Parley by The Hindu

Bengaluru, often celebrated for being a ‘garden city’, the ‘IT capital’ of the country, and its pleasant weather, has been making headlines this year for facing a severe water crisis following the drought of 2023. The water crisis is also likely to hit other urban centres and rural areas. According to a recent weekly bulletin by the Central Water Commission, even as peak summer is around the corner, most of the major reservoirs in the southern States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana are filled to only 25% of their capacity or less.Is the urban water system breaking? Here we discuss the question.Guests: T.V. Ramachandra, Coordinator of the Energy and Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Science, Indian Institute of Science; S. Vishwanath, a water conservationistHost: K.C. DeepikaYou can now find The Hindu’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. Search for Parley by The Hindu.Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in

Exploring the potential extortion through electoral bonds donations by companies under investigation, the anonymity of donors, lack of transparency, impact of lifting restrictions on political donations, concerns about generating black money, and the secrecy surrounding the alpha numeric code in electoral bonds.

Recently, hours after resigning as a judge of the Calcutta High Court, Abhijit Gangopadhyay announced that he was joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The judge’s decision to join politics and the manner in which it was taken has raised questions of judicial impropriety. Some people disapprove of the practice of judges holding official posts after retirement; they believe that this may impinge upon the independence of the judiciary. Others, including those in the government, have pointed out that such posts often require judicial personnel of the highest integrity and there is no Constitution bar to this effect. Should judges accept official posts after retirement? Here we discuss the questionGuests: Justice Deepak Gupta, a former judge of the Supreme Court; Sanjay Hedge, a senior advocate based in DelhiHost: Aaratrika BhaumikRead the parley article here.You can now find The Hindu’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. Search for Parley by The Hindu.Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in 

NITI Aayog B.V.R. Subrahmanyam recently claimed that less than 5% of Indians now live below the poverty line. He made the claim based on the findings of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES), 2022-23. Mr. Subrahmanyam argued that the average consumption expenditure in the bottom 5% of India’s population, as estimated by the survey, is about the same as the poverty line in India, suggesting that the poverty rate in India is somewhere in the range of 0 to 5%.Has poverty really dropped to 5% in India? Here we discuss the question.Guests: Surjit Bhalla is a former member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council; Jayati Ghosh is a development economist and author of ‘The Making of a Catastrophe: The Disastrous Economic Fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic in India’Host: Prashanth Perumal

Exploration of legalizing Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farmers in India amid protests and calls for withdrawal from the WTO. Debates on the impact of MSP on consumers and producers, challenges in pricing mechanisms, and the role of cooperatives in agriculture.

Recently, music composer A.R. Rahman tweeted that the song Thimiri Yezhuda from the Tamil film Lal Salaam uses an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software to recreate the voices of singers Bamba Bakya and Shahul Hameed. Bakya died in September 2022 at the age of 42 and has sung songs in films including 2.0 and Bigil. Hameed, who died in 1998, worked extensively on movies such as Gentleman and Kadhalan. Though their voices were used with the permission of their families, who were also compensated, the move has raised a debate among artists about the use of AI. Is it ethical to use AI to clone voices for creative purposes? Here we discuss the question.

India’s growing private coaching industry has long been plagued by student suicides, fire incidents, complaints of poor infrastructure and teaching, exorbitant fees, and false promises. The spate of student suicides in Kota, Rajasthan, has spurred the Ministry of Education to issue new guidelines, which state that coaching centres cannot enrol students below 16 years of age, make misleading promises, and guarantee rank or good marks. Should coaching be restricted to those above 16 years? Here we discuss the question

This podcast discusses the economic performance of the NDA government's second term, challenges faced by the Indian economy, agricultural improvements and protests, budget allocation for healthcare and education, India's power sector, and the government's strategy on poverty and inequality reduction.

On December 27, 2023, the New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its backer Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement. The NYT has alleged that OpenAI used thousands of its articles to train ChatGPT, a large language model, without permission or compensation. The lawsuit says that this has positioned ChatGPT as a competing source of information to the NYT, which has implications for the newspaper’s business model. Should AI models be allowed to use copyrighted material for training? Here we discuss the question.Guests: Cecilia Ziniti, a San Fransisco-based lawyer specialising in technology and start-up companies; Arul George Scaria, an Associate Professor at the National Law School of India UniversityHost: P.J. George

A recent study in India reveals that over half of hospital patients surveyed were given antibiotics to prevent, rather than treat, infection. The podcast discusses the issue of over-prescription of antibiotics, lack of standard guidelines, and the need for better training in antibiotic practice. It highlights the importance of judicious use of antibiotics, measures to control antimicrobial resistance, and strategies for addressing antibiotic over-prescription, including restricting access to certain antibiotics and improving public health systems.