Episodes

  • Why did India restrict imports from Bangladesh to just two ports?

    Why did India restrict imports from Bangladesh to just two ports?
    May 22 2025
    Trade-related tensions between India and Bangladesh have been rising. In a seemingly retaliatory move, India has restricted the import of certain goods from Bangladesh to just two sea ports – Kolkata and Nhava Sheva. It has blocked 11 traditional land ports in the North East. This move has caused concern among both Bangladeshi and Indian traders as goods-laden trucks have been stuck at the various land ports. Bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh last fiscal was $10.56 billion. India imported goods worth $1.56 billion, while exporting goods worth $9 billion to Bangladesh. Evidently, India enjoys a huge trade surplus with Bangladesh. So why has India imposed these curbs? What will be their impact on traders and consumers? And what are the chances of this crisis being resolved quickly? Guest: Kallol Bhattacherjee, who covers India-Bangladesh relations for The Hindu. Host: G Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Recorded by Jude Francis Weston and Vishnoo Jotshi Edited by Jude Francis Weston
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    28 mins
  • Were the 21 lakh 'excess deaths' in 2021 caused by the Covid19 pandemic?

    Were the 21 lakh 'excess deaths' in 2021 caused by the Covid19 pandemic?
    May 19 2025
    After a nearly four-year delay, the Central government finally released a whole lot of reports about India’s births, deaths and health indicators for the year 2021. Two of these key reports, released by the Registrar General of India, were the number of deaths registered, and the medical certification of the causes of deaths. What did these reports find? In 2021, the year of the brutal and devastating Delta strain of Covid-19, India recorded 21 lakh more deaths than it did in 2020. As of May 19 this year however, the COVID-19 dashboard maintained by the Union Ministry of Health says that the total number of Covid19 deaths in India so far stands at 5,33,666. So what caused these 21 lakh excess deaths? If the pandemic had not occurred would such a high number of deaths have been recorded? Why is there such a wide difference among States on the number of Covid fatalities vs the number of registered deaths that year? What does medical certification of causes tell us? And do we need a better system to track, register and attribute causes of death in India? Guest: Bhramar Mukherjee Senior Associate Dean of Public Health Data Science and Data Equity; Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Biostatistics; Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases) and of Statistics and Data Science Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian
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    24 mins
  • Atmospheric memory: How do monsoons ‘remember’ the past?

    Atmospheric memory: How do monsoons ‘remember’ the past?
    May 16 2025
    How do monsoons really work? What makes them plentiful some years, but vanish completely in others, causing drought-like conditions? Climate scientists have been seeking answers to these questions for a long time. Now a research paper has come up with an intriguing explanatory concept: atmospheric memory. The study was conducted by two scientists -- Anja Katzenberger & Anders Levermann -- from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Titled ‘Monsoon Hysteresis reveals Atmospheric Memory’, it was published recently in the scientific journal PNAS. The study showed, for the first time, that the atmosphere can store moisture over extended periods, creating a physical memory effect. In other words, the atmosphere can ‘remember’ its previous state by storing physical information in the form of water vapour.” The paper also talks about how there is a tipping point in the system that determines monsoon rainfall. So, how does this discovery change our understanding of how monsoons work? What are its practical applications? What are the risks posed to this system by things like pollution and global warming? Guest: Anders Levermann, Professor of the Dynamics of the Climate System at the Institute for Physics and Astrophysics of the Potsdam University, Germany. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.
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    25 mins
  • What are the implications of India’s ‘new normal’ in fighting cross-border terrorism?

    What are the implications of India’s ‘new normal’ in fighting cross-border terrorism?
    May 14 2025
    On May 7, India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ in response to the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 in which 26 civilians were killed. Over three days, India and Pakistan launched missiles and drones at each other. There was also an extended aerial warfare involving fighter jets of both the countries. And on May 10, around midday, a ceasefire was announced – not by India or Pakistan, but by President Donald Trump. On May 12, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an address to the nation, announced that India has established a ‘new normal’ in the fight against cross-border terrorism. He outlined a new three-point doctrine: India reserves the right to respond to terrorism with military action; no tolerance for nuclear blackmail from Pakistan; and no distinction shall be made between terrorists and their sponsors. These developments are significant and raise a lot of questions in the military, geopolitical and diplomatic domains. Guest: Sushant Singh, lecturer in South Asian Studies at Yale University and expert on strategic affairs and national security. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Produced by Jude Francis Weston
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    48 mins
  • Petitions challenging Waqf Act in SC: What concerns are flagged for adjudication?

    Petitions challenging Waqf Act in SC: What concerns are flagged for adjudication?
    May 13 2025
    The petitions challenging the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, are set for hearing on May 15. They will be heard by a Bench led by the Chief Justice designate B.R. Gavai. Earlier, a three-judge Bench led by outgoing Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna had refused to put an interim stay on the amendments. But it did receive two assurances from the Union government: one, that no Waqf, including Waqf-by-user, shall be de-notified or suffer any character change until the next date of hearing; and secondly, no appointments would be made to the Central Waqf Council or the State Waqf Boards under the amended Sections 9 and 14 of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, which allowed the inclusion of non-Muslims, till the Court takes up the matter again. What are the apprehensions and general perceptions about how Waqf boards operate? What is the status of Waqf properties while the challenges to the law are being heard? What are the key issues raised by the petitions for adjudication? Guest: Shahrukh Alam, Supreme Court Advocate Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Recorded by Sabika Syed and Jude Weston Edited by Shivraj S Produced by Jude Weston
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    34 mins
  • Is climate change increasing the levels of toxic arsenic in our rice?

    Is climate change increasing the levels of toxic arsenic in our rice?
    May 8 2025
    When it comes to food, most Indians cannot imagine a day without rice. Lunch is rice, and rice is lunch – and rice is also sometimes breakfast or dinner or just part of a number of other food items we consume. But how healthy is the rice we are eating? Scientists have known for a while now that a lot of rice contains some amount of arsenic. A new study that was published in The Lancet Planetary Health last month, however, had some newer, more worrying findings: it found that with rising carbon emissions and rising temperatures, the arsenic levels in rice will rise. The study was conducted over a 10-year period on 28 different strains of paddy rice at four different locations in China. Arsenic is a known carcinogen – it is linked to cancers including lung and bladder cancer as well as to other serious health conditions. So what does this study mean for India, which is a large rice-growing and rice-eating country and one that is also experiencing climate change effects? What does arsenic do to your body in the long term? Are there methods to grow rice that decrease the amount of arsenic in it? What can you do to make the rice you are eating at home safer? Guests: Lewis Ziska, associate rofessor, environmental health sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University and Keeve Nachman, professor of environmental health and engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston
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    26 mins
  • What does it mean for India to conduct a caste census?

    What does it mean for India to conduct a caste census?
    May 7 2025
    The Union cabinet has announced that the next population Census will also include questions on caste. This is a sharp departure from the ruling BJP’s long-standing opposition to a caste census. How do we understand this U-turn? How would this caste census differ from the last one, conducted in 1931? Given the massive scale and logistics involved, what are the challenges involved, and how do we ensure the integrity of the exercise and the data collection process? Guest: Satish Deshpande, well-known sociologist Host: G Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramian
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    50 mins
  • Are the extinct dire wolves really back?

    Are the extinct dire wolves really back?
    May 5 2025
    The world of science was rocked early last month when U.S. company Colossal Biosciences announced that it had resurrected the dire wolf—a species that went extinct more than 10,000 years ago. Three pups, named Remus, Romulus, and Khaleesi are now living on a 2,000-acre enclosure in a secret location. Videos of the wolf pups howling went viral across the internet, as did photographs of their snowy white fur. How did Colossal achieve this? Through genetic editing. After first extracting DNA from an ancient dire wolf skull and tooth and studying its genome, the company claims it then took the genome of a grey wolf, the closest living ancestor of the dire wolf, and made precise edits at 20 locations across 14 genes. Most of these edits were cosmetic changes—to do with fur colour and size. The modified genome was then implanted in embryos, and surrogate dog mothers gave birth to the wolf pups. While the science sounds immensely exciting, several experts have contested the claim that these pups are dire wolves. Can a few edits in a genome truly recreate a lost species? Can these wolves behave just as the real dire wolves did, given that the ecology and environment that the dire wolves existed in no longer exist? The company claims that it wants to secure the health and biodiversity of our planet’s future—its next project is to ‘de-extinct’ the woolly mammoth. Is this the right way to go about conservation, and can it even work? Guest: Kartik Shanker, Professor & Chairperson, Centre for Ecological Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru Host: Zubeda Hamid Produced by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian
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    28 mins