Gujarat Bridge Collapse: Another Warning, More Lives at Risk

A bridge collapsed in Gujarat on July 9, killing at least thirteen people. The Gambhira Bridge, which connected the Anand and Vadodara districts, gave way, sending cars, bikes and auto rickshaws plunging into the Mahisagar River. Built over four decades ago, the bridge had shown signs of being worn out but was still heavily used. Its collapse is part of a troubling pattern of deadly bridge cave-ins across India. What caused the Gambhira Bridge to collapse? Could it have been prevented? And what does this say about how India builds and maintains its roads and bridges? Guest: Abhinay Deshpande from The Hindu’s Ahmedabad Bureau Host: Anupama Chandrasekaran Edited by Jude Francis Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

India’s ten central trade unions – barring the Sangh-affiliated Bharatiy Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) came together to call for a general strike in July 9. Workers from banking, insurance, postal, mining, construction, and transportation sectors have pledged their support to the strike and are expected to participate in big numbers.  According to the Union spokespersons, the strike is in protest against the government’s anti-worker policies and specifically also against the amendments to the 29 labour laws and the newly introduced labour codes.  But these amendments and labour codes happened quite some time ago. Why is the strike being called now? What exactly are the demands of the unions? And what is likely to be its impact?  Guest: A.M. Jigeesh from The Hindu’s Delhi Bureau. Host: G Sampath Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From July 1st onwards, Delhi started enforcing a fuel ban on End-of-Life Vehicles or ELVs. In Delhi, this means diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years. This enforcement drive followed an order from the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) stipulating no fuel for ELVs from July 1. But now, following a public outcry, the Delhi government has written to CAQM asking for this fuel ban to be put on hold “with immediate effect”. The reasons it has cited include “critical operational and infrastructural challenges” and ‘public discontent and outcry”. While the enforcement drive raising a public outcry is understandable, it cannot be denied that Delhi’s air quality has become a year-round emergency which needs counter-measures. How was this decision to ban 10-year-old diesel cars and 15-year-old petrol cars arrived at? Is this a practical policy in a poor country like India where for many, their vehicle is linked to their livelihood? Are there better ways to weed out polluting vehicles? What about retro-fitting older vehicles to make them less polluting? Guest: Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi. Host: G Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Produced and Edited by Jude Francis Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the monsoon session of Parliament scheduled for the 21st of this month, road safety activists in the country have begun a push towards demanding more stringent legislation for automobiles, roads and highways, to ensure better safety for all road users. This is not a small concern – India has one of the highest road traffic accident rates in the world, its roads are some of the world’s most deadly, and every three minutes in our country, there is a death due to a road accident. According to Union Minister for Road Transport Nitin Gadkari, every year India sees 4,80,000 accidents, which lead to 1,88,000 deaths of people aged between 18 and 45 years. Additionally, there are 10,000 deaths of children. The country loses 3% of its GDP annually, due to road accidents. Why are our roads so unsafe? Do the problems lie with road design, behaviour on the roads, a lack of implementation of laws or a combination of all these factors and more? Is the government reluctant to ensure better road safety for its citizens? Guest: Ranjit Gadgil, programme director, Parisar, which is part of the Road Safety Network, an Indian coalition of organisations working to improve road safety in the country Host: Zubeda Hamid Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Election Commission of India is going to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. Bihar is due to hold Assembly elections before November22, which is when the term of the current assembly ends. This revision exercise requires all voters who were enrolled after 2003, to provide proof of their and their parents’ citizenship, in order to get their names on the electoral rolls. This elaborate exercise is supposed to be completed in two to three months. It has raised many questions, and fears of mass disenfranchisement, and backdoor implementation of the controversial National Register of Citizens or NRC. When does the EC normally conduct an SIR? What was the reason for initiating it now, just before State elections? Are the fears of disenfranchisement justified? Guest: M.G. Devasahayam, a former IAS officer, who is also Co-ordinator, Citizen’s Commission on Elections. Host: G Sampath. Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Jude Francis Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wimbledon 2025 kicks off on June 30. Can Carlos Alcaraz make it three championship titles in a row? Or will Novak Djokovic manage to get his 25th Slam and equal Roger Federer’s record of eight Wimbledon titles? Can world no. 1 Jannik Sinner stamp his authority on grass for the first time this year? How do the various contenders stack up in what seems to be a very open field in the women’s draw? Is there a real frontrunner between the likes of world no. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, French Open champ Coco Gauff, and former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova? Can Ons Jabeur or Jasmine Paolini make a deep run this time around? Guest: Ziya Us Salam from The Hindu’s Delhi Bureau. Host: G. Sampath Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian and Jude Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we think of climate and global warming, what comes to mind is carbon emissions, and how to decarbonise the economy. Lately, another front in the fight against climate change getting more and more attention: the battle against Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs), also classified as non-carbon climate pollutants. These gases and chemicals — which include methane, black carbon, tropospheric ozone, hydrofluorocarbons -- have a much higher warming potential and shorter atmospheric lifetimes than CO2. So, what makes SLCPs deadly? What activities produce them? What can be done to mitigate their impact? And what is the nature of the challenge India faces with regard to SLCPs? Guest: Zerin Osho, Director of the India program at the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. Host: G Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Recorded by Jude Francis Weston and Tayyab Hussain Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After 12 days of exchanging intense strikes and counter-strikes, Israel and Iran have reportedly agreed to a ceasefire. The ceasefire was first announced by President Donald Trump on social media. The war was initiated by Israel with the tacit approval of the US, to achieve certain objectives. Were those objectives achieved? What prompted them to initiate the ceasefire? Why did Iran agree to the ceasefire? With Israel’s attacks on Gaza continuing, will this ceasefire last? Guest: Mehmet Ozturk, senior Turkish journalist and political commentator Host: G Sampath, Social Affiars Editor, The Hindu Edited by Jude Francis Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the blistering temperatures that most of India is suffering under, it should come as no surprise that May 2025 was the second-warmest month of May since records began. But what is of greater concern now, is how this heat is going to affect our future generations --  a new study has found that India recorded an average of six additional days of dangerously high temperatures for pregnant women every year over the last five years. What is this extreme heat doing the bodies of mothers to be? How does heat affect pregnancy outcomes? What will it mean for the near future, as India continues to experience heat waves? Guest: Prof Jane Hirst Chair in Global Women's Health, The George Institute for Global Health, Imperial College London and Visiting Professor in Global Women's Health, University of Oxford Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to the latest projections by the IMF, India is now the world’s fourth-largest economy. Government officials, including the CEO of NITI Aayog B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, have expressed confidence that India could soon overtake Germany to claim the third spot. Adding to the optimism, the World Bank recently reported that extreme poverty in the country fell to 5.3% in 2022–2023. A recent report by SBI noted that the poverty rate in India could now be in the range of 4%.  But what do these numbers mean for the broader population? Guest: Partha Chatterjee, Dean of Academics at Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR, and Professor, Department of Economics, Shiv Nadar University. Host: Nivedita V Edited by Jude Francis Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices