India Today

editor-in-chief

The political journey of Arvind Kejriwal is a fascinating story. He has been on our cover six times in the short span of seven years. I must confess I was quite taken by him when he launched his party—the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)—and fought his first election in December 2013. I wrote in my letter from the editor at that time: “His sudden emergence as a possible game-changer in the forthcoming Delhi assembly election has made him a symbol of hope for the aam aadmi, who believes that he will deliver a land free from corruption and self-serving politicians.” The former IRS officer turned social activist managed to come to power in alliance with the Congress, but his government lasted only 49 days because of his political naivete. Then, in…

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 SENIOR DEPUTY EDITORS: Uday Mahurkar, Manisha Saroop HYDERABAD: Amarnath K. Menon DEPUTY EDITOR: Shweta Punj SENIOR EDITORS: Kaushik Deka, Sasi Nair, Anilesh Mahajan MUMBAI: Suhani Singh; JAIPUR: Rohit Parihar SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Ashish Mukherjee MUMBAI: Kiran Dinkar Tare; PATNA: Amitabh Srivastava ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Shougat Dasgupta, Sonali Acharjee 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), Yasir Iqbal (Deputy Chief Photographer), Rajwant Singh Rawat (Principal Photographer), Chandra Deep Kumar (Senior Photographer); MUMBAI: Mandar Suresh Deodhar (Chief Photographer), Danesh Adil Jassawala (Photographer); KOLKATA:…

poor little rich man

That Anil Ambani’s fortunes have been shrinking for some time is well known. His flagship company, Reliance Communications (RCom), currently undergoing corporate insolvency resolution proceedings, owed Rs 57,382 crore to creditors as of May 2019. Most of his other businesses—in power, infrastructure, insurance or mutual funds—are in the doldrums; they have either been sold off or are in the process of being sold. However, Ambani recently made headlines again after a London court asked him to deposit $100 million within six weeks for breaching a personal guarantee to repay nearly $700 million to three Chinese banks. Ambani told the court he couldn’t because his net worth was zero. “The value of my investments has collapsed,” he was quoted as saying. “My net worth is zero after taking into account my liabilities.…

another stab at nudging up credit growth

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has deployed yet another credit tool to boost credit growth in auto and housing loans and loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). These are sectors that are known to have a multiplier effect on other sectors, such as steel, cement and construction. The RBI has done this by giving banks exemption, for a five-year period, from maintaining a cash reserve ratio (CRR) of 4 per cent of their deposits against incremental loans disbursed to select segments, such as auto and housing. The exemption window is open for a six-month period, ending July 2020. CRR is the money deposited with the RBI, on which banks do not earn interest. The purpose of maintaining CRR is to create a safety cushion for bank deposits. Is…

the week in numbers

12-14 MONTHS The time for which former J&K chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, among others, can be held without even charges framed against them under the erstwhile state’s Public Security Act. They have already been held for six months without charges. The prime minister quoted a satirical website’s words as if they were those of Abdullah, while the police’s justifications to hold both Abdullah and Mufti would be comical if they weren’t so disturbingly serious 44 EVENTS starred home minister Amit Shah in the last 13 days of poll campaigning in Delhi, including 35 rallies and 9 road shows. Shah’s invective, and a poisonous cameo by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, may have helped the BJP up its vote share, but couldn’t stave off a thorough drubbing at the…

how kerala tamed the coronavirus

Home quarantine is not an easy job for any healthcare provider. It means convincing the suspected patient to stay isolated from family and friends for a period of time. Counselling has to be comprehensive, ‘patients’ have to ensure they sanitise all objects they touch, use separate toilets, sneeze and cough in the right manner, use separate food utensils and stay at least 3 feet away from another human being. It’s a transfer of trust, from health service staff to the possibly infected, each believing in the other’s advice and subsequent actions. The fact that Kerala, which declared a state emergency on February 3 after three people tested positive for novel Coronavirus (nCoV), successfully home-quarantined 3,420 people and is keeping 27 people under observation in isolation wards across the state (as on…