In Focus by The Hindu

In this weekend edition of In Focus we discuss sports and look at the controversial rise and rapid implosion of the European super league.Right off the bat, there are a couple of odd things about this story. The first is that it seemed to run an entire cycle in just a few days. Plans for the super league or ESL as it was dubbed, were announced last weekend. The backlash by players, fans, pundits, nearly everyone involved in football was so intense and so immediate that it became clear in just a couple of days that this was a non starter and would have to be wound up.The other unique thing about this story is that in an era of corporate control over sport this was a huge and clear victory for fans, for the intrinsically local sentiment in football prevailing over this attempt to create a closed league of superpowers.So what was the ESL, why did it fail, what has been the fallout of that failure and is the idea now dead or could it rear its head again in the future? These are the questions we’ll take up in this episode.Guest: Ashwin Achal, Sports Correspondent, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today’s episode we discuss the Iran nuclear deal and look at where things stand with regard to its possible revival. The Iran nuclear deal or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was an agreement struck under the Obama administration in 2015 and which the US then withdrew from in 2018 under President Donald Trump. That withdrawal had huge geopolitical consequences as does the question now of whether talks taking place in Vienna between delegation led by the US and other members of the 2015 deal, including Iran will be successful in bringing the deal back to the table. The larger backdrop to the whole issue, or a kind of ticking clock, whichever way you see it, is that Iran will go in for elections in June and there is the possibility of a more hardline leadership coming in that can scuttle any such. So what is the Iran Nuclear Deal, what does it mean for various players in the region and why is its revival important now? Guest: Stanly Johny, International Affairs Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The second wave of COVID-19 infections in India has seen record-highs of over 2,000 deaths and nearly 3 lakh cases recorded on a single day. Health systems in many parts of the country are completely overwhelmed, reports of oxygen shortage are pouring in, and as cases surge, some States have imposed local lockdowns. How is the second wave in India, which began this year, much later than second waves in other parts of the world, different? Did we miss data that pointed to what was coming? When can we expect to see a decline in cases? And what steps can the country take, to ensure that we battle the pandemic without another economically-crippling national lockdown.To answer these questions, we have with us today, Dr. Bhramar Mukherjee, professor of epidemiology and chair of biostatistics at the University of Michigan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we’re discussing the withdrawal of U.S troops from Afghanistan and how that will affect India and more broadly, what it means for the region around us. U.S. president Joe Biden has declared that he will withdraw all remaining U.S troops from Afghanistan by September 11. It's been 20 years since the terror attack on U.S. soil that precipitated their war in Afghanistan. Biden has said that the U.S. cannot continue to pour resources into an intractable war and expect different results and it does appear there is significant political support in America for ending these forever wars that the U.S is engaged in in the middle east.At the same time, in the intervening years, Afghanistan has only become a more complicated place. The peace process has been a long and messy affair and several threads of it remain unresolved, with the possibility very high now that the Taliban could be back in the ascendancy. And while the US may be leaving, that would leave the region in a rather worrying state of flux and instability. What does this all mean for India as we move forward? We will alternate in this episode between giving you a broader context on the withdrawal of troops and the peace process as a whole and discussing the reasons why this should be of particular concern now to India.Guest: Suhasini Haidar, National and Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The HinduStanly Johny, International Affairs Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the podcast we discuss various issues related to India’s vaccine shortage, the recent decision to grant emergency use authorisation to a host of foreign-produced vaccines and the stand-off between the Centre and States over vaccine supplyGuest: Jacob Koshy, Deputy Science Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

India-China relations stand at a crossroads after the border crisis in 2020. Where do relations go from here, and how should India engage with China going forward even as it confronts a widening power gap with its neighbour? A new paper by a group of six authors including a former Ambassador to China, economists and scientists outline what the authors believe to be the optimal short-term and long-term strategies for India to engage with China politically, economically and military. In this episode, we are joined by two of its authors, who make a case for why realism, and not emotion-driven sentiment, should guide India's approach to China and its efforts to close the widening gap, even as they paint a sobering picture of the power differential between the neighbours.Also read: Excerpts from the interviewGuests: Gautam Bambawale, former diplomat who served as Indian Ambassador to China, Pakistan and Bhutan; Ajay Shah, Research Professor of Business, Jindal Global University.Host: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Friday (April 9), India said it protested a U.S. decision to conduct a navy patrol in India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the western Indian Ocean. The Ministry of External Affairs highlighted India's position on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that the Convention does not authorise other States to carry out military manoeuvres or exercises in the EEZ without the consent of the coastal state. The U.S. Navy, however, defended the move, saying its ship USS John Paul Jones had carried out Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) in the Indian EEZ and challenged what it called India's “excessive maritime claims.”In this episode, we analyse the claims made by both sides, what the international law says, the significance of FONOPs and how they sit with India's views of its maritime rights and interests, and the broader implications for ideas of building a "rules-based order" in the Indo-Pacific region.Guest: Manoj Joshi, Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation (ORF)Host: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the last episode of our series analysing each State where Assembly elections are taking place, we’re looking at Assam and giving you an overview of the major issues at play there. The battle for Assam has big implications for the Congress and BJP. For the latter, gaining a second term in Assam would cement the party’s hold on the northeast where it rules either directly or in an alliance in all 8 States. For the Congress, coming back to power in Assam would mean regaining a major stronghold and opening up a gateway once again to the northeast. Besides these two major parties there is also the potential impact of new regional parties to discuss.Guest: Sandeep Phukan, Deputy Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We recorded this episode on the day that Kerala is going to vote in the 2021 Assembly Elections to recap the major issues and dynamics at play in the election. The CPM-led LDF is hoping to buck Kerala’s long anti-incumbency trend by returning to power on a combination of factors such as efficient administration, welfare programmes and heavy investments in the social sector. Ranged against them are the UDF front which is counting on Kerala continuing the trend of voting the incumbent out of the government and the BJP which is capitalising on communal tensions to expand its footprint in the state. We give you an overview of the battle in this episode. Guest: S Anandan, Kochi Chief of Bureau, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we continue our state by state analysis of this set of assembly elections currently underway and we look at Tamil Nadu which goes to vote on April 6. We often frame the question, for each state, in terms of what has changed politically since the last assembly election in 2016 and nowhere has the change been as dramatic as seismic as in Tamil Nadu where the intervening years saw the passing away of the DMK’s M Karunanidhi and the AIADMK’s J Jayalalithaa. Between them, for decades the two held such an iron grip on their respective party structures and the state’s politics. In the power vacuum, that has naturally ensued since their passing, is there an opportunity for change and a new kind of political paradigm to emerge?Guest: Narayan Lakshman, Associate Editor, The HinduEpisode Notes:Narayan Lakshman on the challenges facing the two Dravidian parties in Tamil NaduNew Paradigm for Dravidianism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices