India Today

A young man, who used to be mortally afraid of heights, suddenly signs up for a skydiving course in Dubai—and thinks nothing of jumping off a plane. A 65-year-old homemaker in Delhi, Sunita Ahuja, goes back to studies—after over 45 years. By now, she has completed three full online courses in English literature. A couple in Hyderabad-Secunderabad, Srikanth Arval and Prabhjoth, find that the pandemic has disrupted their thriving florist business. What do they do? Take an entirely different line—investing their savings, and they now run a boutique homestay outside the Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra. Bakshish Dean, a veteran of the hospitality industry in Delhi, decides to go on not one but 20 holidays with his family and even buys himself a car that is way beyond his budget. What’s…

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is into his second term and one of the changes he is ringing in is a softening of the ardent Hindutva warrior image that he has been cultivating all these years. Recently, the CM visited his mother—after five years—in Pauri Garhwal district in Uttarakhand while on a three-day trip to the state. Pictures of Yogi with his mother and of his stay at the ancestral home (after 28 years, say reports) went viral, even eliciting comparisons to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own infrequent but much publicised visits to his mother. According to party sources, it’s all part of an effort to exude a more sensitive and inclusive persona as an administrator. So, even as the accusations of ‘bulldozer politics’ continue, Yogi 2.0 is trying hard…

On May 11, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had a one-on-one meeting with leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, ostensibly to decide when to hold a statewide caste census in Bihar. But any meeting with the de facto Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief raises the political heat in capital Patna, especially since Nitish’s Janata Dal (United) and alliance partner BJP have been having a testy time of late. Tejashwi later told the media not to attach any political meaning to the tete-a-tete but the fact that no other leader was present—not even any bureaucrat to explain the nitty-gritty of a census—only fanned speculation about a political realignment. The two former allies have been at loggerheads since July 2017 when Nitish dumped the RJD and Congress and joined hands with the BJP…

On May 16, a day after the Congress ended its three-day-long Nav Sankalp Shivir in Udaipur, the party witnessed a formal gesture. T.N. Prathapan resigned from a post he had been holding since 2017—that of national chairman, the All India Fishermen Congress. He did so in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Udaipur resolution, which, among other things, declared that no person in the party would hold the same position for more than five years. The key question now is: will other stalwarts in the party voluntarily walk the talk when it comes to organisational reforms? That there is an urgent need to make key alterations in the party’s organisational structure if it has to find a road to revival was acknowledged by Congress president Sonia Gandhi herself. The…

Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has some real firefighting to do in the coming days if he wants to continue in his post. Everything seems to be going wrong at once. On one flank looms an Election Commission notice asking him why he should not be disqualified for holding a mining lease from the government (an office of profit offence). On another, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on May 11 arrested state mining secretary Pooja Singhal, the officer he had handpicked in August 2021 to lead the department. The EC has given time till May 20 to Soren—who also holds the mining portfolio—to explain why he owns the lease, a violation of Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The apparent coincidence—ED conducting raids on Singhal on May 6,…

HEAT WAVE DAYS BETWEEN MARCH 11 AND APRIL 24 STATES ON FIRE Highest recorded temperature in 2022 (in Celsius) 39 Indian districts reported a maximum temperature of 45OC or more on May 15 HEAT WAVE DEATHS Heat waves have claimed more than 10,000 lives in 20 years NATURAL KILLERS Heatstroke is one of the top three killers in the country (2000-2014) 8.9% Spike in energy demand in March this year 215-220 GIGAWATTS Expected peak demand for power in May-June 2022 KEY HEALTH IMPACTS A heat wave compromises our ability to regulate body temperatures and can result in a cascade of illnesses and conditions of hyperthermia, including heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heatstroke EFFECT ON AGRICULTURE The excessive heat, and so early in the year, has damaged the country’s wheat harvest 15-20 MILLION TONNE Estimated damage to wheat crop in the Jul. 2021-Jun. 2022 crop year due…