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India Today
The Measure Of A Lockdown
In responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, India imposed one of the most stringent lockdowns anywhere in the world, beginning March 25. “Jaan hai to jahaan hai (life before anything else),” Prime Minister Narendra Modi famously said, rationalizing the total lockdown. But the economy, which was already in the midst of a slowdown, paid a very heavy price. Much has been said and written on the economic consequences of the controversial decision, and now the GDP data for the April-June quarter shows the full extent of the damage caused—the economy shrank 23.9 per cent in that period. The manufacturing sector collapsed by 39.3 per cent, while construction activity fell by 50.3 per cent. The trade, hotels, transport, and communications sector shrank by 47 per cent, with investment activity declining by 47.1 per cent. However, government consumption expenditure grew by 16.4 per cent.
3 min |
September 14, 2020
India Today
The Future Of Indian Retail
For several years, Kishore Biyani, the 59-year-old founder and CEO of the Future Group, would just brush aside the idea that e-commerce was any kind of threat to India’s traditional brick-and-mortar retail business. Credited with pioneering organized retail in the country, he was a firm believer in the Indian shopper’s preference for the touch-and-feel experience of physical shopping. For years, Biyani seemed to be right, at least going by the scenes at his Big Bazaar stores, where people jostled for space on mega sale days. A three-decade veteran in modern retail, Biyani kept expanding his store count, taking the number to 1,800 across formats—apparel, lifestyle, and groceries. Flush with funds from banks, he also acquired as many as six companies in the past seven years to expand his reach. However, this did strain the Future Group’s finances—on sales of Rs 26,000 crore, his company’s debt ballooned to Rs 13,000 crore. When the pandemic set in and the lockdown abruptly halted business, he was pushed closer to defaulting on his loans. The absence of an e-commerce arm made matters worse.
3 min |
September 14, 2020
India Today
THE TIBETAN GHOST WARRIORS
INDIA WRESTS HIGH GROUND IN EASTERN LADAKH WITH SOME HELP FROM A SECRET COMMANDO FORCE
8 min |
September 14, 2020
India Today
The Consensus Builder
Pranab Mukherjee’s decision to visit the RSS headquarters was not understood by many. It was an expression of faith in secularism. He believed it not to be a cloistered virtue
7 min |
September 14, 2020
India Today
THE BOMBMAKER OF PULWAMA
The inside story of how the National Investigation Agency cracked a blind case and exposed how the bombmaker guided by Pakistan-based handlers was the lynchpin of the Pulwama terror strike
10+ min |
September 14, 2020
India Today
NAVIGATING AN UNCERTAIN WORLD
The world is changing, and fast. A turbulent phase in international relations has begun and India needs to figure out how to not only rise, but to do so optimally. In his book The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World, Union Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar analyses the challenges India faces on the world stage and offers possible solutions on how to negotiate the tough times ahead. Excerpts:
10+ min |
September 14, 2020
India Today
WANING SCENT OF SAFFRON
A CONGRESS-AIUDF ALLIANCE, ANTI-CAA SENTIMENT AND HIMANTA BISWA SARMA’S LONG-STANDING AMBITION MAY MAKE THE GOING TOUGH FOR BJP-AGP
6 min |
September 14, 2020
India Today
PHANTOMS OF THE MIND
A complex, intelligent individual, Sushant’s life reveals the many demons that haunted him
8 min |
September 14, 2020
India Today
A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
With election just a month away, Nitish Kumar and JD(U)-BJP look the better side. Will he be chief minister fourth time in a row, or will RJD play spoiler?
7 min |
September 14, 2020
India Today
A LONE RANGER'S BATTLE FOR PRIDE
The one thing that strikes you as you enter Kamal Nath’s residence-cum-office at Shyamla Hills in Bhopal is that it does not have the gloomy vibe you might expect, given that he recently lost power and the way he lost it. Congress leaders, aides, and advisors troop in through the day to meet the recently deposed Madhya Pradesh chief minister. Though the Election Commission has not announced dates, all the buzz is about the by-elections to 27 assembly segments in the state. For Nath, nearly 74, the polls will be a crucial political test that will decide whether he returns to power or spends the remaining assembly term as leader of the opposition, an office he assumed recently.
4 min |
September 14, 2020
India Today
A Rescue Plan For The Republic
Making sense of Indian Democracy
4 min |
September 07, 2020
India Today
I will fight, and I will win. My truth gives me strength
At the receiving end of a witchhunt, RHEA CHAKRABORTY attempts to clear her name and present her side of the story in an exclusive conversation with RAJDEEP SARDESAI, Consulting Editor, India Today TV, on aspects of her relationship with Sushant, their battle against his mental illness and his death
10+ min |
September 07, 2020
India Today
Cricket In The Time Of Covid
The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) gets under way in the UAE on September 19. The official schedule for the tournament had not been released at the time of going to press, but the very first match is likely to feature four-time champions Mumbai Indians and three-time winners Chennai Super Kings.
3 min |
September 07, 2020
India Today
The Real Deal
Now conducted online, the ‘walks’ organised by Heritage Walk Calcutta are an antidote to hollow nostalgia
2 min |
September 07, 2020
India Today
TIED UP IN KNOTS
The pandemic has put the big fat Indian wedding industry on a drastic diet
4 min |
September 07, 2020
India Today
WALK THE CHOWK
Negotiation and cautious optimism mark the pedestrianisation of Chandni Chowk
3 min |
September 07, 2020
India Today
THE ECONOMY IS SICK
The slowdown has become a most debilitating recession. It will take some urgent and daring interventions from the government to pull the economy out of this deep hole
10+ min |
September 07, 2020
India Today
THE POLITICAL PUSHBACK
The Valley has finally broken its silence. A year after the abrogation of Article 370, the crackdown on mainstream political parties (including the arrest of three ex-chief ministers) and the clampdown on all political activity in Kashmir, six of these parties reaffirmed, on August 22, their commitment to the ‘Gupkar Declaration’ of August 4, 2019.
5 min |
September 07, 2020
India Today
THE OTHER SIDE
After being hounded for two months, Rhea Chakraborty finally breaks her silence in a point-by-point rebuttal of the allegations against her
8 min |
September 07, 2020
India Today
DEAD LETTER DAY
The August 7 letter to Sonia Gandhi was to be an inflection point, the start of a Congress course correction. But as in the past, family loyalists closed ranks, vilified the ‘letter writers’
10 min |
September 07, 2020
India Today
A FACE TOO MANY
The BJP in Bengal, which was till recently scrabbling around for a chief ministerial candidate who could take on the charismatic incumbent Mamata Banerjee, is now looking at a problem of plenty. New names of aspirants for the top job, should the BJP win in next year’s assembly election, are popping up every week, creating confusion in the party’s rank and file.
4 min |
September 07, 2020
India Today
Friending The Powers That Be
A political slugfest has erupted between the BJP government and Opposition parties over an article in the Wall Street Journal that alleged that the social media giant was favouring the ruling party.
4 min |
August 31, 2020
India Today
MS Dhoni: The Quiet Long Walk
Even more than his gifts in front of the stumps and behind it, it was his prescient reading of the game that set MSD apart
8 min |
August 31, 2020
India Today
The Mysterious Death Of Sushant Singh Rajput
How the demise of a rising star went from a tragedy to sensational Tinseltown controversy—and now the subject of a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe
10+ min |
August 31, 2020
India Today
The Mesmeriser
Pandit Jasraj was a favourite with audiences at concerts and music festivals but his most enduring contribution may have been to pull khyal away from the markers associated with gharana
3 min |
August 31, 2020
India Today
The Curious Clout of Ram Bai
RAM BAI’S SUPPORT WOULD BE CRUCIAL FOR THE BJP TO REMAIN IN POWER IF IT WINS LESS THAN NINE OF THE 27 SEATS IN BYPOLLS
5 min |
August 31, 2020
India Today
STRICKEN BY APATHY
Four years ago, the district hospital at Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh added a trauma centre at the cost of Rs 15 crore.
5 min |
August 31, 2020
India Today
PUGMARKS ARE DISAPPEARING IN MUKUNDRA
There were four big cats in all, two males, two females, three of them translocated, one an interloper, who had wandered 150 km to find this range
3 min |
August 31, 2020
India Today
GREEN OVERSIGHT
ACTIVISTS CALL IT A SELLOUT, THE GOVERNMENT CLAIMS IT HAS TIGHTENED NORMS. THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NEW ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA) DRAFT
10+ min |
August 31, 2020
India Today
Behind the Music
A no-holds-barred account of Pandit Ravi Shankar’s incredible career and tumultuous private life
3 min |