Innehållsförteckning för Monday, March 20, 2023 från India Today

My wife is a dog lover. I am, by and large, a benign bystander. We have kept dogs for several decades. Recently, I have noticed this love of hers is burning a bigger hole in my pocket. The kind of services that are now available for pets is mind-boggling. I should be thankful for small mercies: my wife does not use all these services. The bustling ancillary industry takes in everything from essential commodities like pet food and specialised pet vets to high-end luxuries like pet gourmet food and pet fashion that includes lehengas and bikinis (make sure you choose the right colour) and pet spas. At its core is an attitudinal shift. Those who keep dogs are no longer mere ‘dog owners’—they like to call themselves ‘dog parents’. This…

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath revels in the ‘Bulldozer baba’ image he has built for himself, but the events of the past couple of weeks will have knocked it down a few notches. The fortnight saw two high-profile cases where three people were killed, which has led to people questioning the Yogi narrative—of him being the tough, straight-shooting marshal who cleaned up a bad town, so to speak. In the first case, 46-year-old Pramila Dixit and her daughter Neha, 22, were killed during an anti-encroachment “bulldozer action” on February 13. In the second, Umesh Pal, the prime witness in the 2005 murder case of Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Raju Pal, was shot dead outside his house in Prayagraj on February 24. Two of the five UP policemen in his…

For a state formed on linguistic lines, it may come as a surprise that Gujarat took over six decades to make the teaching of its native language mandatory in elementary classes across all schools, irrespective of the medium of instruction or affiliation. In doing so, it has joined states like Maharashtra (which along with Gujarat was carved out from the erstwhile Bombay state in 1960), Punjab and Telangana that have passed similar legislations in recent years. Titled the Gujarat Compulsory Teaching and Learning of Gujarati Language Bill, 2023, the proposed legislation got the state assembly’s unanimous nod on February 28. It has basically given teeth to a 2018 government resolution (GR) that pushed for the teaching of Gujarati language even in non-Gujarati medium schools. Now, the schools that fail to…

Over the past several years, the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal has been buffeted by a series of corruption allegations that have tarnished its reputation: from the teachers’ recruitment scandal to the cow smuggling scam, from the coal imbroglio to cases of extortion by its leaders. Now, a slew of new charges have come up against the ruling party—that of siphoning off funds and rations from the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman or PM-Poshan scheme (earlier called the Mid-Day Meal Scheme) for children towards other party and governance needs. Into the mix are dishonest businessmen, a pliant administration and a dubious alliance between private and government schools. The irregularities, if proved, could be a new low for the state government. The matter came to light when the West Bengal…

Not much stirs in the sleepy hilltop village of Salal in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir. It does offer a commanding view of the serpentine Chenab river, alongside sparkling snow-capped mountains and green hills. The district is also home to two of India’s engineering marvels—the 690MW Salal hydropower project and the world’s highest rail bridge. The 1,315-metre-long arch bridge is 359 metres above the Chenab river bed. That is 35 metres higher than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. But no one imagined that—apart from offering construction material—the rocky terrain here would put Salal at the centre of the global market for lithium. The soft, silvery-white alkali metal is used in a range of key components of rechargeable batteries, solar panels, mobile phones, laptops and even psychiatric drugs. Last…

WHO: TWO-YEAR-OLD PERSIAN CAT PARENTS: SUSHANT AND GARIMA GOMBER CLAIM TO FAME: INSTA CELEBRITY When Sushant and Garima Gomber stepped through the snow-topped rocks at Khardung La in Ladakh, matching their steps were the tiny paw prints of Kaju, their two-year-old Persian cat. As adventurous as her parents, the fact that Kaju was on a leash didn’t seem to bother her much. Brought up in Mumbai, Kaju moved to Lucknow this year along with her parents and accompanies them wherever they go—Shimla, Ladakh or Manali. She loves attention as much as travelling, sticking her head out of the car window to take in the scenery. “We’ve been helping her adjust to a cat leash from a very young age, so she has no anxiety on that count,” says proud papa…

The Centre’s nod to renaming Aurangabad and Osmanabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv, respectively has led to more demands in Maharashtra for cities and regions to be rechristened. In fact, some of these sites are also seeing more than one claim, which may lead to a fresh round of competitive identity politics and social tensions, especially with elections to the local bodies, Lok Sabha and state assembly all coming up one after the other in the next two years. There’s also a small, vocal group protesting this bid to create a new history with this renaming spree. Their cause may be strengthened by the Supreme Court, which threw out a petition by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay who wanted the Centre to set up a ‘renaming commission’ to find the original…

The results might have been different but for the alliance of the Left parties and Congress for the Tripura assembly polls and the byelections for the Sagardighi assembly seat in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district. It surely raised the hackles of their main electoral opponents, the BJP and the Trinamool Congress. PM Narendra Modi, on the final day of campaigning in Tripura, warned voters that “old players of misgovernance have joined hands…even a single vote for them will take Tripura backwards”. Bitter rivals during the 25-year Left rule in Tripura, the alliance did initially leave the arriviste BJP disconcerted, especially since its main agenda was to split the anti-BJP/anti-incumbency votes. In the event, the BJP need not have worried: it won a majority on its own, winning 32 seats. Equally interesting…

On March 1, the birthday of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his Tamil Nadu counterpart M.K. Stalin, Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav flew to Chennai to wish the latter. Two days later, Leader of the Opposition and BJP leader Vijay Sinha took Nitish’s deputy to task in the assembly for flying to Chennai to cut a cake but doing nothing about attacks on Bihari labourers in the state. Tejashwi’s retort? “Adaniji ke plane mein nahin baithe hain.” No guessing where that missive was headed.…

EXTRACTION PROCESS Most commercial lithium extraction is from salt-flat brines. The metal is also recovered from lithium-bearing ores FROM HARD ROCKS Lithium is commercially extracted primarily from five minerals: spodumene, lepidolite, petalite, amblygonite, and eucryptite ↘ After the ore is mined, it is crushed and roasted at 1,100°C ↘ It is then cooled to 65°C, milled and roasted again, this time with sulfuric acid, at 250°C, a process known as acid leaching ↘ During acid leaching, hydrogen in the sulfuric acid is replaced with lithium ions, to produce lithium sulfate and an insoluble residue ↘ Lime is then added for the removal of magnesium (an element in spodumene) ↘ Soda ash is used to precipitate lithium carbonate from the purified solution ↘ Lime slurry may also be used as a…

…A MEDIUM-SIZED LONG-HAIRED DOG ONE-TIME COST Microchip with life-time Kennel Club of India registration Rs 1,500 Long-range GPS tracker: Rs 4,500 TOYS & ESSENTIALS Kong ball: Rs 700 Non-toxic toys Rs 1,000 Bed: Rs 1,500 Leash and collar Rs 700 VET Visit to the vet Rs 500 Annual vaccination Rs 1,000 FOOD Dry food (regular) Rs 400 per kilo (a medium dog eats approx. 300 gm a day) Dry food (imported) Rs 9,000 per kilo Dog fresh food dabba service Rs 500 per day Treats: Rs 300 per packet Specialty food (cakes, pizzas, cupcakes) Rs 400 per piece CLOTHES T-shirts: Rs 600 Sweater: Rs 1,000 Specialty clothes (lehengas, bikinis, dresses): Rs 2,000 GROOMING Regular spa (bath only): Rs 1,000 Luxury spa (with deep-tissue massage, nail clipping, teeth, ear and eye…

A PURE-BRED DOG WITH KENNEL CLUB OF INDIA (KCI) REGISTRATION Indian dog Free Golden Retriever Rs 40,000 Labrador Retriever Rs 25,000 Beagle Rs 35,000 Pug Rs 20,000 Shih Tzu Rs 50,000 German Shepherd Rs 40,000 Cocker Spaniel Rs 40,000 Boxer Rs 40,000 Great Dane Rs 70,000 Tibetan Mastiff Rs 2 lakh Dachshund Rs 15,000 Pomeranian Rs 50,000 Dobermann Rs 25,000 Dalmatian Rs 35,000 Rottweiler Rs 70,000 Siberian Husky Rs 80,000 St Bernard Rs 1 lakh A PURE-BRED CAT WITH A FELINE CLUB OF INDIA REGISTRATION Indian Free Siamese Rs 40,000 Persian Rs 20,000 Bombay Rs 15,000 Russian Blue Rs 1 lakh Ragdoll Rs 60,000 British Shorthair Rs 50,000 Burmese Rs 25,000 Himalayan Rs 30,000 Scottish Fold Rs 50,000 EXOTIC PETS Bearded dragon Rs 35,000 Green-winged macaw Rs 1.5 lakh Iguana…

When empires reach their end, their brand of civilisation often clashes with the one now assuming guard. The Broken Script draws an exhaustive account of Delhi from 1803 to shortly after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, under the de facto rule of the British East India Company, responding to the power shifts under way in this tumultuous period. The Mughal empire had devolved from ruling large swathes of the country to being a mere delegator of power, while the colonial power continued to shape-shift, growing in political and military might. Swapna Liddle’s meticulous work, which takes us through the rules of Akbar II to Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’, dispels the myth that the Mughal emperors did little as the East India Company eroded the last vestiges of their empire. It informs…

↘ In 1994, after a 16-year agitation, Marathwada University in Aurangabad was renamed DR BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR MARA TH WADA UNIVERSITY. Schisms have still not healed ↘ The most significant renaming was BOMBAY TO MUMBAI (1995) by the then Shiv Sena-BJP government. Later, the iconic Victoria Terminus (VT) station and the airport were named after Chhatrapati Shivaji ↘ The Elphinstone Road railway station in Mumbai was renamed PRABHADEVI (2018) and University of Pune after SAVITRIBAI PHULE (2014) for the contributions Mahatma Jyotiba and wife Savitribai Phule made to the cause of educating women and non-Brahmins ↘ Maharashtra’s lone Muslim CM, A.R. Antulay, renamed Kulaba district RAIGAD in the early 1980s. Raigad was the fort-capital of Shivaji …THE NEW DEMANDS ↘ Pune to Jijaunagar ↘ Ahmednagar to Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Nagar ↘ Aurangabad…

India’s food security may be staring at a crisis this year. At the centre of this is the rising mercury that has sent alarm bells ringing in the wheat-producing belts in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Gujarat. The consistently higher-than-normal temperatures during this critical time in the wheat crop cycle are likely to adversely impact the government’s output estimates. According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), February 2023 was the warmest since 1901. The maximum temperature reached 29.54 degrees Celsius—1.7 degrees higher than normal. The farm community apart, policymakers, too, are concerned given that lower production of wheat would have a cascading effect on Public Distribution System (PDS) planning, food inflation and, eventually, the general economic scenario. This week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi…

That India’s GDP grew just 4.4 per cent in the third quarter (Q3) of 2022-23 compared to 5.2 per cent in the same quarter of the previous fiscal caught many by surprise. For an economy widely touted to show a yearly GDP growth of 7 per cent for the fiscal year, the Q3 numbers seem disappointing. To target 7 per cent, the economy will have to grow at over 5 per cent in Q4. How feasible is that, given the challenges all around? The biggest disappointment came from manufacturing, which, despite a focus on making in India and production-linked schemes, still showed de-growth. Growth in the sector was −1.1 per cent in Q3FY23, compared to a growth of 1.3 per cent in the year-ago quarter. Moreover, from a growth of…

Source: Statista LITHIUM IN BATTERIES How much lithium is in everyday usage Electric vehicles: 10-63 kg* Power wall: 10 kg Hybrid vehicles: 0.8-2 kg Power tool batteries: 40-60 gm Laptop batteries: 30-40 gm Tablet batteries: 20-30 gm Smartphone batteries: 2-3 gm Source: Visualcapitalist *Approx. weight EVS DRIVE THE HUNT ↘ India requires up to 903 GWh of energy storage to decarbonise its mobility and power sectors by 2030. Li-ion batteries will meet the majority of this demand ↘ Electric vehicles (EVs) saw a rise in sales, with 223 per cent growth in 2022, accounting for 48,000 units ↘ The EV expansion aims to reach 40 per cent of two-wheelers and private cars, and almost 100 per cent of commercial buses by 2030 ↘ Last year, the Centre announced a Rs…

Every monsoon, Bihar finds itself in a peculiar quandary. Just when the state’s northern districts are grappling with floods due to the overflowing Himalayan rivers that drain into the mighty Ganga, affecting more than two million families year after year, about 20 districts in the south found themselves trapped in a drought-like situation. The reasons for water deficiency are aplenty: smaller feeding rivers in the south, except the Son; rocky or sandy soil; and irregular rains, to list a few. One morning in late 2018, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, an engineer-turned-politician, was discussing the issue with a select group of bureaucrats and politicians, when he came up with an idea. How about engineering a system that could treat and transport floodwater from the state’s northern plains to its drought-prone…

There is something about Jim Sarbh’s tenacity as a performer that resists easy categorisation. Describing him as a character actor feels inadequate and slotting him as a supporting actor seems almost cruel, considering the heft his electric presence is capable of bringing to any narrative. Since debuting in Ram Madhvani’s Neerja (2016), Sarbh has forged one of the most exciting trajectories in Hindi cinema, delicately straddling mainstream blockbuster ensembles like Padmaavat (2017), Sanju (2018) and Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022) and experimental choices like A Death in the Gunj (2016) and Photograph (2019). “I never think about one particular genre or one particular type of story [when choosing scripts]. I’ve done period pieces, biopics and dramas. I’ve played the bad guy and I’ve played the good guy,” says Sarbh, looking back at his…