In Focus by The Hindu

As the second-wave of the COVID-19 pandemic raged this year, reports poured in of economic distress. Not only were thousands of Indians left without livelihoods due to the lockdowns, they also had to cope with the trauma and expenditure of a loved one who had contracted COVID-19. Media reports indicated that the costs ran into lakhs for hospitalisations, compounded by the desperate search for oxygen and black maketeering of drugs. India has one of the highest rates of out-of-pocket expenditure in health in the world, at over 60 per cent, and recent data has shown a decline in household income as well as a rise in gold loans during the pandemic period.In this podcast we discuss, the enormous strain health expenses have placed on Indians, the role of the public and private sector in the pandemic, and what role insurance has played and could play in the health sector in India.Guest: Dr. Rama V. Baru, Professor, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityHost: Zubeda Hamid Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can tennis as a sport do better for the lower-ranked players? This question has recently become a talking point for two reasons. First is the formation of the Professional Tennis Players Association, or the PTPA, by Novak Djokovic and Canadian player Vasek Pospisil. The PTPA hopes to get some more by way of collective bargaining power for the players. The second is a report published in the New York Times suggesting that the players’ share of the revenues generated by the sport is much lower in tennis than in some of the other sports. While it is common knowledge that lower-ranked tennis players really struggle to cover their expenses, the pandemic-induced suspension of tournaments brought fresh spotlight to their precarity.Can tennis administrators be expected to do better when it comes to taking care of the players? Should tennis players unionise? Can tennis be made viable as a career option even for those ranked, say, between 150 and 400 in the world?Guest: Vijay Amritraj, former professional tennis player and popular commentator.Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The HinduYou can find The Hindu’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and other platforms.Search for In Focus by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the In Focus podcast, we try to understand the threat from drones and where the country stands in terms of preparednessOn June 27, explosives were dropped inside the Jammu Air Force station, injuring two IAF personnel. They are believed to have been dropped using drones, the first such attack in the country. The threat from drones has been regularly flagged in the recent past after instances of them being used by terror groups to drop drugs, arms and ammunition from across the border in Jammu, and also in Punjab. In this episode of In Focus, we try to understand this new threat and where the country stands in terms of preparedness and policy framework.Guest: Group Captain R.K. Narang (Retd), who has been researching on UAVs and has written the book “India’s quest for UAVs and challenges”.Host: Dinakar Peri Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly 20 years after invading Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the United States military on July 3 vacated Bagram, its biggest airfield in the country. Meanwhile, fighting raged amid the U.S. exit and the Taliban’s march through northern Afghanistan has continued to gain momentum with the capture of several districts. In this episode, we look at where Afghanistan is headed and examine its uncertain future as the U.S. leaves. What are the prospects of a peace deal amid the uptick in violence? Will the Taliban return to Kabul? What are India’s stakes and how should Delhi deal with the Taliban? What will be the role of other regional powers such as China and Russia?Read Suhasini Haidar's interview with Hamid KarzaiRead ‘What lies ahead for Afghanistan after U.S. exit?’ by Stanly JohnyGuests: Suhasini Haidar, National Editor and Diplomatic Affairs, The Hindu; Stanly Johny, Foreign Editor, The HinduHost: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Consumer Affairs Ministry last month issued a set of new draft e-commerce rules that has some of the top e-commerce sites rather worried. According to the government, these rules seek to protect consumer interest, prevent unfair trade practices, and encourage fair competition. Among other things, the rules bar certain kinds of flash sales and mis-selling, and make it mandatory for them to appoint a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact person for coordination with law enforcement agencies, and a resident grievance-redressal officer.On the face of it, these rules do not seem unreasonable, especially from the consumer point of view. But e-retailers such as Amazon and the Tatas have expressed concerns. The government has now extended the deadline for public comments on the proposed amendments to July 21.So, what is likely to be the impact of these amended rules? Will they truly benefit consumers? And why are online retailers so concerned? To discuss these questions and related issues, we speak with Kazim Rizvi, founder-director of The Dialogue, a New Delhi–based research and public policy think tank.Read: Draft e-commerce policy moots conformity assessment measures for online retailersHost: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy died in custody on July 5, 2021, aged 84 and in the middle of a long battle for medical bail. Fr. Swamy, a Jesuit priest, had worked with tribals in Jharkhand for over five decades, organising them for land, water and forest rights. The National Investigation Agency accused him of having links with the Maoists and arrested him in connection with the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case last October. He was charged under the anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.Fr. Swamy was suffering from Parkinson’s disease, and had applied for bail multiple times, but his pleas were rejected. After he passed away in custody, many activists and political leaders have sought accountability from the government and the judiciary over this tragic death.What were the reasons Fr. Swamy was unable to get bail, especially given that he posed zero flight risk? K. Venkataramanan, Associate Editor at The Hindu explains some of the systemic problems with India’s bail jurisprudence in general, and the UAPA in particular, that could have had a bearing on the unfortunate case of Fr. Stan Swamy.Guest: K. Venkataramanan, Associate Editor, The HinduHost: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs as they are known, have been around since 2017. But they suddenly went mainstream this year, attracting the attention of both crypto-currency traders and general investors. The sale of a tokenised digital art work titled ‘Everydays – The First 5000 Days’ by an artist called Beeple, for $69 million, appears to have unleashed an ‘NFT bubble’, with some analysts comparing to the ‘Tulip bubble’ of the 17th century.Are NFTs primarily a digital art-related phenomenon – a way to trade digital art and other digital collectibles? Or will they have a wider impact in the offline world as well, extending to domains such as music, fintech, and real estate? We demystify NFTs in this episode of In Focus with Dr Merav Ozair. Dr Ozair is a FinTech Faculty member at Rutgers Business School. She is a data scientist, a quant strategist, and a Crypto/Blockchain expert. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent weeks, Canada has been rocked by the discovery of a large number of unmarked graves of indigenous children. In the last week of May, the remains of 215 children were found on the grounds of a former residential school in British Columbia. And last week, another 751 unmarked graves were found at the site of a similar residential school in the province of Saskatchewan.They graves point to Canada’s colonial practice of having special residential schools that indigenous children were forced to attend. These schools were State-funded and operated by the Church. They have been in operation since the mid-19th century, with the last one closing only in 1996.What was the idea behind these schools? How were they allowed to operate for so on? And what does the discovery of these unmarked graves of children – which are basically undocumented deaths – mean for the rights of Canada’s indigenous people going forward?Guest: Prof. David MacDonald, Professor of Political Science at the University of Guelph. He is the author of The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Genocide, Indian Residential Schools, and the Challenge of Conciliation.Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On July 1, China's Communist Party turns 100. In this episode, we are looking at how the Communist Party of China got to this landmark and to where it is today, the evolution in its politics, its governing philosophy, its ideology, and increasingly, its turn to nationalism. We will look back, and forward, on this significant political anniversary for China, and examine how changing domestic priorities under Xi Jinping are increasingly impacting China's external behaviour and policies. We will look at how, as the party turns 100, its increasingly confident global posture, as China seeks a greater global role, will impact both India and the region.Guest: Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, University of Oxford, and author of China's Good War: How World War II is Shaping a New NationalismHost: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recently, the Supreme Court heard a plea seeking compensation to the families of those who have died from COVID-19 or post-COVID complications. The petitioners, citing Section 12 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and a 2015 notification, said that the Centre should make ex gratia payment of ₹4 lakh to each of the victims’ families.But the government has been reluctant to commit to any such compensation. It has said that given the magnitude of the COVID-19 death toll --- which is nearly 4 lakh as per official figures (and likely to go up) – this would mean paying ₹4 lakh to nearly 4 lakh families, which may not be feasible.Is the government obliged under the law to pay compensation for COVID deaths? How credible are arguments that payouts of this magnitude are not financially feasible or advisable? How realistic is the idea of setting up a dedicated COVID Compensation Fund, which has been mooted by the Opposition?For more clarity on these questions, we speak to Dr Abhay Shukla, who has been working on public and community health issues for over 35 years. A national co-convenor of the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, Dr Shukla has also been a member of the National Human Rights Commission’s committee for formulating human rights responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.Hosted by G. Sampath  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices