Innholdsfortegnelse for 29 August 2022 i India Today

There is much that India can take pride in as it celebrates 75 years of its Independence and much more that it needs to do. Especially when it comes to fulfilling the fundamental duties and responsibilities of the State to provide the bare necessities of life to every Indian so that they can live with dignity and in hope. India’s population has grown fourfold since 1947, which is one reason why policymakers have had trouble keeping pace. At 1.4 billion, India is now the second most populous country in the world, next only to China. If over 200 million people lived below the poverty line at the time of Independence, we still have a BPL population of 240 million despite seven decades of economic development, which have seen per capita income…

IN the past few years, many global organisations monitoring agriculture have India listed as one of the largest producers of fresh fruits like banana, mango, guava, papaya, lemon along with vegetables such as okra and aubergine and pulses like chickpeas. They have also traced India’s progress in producing critical spices like chili pepper and ginger along with fibrous crops like jute, cotton and oilseeds such as mustard, castor and millets. India, at present, is also one of the largest producers of wheat and rice, as also livestock and poultry. Agriculture contributes 17-19 per cent of the country’s GDP, although we still only export produce worth around $50 billion. It was only in the mid-1960s, after the country was rocked by back-to-back droughts and the residual impact of an Indo-Pak war…

During pre-Independence times, major navigable rivers were an important means of transportation in northern and eastern India. But trade was largely confined to the Gangetic waterways. With the advent of the railways, the focus on waterways saw a steady decline. Though transportation through rivers is cheaper, India’s freight movement in this mode is less than 1 per cent, compared to China at 24 per cent and the US at 9 per cent. Currently, there are 111 National Waterways in the country—106 were notified in 2016 as National Waterways, adding to the list of existing five. In 2015, the government launched the ambitious Sagarmala project to capitalise on India’s coastline and build infrastructure to connect different ports in the country. Sagarmala’s investment target is at $123 billion—a maritime equivalent of the…

Calcutta somehow has been intrinsic to India’s telecom story. It was from the city to Diamond Harbour that the first experimental telegraph was started in 1850 in British India. Nearly a century and a half later, when mobile telephony landed on Indian shores, on July 31, 1995, it was to Jyoti Basu, the then chief minister of West Bengal, that Sukh Ram, the then Union telecom minister, made the first call, on Nokia cell phones. When India gained Independence in 1947, the country had 150,000-odd telephone exchange lines, and state-run agencies under the posts and telegraph department manned the sector. The telephone remained a symbol of status rather than an object of utility for a long time, the number of connections growing from a mere 80,000 in 1948 to 980,000…

India is the second-largest urban system in the world, accounting for 11 per cent of the total global urban population. The population of urban India is more than that of the US, Germany, Japan and the UK taken together. The UN estimates that around 416 million people will be added to Indian cities between 2018 and 2050, taking the share of the urban population—which was 17 per cent in 1951—to 50 per cent by 2050. More than the volume of population, the importance of cities lies in their contribution to economic growth. Urban India is just 3 per cent of the country’s land, but it adds a massive 60 per cent to the GDP. Yet, most Indian cities and towns have been expanding in an unplanned and unscientific manner. Though…

In Indian public consciousness, the stupendous progress in space technology often stands in for the country’s overall advancement in science. Ever since India launched the first US-made sounding rocket for upper atmospheric research on November 21, 1963, its ambitious space programme has not looked back. This came a year after Vikram Sarabhai formed the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), which became the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on August 15, 1969. Soon, it sent India’s first satellite, Aryabhata, into space in 1975. India’s entry into the elite space club came in 1980, with the launch of the satellite launch vehicle SLV-3. Since then, there has been steady progress in developing heavy launchers and satellites. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) are…

1956 1 MWt (megawatt thermal) APSARA research reactor attains criticality 1957 Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay, set up; later renamed Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) 1960 40 MWt CIRUS reactor attains criticality and begins making weapons-grade plutonium 1962 Heavy water production begins at German-built Nangal plant 1963 The US and India sign an accord stipulating that the former will supply enriched fuel to the Tarapur nuclear power plant 1968 India refuses to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; Nuclear Fuel Complex set up in Hyderabad 1973 The Canadian-built 100 MWe (megawatt electrical) heavy water reactor Rajasthan-1 begins operations at Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) 1974 India conducts an underground “peaceful nuclear explosion”, codenamed Smiling Buddha, at Pokhran, Rajasthan 1982 BARC’s Power Reactor Fuel Reprocessing Plant at Tarapur is commissioned 1985 The heavy…

The kind of development which the double engine government is doing in Uttarakhand is getting unprecedented support from the public of the state. After reaching at the helm of affairs a second time in Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is now making a double effort to make the state according to the dreams of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the state government is working continuously with the Mantra of 'Vikalp Rahit Sankalp'. The atmosphere created in Uttarakhand for development resulted in the selection of the state in 'achievers' category in the ease of doing business ranking, issued by the central government. The state is getting new dimensions with the commitment of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to make Uttarakhand as the leading…

Forests—teeming with wildlife and precious, diverse flora—are the lungs of the nation and vital for ecological balance. But this wisdom has been a long time coming. From being regarded as a revenue earner and a resource to be exploited in colonial times and in the years immediately after Independence, the last several decades have at last witnessed a paradigm shift in the way forests are managed. The biggest pressure on India’s forests has been its burgeoning population. Forests have borne the brunt of the need for firewood, food, highways and dams. The priorities of environment and development continue to be fought over as opposing ideals. The past few decades have seen the community management and preservation of forests being introduced through the 1988 National Forest Policy. At the time of…

There’s been no dearth of concern on pollution in the past decades. We also have enough laws to check air, water, noise and waste pollution. There is a growing realisation that pollutants are exacerbating climate change and contributing to human misery as never before. But compliance? That’s another story. Action against air pollution is taken under provisions of Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, and Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Along with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for industrial sectors, the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP) consists of 804 operating stations covering 344 cities/towns. The 2021 World Air Quality report found that PM2.5 concentrations—tiny particles in the air that are 2.5 micrometres or smaller—in 48 per cent of Indian cities are over 10 times higher than the…

In India's post independent journey, the water sector has seen a gradual but significant progress; which has picked up significant pace in the few years. The management of water resources has seen a paradigm shift in India since 2014. Water governance is placed at the forefront of the country's development agenda. In 2019, the Government of India established the Ministry of Jal Shakti, by bringing all aspects of water related governance under the aegis of a single Ministry. The positive results under Namami-Gange Programme, the expeditious completion of irrigation projects under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, a renewed participatory approach towards groundwater management through Atal Bhujal Yojana, the improvement in availability of hydrological data through National Hydrology Project and National Project on Aquifer Management exemplify the holistic transformation India's water…

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In 1947, as India celebrated its Independence, the then reigning singing star of Hindi cinema, Noor Jehan, migrated to Pakistan. There were many more, however, who made the trip from Lahore to Bombay in the aftermath of Partition, and others who stayed back in Bombay, including Jehan’s Jugnu (1947) co-star Yusuf Khan a.k.a. Dilip Kumar, who went on to be hailed as one of India’s finest actors. The film industry had been in business for nearly three decades but, with the birth of a liberated India, filmmakers took a patriotic turn as evident in films like Shaheed (1948), Naya Daur (1957) and Insaan Jaag Utha (1958). Filmmakers struck a fine balance between feelgood narratives and tales that highlighted the harsh socio-economic realities of a nation still trying to find its…

Our freedom struggle is replete with stories of women leaders—or just ordinary women—who marched shoulder to shoulder with men, took the bullets, faced the batons and went up to the gallows. Count those who used words—like theosophist and women’s rights activist Annie Besant and Sarojini Naidu—or revolutionaries like Kalpona Dutta and Bina Das, or Rani Laxmi Bai, Matangini Hazra and Captain Lakshmi Sahgal who fought wars. In the fight for freedom, gender was never a barrier. Ironically, post-1947, even with an ‘Iron Lady’ like Indira Gandhi dominating the landscape for years, women on the ground had many more battles to fight for gender freedom—75 years later, those battles continue to be waged. Both in the personal domain, and with the big, bad world outside. Domestic violence and marital rape scarred…

Democracies are governed by a majority vote, but perhaps no better indicator of the health of a democracy can be found than how the rights of the minorities are upheld within its structure. It’s within this dichotomy that India has acted out the legal and ethical imperatives of a rainbow society. The political history has been volatile, not the least because modern India’s birth was accompanied by a bloody Partition conducted on religious grounds. Pakistan was carved out, on its east and west, explicitly as a Muslim nation—since split into two. But that still left the world’s second largest bloc of Muslims in India. Presently, they form 14.2 per cent of its population, largest among the six big minority groups, but dwarfed by the 80 per cent majority Hindus and…

Independence. The etymology of the word is telling. It is derived from the medieval French word ‘dependre’, which means ‘hanging from’, with the Latin ‘in’ prefix standing for ‘not’. The whole word thus came to mean “not hanging from”. It is apt to describe how India broke free of the 200-year-old British colonial yoke, which had pushed the country towards an extreme state of dependence and subjugation. When the East India Company gained dominance over the subcontinent around 1750, India’s economy accounted for 24.5 per cent of the world’s manufacturing output and United Kingdom’s only 1.9 per cent. In another century and a half, the British economy, on the back of exploiting India’s vast resources, came to account for 18.5 per cent of the world’s share and India’s was reduced…

1947 Post-Partition, India gets a route network of 49,523 km (broad gauge and metre gauge) and 5,370 km of narrow gauge. With 8,120 steam locomotives, besides 72 electric and 17 diesel-fuelled ones, Indian Railways (IR) transports 3.52 million passengers and 0.2 million tonnes of freight every day 1951-52 All agencies and entities governing railways are restructured into regional zones. Two years later, the Railway Board is constituted to take all decisions related to policy, technology and operations 1955 First fully AC train starts operations between Howrah and Delhi, followed by another between Delhi and Bombay Central. Later, a buffet-cum-cinema car is added to Janata Express 1956 With the help of French major SNCF, the Railway Electrification Project is started. Till then only some suburban trains, principally in Mumbai, were electrified…

As the shadow of the pandemic is receding from India’s air traffic, air travel is getting back to normal. More than 100 million people are travelling domestically. This is expected to reach 166 million next year with all Covid-related restrictions gone and international travellers also moving freely. India is already the fourth-largest aviation market behind the US, China and Europe. The country has 129 operational airports. Indian skies saw 11,757,112 air movements towards end-March 2022, which is pushing the country to develop more airports. In the next four years, India expects the numbers to reach 220. India was at pace with its global peers even before Independence and had a commercial fleet of 74 DC-3 Dakotas, 12 Vikings, three DC-4s and various smaller craft that largely carried royals, bureaucrats, politicians,…

The Indian power sector has come a long way since Independence when access to electricity was restricted to a few urban areas with almost no supply in rural areas. The country has taken big strides since then—both in the installed electricity-generating capacity as well as transmission & distribution (T&D). From a meagre 1,362 MW in 1947, the total power-generating capacity has increased to 403,761 MW at the end of June 2022. Meanwhile, per capita electricity consumption has increased from just 16.3 kWh in 1947 to 805 kWh in 2021-22. However, due to the rise in consumption, the electric-ity supply has not been able to match demand. This has led to many parts of the country facing power shortages during peak demand. Under the Union Budget 2022-23, the Centre announced the…

From the brickwork remnants at the Indus Valley Civilisation sites in the north to the tanks, step-wells, and the 2nd century Grand Anicut that the Cholas built in the south, the subcontinent is replete with proof that ancient India knew its water management well. However, the highly seasonal pattern of rainfall coupled with a steady rise in consumption, over centuries, has put enormous stress on the country’s water resources. As a result, India is now classified as ‘water scarce’ with less than 1,000 cubic metres per capita per annum, down from about 4,000 cubic metres in 1947 when it gained Independence. After building huge dams and reservoirs to store water, the Command Area Development (CAD) programme, launched in 1974-75, developed an adequate delivery system up to farmers’ fields. It improved…

The seeds of defence R&D in India were sown by eminent theoretical physicist D.S. Kothari, also our first scientific advisor. The Defence Ser vice Organisation he founded in 1948 was to become the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) in 10 years, in association with several technical development establishments. From a primarily advisory role in operations research, ballistics, weapons evaluation, physiology, food and nutrition for the armed forces, the new organisation was tasked with the design and development of equipment based on operational requirements of the triservices, applied research and technical evaluation trials of weapons. So, if in the 1970s, the DRDO contributed to a peaceful nuclear explosion, 51 mm mortar, surface-to-air missile, 105 mm field gun, secondary surveillance radar and the Indra radar, the ’80s were an era of evolution…

1978 India’s first biotech firm, a private initiative, Biocon is founded in Bengaluru 1981 Council for Scientific and Industrial Research opens Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad 1984 Institute for Microbial Technology set up in Chandigarh 1986 GoI institutes Department of Biotechnology (DBT) 1994 Syngene, our first contract research organisation, begins R&D services 1997 Centre for Biological Technology (CBT) set up to focus on genomics and bioinformatics 1998 Monsanto Research opens R&D centre to grow Bt cotton; DBT approves Mahyco Monsanto to grow Bt cotton 2007 National Biotechnology Development Strategy launched; biotech park opens in Lucknow 2009 National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill introduced; Biotechnology Industry Partnership Programme launched 2010 Cadila Healthcare, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech launch first H1N1 swine flu vaccine 2011 Biotechnology Industry Research…

The Pushkar Singh Dhami government in Uttarakhand is working on the principle of Prime Minister's Mantra Sabka Sath - Sabka Vikas - Sabka Vishwas. Efforts are being made to bring the deprived section of the society into mainstream. State has set the target to provide houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to around 55000 poor people. Home stay scheme is strengthening the rural economy. The Uttarakhand government is providing loans up to 3 lakh rupees to farmers and up to 5 lakh rupees to women and self help groups without any interest. The "Farm Machinery Bank" scheme has been launched for those farmers who do not have any agricultural equipment. For this 80% subsidy is being provided from the government. Tea gardens of Dhaula Devi, Munsyari and Betalghat are converted…

On completion of 75 glorious years of independence, India is celebrating the 1Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav1• However, there are several parts of the country where people are still waiting to attain freedom from the pangs of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. Most districts still need better educational infrastructure. People in many parts of the country still lack basic education. Health facilities are in bad shape. In the midst of all this, Chhattisgarh, which came into existence as a separate state about 22 years ago, has been creating new meanings of independence for the last three and a half years. In Chhattisgarh, people have attained freedom from malnutrition, poverty, and illiteracy through constant innovative efforts. Here is a report: FREEDOM FROM DEBT: At a time when the entire nation is facing the…

During the Independence Day celebration organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) this year, Union law minister Kiren Rijiju complained—albeit in a lighter vein—that he had not been invited on the same occasion in 2021. Though the association asserted that he had been invited, as is the norm, the minister said he did not receive the invite. Both sides decided not to push any further and leave the matter as “inconclusive”. This incident illustrates how the “inconclusive” relationship between the judiciary and the executive has often marked the journey of the justice dispensation system. Though the judiciary has undoubtedly played a crucial role in upholding democratic principles and constitutional governance—and as multiple INDIA TODAY Mood of the Nation polls have found, it is still perceived to be Indian democracy’s…

The late N.T. Rama Rao once described the Centre as “a myth”. That was peak federalism, if you will. It’s a spirit that flourishes in India, if you take the swelling in the number of states as the distinct metric. From the 17 provinces and 565 princely states that came together to form the Indian Union, a total of 14 states and six Union Territories (UTs) were formed following the Reorganisation of States in 1956. Agitations for separate statehood increased the count to 29 states and seven UTs by 2014. Now, after the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir, there have been 28 states and eight UTs since October 2019. Beyond boundaries and demographics, in electoral and governance terms, federalism has inspired a transition from single-party rule to that by alliances.…

1965 Women not to be terminated from service upon marriage (Bombay Labour Union vs. International Franchise Pvt Ltd) 1971 Right to abort between 20th and 24th week of pregnancy, if foetal development is abnormal or likely to harm mother 1986 Equal right of share for daughter in parents’ property among Christians 1990 The Supreme Court ruled even “a woman of easy virtue” is entitled to privacy and no one can invade it 1991 Women exempted from sharing personal details (conception history, menstrual cycle) with prospective employers. LIC had such a column. 1994 Prenatal sex determination banned to stop female foeticide; 2003 amendment enforces law 1997 SC issues the Vishaka Guidelines to prevent sexual harassment of women at workplace. Also, adult women entitled to marry and live with anyone of choice.…

1947-1950s As India gained Independence, the original patrons of classical music, the rajas and maharajas, wound up their princely states, leaving musicians to fend for themselves. Musicians realised they had to build their own ecosystem, from creating gharanas to cultivating students and creating new public spaces for performances. For many, the government became the new patron, through employment with the All India Radio (AIR). Radio Sangeet Sammelan, which started in 1952, was a pathbreaking programme that helped musicians reach out to audiences across India. Lata Mangeshkar had started playback singing in 1947, for the film Aapki Sewa Mein, and continued to regale audiences until she passed away in 2022. 1950s-60s Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar travelled abroad to showcase Indian music and culture. The popularisation of the…

If it’s the sequel that decides the fate of a popular film franchise, it is the second season which proves crucial for web shows. With its new season premiering on Netflix on August 26,Delhi Crime (2019—), the only Indian title to have ever won an International Emmy award, faces a litmus test that is, in some ways, unprecedented. While we can expect a similar grit we saw in the first season, it is important to note that writer-director Richie Mehta has relinquished some of his responsibilities to stay on only as an executive producer. With writing duties having been divided, Tanuj Chopra has come on board as director and showrunner. Even though Shefali Shah, the show’s lead, thinks a comparison is “really unfair”, it is inevitable this instalment will be…

India’s transformation from a state of poor growth before 1947 to the fastest growing economy in the globe now has been a remarkable one. In the pre-Independence era, India’s real Gross National Product (GDP) grew only by an average 0.9 per cent a year. Post-Independence, the country embarked on an ambitious task of planned economic growth to come out of this stagnation. The country also had to reckon with the aftereffects of the Second World War and Partition, in addition to consolidating the nation and building an administrative and political ap-paratus. Real GDP rose at an average annual rate of 4 per cent post-Independence, with any significant acceleration taking place only in the 1980s. Sectoral composition of the GDP gradually changed, with agriculture, which contributed more than half of the…

The growth in the services sector largely began after the reforms of 1991. Liberalisation, removal of FDI restrictions, easier approvals and so on led to the sector’s growth broadly classified under the following categories—information and communication, financial and insurance sectors, education, arts and entertainment, real estate etc. In the 1950s, the sector’s share in India’s GDP was about 29 per cent, accelerating to over 30 per cent in the ’60s and ’70s and increasing to over 53 per cent by the 2000s. India has also emerged as one of the top services exporter countries, increasing its share from 0.6 per cent in 1991 to 4.6 per cent in 2020. Between 1980 and 2010, India’s share in the global services sector increased from less than 1 per cent to over 3 per…

On July 4, while inaugurating the "Digital India Week 2022", Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Digital India campaign had helped the government machinery get rid of the menace called middle men, who had often become obstacles in taking government services to the targeted beneficiaries. But more importantly, it helped the country save Rs 2.25 lakh crore from falling into the wrong hands in the past eight years. One of the states, which has steadfastly walked this digital path envisioned by the prime minister to eliminate corruption, is Assam. Ever since Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took charge of the state in May 2021, Assam has witnessed massive transformation in digital services. The primary objective of this transition has been to facilitate faster and hassle-free government services to the…

At 75 years young, India boasts of a formidable road network—the second largest in the world—spanning 63 lakh km (Basic Road Statistics in India report, 2018-19). At the time of Independence, the country’s road network, which includes state and national highways (NH), and rural roads—was barely 4 lakh km. The pace of construction of roads and highways, according to government data, has gone up by 300 per cent in the past seven years. Now, India has 4.87 km of road for every 1,000 people. During the 2007-2017 decade, the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was of urban roads, followed by rural roads and national highways. But since late last year, there has been a decline in the pace of construction. It fell to its lowest in four years to…

Post-Independence, India’s oil industry remained operated by foreign companies for a considerable period. The first oil discovery was made by Assam Oil Company in 1953 in Naharkatia and then in Moran in 1956, both in Upper Assam. Later, the erstwhile USSR helped in drawing geological and geophysical surveys and drilling plans in the 2nd Five-Year Plan (1956-57 & 1960-61). To spread exploration to various parts of the country, an Oil and Natural Gas Directorate was set up in 1955, which was changed to a commission (ONGC) the next year. Within a year of being formed, ONGC discovered oil at Cambay and initiated offshore exploration in the form of experimental seismic surveys in 1962 in the Gulf of Cambay and later western offshore. In 1972-73, detailed seismic surveys led to India’s…

The Indian military has gone through a series of changes since Independence. After the end of World War II, out of the 1.25 million wartime troops in the old Indian Army, tens of thousands were demobilised, many units disbanded. With Partition came the division of the Indian armed forces between India and Pakistan in the ratio of two-third to one-third. Steeped in traditions, and matching pomp and circumstance that go back to the 18th century for some regiments, India today has the second largest military in the world, with 1.4 million personnel and 960,000 reserves. The Indian military has fought four wars against Pakistan, including the 1999 border conflict in Kargil. In 1962, it faced the People’s Republic of China in the heights of Ladakh and what was then NEFA (North…

"From the start of schooling to communication in sign language, digital textbooks to a structured assessment to analyse learning, National Education Policy is extensive and futuristic. May education brighten our nation and lead it to prosperity." - Narendra Modi While Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi's transformative National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has set an ambitious vision tor Haryana, Chief Minister Manohar Lai has reaffirmed his commitment to chasing the NEP goals in a mission mode and implement the policy in letter and spirit by 2025, five years before the target set by the Central Government. Translating the prime minister's vision into practice Haryana has already taken the first decisive steps in this direction through the NIPUN Haryana mission, focused on ensuring children below 8 years of age attain foundational literacy…

India made an early commitment to nuclear power by enacting the Atomic Energy Act and setting up the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1948 with Homi J. Bhabha as chairman. Six years later, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was created under the direct charge of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to work towards ensuring nuclear security as well as generation of electricity from the thorium and uranium available in India. DAE pioneered research in atomic energy at Trombay, on Mumbai’s outskirts, where the earliest research reactors were built. By 1963, India had two research reactors and four nuclear reactors. The DAE’s robust institutional framework and its scientists’ diligence enabled the resounding success of the nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1974 and 1998. As India’s uranium reserves are rather modest, while…

In 1947, India’s entire healthcare infrastructure consisted of some 700 primary care centres and 7,000-odd hospitals/ dispensaries. Today, we count over 30,000 PHCs, 69,000 hospitals and nearly 2 million hospital beds—with the transformative touch of technology visible across the spectrum, including in the eSanjeevani telemedicine outreach that caters to nearly 35,000 patients daily in remote areas (3 million consultations till date, across 31 states). India also has the world’s largest health insurance scheme—since it began in 2018, Ayushman Bharat has provided Rs 7,000 crore and free treatment 10 million times to patients from the 100 million poor families eligible for a Rs 1 lakh cover. Some 40,000-odd new wellness centres too are operational, of the scheme’s sanctioned 62,000. And yet, the gaps are massive and the skew decidedly favours urban areas…

Democracy has thrived in India amidst a competition between two models. Formally, it’s a multi-party democracy: the power to administer the Union, as also the states that compose it, is attained via a first-past-the-post system of elections. But an implicit tendency to unipolarity/bipolarity—with national parties forming its core—marks its genetic code too. This was visible from the first general election of 1952, swept by the Congress. The party’s domination continued till 1967. Its internal feuds created fragments that crystallised into newer parties—Swatantra in the 1960s, Janata in the 1970s. These often overlapped with or segued into politics writ from the periphery rather than the centre. Regional parties rode the surf of identity and culture in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Assam. Social blocs created another analogue in caste-based parties like…

India’s tourism sector is etched with the mindboggling statistics of a slow-starting post-Independence boom and a post-pandemic bust. Once a prestige sector smothered in statist attention, it saw significant liftoff in the early phase of liberalisation, though the State also played a role, hiring marketing firm O&M to sell the global Incredible !ndia brand. By 2019, the industry was contributing some $194 billion—nearly 7 per cent of GDP—and employing 38 million people. The disruptions of Covid were particularly severe for this industry, and recovery has been slow and inevitably led by domestic travel, with many state governments promoting pilgrimage destinations and the PM announcing the Dekho Apna Desh campaign. 10th India’s rank among 185 countries in terms of travel & tourism’s total contribution to the GDP in 2019, according to…

How we live, who we live with and how we socialise has undergone a drastic change, but not always in predictable ways, in the past 75 years. In 1981, Indian families had an average size of 5.6 people—counter-intuitively, the highest since 1947, when it had been only 4.9. Since then, it was all nuclear proliferation. Average households now have 4.45 members. The share of joint families has dipped to 16 percent. Today, families with two, one or no children are common; the preference for less offspring reflects in the national fertility rate too. India’s current figure of 2 children per person is lower than the global replacement rate of 2.1. When it comes to personal habits—there has been a decline in both alcohol and tobacco use in the past 15 years,…

EARLY ENCOUNTERS WITH THE WORLD The 1940s and even the ’50s saw pioneers like Uday Shankar, Ram Gopal, Madame Menaka, Rukmini Devi Arundale and Guru Gopinath start companies that toured the world with elaborately mounted ballets, taking Indian dancing far and beyond. By the 1960s, however, ballet as a concept began to fade. Today, mostly government-funded institutions like Kathak Kendra in New Delhi, Kalakshetra in Chennai and Kerala Kalamandalam in Thrissur still stage such productions. WHERE TRADITION MEETS MODERNITY The guru-shishya parampara [tradition], a distinct facet of Indian classical dance, gave way to uniform, structured dance teaching at institutions such as Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalaya in Bombay. Not that the tradition is entirely obsolete (take the Protima Bedi-founded Nrityagram), but teachers have factored in…

Though ‘75’ is surely an important milestone, it is sometimes difficult for celebrations to feel original for the 75th time. Being held at Kolkata’s Indian Museum until September 18, DAG’s March to Freedom: Reflections on India’s Independence does something unique—using the 75th anniversary of our Independence as both occasion and cause, it reinterprets the oft-repeated story of our freedom struggle, while also reimagining the cost and meaning of our much-prized ‘Independence’. Curated by Mrinalini Venkateswaran, the exhibition borrows from the DAG collection not just its masterpieces, but also a stunning collection of photographs, prints and posters that it forces you to think of as ‘art’. Ditching the predictability of chronology, March to Freedom is divided into eight themes, inviting viewers to roam rather than follow some regular, pre-ordained path. Seeing how…