In Focus by The Hindu

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

In this episode, we look at China's plans for a Digital Currency, officially titled the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP), also known as the digital RMB (the Renminbi is China’s currency).In February, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) launched the latest round of pilot trials, with reported plans of a major roll-out by the end of the year ahead of the February Winter Olympics in Beijing. While several countries are experimenting with digital currencies, China’s recent trials in several cities have placed it ahead of the curve.What is a Digital Currency, and how does it work? How is it different from e-wallets? How widely is it being used? What are the reasons behind the roll-out? Is it a response to the rise of cryptocurrencies? And part of China's broader push to tame its Internet giants? What are the global implications?Guest: Santosh Pai, Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) New Delhi, and a corporate lawyerHost: Ananth Krishan, China correspondent, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last year, after several months of COVID-19 positive cases on the rise, India saw a decline in cases after September, even though lockdown restrictions were lifted, and economic and other activity resumed. From March onwards this year however, there has once again been a steep rise in infections, in what many are terming the country's 'second wave'. Earlier this week, Niti Aayog member V.K. Paul said the whole country was potentially at risk. The number of new cases added on March 1 was 3,000 but has now become nearly nine times that and daily deaths too, have shot up three-fold. What has driven this second wave? What is the role, if any, played by mutant strains of the virus in the surge of infections? Is vaccination taking us towards herd immunity? Guest: Giridhara R. Babu Professor of Epidemiology at the Indian Institute of Public Health, PHFI, Bengaluru. Host: Zubeda Hamid Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we begin our state-by-state analysis of the Assembly elections and we begin with the biggest story perhaps, of this whole election cycle, the battle for Nandigram in West Bengal where polling took place today. And that battle is of course between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamamta Banerjee and her one-time close aide Shuvendu Adhikari who had defected to the BJP. We’ll discuss how the battle for Nandigram in some ways presents a microcosm of the entire 8-phase election that is set to take place in the State — a spirited campaign by the Trinamool Congress against the electoral might and machinery of the BJP with the contest, according to many observers, too close to call. And then we’ll take a closer look at how the campaigns from each side in this election has evolved and what lies ahead as the election progresses.We are joined today by our correspondent on the ground in Kolkata Shiv Sahay Singh. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the course of this week and the next we begin our detailed analysis of the assembly elections in four states and one union territory where voting has already begun in some cases and some where it is just around the corner. Before we look in some detail at each state going to the polls though and break down the flavour of each contest we thought we would use this episode to take a broader perspective on these elections as a whole and try and give you a sense of what they mean from national level politics, for the BJP which is trying to make inroads into areas not considered its traditional strongholds and for the opposition parties which are trying to stop its rise. Guest: Varghese George, Associate Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices