In Focus by The Hindu

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said earlier this month that India will leave no stone unturned in its bid to host the 2036 Olympics. While India has hosted major multi-nation, multi-discipline sports events --- the Commonwealth Games of 2010 and the Asian Games of 1982 come to mind – the Olympics is of an altogether different order of magnitude.Several questions pop up as India aspires to host the Olympics. How does the bidding process work? What are the costs likely to be? Can India afford it? And what is the scale of infrastructure that India would have to create in order to be able to pull it off?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recent Supreme Court case in India has sparked a pro-life vs pro-choice debate. The podcast explores the current abortion laws in India and the challenges faced by women in accessing safe and legal abortion services. It discusses the need for decriminalizing abortion to ensure gender justice and respect pregnant individuals' decision autonomy. The podcast also questions the gestational limit for abortion and highlights the difficulties women face in accessing affordable and safe abortion services.

The podcast explores the dire situation in Gaza, the delay in Israeli ground invasion, China's involvement in the conflict, and the geopolitical dynamics in the Arab world.

This podcast episode delves into the wars from 1948 to the present in the Israel-Palestine conflict. It covers major events such as the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the rise of Hezbollah, and the impact of Israel's apartheid-like policies. The episode also explores topics like the role of Hezbollah, Israel's control over Palestinian movement, and the influence of IPAK on US policy-making decisions.

When it comes to taxes, there is one definitive trend in all countries: the wealthiest entities, be it billionaires, or multinational corporations, enjoy the lowest effective rates of taxation. And this is in a context where governments around the world are cutting down on welfare programmes because they ostensibly can’t afford the resources to sustain them. To reduce inequality, fair and effective taxation is absolutely critical, and yet, largely missing.The European Union Tax Observatory (EU Tax Observatory) has come out with a report on this subject, titled ‘Global Tax Evasion Report’. It summarises the work of more than 100 researchers worldwide and quantifies the magnitude and dynamics of tax evasion. We discuss this report and its findings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Israel-Palestine conflict has turned into a giant humanitarian crisis over the past week, with thousands of civilians, including women children being killed. Many of them were killed when hospitals were bombed. The UN Security Council’s attempt to pass a resolution calling for a humanitarian pause in the bombing campaign by Israel was blocked by the US and its allies.International public opinion has become sharply polarised into two camps – those defending Israel’s right to do whatever it wants to wipe out Hamas, and those calling for an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid to Gaza, and a peace process premised on ending the Israeli occupation of Gaza and West Bank.While this conflict dates back to the 19th century, if not earlier, a lot of the background and nuances are often lost in the polemics of the present. This episode is the first in a three-part series on the Israel-Palestine conflict where we seek to detail the history, context, and developments around this conflict from the beginning till the present.In this episode, we trace the origins of this conflict: What was the nature of historical Palestine? What was the Balfour declaration? And how exactly did Palestine become the chosen homeland for Jews from around the world? Listen to all three parts of this podcast series here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Supreme Court, in a judgement this week refused to give legal recognition to same sex marriages. The court had heard a series of petitions asking for same-sex marriage to be allowed under the Special Marriage Act of 1954 which provides a civil form of marriage for couples who cannot marry under their personal, religious laws.The question before the Court was this: is there a right to marry under the Indian Constitution and is preventing same sex/queer couples from marrying, discriminatory?A five-judge Bench of the Court held that that the SMA was not unconstitutional and could not be read down.The petitioners had also questioned the Central Adoption Regulatory Authority, or CARA’s regulations that prevented persons in live-in relationships from adopting a child. Here again, the majority three judges, refused to strike down these regulations.The Central government, had stiffly opposed any judicial recognition of same sex marriages and had said that this was an issue that needed to be resolved by the legislature and not the judiciary.The Court has now shifted the burden to the government, and has directed that a committee be set up to examine the concerns of same sex/queer couples and to see whether the existing legal framework can be amended.In effect, the Court has accepted that the issue needs to be dealt with by the government.What are the key takeaways from the judgement? How did the Court rule on marriages of transgender persons? Given this setback, what are the next steps that can be taken? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Dussehra festivities are here, and so are Dussehra processions. In Mysore, like every year, this time too, the elephant Abhimanyu will carry the 750-kg Golden Howdah and lead the procession. Abhimanyu is 59 years old and this could be one of the last times he performs his annual duty.While people love temple elephants and pachyderms like Abhimanyu are an integral part of religious rituals, it is, nonetheless, a fact that elephants are wild animals, and their transition to life in captivity is rarely without distress.In this episode of InFocus, we look at the life trajectory of Abhimanyu, and the larger issues around human-elephant conflict in the context of captive elephants.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast explores the importance of women's reservation in Indian politics, the history and impact of the Women's Reservation Bill, support for the bill and the debate about sub-quarters, the increase in OBC presence in the legislature, and the need for a social revolution to empower women politically.

Earlier this month, the Bihar government published the ‘Bihar Caste-based Survey 2022’. The survey data showed that extremely backward classes (EBCs) and other backward classes (OBCs) together made up nearly 63% of the 13-crore population, making them the largest caste group in the State.The Congress has made a demand for a caste survey a core element of its poll campaign in the forthcoming assembly elections, and the INDIA alliance is likely to do the same in the 2024 general elections as well.So, what does the data of the Bihar caste survey reveal? Is the caste survey only about removing the existing caps on reservations? Is it likely that a Mandal 2.0 moment will emerge in opposition to ‘Kamandal’ politics?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices