In Focus by The Hindu

During the recent Cabinet reshuffle, the government announced the creation of a Ministry of Cooperation. The Ministry’s mandate, the government says, “is to provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the co-operative movement in the country”.Opposition parties have called it an attempt by the Centre to take over a a domain that comes under the State governments. Critics have also read political significance into the fact that this ministry is being headed by Home Minister Amit Shah.So, why do we need a Ministry of Cooperation, and how will it impact the vast universe of India’s co-operatives?Guest: Professor C. Shambu Prasad, Institute of Rural Management, AnandHost: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An international group of news publications are reporting that a spyware known as Pegasus has been used to spy on politicians, journalists, and activists in at least 10 countries. Reports from the group, which includes The Wire in India, The Guardian in the U.K., and Washington Post in the U.S. among others, suggest that in India, at least 40 journalists, sitting Cabinet Ministers, and holders of Constitutional positions were possibly subjected to surveillance.The Pegasus spyware is graded as a cyberweapon and NSO states that its clients include only authorised government entities from various countries. This leads to some problematic inferences, particularly in India where the target list includes Opposition leaders, social activists from leftist organisation, journalists who have written against the government and constitutional officers who have reportedly not toed the government line.In this podcast, we discuss the constitutionality of electronic surveillance in India and whether the laws that govern them are robust enough.Guest: Apar Gupta, lawyer and Executive Director of the Internet Freedom Foundation.Host: P.J. George Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With less than a year to go for the Assembly elections, the infighting in the Punjab unit of the Congress party has been making the headlines. The two main protagonists are Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu.Punjab, incidentally, is one of the handful of states where the Congress has done well and the BJP is on a weak wicket. Capt. Amarinder is often touted as a rare Congress success story that comes when regional leaders operate with autonomy. But Sidhu has not only openly challenged Capt Amarinder’s leadership, he also has the ear of the party’s high command in Delhi, which seems ready to go the extra mile to accommodate him.With Assembly elections due early next year, what are the options for the Congress, which needs to resolve this conflict in order for its campaign to take off? Why does the Congress high command find it important to keep Sidhu happy?Guest: Varghese George, Associate Editor, The Hindu.Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the past few weeks, the debate on population control in India has been re-ignited. Uttar Pradesh, the most populous State in India, has introduced a draft bill that says that those with more than two children will be debarred from government-sponsored welfare schemes and from contesting in elections to local bodies, while incentives for those who adhere to the two-child norm include subsidies to buy land and build houses. Assam's Chief Minister recently advised the minority community to adopt "decent population control measures" and calls have come from Karanataka too, for the adoption of a two-child policy. Even while data shows us that India's fertility rate is declining, our population is set to grow, and to overtake China by 2027 or earlier. But do we need a two-child policy? Do such government regulations on family size work? How have other countries, especially those in Asia, explored population stabilisation measures? Guest: Poonam Muttreja, executive director, Population Foundation of India Host: Zubeda Hamid Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we are looking at the battle unfolding in China between its big tech companies and Communist Party regulators in the wake of the latest tussle in this on-going tug-of-war. On June 30, the ride-hailing app Didi, which dominates the China market, raised $4.4 billion in its much-anticipated listing on the New York Stock Exchange, the biggest Chinese listing since Alibaba. Days later, its value would crash with regulators announcing an investigation and taking the extraordinary step of banning Didi from registering usersand removing its app from app stores. The Didi episode follows November's shock suspension of an IPO by Alipay, the financial payments arm of Alibaba. What is driving the tensions between the Party and Big Tech? Where is China's tech sector headed? What do the moves mean for the global ambitions of China's Internet giants?Guest: Santosh Pai, Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, New DelhiHost: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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