Indholdsfortegnelse for 3 March 2025 i India Today

Ashish Ghosh, a 48-year-old farmer from Paschim Medinipur district, had spent Rs 50,000 on his 2.5 bighas to cultivate potatoes. That small plot, about 1.55 acres, was a rented one. The money too was borrowed, almost all of a Rs 60,000 loan. A bountiful harvest would defray the damages and fetch returns. Or so he thought. But on-and-off restrictions on the sale of the crop to neighbouring states like Odisha and Bihar upset all his plans. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had imposed the ban twice—from July 2024 to mid-August and again from mid-October to January 24—to calm soaring potato prices in Kolkata. By the time the last ban was lifted, the decision had immiserated many thousands of farmers like Ghosh. That too, ironically, while cold storage units in…

IF to be the king among kings. This the mango is the king of fruits, then the Alphonso has mango variety, which is said to have derived its name from the Portuguese general Afonso de Albuquerque, was grafted by Jesuit missionaries in the 16th century, travelled across the Konkan, and came to be called the ‘Aphoos’ in Goa and the ‘Hapus’ in Maharashtra. That royal status now seems to be coming under threat from a posse of pretenders who are staking a claim to the crown that rightfully belongs to the variety grown on Maharashtra’s Konkan coastline. As the running joke goes, the quantity of Alphonsos sold in the market today is several times higher than what is grown on Maharashtra’s Konkan coastline. You may not fool the true connoisseur…

“For a lot of people, Naga sadhus are a spectacle and nothing more,” rues photographer Bandeep Singh whose exhibition Bhasmang: The Way of the Naga Sadhus opens at Delhi’s Travancore House on February 24, and can be viewed till March 2. With millions having visited the Mahakumbh this year, and the prolific imagery of the Naga sadhus that we’ve already been inundated by, one would imagine yet another collection of pictures may fail to impress. But we’d be wrong; Singh’s photographs exhibit not only his incredible mastery over light but also the access he has attained into the akhadas. After his first tryst with the Kumbh in 2013, and having made personal connections over the years with visits to their ashrams and deras, especially in Haridwar, Singh was even invited…

It’s been six years and two outposts in Mumbai since Method opened its first gallery in Kala Ghoda. On January 31, it threw open the doors to its third, this time in Delhi’s Defence Colony. “When we saw the space, we loved it and felt we could do a lot that aligns with and furthers the Method vision,” says founder Sahil Arora. Even if serendipitously, Method’s expansion to Delhi marks a step in the direction of building a more robust artistic ecosystem. “Our focus in Delhi, like in Mumbai, will be to create space for and present fresh, new, young, emerging voices. We will also be expanding our programming beyond the visual arts to include music and performance,” says Arora. The gallery is more than just a creative showcase—it aims…

It took the Bharatiya Janata Party 27 years to come back to power in national capital Delhi, so they could be forgiven for taking their time—11 days to be exact—to zero in on their chief ministerial face. The party high command’s choice followed its recent template of picking near-obscure or first-time legislators to lead state governments. Rookie MLA Rekha Gupta will be the BJP’s first woman CM in Delhi (after the late Sushma Swaraj), beating out such heavyweights as Parvesh Verma who took down Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal. Unlike the stumbling blocks that the previous AAP government faced, she will have the full backing of the Centre. With funds to match—Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already promised Delhiites a “world-class capital in five years”. But then the challenges…

In the 2020 Bihar assembly election, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and its young chief, Tejaswi Yadav, came tantalisingly close to forming a government, missing the mark by just 12 seats. The wave of support was largely sparked by a single, resonant promise: one million jobs. Fast forward five years, and as Bihar braces for another electoral battle later this year, chief minister Nitish Kumar is looking to appropriate Tejaswi’s script. Full-page newspaper advertisements are already out with the slogan ‘Rojgar matlab Nitish sarkar (Employment means Nitish government)’, alongside images of the CM distributing appointment letters at public events. Most recently, on February 8, Nitish handed appointment letters to 1,007 new agricultural department employees in Patna. Days earlier, over 6,000 junior engineers had received similar letters. Nitish claims his government…

It was former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan who first took to the idea of transforming Madhya Pradesh from an agri-based economy to a manufacturing-based one. Now 15 months into the job, his successor Mohan Yadav has the challenging job of taking the project forward. As part of this, on February 24 and 25, the state is hosting the 8th edition of the biennial Global Investor Summit (GIS) in Bhopal, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the event. The build-up for the summit started over a year back, in March 2024, when the MP government organised seven regional investor summits, including in Ujjain, Jabalpur and Gwalior. Government sources claim that the summits have brought in Rs 4 lakh crore in investment proposals, with the Ujjain event alone getting a Rs 75,000…

The 18th biennial India State of Forest Report 2023, released recently by the Forest Survey of India, has revealed sobering details at several levels. The concerns relate to both the extent and the nature of our green cover. Firstly, the report states 25.17 per cent of India’s land mass is covered by forests. This already falls woefully short of the global benchmark of 33 per cent. Of this, only 21.76 per cent constitutes forested areas, with the remaining 3.41 per cent categorised as tree cover. On degraded forests, the report states that dense and moderately dense forests—both within and outside reserved forest areas—are being replaced by industrial and urban clusters and subsequently being compensated for with commercial plantations. Although the survey reports an overall increase in forest and tree cover,…

Reaffirming the strength of India-US ties, US President Donald Trump and PM Narendra Modi launched the US-India COMPACT (Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century. It brings a sharper focus on key areas and is committed to a results-driven agenda. Its main points: 1. DEFENCE ↘ A new 10-year Framework for US-India Major Defence Partnership in the 21st Century to expand sales and co-production to strengthen interoperability ↘ Procurement and co-production for Javelin anti-tank guided missiles and Stryker infantry combat vehicles ↘ Offer for India to procure F-35 stealth fighter jets ↘ The Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance (ASIA) to scale industry partnerships and production in the Indo-Pacific ↘ Support for possible overseas deployment of US & Indian militaries in the Indo-Pacific 2. TRADE &…

Elon Musk, 53, had shot to fame long before his public endorsement and funding of Donald Trump in the latter’s second run for the White House. As the entrepreneurial spirit behind electric vehicle maker Tesla, space technology firm SpaceX and international telecom provider Starlink, Musk had garnered global spotlight with his tech frontiersman vibe. His dramatic buyout of Twitter in 2022 was in sync with his maverick personality. Now, teaming up with Trump to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk, the world’s richest man with a net worth of $402 billion, is under the spotlight again as he takes a large pair of scissors to American bureaucracy in a war on alleged wasteful expenditure of federal funds. He is also being watched for his next set of actions…

She may be a first-time MLA, but new CM Rekha Gupta cut her teeth in the hurly-burly of Delhi University politics, becoming DUSU president from the ABVP in the mid-90s. The first woman chief minister pick in the Modi era (after Anandiben Patel retired in Gujarat), she was up against giant killer Parvesh Verma in the race for the top job. The fact that the RSS put its weight behind Rekha—she’s a long-time Sangh worker and confidante of sarkaryawaha Dattatreya Hosabale—tilted the balance in her favour. The BJP wanted someone well-versed with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), to wrest it from AAP. That Rekha was a woman, from the Punjabi-speaking Baniya community and a three-time councillor, made her perfect for the job. It also shows that voter outreach is…

The DMK government’s long tug of war with Tamil Nadu governor R.N. Ravi over his protracted inaction on 12 bills is reaching a climax. The Supreme Court has asked hard questions on the path taken by the governor. On February 7, it wondered if the governor could simply sit on bills on the presumption that they were “repugnant to the Constitution” (under Article 254, a proposed state law is ‘repugnant’ if it is found inconsistent with/encroaching into a central law). The aforementioned 12 bills, mostly dealing with the appointments of vice-chancellors in state universities, were sent to Ravi for his consent between January 2020 and April 2023. With no sign of movement, the state finally approached the SC in November 2023. Ravi had then speedily referred two of the bills…

CM MOHAN YADAV is bullish on turning MP into an industrial powerhouse. He talks to RAHUL NORONHA on the way forward. Excerpts: Q. Investor summits have been done in the past too. How is this edition different? Well, this time I have ensured that policies are investor-friendly and that rules are simplified. In the past, 28 permissions were needed to start a business in MP, we’ve brought them down to 10. Q. As a precursor to the GIS, regional summits were held across MP. How did that help? It created a positive environment for MP in the country and outside it too, and also kept up the momentum among various wings of government. The message is clear—this is not just a one-off event. I myself have dedicated 38 days for…

After the drubbings in three states, the Congress finally gets moving on its ‘organisational reshuffle’. The golden rule, though, remains the same: unstinted loyalty to the Gandhi siblings. Take the two new general secretaries: exChhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel (Punjab incharge) and CWC member Syed Naseer Hussain (handles J&K)—both Priyanka Gandhi’s favourites. Meanwhile, brother Rahul Gandhi’s ex-office chief K. Raju now oversees Jharkhand, and longtime confidante Meenakshi Natarajan gets Telangana. But the real showstopper? Harshwardhan Sapkal as Maharashtra Congress president. The ex-MLA is known to be close to Sachin Rao—AICC training head, Congress Sandesh overseer and, crucially, a Rahul inner circle fixture for 15 years. Contrast that with Faisal Patel, son of the late Ahmed Patel—Sonia Gandhi’s most trusted aide—who has quit the party, claiming he was getting zero opportunities. No…

INDO-US TRADE: GOODS & SERVICES INDIA’S EXPORT BOOM Exports to the US have steadily risen over the past decade (barring 2020), while imports grew moderately. The trade surplus widened, highlighting India’s strong position with its largest partner EXPORTS TO THE US IMPORTS FROM THE US AUTOMOBILES CARS $ 37 MN US tariff (CY23) CARS 2.5% Trucks 25% Motorcycles 2.4% or 0% India tariff* Motor vehicles over $40,000: 70% Used cars and other vehicles: 70% CKD kits 10% *post Budget 2025 IMPACT Hiked US tariffs won’t impact Indian car exports much, given low volumes. Lowering import tariffs could help US firms like Tesla but would mainly affect the high-end segment, with little impact on local manufacturers MOTORCYCLES $ 2.4 BN (CY23) US tariff 2.4% (includes bicycles) $ 3 MN (CY24) India tariff…

Visakhapatnam, or as the Telugu biddas like to call it, ‘Vizag’, is Andhra Pradesh’s biggest metro city and lays claim to such honorifics as the ‘shipbuilding capital of India’ and the ‘jewel of the East coast’. And among the jewels the city boasts of is the government-owned Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) or the Vizag Steel Plant (VSP), declared a ‘Navaratna’ in 2010 but now facing an uncertain future. In 2021, the Union cabinet had approved the disinvestment plan for the plant, but after massive protests in the city, the move was put on ice. Cut to 2025, and with a new government led by NDA partner Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in power in the state, RINL has been given a lifeline. On January 17, the Cabinet Committee on Economic…

Gunjan Malhotra, a 42-year-old homemaker in Delhi, has found the trick to looking good for the numerous parties she has to attend with her husband, who runs a successful construction business. “It is impossible to maintain a diet and exercise routine to ensure you fit into size zero dresses, especially as you age and your metabolism plummets,” she says. A few years ago, she discovered CoolSculpting, a non-invasive technology that uses ultrasound energy to target and remove stubborn body fat, particularly from the chest, stomach and thighs. The results improve over a few months, as the skin renews itself. And that is not all. Unlike her mother-in-law, who, Malhotra says, had to go off the grid for four-five days to recover from a fat-loss surgery, she can return to normal…