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The Quint

The Big Story is back with a second season!

The news culture of our times is noisy, crowded, and honestly so confusing. This is why we are coming every fortnight on your podcast platforms to help you make sense of the new and now. 

With two new hosts, Anjali and Prateek, the second season of The Big Story will feature longer and well-rounded discussions with experts across science, culture, technology, politics, and more. Tune in on your preferred podcast platform! 

Millions of listeners seek out Bingepods (Ideabrew Studios Network content) every day. Get in touch with us to advertise, join the network or click listen to enjoy content by some of India's top audio creators.
studio@ideabrews.com

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The Big Story

After 61 days of being grounded by the nationwide lockdown, domestic flights across India finally took off today. Well, not all all flights as nearly a hundred were cancelled across airports in India.
 
On 17 May all domestic air travel lay suspended when guidelines for the fourth phase of the lockdown were announced. However, just four days later, Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri announced that one-third of domestic flights would be started in a calibrated manner.
 
While airports limped back to life on Monday, passengers, cab operators and airport staff also had to ensure that the long list of 15 safety protocols including masks, gloves, sanitisers, thermal checking and social distancing had to be adhered to.

Producer and Host: Sushovan Sircar
Reporting: Asmita Nandy

Editor: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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Domestic Flights Resume Amidst Cancellations, Strict Protocols & Hope of Normalcy

Chinese incursion into the LAC in Ladakh has flared up tensions in multiple locations in the disputed Indo-China border.

Chinese soldiers, numbered by some at 5,000, reportedly intruded into Indian territory with heavy equipments and bunker material, they have also pitched tents around the Galwan Valley in East Ladakh which was previously a point of standoff during the 1962 war with China.

The Indian army in its turn is reportedly matching up to the Chinese buildup with its own deployment and aggressive patrolling and is currently engaged in a standoff at four locations along the LAC.

But what could have triggered these sudden tensions? How is India responding? And how is the government managing the diplomatic channels? Tune in to The Big Story!

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha
Guests:
Manoj Kewalramani a Fellow-China Studies at The Takshashila Institution
Ajai Shukla, Journalist and Former Officer in the Indian Army

Editor: Jaskirat Singh Bawa

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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Pandemic or Revenge: What’s Behind China’s LAC Intrusion?

Pandemic, a super cyclone and now locust attacks. India is in an environmental and agrarian quandary.

Armies of locusts are swarming across Western India in alarming numbers, through farmlands and urban settlements, destroying any patch of green they can find on their way.

The first swarms of these desert locusts, the most devastating variety to come from the grasshopper family entered India along the India-Pakistan border around April 11, months before their usual time of arrival. And in the last few days they have been spotted in huge numbers in Rajasthan

They are also active in Gujarat and other states they’ve not been sighted in before like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

So, what kind of damage can these pests bring, what measures are we taking to control the outbreak? And what kind of environmental changes have triggered this untimely, unusually big swarm of locusts to attack India? Tune in to The Big Story!

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha
Guests:
Manoj Ahirwar, Agricultural scientist at the Krishi Vigyaan Kendra in Madhya Pradesh
Dr Roxy Matthew Koll, Climate scientist 

Editor: Shelly Walia

References:
Locust Watch

Locust swarm: UN warns of food crisis in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia
A new concern: early locusts
India’s Worst Locust Attack in 26 Yrs: What Does This Threat Mean?
India’s Second Plague: Locusts

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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Prolonged Monsoons, Heavy Cyclones: What Triggered India’s Locust Outbreak

A new political map by Nepal has riled up animosity with India. This new map claims regions of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura, which are at the trijunction of India, Nepal and Tibet, to be a part of Nepal's territory. By doing so, Nepal has rejected India’s claim over these territories.

The issue made a resurgence recently as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a crucial 80-km-long Link Road to Kailash-Mansarovar in Tibet, connecting the Lipulekh pass along the border with China.

The Nepal government found that move to be "violating Nepal's sovereignty" and retorted with this new political map.

What perhaps added more fuel to this fire was Indian Army Chief General M M Naravane commenting that all this was probably at the behest of "someone else" – hinting at China.

So why has this been a festering issue for so long, and does China really have a role to play in this friction between India and Nepal? Tune in to The Big Story!

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha
Guests:
Manoj Kewalramani a Fellow-China Studies at The Takshashila Institution
Akanksha Shah, Delhi-based Nepali Journalist

Editor: Jaskirat Singh Bawa

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

Also Listen to: Pandemic or Revenge: What’s Behind China’s LAC Intrusion?

References:

India’s Nepal Outreach Must Step Up Before China Makes Gains

Can India Fight Off China’s ‘Communist Unity’ Agenda in Nepal?

Nepal Objects to Link Road For Kailash Mansarovar, India Responds

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Indo-Nepal’s Kalapani Dispute Triggered by New Link Road Or 'Someone Else'?

From Article 370 to Ram Mandir to the Citizenship Amendment Act, and now a pandemic — the first year of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's second term has been jam packed with big events.

On 30 May last year, Modi took oath for the second time as India's Prime Minister after the NDA alliance won with a greater majority than 2014, virtually decimating the opposition's mahagathbandhan.

It's been a long one year since but what does the annual report card look like? What did the government tick off its bucket list, what did it achieve and where did it fail? Tune in to The Big Story!

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha
Guests: Aditya Menon, Political Editor, The Quint

Editor: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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Article 370, CAA to Pandemic: Hits & Misses in One Yr of Modi 2.0

After more than two months of lockdown, India has now begun to unlock the restrictions and curbs. As announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the unlocking will be in three phases.

Even as India is set to reopen, the number of coronavirus positive cases are ever on a rise. Recently India has risen up to the 7th spot from the 9th on the list of the 10 most affected countries with over 1.90 lakh cases.

Delhi has over 10,000 active cases, Maharashtra over 36,000, Tamil Nadu over 9,000, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh around 3000 — but given that different states are facing different realities, all states have been empowered to take their own decisions based on their own assessments.

So what do the MHA guidelines say and how are different states planning to go back to normalcy? Tune in to The Big Story!

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha
Reporting: 
Ankita Sinha, Mumbai Correspondent, The Quint
Smitha TK, Chennai Correspondent, The Quint
Ishadrita Lahiri, Kolkata Correspondent, The Quint

Editor: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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Unlocking India: Different Plans for Different States

It's been seven continuous days of large scale civil unrest all across USA, over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of a White police officer in Minneapolis, in the city of Minnesota.

"I can't breathe" – the final words that Floyd uttered before his death, as Derek Chauvin the police officer in concern knelt on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds straight – has become a rallying cry for the protestors.

New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, Ohio, Colorado — all the major states and cities that were deserted until only a week back because of the coronavirus outbreak have been witnessing large scale violence, arson, face offs between police officers and protestors who are angry about the racially-driven police killings of black Americans.

As the protest turned to destruction of public property and looting in some place, President Trump put out a controversial tweet warning, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

So far, at least 4,000 people have been arrested nation-wide, curfews have been imposed in at least 40 cities and National Guard members have been activated in 23 states including Washington, DC as the protests reached an unprecedented level not seen before in decades.

But why did this incident trigger such massive outrage even at such a critical time as this dangerous pandemic? Tune in to The Big Story!

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha
Guests: Aditya Menon, Political Editor, The Quint

Editor: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

References:

Police excesses for lockdown violation led to 12 deaths: Study

These 4 charts describe police violence in America

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Why Doesn’t India Stand Up to Police Brutality Like US Does?

Barely two weeks after super cyclone Amphan wrecked the east coast, the West coast of India is witnessing a cyclone formation in June for the first time in a century!

Cyclone Nisarga made landfall near Alibaug in Maharashtra with a strong wind speed of around 120-140 kmph and is currently causing heavy rainfall in the coastal districts of Maharashtra, including Mumbai and also other neighbouring states. And there's good news and bad news.

The good news is that Nisarga is much weaker than Amphan was, but the bad news is that it's climate change that has triggered a pre-monsoon tropical cyclone to develop over the Arabian Sea for the first time in a 100 years!

How exactly have climate change been bringing about an overwhelming number of cyclones in the last decade? What kind of impact is Nisarga making and how prepared is Maharashtra for it?

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha

Editor: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

References:

Hurricane and Tropical Cyclones

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Cyclone Nisarga: Unusual, Untimely Cyclones The New Norm Now?

The killing of a pregnant wild elephant in Kerala with an explosive laden pineapple has triggered nationwide outrage.

Cricketers, celebrities, common citizens, wildlife experts are all up in arms against this horrendous act of cruelty and are demanding accountability.

While the Kerala forest department is investigating into the matter, are we missing the big picture here? Is outrage and handing out punishments for an act of animal cruelty a sustainable solution or just a quick fix? Tune in to The Big Story!

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha
Guests: 
Dr Nitin Sekar, Lead, Elephant Conservation Programme, WWF India
Dr P S Eas, Wildlife Expert

Editor: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

References:

"Intentional Act To Kill The Elephant": Kerala's Top Wildlife Officer

Kerala elephant death: Officials suspect pregnant pachyderm ate explosives meant to kill boars

This elephant-obsessed Indian state is finally stepping in to protect abused captive animals

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Kerala’s Elephant Killing: Why We Need to Protect Animal Habitats

India and China are holding Lieutenant General level talks on 6 June in a bid to de-escalate the tensions between the countries along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh.

There have been a couple of fistfights, injured soldiers and an ongoing standoff between the Indian Army and People's Liberation Army at 14,000 feet at Galwan Valley in East Ladakh over boundary differences.

The build up at the border has been triggered by what defence experts say Chinese 'transgression' over the disputed border between the countries, with the PLA pitching tents, bringing troops over in thousands, while on the Indian side, anti-Chinese sentiments have flared up again on social media with a call to go swadeshi and boycott Chinese goods.

Relations between the two nations have seen its ups and downs since the Sino-Indian war of 1962 but not a single bullet has been fired across the border since 1975.

Will the current tensions escalate or will diplomacy champion once again? Tune in to The Big Story for more!

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha

Editor: Jaskirat Singh Bawa

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

References: Pandemic or Revenge: What’s Behind China’s LAC Intrusion?

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Will Indo-China Tensions Escalate or Will Diplomacy Triumph?

Is Facebook simply a bystander in global politics or is it actively meddling in politics? Thanks to a report by the Wall Street Journal that was published on 14 August, there are some serious questions about Facebook’s “impartiality” when it comes to hate speeches by BJP members.

The report alleges that Ankhi Das, Facebook’s top public policy executive in India, opposed to applying hate speech community standards to BJP leaders T Raja Singh, Anantkumar Hegde, and Kapil Mishra — all notorious for promoting violence and delivering hate speeches. This, allegedly out of fear of ruining the company’s relationship with the ruling party and hampering its business prospects in the country.

The allegations of "selective enforcement" of rules have come from even current and former Facebook employees who in the report said that "Ms. Das’s intervention on behalf of T Raja Singh is part of a broader pattern of favoritism by Facebook toward Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu hard-liners."

Do the internal assessments and content reviews done by the company hold any credibility? Does Facebook stand to threaten India’s democracy?

References:

Facebook’s Hate-Speech Rules Collide With Indian Politics

How Facebook’s Political Unit Enables the Dark Art of Digital Propaganda

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha
Guests:
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Journalist and co-author of "The Real Face of Facebook in India"
Srinivas Kodaili, Independent researcher working on data and governance

Editor: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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Facebook’s Selective Hate Speech Rules Threatens India’s Democracy?

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