In Focus-Parley | Can wildlife thrive in India without active human intervention?

This month, a word that has not been in the news for decades perhaps, suddenly erupted: the death of a lab worker in Siberia, sparked concerns, rumours online and theories as to what really happened, given that official information coming out was limited. The worker, Darya Shiplova, who worked at a plague research institute in Siberia, is believed to have died of pneumonic plague. Russia subsequently quarantined dozens of people but said there was no risk of an epidemic, while a WHO official, meanwhile, called for the country to provide more information. But what is plague and why is it that is has been more or less forgotten? What was India’s tryst with plague in the 1890s and then again in Surat in 1994? How infectious is it and how is it treated? Is there really a risk of a plague breakout? Guest: Rajib Dasgupta: Head, Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University Host: Zubeda Hamid Producer: Jude Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How should India balance wildlife conservation with development, local livelihoods and the need for scientific research? In this discussion, Prof Qamar Qureshi, formerly of the Wildlife Institute of India, and Prof Uma Ramakrishnan of the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, examine the changing approaches to conservation, the challenges of protecting threatened species and the need to make conservation science more inclusive and responsive to the realities on the ground. Host: Jacob Koshy Producer: Jude Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

October 10th witnessed a massive display of state repression in the national capital. Brutal violence was unleashed against journalists, students, activists and citizens who wanted to protest at Jantar Mantar, seeking Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation. India’s Opposition parties have united over the demand that Gyanesh Kumar must go and the SIR must be annulled. Even as the government responded by denotifying Jantar Mantar as a protest site, the Congress has vowed to ‘reclaim’ Jantar Mantar. The Opposition’s overarching political plank, as of today, is to ‘save Indian democracy’, and ‘save the Constitution’, by fighting to protect the ordinary Indian’s right to vote. It has announced plans to continue this protest campaign until the demands are met. This raises some key questions: does the SIR issue resonate with the masses? Can we really be sure that today’s protesters, despite all their grievances, will not go back and vote for the BJP come election time? Can we read bigger and bigger protests as a setback for the Hindutva project? Or, is the BJP-RSS juggernaut resilient enough to survive expressions of large-scale dissent? Joining us today is Ajay Gudavarthy, Associate Professor in Political Science at the Centre for Political Studies, JNU. Host: G Sampath Producer: Shiksha Jural Video: Jude Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over a year after Jio Platforms and SpaceX announced a deal to bring Starlink satellite internet to India, multi-billionaire Elon Musk has taken a public swipe at the Ambani family and the Indian government. In a sarcastic post on X, the billionaire described Mukesh Ambani as India’s prime minister and the country’s “real boss,” reigniting debate over Starlink’s delayed entry into one of the world’s biggest internet markets. But beyond the social media sparring lies a bigger battle over competition, market power and regulation. Why is Starlink’s India launch taking so long? Is the government’s cautious approach to satellite internet protecting national interests, or limiting competition? And what could the tussle mean for Jio Platforms as it prepares for an IPO? In this episode of The Hindu’s In Focus, Technology Editor John Xavier unpacks the political and business stakes behind the Musk–Ambani feud, examining India’s approach to satellite internet, the regulation of monopolies, and the competing interests shaping the country’s digital future. Host: Sahana Venugopal Camera: Thamodaran Producer & editor: Jude Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said there are “no parallel protests”, there is only one protest – demanding the rollback of SIR, and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Leaders from almost every INDIA bloc party joined the Congress-led march to the Supreme Court on Monday, drawing massive crowds from all over the country. Has the alleged ‘vote chori’ issue finally managed to unite the entire Opposition? What’s really at stake on the question of whether Gyanesh Kumar stays or resigns? And how do these protests compare with the one in July, that sought the resignation of the then education minister Dharmendra Pradhan? To unpack the political ramifications of the ongoing protests, we are joined today by Anand Mishra, Political Editor with Frontline magazine. Host: G Sampath Producer: Shiksha Jural Video: Jude Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re used to thinking of cancer as something for which there is no known cause and we know that risk factors include using tobacco and excessive alcohol as well as obesity. And while of these factors are true, what we may not have realised is that infections could also, in some cases, lead to cancers. A new study conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer or IARC, has now found that infections were responsible for 2.3 million new cancer cases in 2024, or 12% of the total cases globally that year. What infections? A bacterium and several viruses were linked cancer cases, and what is significant is that a large proportion of these cases were found in low- and middle-income countries. What are the cancers caused by infectious agents, and how common are they? Could vaccines eliminate these sorts of cancers? Are there vaccines available for all the viruses and bacteria that cause cancers? What kind of screening programmes and preventive measures should we take? Guest: Dr. Rajeev Jayadevan, Convener Research Cell Kerala State IMA Physician and gastroenterologist Host: Zubeda Hamid Producer and editor: Jude Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All roads, it seems, lead to the good old Jantar Mantar. Or do they, considering many of them are closed these days. Built in 1724, Jantar Mantar was not always the preferred site for anyone with a prayer, petition or protest on mind. The protest sites at various times in the past were at Boat Club where one remembers anti cow slaughter protests some 50 years ago followed by those during the Babri Masjid-Ramjanambhoomi stir. Then the Ramlila grounds became the place where thousands would gather to vent their anger against the government. It was here that the India Against Corruption protest caught the common man's imagination. As for Jantar Mantar, for ages it was an observatory where schools brought the youngsters to imbibe scientific spirit. Today it throbs with the soul of democracy, from the Cockroach Janata Party to the Congress to the entire INDIA Bloc, Jantar Mantar is the place to be as the Opposition seeks the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. So what is it about Jai Singh's 18th Century creation that draws everyone to it? Telling us this and more is noted historian Ruchika Sharma who runs a hugely popular YouTube show and is renowned as one of the more frank and fearless voices on matters of history. Host: Ziya Us Salam Producer: Shiksha Jural Video: Jude Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The big Election Commission of India (ECI) story that made headlines this week is the Form 6 controversy. Who authorised the modifications to Form 6, which is used for enrolling new voters? The Election Commission has been claiming all along that the changes had the Supreme court’s approval. But on October 5th, the Supreme Court clarified that it had not approved any Form 6 modifications. Does this mean the Election Commission had mislead the nation, as is being claimed by the Opposition parties? Also, two out of the three election commissioners had objected to these changes, with one of them calling it “unauthorised and illegal”. Does the CEC have the power to override their objections? So, who authorised the Form 6 modifications? What happened to the written objections of the other two Election Commissioners? Given that a great many eligible voters were affected by these changes, should the entire SIR be annulled? Guest: Vipul Mudgal, a Trustee of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Director of Common Cause, non-profits working for electoral reform Host: G Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Producer and editor: Jude Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In August this year, the performance of a "purification" ritual by certain Hindu groups in Uttarakhand, at the location where Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, who belongs to a Dalit community, addressed a public rally, led to a national conversation on the practice of untouchability. This discourse was shaped as Opposition Congress leaders accused the ruling BJP dispensation of practicing caste discrimination and the Uttarakhand BJP chief defended the ritual saying it was meant to "cleanse" the area of the ideas that Mr. Kharge was espousing at the rally. After a sustained campaign from opposition leaders and civil society actors, an FIR was registered in the matter as well. Are legal guarantees insufficient in abolishing untouchability? Noted scholar and political theorist Valerian Rodrigues and Supreme Court Advocate Disha Wadekar join us in this episode to discuss the question. Host: Abhinay Lakshman Producer: Jude Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On September 29, U.S. President Donald Trump hosted the country's top technology business leaders as he embarked on a project to rename artificial intelligence (AI) as "Super Intelligence" and "SI”. There, he announced the White House Accord on Super Intelligence, which was signed by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, XAI CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and OpenAI President Greg Brockman. The AI Accord that they signed is “morally binding”, per Mr. Trump. The Big Tech leaders, known for their liberal, centrist, or even neutral political stances, stood smiling, flanking the President, sharing press-ready messages about balancing AI risks and regulations. But the newly formed Super Intelligence Force (SIF) task force indicates that the federal government is not planning to remain a mere bystander as AI giants try to police themselves. What does the AI-to-SI change mean for the U.S. and the world? What are the dynamics at play amongst the companies that signed the AI Accord? And what is Trump's strategy for keeping America ahead of the world in AI? Host: Sahana Venugopal, The Hindu's Technology Desk Guest: John Xavier, Technology Editor at The Hindu Camera: Shivaraj Producer and Editor: Shiksha Jural Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices