EDITOR’S NOTE
Dear Reader,
The 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC), also known as the Conference of Parties, is being held from December 2 to 13 in Madrid, Spain. COP 25, or the 25th edition of the UNCCC, is happening as we are increasingly besieged by bad news on the environment front almost on a daily basis. Among the most pressing problems contributing to environmental degradation use of plastic and, more critically, their disposal. To coincide with COP 25, we focus on the way India is coping on several fronts to combat climate change, deal with plastic waste and clean the environment for our Cover feature.
This is also the time of the year when we recall the horrific terrorist attacks of 26/11 in Mumbai. On the 11th anniversary of the heinous attacks, perpetrated by a group of Pakistani terrorists over three days from November 26, 2008, at various locations in Mumbai, India’s financial capital was again in the news, this time for a sordid and unedifying political spectacle, which Uday Bhaskar examines in Periscope. The political drama playing out for a month after the Maharashtra legislature elections finally seemed to have reached closure after some incredible twists, befitting a Bollywood potboiler, and features in our Nation segment. Some other schemes the ruling BJP-led government has in store, like the Citizenship Bill and extending the NRC across India while claiming that the situation in Kashmir is “normal” also feature in that segment and in States, which also focuses on the Andhra Pradesh government scrapping the building of a new capital at Amaravati.
Now that the ruling party’s other core agenda of a temple at Ayodhya has been resolved by the judiciary, former Home and Justice Secretary Madhav Godbole, who has written a book on the Ram Mandir–Babri Masjid issue, raises the conduct and role of the police in By Invitation and asks whether India can call itself truly secular.
Inclusive India, meanwhile, features a temple and mosque near Ayodhya where Hindus and Muslims have worshipped and co-existed in absolute harmony.
South Block Watch looks at how leaders from the neighbourhood came visiting India this fortnight, indicating a positivity in the government’s neighbourhood first policy, while our Bilateral segment features how a new fault line has crept into the neighbourhood, with a border dispute opening up with Nepal at Kalapani.
A former Ambassador expounds on the Prime Minister’s diplomacy in a new book ‘Modiplomacy: Through a Shakespearean Prism’, an interesting portion from which is excerpted on the Back Page, while in Foreign Affairs we look at how India’s relations with Russia have progressed, with energy and defence forming the core of those ties, while India got naval guns from the US and aims to build a USD 26 bn Defence manufacturing industry.
The Economy continues to flounder and we look at whether government’s privatization moves will succeed while the telecom sector appears a bleak house. On the energy front, the government plans to build strategic natural gas reserves, after its oil reserves, to minimise future shocks from supply and price disruptions.
As students flock in droves to study abroad, with Australia emerging as a popular destination, can a change in curriculum in Indian universities make Indian students more employable? Meanwhile, some institutions of higher Education in the country are in the news for unfortunate reasons; JNU students are agitating against a massive hike in fees while some students of Benaras Hindu University (BHU) are protesting against the appointment of an extremely well qualified Muslim professor to teach them Sanskrit!!
Happy Reading!
Do write in and let us know what you think about this edition along with any suggestions and opinions, all of which we highly value.
Warmly,