Innholdsfortegnelse for January 22, 2024 i India Today

The fledgling BJP government in Rajasthan, with a debutant chief minister, was still learning to walk when it hit the bumps. January 8 brought a particularly embarrassing setback when newly minted minister Surendarpal Singh T.T. lost in the byelection for the Karanpur assembly seat. Elections were adjourned here because of the death of the original Congress candidate. But if the BJP thought having its own regime would make the seat a cinch, it was not to be. After the 72-year-old Surendarpal lost to the new Congress candidate, 43-year-old Rupinder Singh Kooner, a visibly stunned state BJP chief C.P. Joshi was heard mumbling to reporters: “We will analyse the reasons for the defeat.” The defeat is widely seen as a sign of the people’s disapproval of the way BJP has gone…

As befits a ‘true friend’, French president Emmanuel Macron has come to India’s rescue after the US indicated that President Joe Biden would not be able to attend India’s 75th Republic Day celebrations in 2024 as chief guest. PM Narendra Modi had invited Biden for the event on the sidelines of the G20 summit in September last year. “Thank you for your invitation, my dear friend @ NarendraModi. India, on your Republic Day, I’ll be here to celebrate with you!” Macron wrote on X. In a prompt response, PM Modi wrote, “My Dear Friend President @EmmanuelMacron, we eagerly look forward to receiving you as the Chief Guest at the 75th Republic Day. We will also celebrate India-France’s strategic partnership and shared belief in democratic values. Bientôt!” Macron’s presence will mark…

West Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose’s move to appoint vice-chancellors in various universities without consulting the state government seems to be boomeranging on him. After handpicking Buddhadeb Sau as Jadavpur University V-C, the Raj Bhavan has now removed him, apparently because he sided with the state government. The latter, though, has asked Sau to stay. Other V-Cs Bose had appointed have also had to establish backchannel communications with the state government since it is virtually impossible to run an institution without its support. Wonder what their fate will be.…

SACHIN SRIVASTAVA, 36 Manager with a top auditing firm SHAIVYA SRIVASTAVA, 34 Manager with an online payments company Gurugram What they bought: Tata Harrier XT+ Dark edition in July 2021 What they paid: ₹21.5 lakh “While looking at the various options, Harrier was available in the ₹18-25 lakh range of on road. We opted for the mid-level variant as we really wanted the sunroof and the black colour, both of which were not available in the base models,” says Sachin. They paid an additional ₹2 lakh for these features, along with a plush interior with rear speakers.…

MANAS SINGH, 33 TV presenter and YouTuber Mumbai What he bought: iPhone 14 in October 2023 What he paid: ₹70,000 plus As somebody who regularly uploads live videos on ‘Menace & the Monk’, a YouTube channel he runs with friend Nidhi Shankar, he wanted a phone with a superior camera that could help him shoot better-quality videos. He chose the 256 GB variant of the iPhone 14, which allowed him to shoot more videos and store them. He had to spend upwards of ₹70,000, compared to the ₹20,000 he spent on his earlier Android phone from Oppo, but the decision paid off. “The quality of video I get now is brilliant,” he says.…

➘ 100% land acquisition completed in Gujarat, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Maharashtra ➘ All civil engineering contracts awarded in Gujarat and Maharashtra ➘ The laying of first RC track bed as used in Shinkansen has started in Surat and Anand ➘ First mountain tunnel (350m) completed in Valsad in 10 months; work on India’s first undersea rail tunnel (7 km) has started in Mumbai ➘ First steel bridge (70m) erected across NH-53 in Surat; bridge works on six rivers completed ➘ Foundation work done for all eight stations in Gujarat ➘ Excavation work for the Mumbai station, geotech work for other three stations in Maharashtra underway…

Mrinal Sen’s birth centenary inspired a series of programmes across Indian film festivals last year and films from Bengali directors Anjan Dutt, Srijit Mukherji and Kaushik Ganguly. Amidst the fanfare has arrived the very intimate Bondhu, a memoir from his son Kunal Sen. Kunal has cut through the legacy of his father as a serious Leftist intellectual who rivalled Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak to arrive at a portrait of a humorous , self-absorbed but kind, middle-class man. The title Bondhu, meaning friend in Bengali, is what Kunal would call his father. He writes in the book, “…playing with me one day, he might have said that the two of us were friends, and somehow that got stuck in my mind. Whatever the reason, that is the only name I…

When Congress leader Rahul Gandhi asked his colleagues from the West Bengal unit their opinion on joining hands with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the upcoming Lok Sabha election, all key leaders unanimously voted against it. That wasn’t hard to predict: the TMC may now be an ally of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) nationally, but locally it remains a predatory foe. So, at a closed-door pow-wow in Delhi on December 20, Bengal Congress leaders made it clear to Rahul they had no problems teaming up with the Left—as they had done in the 2016 and 2021 assembly polls—but the TMC was a different kettle of fish. And very thorny. This veto came just a day after TMC chief Mamata Banerjee had suggested, at a Delhi meet of…

The new year has brought a glimmer of hope for 2002 Gujarat riots case victim Bilkis Bano. But when the Supreme Court on January 8 set aside the remission granted to the 11 convicted for gang-raping her and killing 14 members of her family, the symbolic freight it carried went well beyond the tale of individual fates. Coming in the year of a general election, it’s bound to have a political edge—though it’s difficult to say which way it will cut. Overturning the Gujarat government’s August 2022 decision, the SC rapped the state for “acting in tandem” with the convicts and pulling a “fraud” on the court. The state was not the competent authority to decide on the remission issue, it said, as the case was tried and convicted in…

POSITIVE SENTIMENT Deloitte’s financial well-being index (FWBI) reveals that Indian consumers feel more financially secure compared to their counterparts in Europe, the US, and even China (Financial well-being is measured across six dimensions of financial health like confidence to make upcoming payments, comfort with level of savings, income relative to spending, delays in making large purchases, current financial situation relative to the previous year and expectations of future financial situation.) The global index line represents an average of eight of the top 10 global economies by their GDP in 2022 according to the World Bank. RISING INCOME The average annual income of the Indian middle-class home has risen significantly in the past decade, from ₹2.3 lakh in FY11 to ₹13 lakh in FY22 Graphic by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY VROOMING AHEAD Cars…

SANDEEP NALGE, 38 Senior manager with a leading private sector bank RAJASHRI NALGE, 37 Advocate Navi Mumbai What they bought: A 1,400 sq. ft 2BHK flat in Nerul, Navi Mumbai, in Dec. 2023 Cost: ₹1.5 crore Nalge was on the lookout for a flat bigger than the one they owned in Kamote, another residential hub in Navi Mumbai. The reputation of the builder mattered to him, as did the amenities, which included a walking track on the terrace of the 18-storey tower, a swimming pool and lift parking for cars. “With the airport coming up near Panvel, the cost of property has risen by 30 per cent in two years. It will rise further, so we thought we’d invest now,” he says. Nalge sold off their Kamote flat to make the initial down payment of…

On January 4, even as All India Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge welcomed Y.S. Sharmila, daughter of the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR), the former chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh, into the Congress with a shawl in the party’s tricolours, her brother and current CM, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), was in Hyderabad spending two hours with the convalescing K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)—whose Bharat Rashtra Samithi had just lost the mandate in contiguous Telangana—and perhaps learning from their failure amid new challenges. Sibling rivalry now threatens to tear asunder YSR’s political legacy that Jagan had reclaimed after years of tumultuous struggle. YSR’s tragic death in a helicopter crash in September 2009, shortly after he led the Congress to a second consecutive assembly election win, had…

Last time Konkona Sensharma had a theatrical release, she featured in the ensemble drama Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi (2021), which had a limited run. “It hasn’t occurred to me,” she says of her long absence from the big screen. “It hasn’t affected my work.” That’s because streaming has treated us to her talents—be it directing a short (Lust Stories 2), acting in one (Geeli Pucchi in the anthology Ajeeb Daastaans) and featuring in a web series (Mumbai Diaries I & II). “I’d rather do interesting content and portray interesting characters that people would ideally connect to than do theatrical for theatrical’s sake,” she says. It’s OTT again that enables Sensharma to tick three boxes in one go: act alongside Manoj Bajpayee for the first time, work with director Abhishek Chaubey, and headline…

Surmounting the impediments that geographical boundaries once posed, 19 art treasures of the great civilisations of antiquity (2nd century BCE to 5th century CE), mostly loaned from leading international institutions and museums, have assembled since December 2 last year in the Rotunda Gallery of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai. The museum’s vaulting dome soars above this vast hall. This exhibition , titled Ancient Sculptures: India, Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome, and planned in association with CSMVS’s special international partners—the Getty, British Museum, Staatliche Museen Zu Berlin as well as leading Indian museums—will afford Indians the rare opportunity of viewing and interpreting in their own way these original objects, till October 1. Curators from CSMVS, along with their colleagues from the participating museums, have chosen from the perspective of…

India’s counterinsurgency grid had been tracking him for a bit. And his prehistory stretched further back: to action in Afghanistan, reputedly to the hazy continuum between the Pakistani army and terror, to epaulettes from the Lashkar-e-Toiba. So when the Indian army finally got its man in November, it was the end of a long chapter. All the attention went on the dramatic firefight, in dense woods around Bajimaal, that lasted all of 24 hours. Justly so, for the army had lost five of its men, including two captains. The scalp bought at such a high price was a high-value one too: a pro at jungle warfare and at IEDs, who carried the code-name ‘Qari’. That, however, did not impart closure on a cycle of terror attacks that had bloodied these…

First, in April 2022, came a giant banner emblazoned on the walls of the former Maldives president and opposition lea der Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s house in Male. Its message was unequivocal: “India Out”. Two months later, a mob attacked Yoga Day activities in Male organised by Indian diplomats—for being “un-Islamic”. These were early signs of an anti-India sentiment taking hold of the archipelago nation. Maldives president Mohamed Muizzu, who was mayor of Male when these incidents happened, surely took his cue from them. In 2023, he contested the presidential polls on an ‘India Out’ campaign, demanding a withdrawal of Indian military personnel so as to “ensure the country’s sovereignty”. So, the latest controversy that erupted on January 7—intemperate reactions to videos and images posted by PM Narendra Modi on…

(Sources: JATO Dynamics, JLL, Godrej and Panasonic sales data) When 38-year-old due diligence expert Praful Sharma set out to buy a new car for his two-member family last year, a hatchback would probably have met his needs perfectly. However, two years of the Covid pandemic had left an indelible mark on his psyche. Confronted with the loss of loved ones, some younger than himself, Sharma, like many others, found himself assailed by a strange new feeling: YOLO, short for You Only Live Once. That sentiment saw him go against the middle-class grain of saving for a better tomorrow—and choosing instead to spend for a better present. Sharma bought the automatic variant of Honda’s newly launched Elevate, at a price some Rs 6 lakh higher than what he would have paid…

SHUBHI KUMAR, 26 Pastry chef ARCHIT UPPAL, 31 Businessman Gurugram What they bought Bosch built-in induction ₹40,000 Bosch built-in microwave, 25 litres ₹44,600 Bosch wall-mounted hood ₹36,300 Bosch built-in dishwasher ₹63,000 Bosch built-in gas hob ₹34,000 Carysil Quartz Workstation Sink with glass rinser, soap dispenser, three-way faucet & RO splint ₹50,000 The couple, who got married in December, bought these appliances for their home in Gurugram. “We love to cook and host parties. We were very conscious that our open kitchen needed to be not just functional but also aesthetically pleasing,” says Shubhi.…

Every winter, as the veil of air pollution descends upon the country, a familiar flurry begins to unfold. Crop-burning is the recipient of the harshest reprimand, but there is equal public bemoaning about the growing number of vehicles on Indian roads, whose noxious fumes contribute substantially to the problem. “It is a dangerous problem,” says Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, “Forty per cent of the country’s CO2 emissions come from the transport sector. And it is growing every day. It is worrying.” And one of the attempts to fight this annual problem—the Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation Programme, or the ‘vehicle scrapping policy’—has failed to get off the ground, simply because the states are not ready, almost three years after the policy was rolled out. The central government…

The vehicle enters a designated platform where information like its type, registration number etc. are fed into a computer It then goes through a lane equipped with various testing modules The testing modules and automated rollers check braking force The undercarriage is also checked using sensors and cameras for defect, rust etc., signifying age Sensors analyse exhaust gases for emission standards Special machines check the headlight’s effectiveness The lane also simulates road conditions and creates vibrations to check the suspension This data is continuously processed by a centralised computer that already has predefined criteria and regulations The system then gives out a report on whether the vehicle is fit or unfit. And if it is unfit, why The whole process is linked to the government’s central database for transparency…

There is a palpable air of excitement in central and southern Gujarat. On January 8, railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce that the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) has completed 100 per cent land acquisition required to execute India’s first bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The 508-kilometre high-speed rail (HSR) corridor will traverse about 350 km in Gujarat, straight like an arrow through various villages and towns where extensive industrial and urban development is planned to take advantage of their rapid connectivity to India’s commercial capital Mumbai. Besides land acquisition, NHSRCL has awarded all civil contracts in Gujarat and Maharashtra (where a 156-km corridor is coming up), a major step towards reducing the rail travel time between the two terminal hubs…

There’s nothing so arterial to the Hindu way of life as the river Ganga and its spiritual symbolism. And yet, for something that stands so much for purity, the physical form of the river is one of the planet’s most polluted. This is the confluence of thought at which Hari Katragadda’s debut solo show, titled Lost River, attempts to find meaning through four bodies of work based on cyanotype technique, often dubbed the ‘blueprints of photography’. Curated by acclaimed art expert Ranjit Hoskote, the pathbreaking photographs will be on view at Cymroza Art Gallery during the 11th edition of the four-day extravaganza that is the Mumbai Gallery Weekend (January 11–14) and beyond, until February 17. While the ‘lost river’ was the mysterious and near-mythical Saraswati, the phrase used here is…