category_outlined / News & Politics
India Today
October 21, 2019India Today is the leading news magazine and most widely read publication in India. The magazine’s leadership is unquestioned, so much so that India Today is what Indian journalism is judged by, for its integrity and ability to bring unbiased and incisive perspective to arguably the most dynamic, yet perplexing, region in the world. Breaking news and shaping opinion, it is now a household name and the flagship brand of India’s leading multidimensional media group. Additionally, the weekly brings with it a range supplements like Women, Home, Aspire, Spice and Simply which focus on style, health, education, fashion, etc. and Indian cities.
IN THIS ISSUE
editor-in-chief
Post-liberalisation India is in the grip of some significant socioeconomic changes. Although they still have a long way to go, the empowerment of women across society is one of the most extraordinary changes that have happened in India in the past several decades. Education among women is increasing. The percentage of educated Indian women rose 11.8 percentage points to 65.5 per cent in the 2011 census. An unprecedented urbanisation has seen nearly 34 per cent of Indians now living in cities as opposed to 28.5 per cent, two decades ago. All this has resulted in the financial independence of women and opened up the doors of choice. It has given them wings, and they are not letting anything come in the way of their freedom. Least of all, marriage or…
india today
CHAIRMAN AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aroon Purie VICE CHAIRPERSON: Kalli Purie GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Raj Chengappa GROUP CREATIVE EDITOR: Nilanjan Das; GROUP PHOTO EDITOR: Bandeep Singh MANAGING EDITORS: Kai Jabir Friese, Rajesh Jha CONSULTING EDITOR: Ajit Kumar Jha (Research) EXECUTIVE EDITORS: S. Sahaya Ranjit, Sandeep Unnithan MUMBAI: M.G. Arun DEPUTY EDITORS: Prachi Bhuchar, Uday Mahurkar, Manisha Saroop HYDERABAD: Amarnath K. Menon SENIOR EDITORS: Shweta Punj, Sasi Nair JAIPUR: Rohit Parihar SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Kaushik Deka, Ashish Mukherjee MUMBAI: Suhani Singh, Kiran Dinkar Tare; PATNA: Amitabh Srivastava ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Shougat Dasgupta, Chinki Sinha KOLKATA: Romita Sengupta; BHOPAL: Rahul Noronha; THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Jeemon Jacob ASSISTANT EDITOR: Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri PUNE: Aditi S. Pai PHOTO DEPARTMENT: Vikram Sharma (Deputy Photo Editor), Rajwant Singh Rawat, Yasir Iqbal (Principal Photographers), Chandra Deep Kumar (Senior Photographer); MUMBAI: Mandar Suresh Deodhar (Chief Photographer), Danesh Adil Jassawala (Photographer); KOLKATA: Subir Halder (Principal Photographer); CHENNAI:…
presenting india today insight
For sharp analysis on topical issues by the editors of INDIA TODAY, log on to www. indiatoday.in/india-today-magazine-insight THE KERALA MODEL SCHOOL By Jeemon Jacob How the country’s most literate state turned around its state-run education system http://bit.ly/2IMUhLp Lessons from the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank scam By M.G. Arun Politician-banker nexus, poor corporate governance and slackness on the part of watchdogs are some of the pressing issues the banking sector must address http://bit.ly/2LV4vLm Understanding PM Narendra Modi’s Tamil pitch By Uday Mahurkar It has more than one objective—India’s political and social integration and promoting the BJP’s rise in South http://bit.ly/2OtPZvZ Why Uddhav Thackeray agreed to play second fiddle to Fadnavis By Kiran D. Tare With no chance of taking on the BJP juggernaut, the Shiv Sena chief settles for less seats in the alliance http://bit.ly/30QbbPi…
the life of a ‘forest’
Mumbai’s Aarey Colony has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, be it the decision of the Bombay High Court rejecting petitions to declare Mumbai’s Aarey Colony a protected forest or the felling of trees within hours of a high court decision or the framing of criminal charges against those defending the tree felling. Although the Supreme Court restrained the authorities on October 7 from cutting any more trees in Aarey Colony, it was already too late. The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation informed the court that it had already cut 2,141 of the 2,185 trees identified for felling. Meanwhile, the 29 arrested citizen protesters were released on bail, but here again the damage had already been done, with serious criminal charges filed against them under four sections of…
no right to information?
Since August 5, the lively newsrooms of Srinagar have fallen silent. Instead, reporters and editors queue up at the grim, government-controlled ‘media facilitation centre’ housed in a hotel in the city’s Sonawar neighbourhood. The spacious, carpeted hall, under CCTV surveillance, houses 10 computers, with Internet access (still blocked in the rest of Kashmir), and a single phone to serve 300 journalists from across the world. Deadlines, of course, are tight, and though journalists are officially allowed no more than 15 minutes online, delays are inevitable, the queues of journalists desperate to meet deadlines get longer and, often, tempers fray. Bilal Furqani, a 40-year-old senior reporter at an Urdu daily, says he leaves his office at 5.30 pm sharp, regardless of what story he is working on or how close he is…
glasshouse
EVASIVE MANOEUVRES Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s informal summit with Chinese president Xi Jinping in Mahabalipuram has seen the Indian Army downplay a major theatre-level war exercise in Arunachal Pradesh. This happened after the Chinese side raised eyebrows over the Indian Army’s mountain combat exercise, dubbed ‘Him Vijay’. Currently underway, it is meant to test the army’s ability to cross the Line of Actual Control (LoC) and hold territory in case of a border conflict with China. After Chinese officials objected to it and raised their concerns with the government of India, the army called the exercises a routine ‘familiarisation and acclimatisation drill’. Never mind that China staged one of its biggest military parades ever on the 70th anniversary of its founding on October 1, showcasing ballistic missiles, bombers and drones—all of…
