Innehållsförteckning för 23 May 2022 från India Today

On the face of it, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray’s campaign against the use of loudspeakers in mosques for azaan and other purposes met its objective—over 90 per cent did not use them at dawn on May 4, the deadline set by the politician. The silence has persisted since then. As part of his agitation, a combative Raj had also ordered MNS cadre to play the Hanuman Chalisa outside mosques from May 4 if azaan was still announced before 6 am (the Supreme Court restricted the use of loudspeakers between 10 pm and 6 am in a 2005 order). It forced the Maharashtra police to implement its 2017 guidelines, which say that use of loudspeakers needed prior permission, with a decibel limit of 55 for religious places.…

For a reputed research institution known across the world, the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is going through unusually tough times. An autonomous institution under the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC), that trains wildlife biologists who undertake research across India, the WII has been facing a funds crunch—with reduced allocation in the Union budget for it and similar institutes—in recent years that has been hampering its functioning. But now comes the deepest cut of all. The MoEFCC has asked the WII to send its reports and studies to the ministry before releasing them elsewhere. The move has academics worried, with some seeing it as a ‘gag order’ that encroaches on WII’s rights, curtailing the independence of its opinion. The April 18 letter from the MoEFCC,…

The obituary has been long in the writing, dusted off every time the Congress loses another election. Now, however, the possibility of the grand old party disappearing into oblivion has become very real. Impervious to that idea so far, the realisation is finally dawning on the Congress—that it may be on the cusp of extinction if it does not take immediate steps to avert its demise. Hence a ‘Nava Sankalpa Shivir’, a three-day brainstorming session in Rajasthan’s Udaipur from May 13 to 15. It’s the fourth such conclave since 1998, but the last one was held way back in 2013, a year before the party delivered its worst Lok Sabha performance. More than 400 Congress delegates will gather here to urgently debate strategies to combat the immediate challenges—assembly elections in…

How the mighty have fallen. For the once politically formidable Rajapaksa family in Sri Lanka, the end seems nigh. Their spectacular reversal of political fortunes, triggered by an unprecedented downturn in the economy due to mismanagement, corruption and nepotism, has been swift, but not surprising. Just two and a half years ago, in November 2019, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected president by an overwhelming majority. It was followed by a landslide victory for his Sri Lanka People’s Party (SLPP) in the general election in August 2020. It guaranteed him a two-thirds majority in parliament and helped him instal his older brother Mahinda as prime minister. But the two top posts in the country didn’t satisfy the Raj-apaksas—elder brother, Chamal, was made agriculture minister and younger brother Basil the finance minister. They…

Invest in stocks or mutual funds (MFs)—this is a question that crosses the minds of most investors. There is no either/or response and depending on what investors expect to achieve from both these instruments, they can choose the one that is most suitable. An easy way to understand the difference between the two is a meal at a gourmet restaurant versus one at a fast food joint. Mutual funds are like fast food—well packaged, offering a mix that can help you quickly address your hunger. Stocks, on the other hand, like a gourmet meal, involve a lot of intricate steps in preparation. At a fundamental level, when you invest in a stock, you invest in a company, a business, which means your investments solely depend on how the company fares.…

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In canine lineages, one can follow traces of human endeavour, as packs of dogs followed groups of people into new lands. A similar pattern has had some surprising consequences in a parched corner of the Deccan plateau where a distinctive breed of dogs has enlivened a struggling rural economy. A keen look framed by a narrow muzzle, a proud, tall bearing supported by spindly, strong legs, a stomach that curves inward in an ‘s’, and a latent fierceness it’s too glad to exhibit—you just cannot miss a Pashmi. In its menacing growl, owners read an ironcast guarantee. At Janwal village in Maharashtra’s Latur district, the stone-walled house of farmer Tanaji Pawar is stacked with sacks of soyabean and jowar. With the first spells of rain, sowing for the kharif season…

A career is a job, an occupation, thats undertaken for a major period of person's life. And therefore, making a career choice often ecomes a difficult one. What should you focus on? Your dreams or your parents' wishes? A job that you may excel in or are passionate about, or a job that promises a handsome salary and good growth? A career that suits your own capabilities and taste, or a job that is alluring and glamorous? So many questions perplex the students as they walk out of school. Making the right choice becomes a herculean task - more so, because of the multitude of career options out there in the market. After investing a decade and a half or more in education, it is not surprising that students want…

You might think there can be nothing really novel about a Mumbai photobook anymore, but ad filmmaker Sunhil Sippy makes a compelling case for his newly released collection of photos, The Opium of Time: Photographs of Mumbai 2010-2020: “I would say that the book is relevant because of the period it covers—from 2010 till 2020. Since the pandemic, the city’s topography has evolved radically. The book celebrates the last phase of the old city.” Sippy tells us the title ‘The Opium of Time’ is borrowed from German writer W.G. Sebald. He feels it perfectly sums up his 131 images. “My objective was to create something timeless. I wanted to leave behind for the city an emotional document, not an intellectual one,” he says. The Opium of Time, says Sippy, 50,…

TWO SISTERS AND A HUSBAND Premiering at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival (June 8-19), Shlok Sharma’s Two Sisters and a Husband makes suspenseful a love triangle: Amrita (Manya Grover) is in love with Rajat (Dinker Sharma), but when he marries her sister Tara (Avani Rai), what will she now do with his child she is pregnant with? SHOEBOX A highlight of the ongoing New York Indian Film Festival, Faraz Ali’s Shoebox shows how a x daughter fights to save her father’s single-screen theatre in Allahabad. Set during the time of the city’s renaming as Prayagraj, the film makes all change—personal, political—seem charged like dynamite. JAGGI Having premiered at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, Anmol Sidhu’s Jaggi returned i with two awards earlier this month—Best Feature Film Debut and…

A choppy stock market is scarcely the opportune time to raise money from the public, right? But when uncertainty is the reigning sentiment, what with the Russian-Ukraine war in its third month and the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) and US Federal Reserve hiking rates, what is the right time to enter the market? LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) set the ball rolling when it opened its much-awaited IPO (initial public offering) on May 4. Five other companies will follow suit this month, to raise Rs 7,960 crore through the same route. If media reports are to be believed, the overall funds raised from the new listings and the ongoing IPOs could touch Rs 28,960 crore this May, making it a rich summer for fund-raising after the cool pickings in November…

Two years after New Delhi set the delimitation exercise in motion in Jammu and Kashmir, the commission set up for the task submitted its report on May 5. The panel’s main recommendation was six new seats for Jammu, which will now have 43 in the assembly while Kashmir’s share goes up to 47 with an extra seat. The extra weightage to Jammu has naturally invited criticism from J&K’s main political parties who see it as another attempt by the ruling BJP at the Centre to undermine them. The delimitation process, mandated to fix boundaries of territorial constituencies, comes as part of the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019. Every political party except for the BJP had opposed the exercise. Led by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, the three-member commission was…

When BCCI president Sourav Ganguly hosted Union home minister Amit Shah at his home in Kolkata on May 7, he arranged for a platter of Bengali delicacies for the BJP leader. Out of all the preparations, Shah loved mishti doi (sweet curd) the most. The suggestion to include it in the menu came from none other than West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, one of the BJP’s bitterest rivals. The sweetness of Mamata’s gesture stayed on with Shah, known for his sweet tooth. He left Bengal, asking BJP leaders to dig their heels in and learn a lesson or two from Mamata on how to play the role of an Opposition leader.…

The ever-alert Sharad Pawar was proved wrong twice in the past two weeks. First, author James W. Laine trashed Pawar’s theory that the late Babasaheb Purandare was the source for his (Laine’s) ‘derogatory remarks’ on Chhatrapati Shivaji in his 2003 book. Second, the Pune rural police withdrew a case against Sambhaji Bhide for the Koregaon-Bhima violence, citing lack of evide nce. Pawar had first named Bhide as a conspirator. Both Purandare and Bhide were associated with the RSS, for which Pawar has no love lost.…

Q. Why is the Cong ress facing an existential crisis? The Congress is a natural party of governance. We know how to run a government. But when we run the government, we fail to run the party. Most senior leaders are inducted into the government and not spared for party work. When Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh were prime ministers, we neglected the party organisation. Because the party machinery and work were neglected, when we are in the Opposition, the party organisation has not picked up the responsibilities or carried the party’s message and narrative. Q. How do you plan a revival when the party is almost non-existent in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and a junior partner in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra? These states account…

IT WAS AROUND 7.45 PM on the night of May 9 when the intelligence wing headquarters of Punjab Police in scenic Mohali was suddenly rocked by a mini blast and the sound of shattered window panes. The attack, using an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade), happened when most of the sleuths had left for the day, so there were no casualties. But it again raised a security agencies bogey—the long shadow of the Khalistan movement hasn’t faded away as yet. Soon after the attack, a voice note landed at Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur’s office claiming to be from New York-based Gurpatwant Pannun, founder of the banned Khalistani outfit Sikhs for Justice. It claimed credit for the attack in Mohali and left a threat that the Shimla Police HQ could…

2019 Soon after being elected president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa announces sweeping tax cuts as a populist measure. It leads to lost revenue, a credit rating downgrade and lack of access to foreign funds. Sri Lanka starts spending foreign reserves to meet debt. 2020 SLPP wins polls in August, Mahinda Rajapaksa is elected PM. Induction of brothers Chamal and Basil, Mahinda’s son Namal, in cabinet. The pan demic hits tourism revenue, exports, remittances 2021 In April, the government bans import of chemical fertilisers as move towards ‘organic agriculture’. Results in huge fall in produce, ravages farming community. FEBRUARY-MARCH 2022 Critical lack of foreign reserves leaves nation unable to pay for vital imports like food, medicines and fuel. Massive unrest gathers mass. MARCH 31 Protesters and activists try to storm residence of President…

For many people, the perception out investing is that you need to just choose a winning stock or invest in a mutual fund that has delivered stupendous returns and you are sorted. No wonder, the most common question about investing often starts with - which is the best stock or fund to invest? But the average person chasing a top performing fund or a company could end up with disappointing returns. The reason being; risk and return go hand in hand and you can't have one without the other. The challenge is to find the right balance between investments that are risky enough to provide some growth and those that are conservative enough to maintain a good night's sleep. The concept of asset allocation comes in handy to solve this…

1 Financial Goals: Investors have different financial goals and they invest differently to achieve each of these goals based on the risk they can take. 2 Risk tolerance: Risk tolerance refers to how much an individual is willing and able to lose a given amount of their original investment in anticipation of getting a higher return in the future. For example, risk-averse investors favour secure, guaranteed return investments. In contrast, aggressive investors are willing to risk their investments in anticipation of higher returns. 3 Time horizon: Time to reach a goal is different and entails different risk tolerance. For example, a long-term financial goal such as retirement may prompt an investor to invest in a portfolio with higher equity exposure, since the dynamics of equity investing favours long-term investment horizon.…

₹2.5 lakh Average income earned by the dog breeders of Janwal ₹15,000 Average price of a puppy 3 months Average breeding season for the Caravan 50 No. of dog breeders in Janwal and Mhalangi 1 month Average breeding season for the Pashmi…

1955 When sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan went to the US for the first time, he was struck by how westerners found it hard to believe that India had its own music. Released in 1955, the success of Music of India prompted HMV India to start producing LP-length Hindustani classical recordings. 1966 Marked by rapturous applause and rave reviews, M.S. Subbulakshmi’s UN concert in October 1966 was surely historic, but her travel history also proves that the ‘first lady of Carnatic music’ had by then already filled concert halls from Edinburgh to Boston. 1967 Released in 1967, East Meets West went on to win its two collaborators—violinist Yehudi Menuhin and sitarist Ravi Shankar—a Grammy Award. Not just was Shankar the first Asian musician to win a Grammy, his influence abroad…

After resisting the urge for nearly two years, the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) finally bit the bullet on May 4. It hiked the repo rate, or the rate at which it lends to commercial banks, by 40 basis points (bps, 1 bps is a hundredth of a percentage point), taking it to 4.4 per cent. No one saw it coming, especially as the RBI’s quarterly monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting in April gave no such inkling, though the inflation numbers were looking troubling even then. You are already paying high food and fuel prices, now add costlier loans, be it personal, auto or housing. The first hike since the pandemic began, it restores the repo rate to the April 2020 level. The RBI also increased the cash reserve ratio…

↘ Six new seats for Jammu (total 43 now), one for Kashmir (47) in new 90-member legislative assembly ↘ New seats in Jammu are in Kathua, Reasi, Doda, Rajouri, Kishtwar, Samba districts; Kupwara in Kashmir ↘ 16 reserved seats, 9 for STs), including three in Kashmir, 7 for SCs (all in Jammu) ↘ 28 assembly constituencies redrawn, 19 renamed ↘ One Lok Sabha constituency will consist of 18 assembly constituencies ↘ Rajouri, Poonch merged with Anantnag LS seat…

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot turned 71 this May, but the woes of his crisis-ridden government left no space for any sense of elation or fulfilment. In fact, even as celebrations were happening on May 3, news came that riots had broken out in Jodhpur, his hometown. Then came allegations of rape and sexual exploitation of a news anchor by the son of his closest aide in the cabinet. Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate is turning the screws in the probe into the teacher recruitment exam paper leak case. All this has become a dampener ahead of the Congress party national chintan shivir (brainstorming session) scheduled to be held in Udaipur from May 13-15. With the assembly election due in December 2023, politics is hotting up in Rajasthan. The opposition BJP…

Improving women's sense of self-worth Right to have and determine choices in matters that concern them ◾ Right to have access to opportunities and resources ◾ Right to have the power to control their own lives, both within and outside the home ◾ Ability to influence their environment to ensure social justice and create an equitable social and economic order. ◾ Free bus travel for women to ensure financial freedom, encourage and boost their work participation rate. ◾ Paramount importance to the safety of women and girl children in educational institutions and workplace. Four courts to hear POCSO cases to put an end to crime against women and children. ◾ All girls studied from classes 6 to 12 in government schools would be paid Rs 1,000 till the uninterrupted completion…

That there could be an empirical grey zone over such a stark and undeniable fact as mortality may seem improbable. But India is at the centre of a raging debate over precisely such a thing, with the World Health Organization (WHO) offering an estimate of Covid-19 deaths in India that’s nearly 10 times the official toll. Scepticism on official data is not an unknown sentiment at the best of times, and Covid is a particularly sensitive topic—India is not immune to the universal tendency to under-report mortality. But the jousting here is ultimately between two sets of estimates, which leaves a core question unanswered: will we ever know how many died in the pandemic? The key debate relates to methodology. India’s official Covid death toll stood at 481,000 at the…

Cards, both credit and debit, are extremely convenient. However, there are instances when these can cause headache and extreme stress. Think of the time when your card didn’t work while booking an important flight ticket or paying the school fee or when you found transactions that weren’t made by you and needed to rectify them. Every once in a while, the RBI steps in to bring some order to the chaotic card ecosystem that includes banks, NBFCs (non-banking financial companies), merchants accepting cards and card users. A recent 26-page RBI circular attempts to bring much-needed order and to address several user concerns. It will come into effect from July 1. Unsolicited cards: It is common for banks to issue credit cards and at times upgrade an existing card without one’s…

When it comes to mutual fund (MF) investing, most people assume equity is the only way to go. But there is a range of debt funds with varying degree of risks and time-frames to invest. Debt funds work on the principal of traditional debt instruments such as bank fixed deposits, small savings schemes and other bonds that provide a fixed interest payout. Debt funds invest in debt or fixed income securities of various corporate institutions and the government and are also known as income funds. But this doesn’t mean that debt funds are immune to ups and downs or guarantee fixed returns like, say, FDs. Many of the instruments debt funds invest in, such as corporate bonds, PSU bonds, debentures, commercial papers, treasury bills etc. are not always open to…

The 23 still images on display in PhotoInk’s garden-set gallery space in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj are a balm for tired eyes. The black and white—and certainly over fifty shades of grey—help recuperate from the nonstop ocular assault of lives lived on multicoloured moving screens. But the healing and stillness The Passerby offers come from something more than form. Street scenes picked from the archives of Raghu Rai, Sooni Taraporevala, Ketaki Sheth and Pablo Bartholomew, these formally stunning photographs paint a portrait of an urban India that’s swiftly passing (if not already past). They range from 1970 to the early 2000s, but the pre-liberalisation era dominates, letting a quiet nostalgia wash over us. The street scene has historically been among the most popular photographic genres, the PhotoInk brochure points out, and…

In 2018, ShaunakSen was in Cambridge for a brief fellow-w ship. Speaking about Delhi with his friend and faculty member Maan Barua one day, Sen, a film-maker, envisioned the city—grey, hazy, monotone skies, filled with noxious air. “It was this feeling I was interested in,” says Sen. His thoughts eventually morphed into his second film, All That Breathes. The documentary has been one of India’s most successful exports this year. Having won the World Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, it has now also been selected for a special screening at Cannes 2022 (May 17-28). After discovering Saud and Nadeem, two Delhi-based brothers who had devoted their lives to protecting Black Kites, Sen began filming them in early 2019. Trying to craft a hybrid visual language…

In one of the more affecting scenes in I’m Not the River Jhelum’s, we see a couple of Kashmiri locals watch home minister Amit Shah read the statutory resolution which revoked Jammu & Kashmir’s special status. As the Opposition’s heckles drown out Shah’s voice, the two Kashmiris look on with a palpable dread. Kashmir changes quickly, and yet, seemingly, never does. It is for capturing this and so many other ironies that Prabhash Chandra won a Best Debut India Director award at this year’s International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). Speaking to INDIA TODAY a few days after River Jhelum was screened at the Kolkata International Film Festival on April 29, Chandra tells us how he fell in love with theatre despite having a Master’s degree in Nuclear Physics. “My…