Innholdsfortegnelse for December 20, 2021 i India Today

CPI(M) leader Kodiyeri Bala krishnan’s political career seemed over last year after the central agencies arrested his son Bineesh in a money laundering case. Kodiyeri had to step down as Kerala party secretary last November, but is now back in the same office. The agencies have yet to find any evidence linking his son to the case, and Kodiyeri now says he stepped down because he needed medical treatment. Partymen are delighted—they need the strongman’s soft skills to manage the CPI(M) organisational elections next year.…

On November 29, Animesh Bhuyan, 23, was lynched by a group of around 50 people in Jorhat, Assam, after he was mistakenly assumed to be responsible for a road accident that injured a middle-aged person on a scooter. The attack on Bhuyan, an All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) leader, was led by a man named Niraj Das, the son of the injured rider and an accused in over a dozen criminal cases, including charges of drug peddling. This daylight killing of a youth in a busy market area less than a kilometre away from the police station, has sparked massive outrage in the state. With increasing instances of mob lynching (half a dozen cases have been registered over the past two years) and a history of slow trials, there was…

There was much consternation in Patna’s political circles on November 17 after Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Nayyar Hasnain Khan sent teams of Bihar’s special vigilance unit (SVU) to raid the office and private residences of Magadh University vice-chancellor (V-C) Rajendra Prasad. The first vice-chancellor in Bihar to face such ignominy, he had been handpicked by Governor Phagu Chauhan, a former BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh, to head the varsity in 2019. Chief minister Nitish Kumar had picked Khan, a 1996 batch IPS officer, to head the economic offences wing (EOW) of Bihar police in January 2021. In September, he also got charge of the SVU. The two roles seemed like a mandate to crack down on the corrupt among the state’s high and mighty. Since then, the EOW…

STRONG ECONOMY The Yogi government has developed Purvanchal expressway as a strong platform for the economy in Purvanchal region. As per the directions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh expressway industrial development authority (UPEIDA) has developed Purvanchal expressway as an expressway for growth, employment, business and industries. BUSINESS ACTIVITIES To expand the business activities in the districts along with the Purvanchal expressway, industrial clusters will be established on both sides of expressway and local manpower will be accommodated. For this purpose industrial clusters are being developed close to Purvanchal expressway. More than 9000 hectares land has been identified. AGRO ECONOMY Majority of those districts, which are connected with Purvanchal expressway, have agriculture based economy. That is why the priority in industrial clusters is being given to food processing units.…

The Congress needs to change the way it is structured as a party, the way it functions and the way it takes decisions. A political party of its size, scale and legacy cannot function with an interim president or a stopgap arrangement for three years as it has been doing For every hundred seats that Congress had a straight fight with BJP in 2019, it won only four Of the electorate in India, BJP has 40% as a denominator as it has a 35-37% vote share; another 20 per cent goes to other challengers. To challenge BJP, Congress must capture 40% of the 60% not voting BJP. It currently has 19% When Sonia and Rahul Gandhi headed Congress, their strike rate was between 31 and 35%. But since 2019, when…

He brings a unique mix of experience: 15 years as RSS pracharak, 10-15 years as party organiser, 13 years as CM and now seven years as PM He is also a great listener. He listens to as many people as possible on an issue, which gives him the benefit of having all points of view He is flexible enough to step back on issues when his govt is seen as antipeople. At the same time, he ensures no one on the other side gets credit A successful leader has to be intelligent, must have character and courage—to be out there to be judged, criticised, or adored…

EVERY YEAR, AS WINTER SETS IN, hundreds of Kashmiri locals board buses and flights for the plains in India. Some leave for a warmer place to run their businesses, others just to get away from the freezing winters. Fayaz Ahmad’s journey in 2017, though, was a lot more nerve-wracking. It followed weeks of preparations that included new clothes, visits to close relatives and the blessings of local clerics. “After a decade-long wait, I had finally found a woman,” says Ahmad, a 54-year-old Srinagar native with a salt-and-pepper stubble and a bald head. “I didn’t know her, but I was extremely excited.” A daily-wage labourer, Ahmad says he had grown used to the taunts about his inability to find a bride. In November 2017, the urge to put a lid on…

Chocolate cakelets, macerated berries, cointreau creme fraiche cream, and heirloom flow blue china. An edible art form, this. Also a journey into the past, a celebration in the present, and a memory created for tomorrow. Life is a mishmash of bits and bobs of our own journey, fragmented threads of others’ journeys that came before us. Patches and the lots of those who live in tandem alongside us. Connecting tissue to those who come after. To see the beauty in the pieces as a whole, as an individual, and a continuum, is to have lived, loved and let go. I never cook for just myself. Cooking for one, cooking for two, for 20, can almost take the same time, so why shouldn’t I share the fruits of my labour with…

As fond as I am of keeping track of literary prizes, I have to admit, there’s a certain kind of dreary, over-written literary fiction that’s disproportionately represented on prize shortlists everywhere, especially in India. This is one reason why I was quite happy with Rijula Das’ novel A Death in Shonagachhi, winner of the First Book Award at the 2021 Tata Literature Live! and shortlisted for the 2021 JCB Prize. Over and above its other fine qualities (original insights, distinctive characters, well-written), it also happens to be a mighty fine yarn. I read books primarily for entertainment and, all too often, I find otherwise astute readers and writers ignoring or downplaying this primal function of literature. No such problems with A Death in Shonagachhi. The novel begins in medias res,…

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren takes his Twitter presence seriously, even using it to take note of complaints for officers to respond. So when a rogue tweet purportedly from him announced a state-wide lockdown in the wake of the Omicron variant, his CMO acted swiftly and issued a clarification. Last heard, the state police have been asked to identify the culprit behind the fake handle and tweet. —Sandeep Unnithan with Kiran D. Tare, Amitabh Srivastava, Jeemon Jacob, Romita Datta and Amarnath K. Menon…

Gurinder Singh, a resident of Khauli village in Amritsar, had a VVIP guest on the night of December 6—Charanjit Singh Channi. The Punjab chief minister was on a surprise visit to the village and chose to have dinner at Gurinder’s modest home. He ignored the family’s pleas to sit on the cot and planted himself on the floor for a meal of sarson da saag and makki di roti, loaded with white butter. Earlier in the day, Channi had attended a political event in Amritsar city’s Jora Phatak area, where he broke his security cordon to lend an ear to protesting lower-rung government health workers. On November 28, he had taken children on an impromptu helicopter ride while visiting his home in Morinda in Ropar district. To many, these are…

And the pipeline for future public listings is expected to remain robust over the next two year. As per the data 150 private firms could potentially list on the stock market over the next 36 months. A stock exchange represents the performance of the companies listed on the stock exchange cumulatively, thus giving the investor an idea of the financial growth of the region. Microeconomic and macroeconomic factors, the business environment, the legal structure, and tax policies applicable to each economy impact stock market movements. "As per data nearly US$400bn of market cap could be added from new IPOs over the next 2-3 years,". Indian start-ups have raised $10 billion through IPOs so far this year - more money than was raised in the last three years, the investment bank…

GANGA EXPRESSWAY Districts benefited: From Meerut - Bulandshahr road NH - 334 to Prayagraj through Bulandshahr, Amroha, Badaun, Sambhal, Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Unnao, Raebareli and Pratapgarh Total length 594km Speciality: The longest Greenfield expressway of the country. 6 lane (Expendable to 8 lane), 5 big bridges on rivers like Ganga and Ramganga Current status 93% of the required land has been purchased. Benefits from the project: With the construction of Ganga expressway, it will become easy for industries based in the west to do business with the eastern districts. It will also provide greater avenues of employment in the tourism sector in eastern part of the state. One will be able to reach Prayagraj from Delhi in just 6 hours through Ganga expressway. It will benefit a lot to the people…

INDIA’S OMICRON TALLY SIGNS OF NATIONAL SPREAD LIMITED Omicron cases being reported have grown seven times in the past week However, India’s active cases continue to decline and the basic reproduction number (‘R number’) remains less than 1, indicating that the viral spread is still limited DELHI: All international passengers being tested; entry to public places likely to be restricted to those with a first dose vaccine certificate; major Covid care centres being revived; oxygen, bed and medicine availability being strengthened RAJASTHAN: International travellers to be tested and observed for 16 days for Covid symptoms; major Covid care centres being revived; curfews to be imposed in Covid hotspots; and masks mandatory in public spaces GUJARAT: Night curfew extended in eight cities with restaurants allowed to operate at 75 per cent…

The killing of 14 innocent civilians by the armed forces, starting off with a case of “mistaken identity” in Nagaland’s Mon district on December 4, has shattered the relative peace that has prevailed in the state in the past six years. On August 3, 2015, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Centre had signed a ‘framework agreement’ with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) or the NSCN (I-M), paving the way for a lasting peace accord. The NSCN (I-M) is the most dreaded militant outfit in the state and, like several other groups, has been demanding a sovereign country for the Naga people. Since 2017, eight more Naga outfits under the banner of the Naga National Political Groups (NNPG), had joined the peace process. As a result, terror-related incidents saw…

IN February 2018, Mayank Agarwal, a 42-year-old bank worker from Lucknow’s Rajajipuram, had taken his elderly parents to Varanasi. They had hoped for darshan at the Kashi Vishwanath temple on February 13, on the occasion of Mahashivratri. However, despite reaching Varanasi a day early and leaving for the temple at 6 am, Agarwal found it impossible to fulfil his parents’ wishes. All the roads leading to the temple were packed with devotees. “It was not possible for my parents, who are over 70, to brave the crowds for too long. There were also problems because of the lack of toilets and other facilities. After spending some time trying to make our way to the temple, we went to Maidagin chowk, and did darshan of Baba Vishwanath on the LED screen…

Kabir Khan was both “shocked and thrilled” when he realised that no one had told the story of how India came to lift the 1983 World Cup. In an interview conducted in 2020, a few months before his ’83 was scheduled to release, Khan said, “It’s a goldmine. It’s the best story I have heard in my life. It is unbelievable what these boys went through.” Releasing on December 24, ’83 follows Kapil’s Devils for 25 days. It’s a tale of how underdogs triumph, of how India beat the formidable West Indies. Khan isn’t just recreating a proud moment in India’s sporting history. The film also gives him a way to explore how our team’s journey in England changed things for India and its people. “It is about the coming…

The Raj Thackeray-Uddhav Thackeray rivalry seems to be spilling over to generation next. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray’s son Amit recently announced that his party workers would clean 40 beaches in the state. The threatened MNS drive is clearly Amit’s way of getting at cousin Aaditya Thackeray, state environment and tourism minister. Amit says his campaign is to highlight the government’s failure in maintaining beaches along the coastline. Last year, Aaditya burnished his credentials as an environmental crusader by forcing the state government to abandon the metro car shed in Mumbai’s Aarey forest. Two, clearly, can play the game.…

The body language was warm and the smiles candid as Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi on December 6, for their first in-person meeting in over two years. During President Putin’s last visit in October 2018, a yet to be named SARS-Cov-2 virus was swirling in a bat cave, China and India had nothing heavier than military trucks deployed along their disputed border and President Donald Trump was confident of a second term in the White House. The events of the past two years have strained India-Russia relations. The US has since put more pressure on Russia over the latter’s 2015 annexation of Crimea, driving Moscow closer to Beijing. This complicates matters for strategic partner New Delhi, because India’s relations with China are currently at…

The Congress high command’s bid to put a united face on the recent reshuffle of the Rajasthan government’s council of ministers—the first in three years—appears to have failed. In recent weeks, members of the rival camps led by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot have openly hit out at each other. On December 4, at an informal meeting of the council of ministers at chief minister Gehlot’s residence in Jaipur’s Civil Lines, the tension was palpable. The agenda for the meeting was to prepare for the party’s national rally, to be held in Jaipur on December 12 (initially to be held in Delhi, and shifted to Jaipur after the Delhi police denied the party permission to hold the rally). Also present at the meeting were…

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, was introduced in Parliament initially to combat militancy in Nagaland in the 1950s. AFSPA was drafted to provide legal impunity to the defence forces operating in ‘disturbed areas’. Section 4 of the Act authorises military officers to arrest any person against whom there is a reasonable suspicion that The… she has committed a cognisable offence. Armed forces are allowed to open fire, irrespective of consequences, if prohibitory orders banning assembly of five or more persons, or carrying of arms and weapons are in force. Section 6 of the Act gives impunity to the armed forces discharging duties under the Act from prosecution, or other legal proceedings, except with the written permission of the Centre. AFSPA comes into force if the Centre or the…

ON JUNE 19, 2018, Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath government constituted a special area development board for the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor project, with the commissioner of Varanasi as chairman of the board ON MARCH 8, 2019, just before the Lok Sabha election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the project, which would expand the 3,000 sq. ft temple complex into a 500,000 sq. ft area that connected the temple with the river Ganga THE PROJECT master plan was prepared by HCP Design, Planning and Management, the same firm that is responsible for the development of the Central Vista in New Delhi. Construction is being carried out by Ahmedabad-based PSP Projects THERE ARE three main parts of the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor: the temple complex, spread over a…

SHRIMATI MALATI DAHANUKAR TRUST Shrirampur Maharashtra Ashwini Dhokchowle, a homemaker who lives in the Tilak Nagar locality in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district, does not get tired of telling people how her one-year-old firstborn Shivtej started eating eggs when he was just six months old. The healthy baby now weighs 11.45 kg when the average weight of children his age is 9.5 kilos. At 77 cm, he is also 2 cm taller than other children his age. “I came to the care centre when my son was three months old and would constantly vomit,” says Ashwini, a graduate in agriculture. “The doctors designed a nutrition plan for me and him, turning us fit and healthy.” Long before the health ministry announced a policy to provide fortified rice to school children under the…

Varunika Saraf quotes German poet-playwright Bertolt Brecht: “Will there be singing in the dark times? Yes, there will be singing… about the dark times.” Speaking out against our grim present, the Hyderabad-based artist and feminist warns us of an Orwellian future. Saraf’s ongoing exhibition Caput Mortuum at the Chemould Prescott Road gallery (on till Dec. 31) highlights both outer injustice and inner pain. Fashioned out of handmade paper called wasli, her suite of 175 recent paintings and drawings raise questions about the relentless cycle of violence. The show derives its Latin title from the name of a synthetic Iron Oxide pigment, ‘Caput Mortuum (Dead Head)’, which bears a striking resemblance to dried blood. Not surprisingly, the colour red lurks in many of Saraf’s paintings—a constant reminder that violence runs deep…

THE TEST (2020; Amazon Prime Video) This documentary series follows a disgraced Australian team trying to salvage pride in the aftermath of the sandpaper bowling scandal FIRE IN BABYLON (2010; YouTube) A riveting documentary about the incredible West Indies side which dominated the game in the 1970s and ’80s. The film also tells a compelling story of how their feats inspired islanders at home BODYLINE (1984; YouTube) One of the earliest TV shows on cricket, Bodyline centres on England’s aggressive bowling tactics against Australia during the 1932-33 Ashes…