In Focus by The Hindu

In this episode, we look ahead to the IPL Auction 2021 in Chennai on Thursday, February 18. Like the previous year, this is a mini auction, which the eight franchises would use to fine-tune their squads and fill gaps caused by players being released and retirements during the off season.On Thursday, a total of 292 players will be competing for just 61 available slots across the eight franchises. For the overseas players, a maximum of 22 slots are available.There is still some uncertainty whether the forthcoming IPL would be held in India in its usual slot of April-May, though in fewer venues, owing to the COVID pandemic. We discuss the auction dynamics keeping this in mind, analyse which teams are likely to be the busiest at the bidding table, uncapped players to watch out for, who could strike big, and more.Guest: Amol Karhadkar, Senior Sports Correspondent, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we discuss the disengagement plan between India and China and ask if it helps or hurts India's long-term security interests with regard to the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Does the plan mean a full restoration of peace and the status quo? Where does this leave the unresolved points of discord along the LAC? Why is one of those points, the Depsang plains, the most significant for India's security interests?Host: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The HinduGuest: Sushant Singh, Senior Fellow, Centre For Policy Research, New Delhi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we discuss the high profile legal tussle between the corporate giants Amazon and Reliance industries over the acquisition of the Future Group. This is a story that has seen a lot of developments in the courts. Most recently, Amazon has filed a special leave petition in the Supreme court, appealing against a recent Delhi High Court order that allowed Future Group to go ahead with a proposed deal to sell its retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing assets to Reliance. The Future Group, one of India’s biggest retail companies with popular chains like Big Bazaar, is in deep debt and it contends that the deal with Reliance will help it pay its lenders. Amazon on the other hand has contended that it had a pre-existing agreement with Future Group for the sale of these assets and the deal with Reliance now is in violation of those terms. The larger context of this legal tussle is the fight for the future of India’s retail market and how the two corporate giants are seeking to shape it and take the upper hand. That’s the angle that we’ll discuss in this podcast.Guest: Thomas K Thomas, Mumbai bureau chief for The Hindu Business Line Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

India and China on Thursday announced an agreement to disengage from Pangong Lake, which has been at the heart of the recent tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Speaking in Parliament, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said both sides will cease their forward deployments both on the north and south banks of the lake in a phased, coordinated, and verified manner, and return to their permanent bases. On Wednesday, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) similarly announced an agreement “to start synchronised and organised disengagement”. Both have agreed to a temporary moratorium on patrolling in the disputed areas north and south of the lake and have already begun withdrawing armoured elements and tanks.In this episode, we examine the details behind this disengagement plan. What does this agreement mean for the recent tensions along the LAC? Where does this leave other points of discord that remain unresolved? What are the next steps, and where do India and China go from here?Guests: Dinakar Peri and Vijaita Singh, Correspondents for The Hindu Host: Ananth Krishnan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is a quick update on the flash floods in Uttarakhand that happened on Sunday and it’s split into two parts. We’ll briefly give you an update on the rescue operations that are still underway and we’ll also go into a slightly longer discussion as we know more now about what caused these floods and how such events might be linked to climate change and the building of hydropower plants in the region.Guests: Jacob Koshy and Vijaita Singh Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Central government has issued a notice to Twitter after the microblogging platform reinstated several accounts that the government wanted blocked. Twitter which initially complied with the request and blocked accounts and tweets that mentioned 'farmer genocide', later reinstated the content, reportedly saying that it "constituted free speech and was newsworthy."The government's initial order on January 31 asked Twitter to block 257 URLs and one hashtag, claiming that they were spreading misinformation about the ongoing farmers protest and could lead to violence. The accounts that were blocked as a result included Caravan India, a news magazine. The order had cited Section 69A of the Information technology Act in calling for the content to be blocked. How exactly does the IT Act empower the government to order intermediaries such as social media platforms and Internet Service Providers to block content? And what are the consequences for platforms like Twitter if they fail to comply. To explain these we have with us today Apar Gupta, lawyer and executive director of the Internet Freedom FoundationHost: P.J. George, Deputy Internet Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is a short explainer on a news issue that’s dominated the day which is prominent voices from outside of India speaking in support of the farmers’ protests and the Indian government’s unprecedented response. The whole issue started with tweets by the pop singer Rihanna and the climate activist Greta Thunberg, but has sort of taken on a life of its own with several developments. Ther latest is that the Delhi police has now filed an FIR against Ms Thunberg as part of what it calls an investigation into an international conspiracy. We’ll give you some of the details of the story but we’ll also ground it in a larger context, a question that we’ve asked before on this podcast, non interventionism in international politics.Guest: Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we turn our attention to international affairs and take a deep dive into what’s happening in Myanmar, where the military has once more taken over the country, declaring a year-long state of emergency and placing elected leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi under detention.It seized control following a general election which Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won by a landslide. The armed forces had backed the opposition, who were claiming widespread fraud. And though Myanmar’s election commission said there was no evidence to support these claims the coup was staged as a new session of parliament was set to open.To understand why this coup happened now we have to go back in time to understand the strained relationship between the army and NLD, even in the years in which it seemed as if Myanmar was transitioning out of military rule. And looking ahead, we also try and understand the geopolitical implications of the situation in Myanmar and what the future now holds for Ms Suu Kyi.Guest: Stanly Johny, International Affairs Editor, The Hindu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

India has begun its massive COVID-19 vaccine rollout, and over 16 lakh frontline workers have been vaccinated so far. This however, falls somewhat short of the government's targeted number. There has also been some debate with regard to the emergency use authorisation granted to one of the vaccines being used.Experts point to vaccine hesitancy as one of the reasons the expected numbers have not been met. To speak to us about how the country has fared so far with the vaccine rollout, what the government can do about hesitancy and the need for transparency to build trust, is Dr. Shahid Jameel, virologist and director, Trivedi School of Biosciences. Ashoka UniversityHosted by Zubeda Hamid Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We do a quick status check on the border situation with China, both about a clash that was recently reported and the continuing efforts at corps commander level talks to come to some kind of agreement on de-escalation.News broke on Monday, January 25, that Indian and Chinese troops clashed at Naku La in North Sikkim last week, in what the Army termed a “minor face-off”, resulting in some minor injuries on both sides. This was denied completely by Chinese media, but we’ll start by looking at the details of what we know about that incident.Also, on the preceding Sunday the ninth round of corps commander talks took place and by all accounts it was a marathon affair though the statement that finally emerged was rather cryptic.As we head into the tenth round of talks what can we expect? And what can we read into the incident at Naku La? We're joined by Dinakar Peri, The Hindu’s defence correspondent and Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu’s China correspondent to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices