Innholdsfortegnelse for September 7, 2020 i India Today

The BJP in Bengal, which was till recently scrabbling around for a chief ministerial candidate who could take on the charismatic incumbent Mamata Banerjee, is now looking at a problem of plenty. New names of aspirants for the top job, should the BJP win in next year’s assembly election, are popping up every week, creating confusion in the party’s rank and file. With the election just eight months away, the hesitation in projecting a face is understandable—ambition runs high in the state unit and factional rivalries could affect the party’s prospects. The flip side of dithering over that choice is that it might firm up popular perception that the BJP is yet to strike a chord in Bengal. Chances are indeed high that the BJP will ultimately fall back, as…

Visva-Bharati, Bengal’s only central university of which the prime minister is the chancellor, is the latest hotspot in an ongoing, no holds barred tussle between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP, which is eyeing power in West Bengal. The university, set up in 1921 by poet, educationist and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, is an extension of his much-storied experiment in an open and inclusive way of life and learning, an experiment that began in 1901 when Tagore set up a school called Patha Bhavan with just five children. For anyone who has known it for what it was in its glory days, that heritage is today endangered. While political undercurrents have been palpable on the Visva-Bharati campus ever since the appointment of vice-chancellor (VC) Bidyut Chakrabarty in October…

The Sushant Singh Rajput story has been told and retold by many—his cook, his creative content manager, an ex-girlfriend who had not spoken to him in four years, a supposed best friend whose call records reveal he hadn’t spoken to the actor in over a year, former staff, an actress whom he never worked with, his family through videos and Instagram posts, not to forget the media, only too eager with intimate details sourced from the Mumbai Police, the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation. But in his last year, very few knew the 34-year-old actor better than Rhea Chakraborty, his girlfriend since April 2019. In an exclusive interview to India Today TV, the actress broke her silence on the various allegations made against her in the 73…

R.L. Trikha Director, FIITJEE Group of Companies #UNIQUE CONTENT & FACILITIES There is a scientifically-designed process for the admission of both students and faculty. Personalised attention is given to each student. The size of each batch is about 25-30 students. We track the progress of each student, set goals and draw up a customised roadmap for them. The study material lays emphasis on conceptual understanding and analytical skills as opposed to rote learning. Graded assignments with both subjective and objective questions are included. We follow a system of learning, practising and testing, followed by an analysis and correction strategy. Quizzes, phase test and national level tests are held at regular intervals. #FINANCIAL AID FOR STUDENTS FROM ECONOMICALLY WEAKER SECTIONS Every year in February we conduct the ‘Fortunate-40’ test for the…

Much of the heritage-walk industry in India peddles nostalgia and notions of a romantic past. Calcutta is a prime site for such soft-focus confections. Even as the city’s built heritage continues to be vandalised and dismantled by the nexus of builders and succeeding political parties in power, clichés about the city being the capital of history, culture and heritage abound in everything from government brochures to Bollywood middle-cinema. Heritage Walk Calcutta (Heritagewalkcalcutta.com), founded three years ago by Dr Tathagata Neogi and Chelsea McGill, provides a much-needed antidote to this hollow nostalgia and brings academic rigour and inventiveness to the exercise. Typically, you would meet the team at around 7.30 am, have a bhaand of tea and begin your walk. On a Durga Puja walk, the context of the spread of…

The Valley has finally broken its silence. A year after the abrogation of Article 370, the crackdown on mainstream political parties (including the arrest of three ex-chief ministers) and the clampdown on all political activity in Kashmir, six of these parties reaffirmed, on August 22, their commitment to the ‘Gupkar Declaration’ of August 4, 2019. The Declaration had been signed just a day ahead of the annulment of J&K’s special status, when these parties had come together and vowed to resist the anticipated political downgrade of the erstwhile state. The signatories included the National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Congress, People’s Conference, the CPI(M) and the Awami National Conference, and the joint announcement said that all political activity hereon would be “subservient to the sacred goal of reverting…

The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) gets under way in the UAE on September 19. The official schedule for the tournament had not been released at the time of going to press, but the very first match is likely to feature four-time champions Mumbai Indians and three-time winners Chennai Super Kings. The 53-day tournament will see matches played in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, with the final on November 10. The logistics of a tournament of this scale are pretty intimidating anyway, and playing it away, in the midst of a pandemic, increases the challenge exponentially. Not surprisingly, all the focus is on the so-called bio-secure bubble that is being built to minimise the risk of a Covid breach. The ‘bubble’ refers to the strict containment…

Sometimes it is almost impossible to write a book review without commenting on the contribution of the author beyond the book. Especially when the author wears as many hats as Yogendra Yadav—that of a political scientist, psephologist, activist and politician. Making Sense of Indian Democracy presents the essence of Yadav’s lifetime pursuit wearing these hats in a concise, readable and relatable manner (full disclosure: I was trained under Yadav at Lokniti-CSDS). This collection of essays written over three decades reflects not only the quest of an academic to understand how the practice of democracy interacts with Indian society but also that of an activist seeking to reform and transform the political arena. It has both, the elements of optimism over what democracy in India has achieved against all odds, and…

Q. You came to Bollywood with dreams of becoming a big star. Now you are being called a villain. A. I cannot believe this is my life now. My dreams are long dead. I just want to take a deep breath and not have four or five [investigative] agencies after me. I want a normal day where I can have breakfast with my parents and none of my family members have an anxiety attack. But I will fight. Q. Tell us about your relationship with Sushant. A. We had been friends for long. We were introduced in 2013 at the gym in Yash Raj Studios. My first film had just released and Sushant had joined YRF (Yash Raj Films) as a new talent after Kai Po Che! Occasionally, we’d run…

Aakash Chaudhry Director & CEO, Aakash Educational Services Ltd #UNIQUE CONTENT & FACILITIES We don’t teach students only from books. Our content and curriculum are prepared after vigorous research and development for each subject. Students are required to take frequent mock tests and rapid revision exercises to check their preparedness for competition and are assessed online for that. They have the option to access video lectures at the branch itself or from their home. Because of the lockdown, we have also launched Crystal, a live doubt-clearing app, where a student can chat with the teacher. All our classrooms have fully-equipped libraries and iTutor labs for recorded lectures. We have also recently launched ‘NEET challenger’ through which students struggling in a particular subject can be assessed. All centres have a common…

Sambit Dattachaudhuri, 30, and Disha Kapkoti, 28, are not ones to be defeated by a pandemic. Despite Covid-19, the couple are busy checking items on their 2020 to-do list. The homestay they had planned to open in Uttarakhand’s Nathuakhan recently welcomed its first guests, but, more significantly, Dattachaudhuri and Kapkoti were able to get married in Kapkoti’s Haldwani home on July 1. “My parents live in Kolkata, so they could attend the ceremony only virtually. None of my friends were there, but I was represented by the two dogs we adopted,” laughs Dattachaudhuri. The number of guests on Zoom far outnumbered the 25 relatives physically present. The neighbourhood caterer was hired and the plates used were all disposable. “We followed due protocol,” says Dattachaudhuri. For India’s wedding market—once valued at…

Omaxe Connaught Place in Greater Noida draws its name (and little else) from Delhi’s famous colonial shopping plaza. Inside, Oh! Max, billed as the country’s largest indoor theme park, has a replica of the Taj Mahal, a ‘6D’ movie theatre and a Mughal garden. Fifty kilometres away in Shahjahan’s actual capital, an Omaxe Chowk is in the works—a mall justified by its multilevel parking, a major requirement for old city traders and residents. When one contemplates Omaxe Chowk’s made-up mélange of ‘Mughal, British and Indian’ architecture, the recent unveiling of Chandni Chowk’s first phase of pedestrianisation seems like a tiny footnote on the changing landscape. Yet, this pedestrianisation, which will stretch from the Red Fort to Fatehpuri Masjid by November, is a significant first step in the redevelopment of the…

Indore’s status as India’s cleanest city is no longer a subject of debate. On August 20, for the fourth time in a row, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh topped the Union government’s Swachh Survekshan 2020 national rankings for cities with a population of over a million. Indore’s consistent showing might also put to rest all misgivings about the methodology of this annual survey and convince even diehard cynics that the city must have done something right to earn its laurels. A mix of factors has aided Indore’s transformation from an ordinary central Indian town, with its regular markers of dust, filth, chaos and stray animals, to one with clean roads and a sound waste collection and management plan—all made possible by city-proud municipal workers and citizens. To understand Indore’s…

THE LEAK OF THE LETTER’S CONTENTS TOOK THE FOCUS AWAY FROM THE ISSUES BEING RAISED. SOME EVEN HINTED AT A CONSPIRACY BEING HATCHED IN COLLUSION WITH THE BJP... On August 24, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) convened to deliberate on a letter written by a group of leaders to party president Sonia Gandhi. The party’s highest decision-making body concluded with two predictable resolutions—it asked her to continue as president “until such time as circumstances will permit an AICC session to be convened” and authorised her to effect organisational changes as deemed appropriate. The letter, dated August 7, was signed by at least 23 leaders, and had demanded, among several things, a full-time, active and available leadership and an institutional mechanism for collective leadership, in which “Gandhi family members would be…

INFLATION HEAT’S ON Inflation has been rising as food and fuel prices soar IIP SINKING INDEX Industrial production has suffered from the lockdown and poor demand Note: In a press release, NSO has stated that it would not be appropriate to compare the IIP of April and May 2020 with indices of earlier months. The growth rates in the tabulation are calculated by CMIE from the index numbers. PMI DEEP CHASM The decline in the services sector has been more drastic than in manufacturing MANUFACTURING LOW OUTPUT Manufacturing capacity utilisation has fallen to around 70 per cent, well below the 10-year average…

Education is among the top five fastest-growing commodities in terms of private consumer expenditure in India. Given a choice, Indians prefer spending on education than healthcare and, as economic surveys of the country have shown, continue to spend more on education irrespective of the change in their income level. Yet, it is often argued that the mainstream education system in India suffers from multiple limitations—poor infrastructure, dearth of trained teachers and outdated curriculums. Regular school education is unequipped to prepare students for highly competitive entrance examinations. It was perhaps guided by this criticism that the Centre announced a massive overhaul of the education system through its New Education Policy (NEP) in July. Implementing the NEP will be a long-term exercise. Students, meanwhile, will find recourse in coaching institutes to bridge…

The task of choosing the right coaching institute to secure admission into the prestigious IITs, IIMs or AIIMS to pursue engineering, management or medical education is a challenging one. The India Today Group’s Annual Best Coaching Institute survey aims to make this task a little easier. Conducted by MDRA (Marketing and Development Research Associates), a pioneer in institutional ranking and rating, the second edition of the survey ranks the coaching institutes preparing students for the top three entrance examinations: • JEE, for admissions into IITs and other top engineering colleges • NEET (UG), for admissions into top medical colleges • CAT, for admissions into IIMs and other top MBA colleges The MDRA methodology has tried to cover all key stakeholders: • Experienced faculty members of coaching institutes • Current students…

Stephen King’s supreme craftsmanship lies in his ability to allow the reader to build up the horror in her/ his mind instead of explicitly describing it. Most often, this horror lurks in the most mundane situations and in the most ordinary lives, until an event or a twist introduces the central plot and pushes the suspense towards its finale. His latest, If It Bleeds, is a collection of four novellas. Three of them are vintage King. The fourth (though second in order of appearance), The Life of Chuck, sees King try a completely different style of narrative, and pull it off with aplomb. It is a story in three acts told backwards, starting with the death of the protagonist. A disturbing yet enjoyable story, it requires the reader to remain…