In Focus by The Hindu

Adoption in India is known to be a rather long, tedious and painful process. Now, in an ostensible attempt to speed up the adoption process, the government has introduced some changes. It has notified the ‘Model Amendment Rules’ under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2021 and so, from September 1, instead of the courts, it is the District Magistrates who would have the power to issue adoption orders.But this change, instead of being welcomed, has parents and adoption agencies worried. What are they worried about? What ails the adoption process in India, and what is the way forward to make it a rewarding process for children and parents? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On September 14, a two-judge bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli assented to several significant amendments to the BCCI Constitution. These amendments had been unanimously approved by the BCCI at its annual general body meeting in December 2019. But the BCCI needed the Supreme Court’s approval for its amendments to take effect, and now the approval has come.One of the most talked about amendments has to do with the cooling off period for office-bearers and the other is to do with disqualification of those holding public office. So, what exactly did the BCCI constitution say on these matters, what do the amendments seek to do, and how do these changes sit with the reforms initiated by the Justice R.M. Lodha committee? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quiet Quitting has recently captured the imagination of employers and employees alike. Is it a new concept or is it a new name for something that is as old as industry itself? Quiet Quitters are described as those who continue to be employed in a company but just do their job and no more. They are not seen as going above and beyond. Some experts argue that that is all right. Others say, the level of engagement is to be seen distinctly from working only the average 40 hours a week and that Quiet Quitters could actually be contributing by working only 8-9 hours a day. Today, we are joined by Barnik Maitra, Managing Partner for India and South Asia at Arthur D. Little, which is said to be the oldest management consulting company.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bilateral meetings hogged the limelight at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation – the ones that happened and even the ones that didn’t. The presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were watched closely. Especially the bits where Mr. Putin said that he understood Chinese and Indian concerns about the war in Ukraine. From India’s standpoint, a non-meeting with the Chinese President indicated that the recent pullback in the disputed border areas between the two countries were not enough to warrant a bilateral engagement at the highest level. With Pakistan, no meeting was expected with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and none happened.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz, who won the US Open last week, has become the youngest male player to be ranked world number 1. There’s been plenty of buzz over the 19-year-old for some time now, and while many felt he would win a Grand Slam sooner or later, few expected him to claim both a Grand Slam title and the number 1 ranking this year itself.But former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero, who has been coaching Alcaraz since he was 15, has said that his rapid rise may be a surprise to everyone else but not to him, because “Since the moment that I started with him, I saw some things that were different than the other guys at his age. I am still seeing it on the court.” So what are these things that set Alcaraz apart? With Roger Federer announcing his retirement, are we at a moment that marks the end of the Big Three era and the start of the ‘Alcaraz era’? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Taliban authorities in Kabul have denied that wanted terrorist kingpin Masood Azhar of the Jaish-e-Muhammad was in Afghanistan. The denial came in the wake of a report in the Pakistani newspaper, The News, which claimed that Azhar was in Afghanistan. Masood Azhar, it may be recalled, was released by India following the hijacking of an Indian Airlines aircraft to Kandahar in 1999. He was designated an international terrorist by the United Nations in 2019. Azhar’s name surfaced soon after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has, once again, killed Pakistani soldiers and the ceasefire brokered between the TTP and the Pakistani State is coming apart. It also comes at a time when the Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, is supposed to let Pakistan off the grey list.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Western sanctions had initially threatened to derail the Russian economy ever since the country invaded Ukraine. However, Russia has shown a resilience that has surprised observers, and which has the potential to realign the global economic order. In a recent article for Business Line, Biswajit Dhar, Professor of Economics at the JNU, points out how observers’ projections for Russia’s GDP contraction and the rouble’s sharp fall have had to be revised as the year progressed.He points out that in its April forecast, the IMF had predicted Russia’s economy would contract by 8.5% in 2022, an improvement over what was anticipated when the sanctions were imposed. The update in July indicated that the economy would shrink by a lower 6%.The market has been more optimistic; JP Morgan predicted in July that the country’s GDP would contract only 3.5%. The rouble too, after falling from 76 to 120 versus the dollar, has now stabilised at 60.What has driven this recovery?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ukraine war has been raging for nearly seven months, and the dominant pattern so far has been Russia making slow and incremental gains in territory. But this pattern was abruptly broken over the past week as Ukraine made rapid gains in the north and north-east. Russian troops have been driven out of cities like Kupyansk and Izyum, which are critical from the perspective of military logistics and supply lines.How would the loss of these logistical hubs affect Russia’s military campaign? What enabled Ukraine to make these rapid gains, and do they signify a turning point in the war? How will these losses impact President Vladimir Putin politically back in Russia? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Union Power Ministry introduced the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in Lok Sabha on August 8. The Power Minister said at the stage of introduction that the Bill could be moved to the Energy Standing Committee of Parliament for broader consultations. But the Opposition has questioned the introduction of the Bill, saying that the Centre has broken the promise made to the farmers that this Bill will not be brought to Parliament. Opposition MPs have also said that the Bill is not only anti-farmer, but also anti-constitutional, and against the spirit of federalism. There are also concerns that the Bill may lead to the end of subsidies for farmers and poor consumers.In the second part of this two-part Deep Dive podcast, we take a closer look at why state-owned power distribution companies (DISCOMs) are forever making losses– is it purely because they are inefficient, or have they been set up for failure, thanks to an irrational regulatory framework and unrealistic expectations? What would a sustainable and fair model of privatisation that doesn’t encroach on state governments’ sovereignty look like? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Union Power Ministry introduced the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in Lok Sabha on August 8. The Power Minister said at the stage of introduction that the Bill could be moved to the Energy Standing Committee of Parliament for broader consultations. But the Opposition has questioned the introduction of the Bill, saying that the Centre has broken the promise made to the farmers that this Bill will not be brought to Parliament. Opposition MPs have also said that the Bill is not only anti-farmer, but also anti-constitutional, and against the spirit of federalism. There are also concerns that the Bill may lead to the end of subsidies for farmers and poor consumers.In the first part of this two-part Deep Dive series, we take a detailed look at the history of the Electricity Bill and power sector reforms going back to the 1990s, and decode the implications of the key provisions of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices