Innehållsförteckning för Monday, October 16, 2023 från India Today

Casteism is one of India’s worst curses. Although officially condemned, it permeates every aspect of Indian life. Instead of endeavouring to eliminate this blight, politicians promote it in order to acquire or retain power. The most recent example of this is the demand for a nation-wide caste census, which marks a second Mandal moment in Indian politics. Even though Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar chose the high-minded symbolism of October 2 to release the results of the state’s caste-based survey, he has stirred the political cauldron keeping in mind the general election due in 2024. Till now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led the way with such force and imagination that it compels opponents into a weak reactive mode that already puts them on a losing trajectory. However, Nitish’s political…

Anjali Singh is the co-founder of Wildberries Resorts, a company dedicated towards setting up, managing and operating properties in the areas of Wildlife Tourism & Hospitality sector since the year 2010. An MBA with over 25 years of experience, including teaching & mentoring at the premier management institutes of Madhya Pradesh and also that of having worked with various firms & companies, she subsequently ventured towards her own enterprise with the first “Finishing School” of Bhopal. On the edge of the Vindhyachal mountain ranges, barely 40 km from the city of Bhopal, on the fringes of the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary, lies Lodge. An offbeat location, tucked away deep in the jungles adjacent to the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary, spread over the edge of a cliff, overlooking the Kolar Reservoir and the…

Nitish Kumar likes to wear his watch with the dial on the inside of the wrist. If you ask him why, he might dismiss it as just an old habit, but it’s one way to keep an eye on the time without others noticing. On October 2, Gandhi Jayanti day, the Janata Dal (United) boss and Bihar chief minister again showed his keen sense of timing as his government released the data it had collected from the caste count conducted earlier this year. It could have done so immediately after the Supreme Court, on September 6, adjourned the hearing of petitions challenging it, but Nitish waited for the BJP to play its card with the Women’s Reservation Bill before dealing the caste count blow. The saffron party’s somewhat confused response…

↘ WAGES ACCRUED till December 2021 under NREGS are frozen by the Union government ↘ MULTIPLE CENTRAL teams have visited Bengal and probed the alleged NREGS irregularities since 2021 ↘ THE CENTRE also stopped payments to Bengal under the PMAY-G since November-December 2022 ↘ IN THE LAST ONE year, 69 Central teams have investigated allegations of malpractices under PMAY-G ↘ A STATE government probe found 17 lakh PMAY beneficiaries were ineligible as their economic condition had improved ↘ ACTION IN BOTH cases were taken due to allegations of widespread corruption ↘ BENGAL government says funds are stuck despite meeting Centre’s demands, alleges ‘vendetta politics’…

They are not backed by any underlying assets and evidently have no value beyond the virtual realms, but cryptocurrencies have vexed policymakers and the world’s central bankers alike over the past few years. With the collapse of a few prominent crypto exchanges in the past year, resulting in heavy losses for investors, the clamour for a tighter regulation of cryptocurrencies, if not a total ban, has grown louder in recent years. The issue was taken up seriously at the recently-concluded G20 summit, held under India’s presidency in New Delhi, where some of the world’s largest economies came together to agree on the contours of a broad set of regulations that could be put in place as early as October this year. Industry estimates say there could be as many as…

Every citizen in Chhattisgarh has an equal right to the resources in the state. Over the last five years, 40 lakh people out of a population of 3 crore have shed the BPL status Under the FRBM Act, we are below the fiscal deficit limit of 3 per cent of GDP. Our debt, which can be a maximum of 25 per cent of GDP, is 16 per cent. Chhattisgarh meets all standards set by the RBI and Centre The ED is threatening people, making them sign confessions. Despite everything, they haven’t been able to produce evidence of assets beyond Rs 200 crore. They are doing this to malign the government Why should people vote for us? Because we did what we said we would. Under us, workers get their due…

“The Rs 10,000 per acre incentive for non-paddy crops has helped the IB Group, which procures 50-80 per cent of the state’s soy and maize for its feed business”ZOYA AFREEN ALAM, Director, IB Group, Chhattisgarh “We have signed 195 MoUs worth Rs 1.05 lakh crore for new industries that will provide employment to 1.2 lakh people”ALOK TRIVEDI, Special Secretary, Dept of Commerce & Industry, Govt of Chhattisgarh “Through the AIIMS, IIT, HNLU, IIIT, NIT and IIM in Chhattisgarh, there is a fantastic mix of cross-functional higher education institutes in Raipur”RAM KUMAR KAKANI, Director, IIM Raipur “Chhattisgarh is a production-oriented state but is landlocked. What we need is a corridor for transportation of raw material, which could help industry”PRADEEP TANDON, President, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd; ex-Chairman, FICCI Chhattisgarh…

It’s not how Vishal Bhardwaj envisioned it, but it is what it is. The filmmaker has had two back-to-back releases on streaming—a series, Charlie Chopra (SonyLIV), followed by a feature, Khufiya (Netflix)—which both emerged from the constraints he found himself in. Adapted from Amar Bhushan’s espionage novel Escape to Nowhere, Khufiya was meant to be a theatrical venture, but he was unable to find “male actors” who understood his vision. Bhardwaj made the lead a female and turned to the actor who trusts him blindly—Tabu. “But with female stars, you don’t get enough money to make what was a huge production,” says Bhardwaj. Enter the knight in shining armour in Netflix. Meanwhile, Charlie Chopra, based on Agatha Christie’s The Sittaford Mystery, was written as a feature, but once again confronted…

While clowns are typically characterised by red noses, bold makeup, exaggerated facial expressions and loud costumes, there’s so much more that sets them apart. “The art of clowning requires skill and practice. Unfortunately, people in India have not been exposed to high-quality entertainment and have only seen clowns in circuses or birthday parties. Clowns across the globe perform in theatre shows and at carnivals, and are supported by the government,” says Martin D’Souza, an award-winning clown and the former vice-president of the World Clown Association. As creative entertainers, clowns are adept at comedy, juggling, acrobatics, circus acts, magic and music. It is this versatile skill set that D’Souza aims to showcase through the International Clown Festival (ICF) 2023, an initiative that was launched in 2010 and is currently in its…

↘ The Dhangars claim to be the descendants of the original pastoral inhabitants of Maharashtra ↘ According to British administrator R.E. Enthoven whose The Tribes and Castes of Bombay formed a part of the Ethnographic Survey of India, the Dhangars in the Deccan and Konkan lost their original tribal signification and came to denote a heterogeneous group of distinct races who were sheep-rearers ↘ King Chhatrapati Shahu of Kolhapur, a Maratha, married his cousin to Yashwantrao Holkar, the crown prince of Indore. The Holkars were Dhangars by caste ↘ Shahu’s religious advisor Gundopant Pishwikar (Dharmadhikari), however, wrote to him that he had examined a genealogy of the Holkars, which claimed that they were Rathod Kshatriyas. The marriage took place in 1924 ↘ The Maharashtra government in May approved a demand…

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s fondness for alternative fuels for mobility is well known. In Prague to attend the 27th World Road Congress in the last week of September, Gadkari recounted before the Indian diaspora the story behind his own hydrogen car. Turns out that the Union minister’s wife didn’t believe him when he told her that cars could run on hydrogen derived from water. “She asked me who in the world would believe me when even she found it hard to believe that such a technology was possible and reliable,” said Gadkari. That’s when he decided to get a hydrogen-powered car for his daily use. “It’s India’s first hydrogen car. I even take the chief ministers who come to meet me for a spin in the car to inspire them…

THE BJP ↘ In 1990, the V.P. Singh government, which implemented Mandal Commission recommendations giving 27 per cent reservation to OBCs in government jobs, was in power with BJP support. The BJP withdrew support only after L.K. Advani’s arrest during the Rath Yatra ↘ In 2010, BJP MP Gopinath Munde made a speech in Parliament demanding a national caste census. The next year, Congress-led UPA conducted a Socio Economic and Caste Census, but neither the UPA nor the NDA government published its results. In 2021, the Modi government cited technical flaws in the report ↘ In 2018, Union home minister Rajnath Singh promised to include caste count in the 2021 Census. The government later declined to do so, citing logistical issues ↘ When the Bihar assembly passed a resolution to…

↘ The declaration called for the swift implementation of the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) and amendments to the Common Reporting Standard ↘ Under CARF, crypto transactions undertaken by Indians on foreign-domiciled crypto exchanges will also come under the purview of automatic exchange of information protocol ↘ The summit endorsed the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) recommendations for the regulation/supervision of crypto-asset activities and markets and of global stablecoin arrangements ↘ It welcomed the IMF-FSB Synthesis Paper, including a roadmap, that will support a coordinated policy and regulatory framework considering the full range of risks ↘ It also welcomed the ongoing global implementation of the standards set by Financial Action Task Force to address money-laundering and terror financing risks ↘ G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will discuss taking forward the…

WHAT IS SHINGLES? ↘ A viral infection, shingles or herpes zoster is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which also causes chickenpox ↘ It belongs to the group of herpes viruses, but is not the same as those causing cold sores or genital herpes HOW DO YOU GET IT? ↘ Only someone who has had chickenpox can get shingles ↘ The virus stays dormant, near nerve clusters in the spine or cranium ↘ When immunity reduces with age or due to any illness or certain medical treatments, it reactivates IS THERE A VACCINE? ↘ Yes. Launched in India in April, Shingrix is available for Rs 7,500-10,999 per dose ↘ It protects against the disease, and reduces its severity in those few cases where protection fails ↘ It is a non-live vaccine…

“No state in the country is giving what Chhattisgarh is giving to its farmers. No state is giving what it is giving as MSP for minor forest produce. We are ensuring returns for women’s SHGs, promotion of English medium schools. The identity of Chhattisgarh has been brought to the fore and the government has been able to inculcate a sense of positive identity for the state. The focus has been taken away from Naxalism” “When you’re in government, you’ll face anti-incumbency. There can’t be a formula on how many MLAs can be denied tickets. The only formula is giving tickets to those who can win” “There are always these quotas spoken of before polls. We want to give tickets to the best candidates…. The Congress will give more tickets to…

As Koel Purie Rinchet waited for her debut novel to be published and then waited again on the sets of Zoya Akhtar’s The Archies, in which she plays Betty’s mother Alice Cooper, she found herself with an undervalued luxury—time. “The long breaks away from family, my child and being away from the routine of having to organise house or social life [while shooting] led to periods where I could just sit and create,” she says. The result is that the actor and author has added two new labels—playwright and theatre producer—to her resume with the dark comedy Mummy’s Dead, Long Live Mummy. After premiering in Paris in March this year, Koel joined hands with Ira Dubey’s Lila Natak Company to do a three-city run in India. The play will soon head…

Ralph Russell came to India as a young soldier during World War II. He knew no Indian language, but he realised very quickly that both in respect of his duties as an officer, and his engagement with the life of this strange country in which he found himself, he would have to learn a local language. I suppose we have sundry posting accidents—first to Allahabad, and then to various north Indian locations—to thank for the fact that he chose Urdu to escape from the prison of sahibhood. As it happens, Russell picked up enough Urdu competency to undertake an academic career in Urdu post-war. He was a crucial player in the formative years of Urdu at SOAS, and maintained lifelong, fondly-remembered connections with the seats of Urdu learning in India,…

Q. The beauty industry is crowded with brands. What differentiates LoveChild Masaba from the rest? There are very few things that differentiate a brand operating in this space. The promise of LoveChild is to cater to Indian skin tones. These are high-performing hybrid products that are a mix of skincare and colour cosmetics. LoveChild also caters to young teenage girls who have just started wearing make-up, which is why we have a very competitive price point. Q. Tell us about your beauty routine. When it comes to skincare, less is more. Icing my face every morning has become a ritual. It’s the best tip for anyone who has large pores and textured skin. Also, I can’t deny the power of a good sunscreen coupled with a basic moisturiser suited for a…

It was at the crack of dawn on September 28 that a Punjab police contingent landed at Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira’s residence in Chandigarh. They were there to arrest him in a 2015 drugs bust case where his alleged aide, Gurdev Singh, and nine others were convicted. The police say Khaira’s name emerged later in the investigation, in 2017, which is why he is calling it “political vendetta”. In February this year, the Supreme Court did quash a summons in the case, but in 2021, the Enforcement Directorate had charged him with money-laundering. He had spent 80 days in jail before getting bail. This time, after two days of police custody, Khaira was sent to judicial custody. In six years, a lot has changed for Khaira. Back in 2017,…

Several Opposition parties believe that Bihar’s caste census data may ignite a fresh round of Mandal politics. In 1990, then PM V.P. Singh pulled out the decade-old Mandal Commission report and announced 27 per cent reservation in government jobs for OBCs. This led to the emergence of caste-based parties, particularly in north India, and the decline of the Congress, which opposed the report, in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The BJP, seen as an upper caste party, resorted to the politics of Kamandal—a water pot symbolic of Hinduism—by starting the Ram temple agitation. To counter caste-based politics, it promoted the ‘Hindutva’ narrative—a subsumption of Hindu identities irrespective of caste—and gained OBC support by deftly weaving caste appeal within Hindutva. With the release of the Bihar caste data, Opposition…

FROM POLITICIANS, ACADEMICS, activists and artists to industry captains, thought leaders and social media influencers, the India Today State of the State Chhattisgarh First Conclave, which was held in Raipur on September 30, was a vibrant affair that brought together people from various spheres to discuss a common theme: the roadmap for Chhattisgarh’s progress. The day-long event began with INDIA TODAY Group Editorial Director Raj Chen-gappa’s introductory remarks. Speaking in the first half, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel talked about his ‘Chhattisgarh Model of Development’ and described it as a more direct approach compared to other states. He said what he has done in Chhattisgarh is try to make development equitable. “Every citizen in Chhattisgarh has an equal right to resources. Labour and hard work are respected here and in the past…

“I was born in a Rajput family, so there was pressure not to shave my moustache or talk in a certain way. When I decided to turn from Vikas to Vidya, I knew there was no going back”VIDYA RAJPUT, Transgender activist “Culturally and traditionally, women have always been at the forefront in Chhattisgarh. Women work shoulder to shoulder with men here”KULISHA MISHRA, Former State President, Jawahar Bal Manch “At Uma Oils, 60-70 per cent of the workforce is women even though essential oils is a largely male-dominated industry”BHOOMIKA UPADHYAY, Founder, Uma Oils, Mahasamund “When women come forward in politics, they do so not just for themselves but for the entire society. Reservation in local bodies has thrown up many women leaders”DR. KIRANMAYEE NAYAK, Chairperson, State Women’s Commission, Chhattisgarh…

“Youth in Chhattisgarh or anywhere else are not a homogeneous group. The aspirations of youth in central Chhattisgarh are different from those in north or south”SHRISH KALYANI, Associate Director and State Lead-Transforming Rural India Foundation “I always dreamt of playing for India. I didn’t have a roadmap, but the only thing I knew was to do better than others to realise my dream”KIRAN PISDA, Member, Indian Women’s Football Team “Chhattisgarh has huge potential for religious tourism, as well as for wildlife tourism, sports and niche agriculture products. The youth must look beyond government jobs too”COL. AVINASH SINGH (RETD), Principal, Rajkumar College, Raipur “The government under various schemes has put Rs 1.8 lakh crore in people’s hands… When villages are self-reliant, there’s a trickled-own effect on urban areas too”VIKAS UPADHYAY, MLA,…