Indholdsfortegnelse for February 10, 2025 i India Today

Even in the colourful and diverse gallery of Indian leadership, Arvind Kejriwal, national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is one of a kind. Not your typical neta, he emerged from within the wombs of the urban citizenry. Promising to answer their call for ending corrupt politics and ensuring pro-people governance, Kejriwal activated the ‘aam aadmi’ or common man as never before. He was closer to their needs, articulated their frustration with a rotten system, and spoke their everyday language. Stacked on top of his original image as an anti-corruption crusader that won him his first brief stint in office in 2013, Kejriwal soon positioned himself as the messiah of the lower middle class and saviour of the poor. Despite the best efforts of arch rivals Bharatiya Janata Party…

On January 10, 2025, nature enthusiast Rajiv Rai, who stays near Injambakkam beach, 16km from Chennai’s Marina Beach, had a sighting he wished he hadn't seen: three large Olive Ridley carcasses on the sand. Next day, he found 11 carcasses; the day after, another 10. Though he alerted the Tamil Nadu forest department and fellow naturalists, he learnt later that the dismal carousel of 70-80 carcasses he kept encountering almost every day till the end of January were amongst the over 1,000 that had washed ashore Chennai’s Marina, Kovalam and Chengalpattu beaches. An alarming situation because Olive Ridley, an endangered species, is crucial in maintaining the healthy balance of the marine ecosystem. Though the Tamil Nadu forest department is awaiting post-mortem reports, naturalists claim the turtles drowned after getting entangled…

WOMEN AAP: Rs 2,100 a month allowance under Mahila Samman Yojana BJP: Rs 2,500 monthly payout under Mahila Samriddhi Yojana Congress: Rs 2,500 per month under Pyari Didi Yojana YOUTH AAP: Employment focus, free bus rides and metro concessions for students, scholarships under Dr Ambedkar Yojana BJP: 50,000 government jobs, 2 million self-employment opportunities, Rs 15,000 aid for competitive exams Congress: Rs 8,500/year under Yuva Udaan Yojana + apprenticeships COOKING GAS AAP: Rs 500 subsidy per cylinder BJP: Subsidised cylinders at Rs 500, free cylinders on Holi and Diwali Congress: Subsidised cylinders for Rs 500 HEALTHCARE AAP: Free treatment for senior citizens, continuation of Mohalla Clinics. Sanjeevani Yojana provides free treatment in addition BJP: Rs 5 lakh Ayushman Bharat cover + Rs 5 lakh state cover, free diagnostics for all…

↘ REBUILDING VOTER BASE: The Congress aims to regain the lost Muslim and Dalit support through micro-campaigns, emphasising historical commitments to minority welfare, secularism and social justice, while highlighting AAP’s perceived failures in these areas ↘ GOING SOLO: Breaking ties with AAP to contest independently reflects the party’s plan to reclaim its voter base, targeting key constituencies and rejuvenating the morale of the grassroots Congress worker ↘ FOCUSED FREEBIES: Welfare programmes such as the Pyari Didi Yojana and Jeevan Raksha Yojana, along with targeted financial and healthcare benefits, form the cornerstone of the Congress’s promises to woo Delhi voters ↘ ATTACKING AAP ON CORRUPTION: The Congress is leveraging high-profile controversies like the ‘Liquorgate’ scandal, the ‘Sheesh Mahal’ controversy and resource mismanagement allegations to undermine AAP’s governance narrative and challenge its…

Stock market movements can often resemble heartbeats on an ECG monitor. The ticker fluctuates, going up and down and, yes, there are occasional spikes and dips in the markets just as your heartbeat varies in response to excitement or stress. To address this worrying nature of investors, the stock markets have a financial product—equity-oriented mutual funds (MFs). Unlike how a single stock reacts to stock market shocks, mutual funds are a basket of securities that offer a lot more cover. Structurally, an MF pools the money of many investors and invests it for them in a collection of securities by purchasing stocks, bonds, money markets, and/or other securities based on the fund’s investment objective. According to the regulator SEBI, mutual funds can be broadly categorised as equity-oriented, debt-oriented, hybrid,…

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has recently announced new guidelines to streamline the nomination process for mutual fund folios and demat accounts. These new rules allow investors to nominate up to 10 individuals for each account or folio, with the option to assign percentage allocations to each nominee. The nominees can either continue as joint holders or open separate single accounts/folios for their respective portions. Set to take effect on March 1, the guidelines apply to both investors and regulated entities, including asset management companies (AMCs). A key update involves the rule of survivorship, whereby assets in joint accounts will be transferred to the surviving holders without impacting prior nominations or operational agreements. The market regulator has also introduced new measures to validate and authenticate nominations to…

What is Geographical Indication? A GI is a sign used on products—such as handicrafts, handloom items, manufactured goods, textiles and agricultural produce—that originate from a specific geographical region and possess qualities or unique characteristics attributable to their origin. GIs are also considered a form of intellectual property rights (IPR) 605 NUMBER OF GI-TAGGED PRODUCTS IN THE COUNTRY AS OF JANUARY 2025 Key products with GI tags MADHYA PRADESH Ratlami Sev, Morena Gajak, Jhabua Kadaknath Black Chicken Meat GUJARAT Kutch Embroidery, Jamnagari Bandhani, Patan Patola, Mata ni Pachhedi, Bharuch Sujani Weaving HIMACHAL PRADESH Kangra Tea, Himachali Kala Zeera UTTAR PRADESH Banaras Zardozi, Aligarh Tala, Mainpuri Tarkashi, Varanasi Wooden Lacquerware & Toys, Pilibhit Bansuri KARNATAKA Mysore Agarbathi, Mysore Sandalwood Oil, Mysore Sandal Soap ASSAM Muga Silk, Majuli Masks, Bihu Dhol ANDHRA PRADESH  Guntur…

An exhibition □ in the capital traces the illustrious five-decade-long artistic journey of one of India’s most celebrated contemporary artists. The comprehensive showcase features over 60 works by Delhi-based printmaker Anupam Sud, from her early etchings crafted in the 1970s to her sculptural forms as well as her recent experimental print collages created during the pandemic. Sud’s pioneering contributions to etching and printmaking stand as a testament to her technical brilliance and relentless experimentation. The exhibition, spanning two distinct periods of her practice—the early 1970s and the more recent 2010s—showcases the evolution of an artist who has continuously challenged conventions over the years. “It is a time to reflect on how the concerns of an urban society, as experienced by me and manifested in my printmaking, have changed over time,”…

In the crisp mountain air of Uttarakhand, the unsettling sense of being on the frontier blends with a more rooted conviction in its status as a safehouse for ancient civilisational ideals. The two contraries got entwined on January 27, when Uttarakhand was taken to the very frontline of a contentious constitutional experiment—one that seeks nothing less than to legislate ways of living. Putting into active mode a proposed code drafted by the Pushkar Singh Dhami government, it became the first Indian state to implement a Uniform Civil Code (UCC). This legal step, which comes on the back of one of the most polarising debates in India’s history, aims to standardise personal laws governing marriage, divorce, inheritance, live-in relationships and succession, cutting across religious lines. As such, the law aligns seamlessly…

This Republic Day, the At Home event at Rashtrapati Bhavan was a showcase of southern charm. President Droupadi Murmu and her secretary, IAS officer Deepti Umashankar, assisted by a core team, ensured that the evening seamlessly combined creativity and finesse. The invitation itself was a keepsake: a pencil pouch in Pochampally ikat (Telangana), Etikoppaka toys (Andhra Pradesh), a Ganjifa fridge magnet (Karnataka), a Kancheepuram silk pouch (Tamil Nadu) and a screw-pine woven bookmark (Kerala), all nestled in a bamboo box with Kalamkari motifs. The distinguished invitees, including the ‘drone didis’ and natural farming pioneers, were wel c omed by couples from the southern states in traditional attire. The cuisine was south Indian but with innovative twists. From the decor to the dishes, this At Home was an ode to women’s…

FREE ELECTRICITY (UP TO 200 UNITS) Fulfilled (Significant reduction in electricity bills for households) 3.6 million households FREE WATER Fulfilled (Consumers receive 20 kilolitres of water free per month) Around 2.4 million households 24/7 CLEAN DRINKING WATER IN TAPS Not fulfilled (Infrastructure issues and supply challenges persist) Approximately 5 million households affected FREE BUS RIDES FOR WOMEN Fulfilled (Enhanced mobility for women across the city) 3 million EXPANSION OF EDUCATION AND HEALTH SERVICES Partially fulfilled (Some facilities expanded but not citywide) Varies by facility; specifics unavailable DOORSTEP DELIVERY OF RATION Partially fulfilled (Limited coverage and logistical challenges hindered reach) Approximately 500,000 families DESHBHAKTI CURRICULUM IN SCHOOLS Fulfilled (Introduced across government schools, enhancing patriotism) Over 1 million students PREMIUM QUALITY ROADS Not fulfilled (Some progress, but work remains incomplete) N/A YAMUNA…

September 2024 was a euphoric time for Indian investors. This was when market indicator BSE Sensex touched an all-time high of 85,978.25, raising expectations among investors who continued to increase their exposure to the markets. Many over-optimistic investors and market experts predicted the Sensex would close the year by breaching the 100,000 level. By mid-January 2025, however, many of the same investors were rethinking their enthusiasm. The gradual, but continuous fall in stock markets is worrying investors, especially on the back of foreign investors exiting amid the fall of the rupee (see graphic). Yet, the Indian markets experienced something very different in 2024, even as FIIs were net sellers in eight months, with the highest selling of Rs 1.14 lakh crore in October. Overall, in 2024, FIIs sold a net…

Abhijit Banerjee, Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT and the 2019 Nobel laureate in economic sciences, created quite a stir when he published a cookbook, Cooking to Save Your Life, in 2021, revealing a hitherto unknown facet of his personality, far removed from the stereotype of the absent-minded professor. With his latest book, Chhaunk, he marries what one can safely presume are two of his greatest interests—food and economics. While based on a monthly newspaper column he has been writing for the past two years, the book has the pieces arranged into three neat themes: ‘Economics and Psychology’, ‘Economics and Culture’, and ‘Economics and Social Policy’, with each section getting a fresh introduction. The columns were accompanied by his trademark recipes; for the book, many new ones have…

Of all the multi-genre, mainstream music festivals that went on hiatus during the pandemic, SulaFest has taken the longest to return. The two-day event organised by and held at Sula Vineyards in Nashik will be staged after a five-year break in 2025, in its usual slot of the first weekend of February. In the interim, not only has there been an exponential increase in the number of large-scale concerts and music festivals across the country, the purpose for which SulaFest was conceptualised has also been fulfilled. It was launched in 2008 with the aim of drawing people to Sula Vineyards and introducing them to its wines. Their head of hospitality Monit Dhavale says that over the last half-decade, the number of visitors has doubled from more than 200,000 a year…

In the weeks and months following the fall of Kabul on August 15, 2021, documentary filmmaker Sahra Mani started to receive daily vlogs from women in her home country of Afghanistan. This was real-time footage filmed on phones by “educated and working women who believed that they can and should be equal partners in the future of our country”. “Instead, they had started losing all their rights, from education to working to even stepping out of their homes,” says Mani. Around the same time, the filmmaker received an e-mail from Excellent Cadaver, a production company headed by Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence and her producing partner Justine Ciarrocchi, offering their support in case she wanted to make a film about women in Afghanistan. This is how the documentary, Bread & Roses,…

Q. What are your thoughts on winning the Padma Vibhushan, and how important is it visa-vis the music you are creating? I am delighted the Indian classical violin is being recognised for this prestigious honour. I’m told this is the first time the Padma Vibhushan is being given to an Indian violinist, so it’s a double whammy. Music is everything to me. I connect with it spiritually and I want to help the audience also to find such a connection. Q. What brought you to the Kerala Literature Festival? I’m here to discuss my two books, Raga Harmony, which came out in 2024, and Classical Music of India. The former puts forth my 36-scale concept that will allow compositions by Indian composers based on Indian ragas to be performed by…

Indore, seven-time winner of India’s cleanest city honour, has in the past year been on another cleanup mission—eliminating beggary. Launched in February 2024, the anti-begging initiative has shown promising results, offering a model that could potentially be replicated nationwide. Spearheaded by the district administration and the women and child development (WCD) department, it is a three-phase programme that combines counselling, rescue and enforcement. In the first phase, WCD officials counselled 3,500 beggars and their families—children in the case of elderly beggars and parents in the case of minors—advising them to give up begging. The second phase involved rescue and rehabilitation. Those who persisted despite counselling were taken to the Sewa Dham Ashram in the city. Here, they received medical care besides Aadhaar and Ayushman Bharat health insurance cards, as well…

DUST COVERS THE PARTY’S ELECTION SYMBOL, THE BROOM, ON its election posters pasted on the walls, a testament to the weeks of political mobilisation. It’s evening on a weekday. The location is charged with historical significance. Trilokpuri in East Delhi is where the 2014 communal riots took place, leaving 50 people injured. The venue, Block 27 market, overlooks a Mohalla Clinic, one of the key emblems of the welfarism model of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the ruling dispensation in the national capital. It’s mostly houses owned by Muslims that surround the venue, though the more than one-third Dalits in the constituency make it one reserved for Scheduled Castes. It’s a caste, class and community mix that AAP considers its bastion. Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi thrice and currently AAP’s…

As a mutual fund investor, you are often unsure of how to interpret the performance of the fund you have invested in. Fund performance is often indicated over different time frames such as three months, one year, five years, since the inception of the fund and so on. Performance could be compared to peers, benchmarks, or even a no-risk instrument such as the interest rate one could earn from a bank savings account. With so much to go into evaluating the performance of the fund in which you have invested, there is one indicator that could help you understand the way your investment has fared—the Information Ratio (IR). The IR is a critical indicator for assessing a mutual fund’s performance, especially the benchmark that the fund tries to mirror. It…

Hussain’s tour de force a treasure trove of spice mixes from across the length and breadth of India—from Khotachiwadi East Indian Bottle Masala to Madras Curry Powder, Mrs Beeton’s Indian Curry Powder, masala chai spice blends and an array of chaat and garam masalas—there are recipes, too, for dishes where the spice mix is fundamental to their identity. These include biryanis, kababs, pickles, curries and more. Gourmands like Ranveer Brar and Pushpesh Pant, too, have generously shared their blends. Sindhi cuisine has a vast repertoire beyond the famed kadhi, as the over 120 recipes—ranging from everyday food to festive fare—in this affectionately written cookbook attest. The author recalls having loli ain baido (crispy biscuit bread and fried eggs) for breakfast and Friday specials after school consisting of daag mein teevan…

Taking place at New Delhi’s NSIC Exhibition Grounds from February 6 to 9, the 16th edition of India Art Fair (IAF) will feature a record 118 exhibitors, 78 galleries and an expanding design section with 11 renowned studios from across the world. “Following last year’s success, the Design section returns with a stronger focus on craft-led innovations and will incorporate disciplines such as furniture, textiles and product design, bridging the gap between art and design,” says fair director Jaya Asokan. “Look out for Vikram Goyal, the design studio based out of New Delhi, and working with brass as the primary material,” she adds. Among other highlights are new works by Pakistani-American sculptor Huma Bhabha and Colombian artist Oscar Murillo, presented by David Zwirner, and fair veterans like Anish Kapoor with…