India Today|August 9, 2021EDITOR-IN-CHIEFFriends can be changed, not neighbours,” Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had said in the Lok Sabha nearly two decades ago. He was speaking about Pakistan. The same could apply to China too. China’s invasion and annexation of Tibet in 1950-51 turned the two nations into neighbours for the first time in their post-colonial history. They inherited the unsettled boundaries bequeathed by the colonial British and Imperial China, which regarded Tibet as a vassal state. India lays claim to all of Aksai Chin, which connects the Chinese provinces of Xinjiang and Tibet. China lays claim to all of Arunachal Pradesh as ‘Southern Tibet’. For over seven decades, a solution has eluded both sides. These differing perceptions of the boundary triggered off a border conflict in 1962. But apart from two…4 min
India Today|August 9, 2021FINDING COMMON GROUNDOn July 25, the Congress party’s official Twitter handle put out a tweet with a photograph of Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee and a little explainer riffing on Union home minister Amit Shah’s now-famous “Aap chronology samajhiye” comment. Shah, of course, was implying an Opposition conspiracy to stall Parliament, but the meme was turning the charge on its head to suggest that the Trinamool Congress national general secretary was a victim of the Pegasus spyware during the 2021 Bengal election. The timing was no accident—Mamata was arriving on a five-day visit to the national capital the next day to hold discussions with Opposition leaders on possible strategies to take on the BJP in 2024.On the evening of July 28, Mamata called on Sonia Gandhi for what she called “chai pe…6 min
India Today|August 9, 2021JINXED BY THE ‘R-FACTOR’What do Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Radha Mohan Singh, Ram Kripal Yadav and Ravishankar Prasad have in common? Apart from being Lok Sabha MPs from Bihar, all four BJP leaders are former members of Narendra Modi’s cabinet. Not quite able to wrap their heads around the rationale of the reshuffle, partymen in Patna wrily proffer the ‘R-factor’ as the probable reason for the debacle of these gentlemen. Every minister from Bihar dropped in the past four years had an ‘R’ in his name—Rudy was dropped in 2017, Radha Mohan Singh and Ram Kripal Yadav in 2019, and Ravishankar Prasad in 2021.…1 min
India Today|August 9, 2021First Family of Bengal?With his influence in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) growing by the day, the family of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee has now become the focus of attention. His daughter Azania’s eighth birthday on July 25 turned into an occasion for party leaders to celebrate. Veteran TMC leader Madan Mitra blessed her profusely on social media. Party supporters eulogised her as a future ‘Agnikanya’, an honorific so far reserved for Didi. A lot of expectations bearing on those tiny shoulders.…1 min
India Today|August 9, 2021A ROYAL FRACASA lingering dispute between the members of the erstwhile royal family of Panna, Madhya Pradesh, took an ugly turn when the local police arrested the titular maharani Jeeteshwari Devi on July 22 on the basis of a complaint her mother-in-law, Dilhar Kumari, had filed on June 19. The Panna police booked Jeeteshwari, her husband and the titular maharaja Raghavendra, their children and another accused, Salim Khan, on charges of criminal trespass and under sections of the Arms Act.In the latest episode of the royal family saga, as per Dilhar Kumari’s complaint, Jeeteshwari, Raghvendra, their children and Khan tried to forcibly occupy a wing of the Raj Mandir Palace—a 19th century building and home of the erstwhile Panna royals. All this happened while Dilhar Kumari and her daughter Krishna Kumari were…4 min
India Today|August 9, 2021SCRIPTING A TURNAROUNDIn mid-2020, when one-year-old Falguni Nayek was diagnosed with severe malnutrition, the sparse patches of hair on her head turning an unhealthy auburn, mother Sanjukta feared her illness had something to do with the iron ore dust that coats everything in Barbil village, in Odisha’s Keonjhar district. It was a group of ASHA (accredited social health activist) workers who made the correct diagnosis.Life is grindingly hard in Keonjharthe poverty ratio is 47 per cent, compared with the last measured national average of 28 per cent. Other human development indicators, though far better than the state’s average, also corroborate its misery: Keonjhar’s infant mortality rate (IMR, measured as deaths of children under one year per 1,000 live births) was 23.6 in 2019-20, according to the district administration, while Odisha recorded 41…3 min
India Today|August 9, 2021REBALANCING THE TWO FRONTSAVIATION CHECKMATEChina has embarked on an unprecedented expansion of military aviation facilities on the Tibetan plateau. The new round of airfield construction is designed to chip away at the IAF’s advantage of operating fighter aircraft from the plainsEASTERN LADAKH FLASHPOINTThe PLA intruded into multiple locations along the 840-km LAC in May 2020. Both India and China withdrew from the south bank of the Pangong Tso in Feb. 2021. China continues to occupy Depsang Plains, Gogra and Hot Springs…1 min
India Today|August 9, 2021THE NEW STATE LIEUTENANTSNANA PATOLEAppointed Maharashtra unit chief in January. The BJP defector joined the Congress in 2018.ANUMULA REVANTH REDDYMade Telangana unit chief in July. A former ABVP member who has also had stints in the TRS and TDP. He joined the Congress in 2017.NAVJOT SINGH SIDHUThe Rahul-Priyanka favourite has been given charge of the Punjab Congress. Defected from the BJP in 2017.GANESH GODIYALBecame Uttarakhand unit chief in July. He is known to be critical of senior leaders in the state.BHUPEN KUMAR BORAHA Rahul loyalist. Bora was inducted as an AICC secretary by Rahul in 2013.…1 min
India Today|August 9, 2021MUSICAL CHAIRS OF FAVOURITESJITENDRA SINGH (2007-2011)CWC member and general secretary in-charge for Assam. Was never out of favour, but now keeps a low profile; restricted to his constituency since 2014DIGVIJAYA SINGH (2007-2012)Was once seen as Rahul’s ‘guru’ but gradually lost influence after the party’s 2012 assembly poll defeat in Uttar Pradesh. He was general secretary in-charge for the stateMEENAKSHI NATARAJAN (2008-2014)Was one of Rahul’s young picks. Fell out of favour after the Congress’s 2014 Lok Sabha poll debacleJAIRAM RAMESH (2008-2014)Still consulted on policy matters but doesn’t have the influence he did before 2014C.P. JOSHI (2012-2017)His mishandling of the northeastern states, which he was in charge of, cost him proximity to RahulMADHUSUDAN MISTRY (2013-2017)Economic austerity and data-crunching were his USP but he failed to deliver on the ground. Party seniors resented his influenceAJAY MAKEN…1 min
India Today|August 9, 2021LINE OF NO CONTROLLike gigantic grey concrete aircraft carriers standing out against a dun-coloured Tibetan plateau, Beijing’s big military aviation build-up is unfolding in clear view of imaging satellites. Satellite photos show a frenetic pace of construction, unrivalled in recent years. New airfields are being built and old ones expanded with new taxi tracks, aprons and longer runways. Fighter jets are being pushed under concrete pens with three-feet-thick walls that can withstand direct hits from missiles and air-dropped precision bombs. Launch pads around the bases bristle with HQ-9 long-range missiles which can shoot down aircraftover 100 km away. Concrete has been trucked into various military sites across the plateau since May (the building season is May-October in the heights as concrete does not set easily in winter), and one government source mentions having…17 min
India Today|August 9, 2021PORNOGRAPHY: WHAT INDIAN LAWS SAYViewing sexually explicit material in private spaces is not illegal in India. However, as per the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, ‘watching, possessing or downloading’ child pornography is a crimeSection 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, prohibits the production, distribution, transmission and publication of ‘obscene material’ in electronic form. The offence is punishable with up to 3 years imprisonment and/ or Rs 5 lakh finePrivacy is also important on a legal front. As per Section 354 C of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), ‘Viewing and/ or capturing the image of a girl or woman going about her private acts, where she thinks that no one is watching her, is a crime’; Section 66 E of IT Act, 2000, says that ‘whoever, intentionally or knowingly, captures, publishes…1 min
India Today|August 9, 2021MUSICAL CHAIRS OF FAVOURITESJITENDRA SINGH (2007-2011) CWC member and general secretary in-charge for Assam. Was never out of favour, but now keeps a low profile; restricted to his constituency since 2014 DIGVIJAYA SINGH (2007-2012) Was once seen as Rahul’s ‘guru’ but gradually lost influence after the party’s 2012 assembly poll defeat in Uttar Pradesh. He was general secretary in-charge for the state MEENAKSHI NATARAJAN (2008-2014) Was one of Rahul’s young picks. Fell out of favour after the Congress’s 2014 Lok Sabha poll debacle JAIRAM RAMESH (2008-2014) Still consulted on policy matters but doesn’t have the influence he did before 2014 C.P. JOSHI (2012-2017) His mishandling of the northeastern states, which he was in charge of, cost him proximity to Rahul MADHUSUDAN MISTRY (2013-2017) Economic austerity and data-crunching were his USP but he failed…1 min
India Today|August 9, 2021AN ENGAGED EDUCATIONAt Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), we have been focusing on three significant components of the New Education Policy (NEP)—multidisciplinary education, research and innovation and teaching in Indian languages. We have already formed an apex committee for the NEP’s implementation. Even before the NEP was released, JNU has been practising multi-disciplinary education. The objective in the university is to create conversations among people from different disciplines. That results in more creativity and innovation. It’s one of the reasons why the best students in the country come to this university. For instance, a student doing MA in International Studies can also do another course from the School of Social Sciences or in languages.In the recent past, when we started the School of Engineering, we made it multidisciplinary. Our students get two degrees—one…6 min
India Today|August 9, 2021IN STEP WITH THE TIMESGURUSPEAK“Delhi University has improvised its systems to adapt to the Covid challenge”—PROF. P.C. JOSHI, Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of DelhiYear 2020 was a challenging time for Delhi University due to multiple factors, including several beyond contemplation and the university’s control. However, even in the trying Covid times, the university strived to achieve the goals stated in its vision and mission. In the past one year, the focus has particularly been on student-centric activities, such as online classes, online examinations and assessment, digital provisional certificates and degrees, making admissions completely online, as well as placements and internships.The pandemic and the lockdown had almost brought Delhi University to a standstill during mid-semester. Traditional classrooms were completely replaced by online learning platforms. Students were provided reading material online. Internal assessments and examinations were conducted…3 min
India Today|August 9, 2021THE DIRTY PICTUREIllustration by NILANJAN DAS On February 4, the Mumbai Police landed at a secluded bungalow in Madh Island, located on the northern tip of the island city, to find two persons being filmed in intimate poses. The actors and the five-member crew were arrested on the spot. The police was acting on a tip-off, part of its investigation into complaints filed by six aspiring actresses against filmmakers who were allegedly pressuring them to perform in ‘pornographic movies’. The police found that the videos shot in the bungalow, made up of six small rooms, a kitchen and a garden, were being uploaded on paid websites and mobile applications like HotShots, HotHit and Nueflix. Six months later, millionaire businessman Raj Kundra, husband of Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, who has stakes in several…7 min
India Today|August 9, 2021THE HOME OF INNOVATIONThe Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-Delhi) has traditionally been known as a centre of engineering studies. Humanities education was considered more of a service area. But that has changed in the past couple of years. Now, we have departments for humanities at IIT-Delhi and their faculty has also grown. Humanities and engineering education are imparted simultaneously and both departments work in tandem. About 20 years ago, the IITs were only focused on technical studies, but that’s not the case any longer.GURUSPEAK“Students need multidisciplinary education to become job providers”—PROF. V. RAMGOPAL RAO Director, IIT-DelhiMultidisciplinary education is the need of the hour. If we want to provide an impactful solution to a problem, multidisciplinary approach is the way. A system-oriented approach needs to be adopted for research to be visible in society…2 min
India Today|August 9, 2021THE COMPLETE RESULTSSCORES AND RANKS— GENERAL (GOVERNMENT)SCORES AND RANKS— GENERAL (PRIVATE)SCORES AND RANKS— MEDICALSCORES AND RANKS— TECHNICALSCORES AND RANKS— LAWNotes: 1. Rankings are based on Objective data and Perceptual Survey data. 2. Only universities that submitted their Objective data have been ranked. Universities like IISc Bangalore, BHU, etc. which did not submit their Objective data on time or refused to participate have not been ranked. 3. Only universities that fulfilled the below criteria were considered eligible for participation in the ranking: i. A minimum of three batches passed out. ii. Offering fulltime postgraduate programme. 4. All scores have been rounded off to one decimal place. This may result in rounding off errors while adding the parameter-wise score. 5. Universities not ranked during the Perceptual Survey have got 0.0 marks in their Perceptual…1 min
India Today|August 9, 2021AN ENGAGED EDUCATIONAt Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), we have been focusing on three significant components of the New Education Policy (NEP)—multidisciplinary education, research and innovation and teaching in Indian languages. We have already formed an apex committee for the NEP’s implementation. Even before the NEP was released, JNU has been practising multi-disciplinary education. The objective in the university is to create conversations among people from different disciplines. That results in more creativity and innovation. It’s one of the reasons why the best students in the country come to this university. For instance, a student doing MA in International Studies can also do another course from the School of Social Sciences or in languages. In the recent past, when we started the School of Engineering, we made it multidisciplinary. Our students get two…6 min
India Today|August 9, 2021Out of the BoxBelieve it or not, but Vikrant Massey spilled the word “feminazi” during this conversation. It probably comes from a place of frustration around what is being said about his recent film, Haseen Dillruba. Vinil Mathew’s film, starring Massey, Taapsee Pannu and Harshvardhan Rane, saw some criticism for the way it handled its ‘pulpy’ climax. Some opined the film (inadvertently) ‘endorsed’ the characters’ violent ways. Massey shares his two cents on some of the criticism coming his way: “I think it’s the sign of an empty society that people engage [in discourse] like this. But I also understand a lot of these people are unaware, or they have completely skipped the part where we have gone out of our way to say it’s a pulp fiction world. I think most of…2 min
India Today|August 9, 2021HEROES ON CALLGURUSPEAK“PG students had to balance their mental stress and their duties as doctors”— DR ANITA SAXENA, Dean of Academics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi Covid really taught everyone how to handle extreme challenges in a hospital setting. Even though as doctors we see many difficult conditions, Covid was entirely different and far more extreme than what any of us have seen. When the pandemic began, most of our PG students had to work in the Covid wards, handling infected patients daily. Initially, many were worried about their own health and wellbeing; or their families or landlords would be anxious about the person getting infected in the ward. And so, residents had to balance their mental stress and anxiety with their duties as a doctor, and they rose…2 min
India Today|August 9, 2021Taking Buddha to the WorldSir Edwin Arnold’s poem on the life and teachings of the Buddha, The Light of Asia, was published in 1879. He wrote it as a means of ‘relaxing’ between writing stressful and prosaic Daily Telegraph editorials on the Russo-Ottoman war from a British perspective. It was an extraordinary piece of work; written by an unapologetic, entitled imperialist. His empathetic retelling of the Buddha story managed to move people as diverse as the famous nurse Florence Nightingale, politician Winston Churchill, business tycoon Andrew Carnegie, writer Herman Melville and scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. It also had its share of controversy as (mostly) Christian missionaries reacted sharply to his trespassing on their evangelical turf with a rather different messiah.The book was undeniably influential. It guided the popular reception of Buddhism in Europe and…2 min
India Today|August 9, 2021THE HOME OF INNOVATIONThe Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-Delhi) has traditionally been known as a centre of engineering studies. Humanities education was considered more of a service area. But that has changed in the past couple of years. Now, we have departments for humanities at IIT-Delhi and their faculty has also grown. Humanities and engineering education are imparted simultaneously and both departments work in tandem. About 20 years ago, the IITs were only focused on technical studies, but that’s not the case any longer. GURUSPEAK“Students need multidisciplinary education to become job providers”—PROF. V. RAMGOPAL RAO Director, IIT-Delhi Multidisciplinary education is the need of the hour. If we want to provide an impactful solution to a problem, multidisciplinary approach is the way. A system-oriented approach needs to be adopted for research to be visible…2 min
India Today|August 9, 2021THE COMPLETE RESULTSSCORES AND RANKS— GENERAL (GOVERNMENT) SCORES AND RANKS— GENERAL (PRIVATE) SCORES AND RANKS— MEDICAL SCORES AND RANKS— TECHNICAL SCORES AND RANKS— LAW Notes: 1. Rankings are based on Objective data and Perceptual Survey data. 2. Only universities that submitted their Objective data have been ranked. Universities like IISc Bangalore, BHU, etc. which did not submit their Objective data on time or refused to participate have not been ranked. 3. Only universities that fulfilled the below criteria were considered eligible for participation in the ranking: i. A minimum of three batches passed out. ii. Offering fulltime postgraduate programme. 4. All scores have been rounded off to one decimal place. This may result in rounding off errors while adding the parameter-wise score. 5. Universities not ranked during the Perceptual Survey have got…1 min
India Today|August 9, 2021Conflict ZonesCHHATRASAL MX Player (July 29) Set in 1649 and narrated by Neena Gupta, this web series tells us the story of how the king Chhatrasal (Jitin Gulati) waged war against the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb (Ashutosh Rana) to free Bundelkhand. CITY OF DREAMS (Season 2) Disney+ Hotstar (July 30) Nagesh Kukunoor returns to further his tale of political intrigue and familial betrayal. Atul Kulkarni and Priya Bapat will again be seen crossing swords as difficult father and adamant daughter, respectively. DIAL 100 Zee5 (August 6) In this Rensil D’Silva film, Seema Pallav (Neena Gupta) wants revenge for the death of her son and she’ll do all she can to exact it from Nikhil Sood (Manoj Bajpayee), a cop working the graveyard shift.…1 min
India Today|August 9, 2021Out of the BoxBelieve it or not, but Vikrant Massey spilled the word “feminazi” during this conversation. It probably comes from a place of frustration around what is being said about his recent film, Haseen Dillruba. Vinil Mathew’s film, starring Massey, Taapsee Pannu and Harshvardhan Rane, saw some criticism for the way it handled its ‘pulpy’ climax. Some opined the film (inadvertently) ‘endorsed’ the characters’ violent ways. Massey shares his two cents on some of the criticism coming his way: “I think it’s the sign of an empty society that people engage [in discourse] like this. But I also understand a lot of these people are unaware, or they have completely skipped the part where we have gone out of our way to say it’s a pulp fiction world. I think most of…2 min
India Today|August 9, 2021IN HER CORNERMILLION DOLLAR BABY (2004) Starring Hilary Swank in an Oscar-winning turn, the Clint Eastwood-directed masterpiece pulls no punches in its profound navigation of the coach-protégé bond. The film is unsparing and bleak, eschewing every cliché in the sports book to present a tragedy in the face of triumph. FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY (2018) Carmel Winters’ sophomore film stars Hazel Doupe as a tough teenage girl idolising—you guessed it—Muhammad Ali in ultraconservative 1960s’ Ireland. Like any good boxing drama, the sport itself is a side note—a coping mechanism for a kid shackled by the whims of an alcoholic father. SAALA KHADOOS (2016) The bilingual drama directed by Sudha Kongara ishardlyoriginal—a Chak De! India relocated to a boxing ring. But the feisty film, starring R. Madhavan as the disgraced and criminally attractive…1 min
India Today|August 9, 2021THE HIPPY’S DISCOVERY OF INDIAGinsberg’s Karma director, Ram Devineni, calls poet Allen Ginsberg ‘America’s first hippy’ The 1950s saw filmmakers like Jean Renoir and Roberto Rossellini coming to India, but it was really from the beginning of the 1960s that a certain kind of cultural tourism by well-known western intellectuals really took off. When American poet Allen Ginsberg arrived in India in 1962 with his partner Peter Orlovsky, he wasn’t the first gay, celebrated or controversial poet from the West to visit—Italian poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini had already accompanied his friends, novelist couple Alberto Moravia and Elsa Morante, for a trip in 1961. Neither were Ginsberg and Orlovsky the last famous couple from the ‘New York scene’ to come over—avant-garde composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham followed in the mid-1960s. Nor…2 min
India Today|August 9, 2021TELLING INDIA’S STORYQ. In your book, you tell us stories of how everyone—Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Gulzar—had agreed to work with you almost instantly. What led to this, do you think, your personality or your talent? These are all accomplished personalities who have inspired millions. They each love cinema and I think they saw in me someone who also wanted to serve cinema. So, they indulged me, gave me a chance. I was hungry when I went to Gulzar bhai’s office all those years ago, when I met Amitji and proposed Aks to him, or when I texted Aamir for Rang De Basanti. That hunger has only multiplied with time. Q. Would it be fair to say that RangDeBasanti gave 21st century India a template for protest? Also, has your idea of…2 min
