGES BCA RANKS & SCORES OF COLLEGES 1. Ranking is…

CLEM ALFORD Mirror Image (1974) Clem Alford swapped his bagpipes for an electronic sitar soon after he heard Ravi Shankar play in the mid-1960s. On this album, he plays traditional ragas, but also a heady mix of classical-jazz-rock fusion. RAVI SHANKAR & PHILIP GLASS Passages (1990) Shankar and Glass’s collaboration on this chamber music album sees each master arrange the other’s compositions. ANANDA SHANKAR & STATE OF BENGAL Walking On (1999) Ananda Shankar passed away at 56 but, before his death, the sitarist played with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and recorded this lavish album with DJ State of Bengal.…

EVERY INCIDENT IN THE Mahabharata—big or small—portends a great, bloody battle in which Kshatriya men will lose both their honour and lives. But the first war cry, if we went looking for one, was clearly sounded by a woman. When Draupadi is dragged to the court of Hastinapur by Dusshasan with her hair open, her clothes stained with menstrual blood, she makes a vow. She’ll only wash her hair after it has been rinsed with the blood of her cousin-in-law’s heart. Born of fire, she’s now all fury. In our popular imagination, Krishna’s miracle—an unending ream of cloth—helps Draupadi when Dusshasan tries disrobing her, but in Ira Mukhoty’s Song of Draupadi, she doesn’t need any divine intervention. Her rage is enough to silence her abusers. By resisting the Mahabharata’s reliance…

FOR MAJOR-GENERAL Thomas Hardwicke, it wasn’t enough to employ an artist to paint the birds he came across in India. The naturalist and British East India Company (EIC) officer also “employed a shikaari to shoot and preserve specimens” for the “largest and most notable” collection of his time—as noted in an essay that accompanies Birds of India, Delhi Art Gallery’s current exhibition. Such collection practices were fundamental to the development of taxonomy, but they do hint at the violence that so often underpins the accumulation of scientific knowledge. DAG’s 2019 show Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company, explored how European conventions shaped Indian styles as the centre of patronage shifted away from the Mughal court to the EIC’s strongholds in Calcutta, Lucknow and Patna in the late…

The Taliban named a new government on September 7, three weeks after their stunning takeover of Afghanistan. For India, the Pakistan-based Haqqani network’s prominent presence in the 33-member cabinet is cause for concern. The Haqqanis, based in North Waziristan, have deep links with Al Qaeda and the Pakistani deep state. They carried out the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Afghanistan in July 2008. Group leader Sirajuddin Haqqani is the new Taliban interior minister. Worried that Afghanistan could again become a base for antiIndia terror activities, the country’s envoy to Qatar, Deepak Mittal, met the head of the Taliban’s political office, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, in Doha on August 31. The Taliban representative gave assurances that India’s concerns would be ad dressed, but apprehensions remain in the backdrop of…

In 2014-15, engineering institutions approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had around 3.2 million seats on offer—the highest ever. From that peak, the total number of seats for undergraduate, postgraduate and diploma courses has been plummeting, down to a decadal low of around 2.32 million in 2020-21. To AICTE chairman Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe, the crisis in engineering education in the country is also an opportunity. “The number of engineering institutions had grown exponentially, leading to over-capacity and a high number of vacant seats. The recent trend of engineering colleges shutting down or reducing seats will lead to consolidation and ensure sustained quality in the years to come,” says Sahasrabudhe, now in his seventh year as India’s technical education regulator. In 2019-20, the AICTE approved 153 new…

Krishna Nagar had just won India’s fifth gold medal at the Paralympics in Tokyo, taking the total tally to 19. The record was impressive by itself—54 athletes winning 19 medals, including 5 golds. It was even more impressive when one considers that India’s total medal tally between 1968, when it first participated in the Paralympics, and 2016, when it won four medals, was 12. Deepa Malik, president of the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI), was elated, though the victory also brought with it a pleasant dilemma. “The PCI isn’t a very rich organisation,” she says, “but we are committed to honouring our athletes. We had ordered gold bracelets for each of our medal winners as tokens of gratitude and affection. We had ordered 15 and now I have the happy…

Growing up in the capital city of Regina in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, Tesher (Hitesh Sharma) was acutely aware of his cultural identity way before his civic identity. His proud Indian parents wouldn’t tone down their Indianness, regardless of how the world outside responded to it. “Indian culture, in this way, became omnipresent,” says the 22-year-old musician. “My father was a Bhangra teacher, so that was a blessing, too. I was always performing in festivals organised locally or at my school.” For Tesher, his father’s Bhangra classes, or his own participation in Indian song-and-dance festivals, were not necessarily meant only for the purposes of entertainment. “It was one of the ways we kept in touch with Indian culture and, simultaneously, without even my knowing, it was providing a foundation…

Arundhathi Subramaniam presents us with another little gem of a book in Women Who Wear Only Themselves where she shows us the lives of four Indian women who have embraced the rupture of spiritual awakening and its consequences in their lives. One of the finest poets of her generation (this volume, too, is studded with her poems), Subramaniam has long been candid about her own search for supramundane meaning. Her personal quest is, once again, placed front and centre in this book. Subramaniam’s provocative and poetic title deliberately evokes the legends of well-known and beloved women mystics from the South Asian past, most specifically Akka Mahadevi and Lal Dedh, both of whom, according to popular belief, stopped wearing clothes after an unmediated experience of the divine. The literal nakedness of…

Q. Why did you want to produce Helmet? Indian men are awkward about going to a chemist and asking for condoms. I was one of the youngsters who didn’t have the guts to ask for it. Helmet is a funny take on that. Q. The Empire and now Helmet—you have had two releases in two weeks.. As they say, when it rains it pours. I waited long for good things to happen. I must thank the makers of The Empire for having the guts to envision me as an antagonist. It gives you so much more to play with. I wanted to introduce my own madness to Shaibani Khan and have fun playing him. Q. Do you intend to shuttle between acting and producing? Yes. I am already pitching three…