Data Point: Recent Episodes
The Hindu
The Data Point podcast takes the biggest data-driven stories and puts it into context, so you understand what these numbers mean for you. Hosted by Sonikka Loganathan and supported by experts, to bring you fresh analyses, perspectives and nuance.
Doctors and MBBS students from diverse specializations, age groups, and geographies believe that the preparation required and done for the NEET examination, does not actually help or provide any added advantage when they start their MBBS course. In fact, they claim that during the MBBS program, every student starts from the same level. Given this, they also told The Hindu that States, rather than the Centre, should make decisions on how medical entry is conducted, to ensure that the State's medical needs are met-- in line with India's federalist structure.
Credit to Sonikka Loganathan and Vignesh Radhakrishnan
Doctors and MBBS students from diverse specializations, age groups, and geographies believe the notion that “rural students will naturally serve in rural areas” is flawed. Most argue that compelling students to work in rural areas might not be effective. Instead, integrating rural healthcare exposure into the MBBS curriculum and showcasing role models who work in remote areas could be more effective in bridging the rural gap. In this episode of “Vital Signs,” The Hindu Data Team consults various stakeholders in the medical field to understand the challenges preventing doctors from serving in rural settings and potential solutions.
Doctors and MBBS students, in various fields of specialisation, across various age-groups, from diverse geographies, say they believe that while common entrance examination for medical seats is a necessity, the coaching industry skewed it in favour of urban and richer students. Unaffordability of quality coaching classes and the luxury that richer students have to drop a year to prepare for the exam, make it increasingly difficult for students from poorer and more rural backgrounds to get a seat, they said. In this episode of Vital Signs, The Hindu Data Team speaks to various stakeholders in the medical field to understand the issues plaguing India's medical education, over the years.
On May 28, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the run-off elections, extending his rule for another five years. Erdogan has been president since 2003. Over the past twenty years, he’s used religion to come to power, and maintain it, in a country where popular politics previously had a largely secular flavour. Erdogan, and his Development Party (AKP), used religious nationalism to create the new Islamic Turkey. In this episode, The Hindu speaks to Sathish Deshpande, to understand, how much of this is a result of Erdogan and his policies, and identify the similarities between Turkey’s trajectory and what we are seeing in India.
The Right to Information Act was passed in 2005, and it gives citizens access to the records of central and state governments. This act gives people the power to question the government, making it a key part of maintaining a healthy democracy. But the act isn’t as foolproof as it seems. When it works, the act is a powerful tool, that can uncover major issues in areas that fall under the government. But with issues like vacancies in information commissions, a reluctance to be transparent and delays with appeals and complaints, the act’s power seems to be getting weaker. In this episode, The Hindu speaks with journalists and RTI experts about these issues, and how it is affecting the law.
On October 30, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, more commonly known as Lula, won Brazil’s nail-biting presidential election. Lula, a leftist populist, ran against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing hardliner, in a deply polarised Brazil. During his campaign, Lula pledged to implement policies to protect the Amazon, which saw widespread destruction under Bolsonaro. In this episode, The Hindu speaks to experts on what incentivised voters to choose Lula, and how important climate change and environmental issues are to the Brazilian people.
Last week, The Hindu released part one of our two-part series on caste discrimination in India’s elite institutions for higher education. Although IITs and IIMs really constitute a sliver of India’s higher educational institutions, they still manage to exert a disproportionate normative influence on debates surrounding higher education, because they are seen as the standard bearers. In this episode, we expand on this to gain a better understanding of the experience students from backward classes have, while also seeing how this discrimination manifests in IIMs.
In July, The Hindu’s data team published a story that revealed major disparities in the admission rate of PhD candidates from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other backward classes backgrounds. Data released by the Lok Sabha found that in nine IITs, across India, the acceptance rate for SC/ST/OBC PhD candidates was at or below 8%, despite all of these universities receiving hundreds of applications. This is happening despite having reservations in place. What is going on behind the scenes at India’s top universities and how did this kind of structural and systemic form of discrimination ferment itself into higher education? This is the first episode of a two-part series, examining this caste-based discrimination, and the impact it has.
The mid-day meal scheme is considered to be one of the government's most successful initiatives. For thousands of children across the nation, this scheme guarantees that they get at least one meal a day. While this has led to increased school attendance, data and social audits reveal that the food being served is sometimes unhygienic, cold, contaminated, or nutritionally inadequate. Consequently, issues like food poisoning, are seeing a spike. In this episode, The Hindu speaks with experts on the benefits of the mid-day meals scheme, what they've seen on the ground and how to effectively implement feedback mechanisms.
Correction at 11:45: Host say's, "still, both Sylvia and Dipa agree, that of the two options, meals cooked in centralised kitchens are generally better." It should be: meals cooked in decentralised kitchens are generally better
NCRB data shows that cyber fraud is increasing in non-metropolitan cities. In fact, in the 19 metro cities which have a population above two million, the number of cyber fraud cases recorded is somewhat plateauing. But other cities and towns are seeing a sharp increase in these crimes, recording 9813 cases in 2021, compared to 4194 cases seen in that same year in metro cities. This is happening at a time when people are increasingly relying on the internet for day-to-day activities, including financial transactions. This reliance is also encouraged by the government, through schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. But is this creating fertile ground for criminals behind the screen? In this episode, The Hindu discusses what might be causing this rise in non-urban cyber fraud, and how you can protect yourself online.
This year, Chennai hosted the Chess Olympiad, a biennial chess tournament organised by the World Chess Federation (FIDE). India brought home nine medals, and saw stars, many of whom are teenagers, break out into the chess spotlight. Tamil Nadu has long been a part of Chess history. India has 75 grandmasters, of which 27 are from Tamil Nadu. So, where does the sport go from here? How does the government, and young chess fans, make use of the buzz around the sport? In this episode, The Hindu speaks with chess legend Viswanathan Anand, on the sport's boom, the pandemic's impact on training and how to get involved. Guest: Viswanathan Anand: India's first chess grandmaster, five-time world chess champion, deputy president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) Production credit: Sonikka Loganathan and Srinivasan Ramani
In 2018, Kerala saw one of the worst floods in its history. Heavy monsoon rains, coupled with overflowing reservoirs killed hundreds and displaced thousands of people. Monsoon rains are not a new phenomenon for Kerala, but what threw Kerala's flood management department off in 2018, was the fact that it was still raining in August, by which time the rain's intensity should have subsided. In 2022, the rainfall followed a near identical pattern. But this time, the State analysed flood and dam data, and revamped their management strategies, preventing another monsoon catastrophe. In this podcast, The Hindu analyses weather patterns and dam management data. We also speak with James Wilson, who heads the Kerala State Electricity Board Limited's Reservoir Monitoring Cell, about what went wrong in 2018, and what was done instead, this year.
On May 24, a gunman entered Robb Elementary School in the small town of Uvalde in Texas. He proceeded to carry out the deadliest school shooting the United States has seen in a decade. The shooting, which left 21 people dead, is now added to the long and growing list of mass shootings that take place in the U.S. regularly. In fact, according to the Gun Violence Archive, at least 356 mass shootings have been recorded so far this year, through the first three weeks of July. In this podcast, The Hindu speaks with experts and journalists about the trauma that communities face following a deadly shooting, America's violent history, racial justice and discrimination, and the politics behind tightening gun legislation. Guests: Nora Neus: CNN Anchor Producer - "New Day" Gary Younge: Sociology professor at University of Manchester, former editor-at-large for The Guardian, author of "Another Day in the Death of America." Casey Wooten: Reporter covering the House of Representatives for National Journal
Last month, India protested over its ranking on the Environmental Performance Index of 2022, prepared by researchers at the Yale and Columbia Universities in the U.S. The report measures 40 performance indicators across 11 issue categories to measure the “state of sustainability around the world.” India was ranked last (180) with low scores across a range of indicators. The Indian Government as well as environment experts have pointed to the faulty methodology of the index that skews the results in favour of the Global North.
In this podcast, The Hindu speaks with experts on the issues in the methodology, and what the state of India's environment is actually like.
Host: Sonikka Loganathan
Guests: Sharachchandra Lele- Distinguished Fellow in Environmental Policy & Governance at ATREE Bengaluru and professor at IISER Pune & SNU Delhi.
Chandra Bhushan- President & CEO of the International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology (iFOREST).
Anant Sudarshan- South Asia Director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).
In late May, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) released the results of the 2021 National Achievement Survey, which evaluates learning outcomes based on a standardised test. The results of the test, which was conducted in November 2021, showed that in nearly every State and Union Territory, scores dropped significantly compared to the 2018 results. The NAS is the most significant and stark indicator of the pandemic's impact on learning losses yet, posing this difficult question: what do we do now? In this podcast, The Hindu speaks with experts on what went wrong during lockdowns, what needs to be done moving forward, and just how badly India's educational system is in need of a revamp. Host: Sonikka Loganathan Guests: Jean Drèze - Development economist, former member of the UPA’s National Advisory Council S. Poorjava - Reporter covering education in Tamil Nadu for The Hindu Disha Nawani - Professor and dean, School of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai