Rajinikanth has entered politics, finally!
After years of procrastination, Thalaivar announced that he is ready to launch his political party in January. He’d announced his intention back in 2017 after the death of Jayalalithaa, but did very little about it. More recently, he said that doctors were worried about him campaigning in the midst of a pandemic. But he’s now taking the leap irrespective. Source of great speculation: His relationship with the BJP. Rajini’s tweet appeared to distance himself from its Hindutva politics:
“In the coming Assembly elections, with the people’s support, we will usher in a transparent, corruption-free, secular government, beyond caste, religion. It will be the birth of spiritual politics.”
But he’s also picked a local BJP leader as “chief coordinator” of the new party. Also: The state BJP leaders seem excessively excited about Rajini’s entry into politics. See that clip here. The Telegraph has more on that angle.
Trump goes off the rails
The US President delivered a long address attacking the election results—in front of no audience and released solely on social media. This is how the Associated Press reported the event:
“Increasingly detached from reality, President Donald Trump stood before a White House lectern and delivered a 46-minute diatribe against the election results that produced a win for Democrat Joe Biden, unspooling one misstatement after another to back his baseless claim that he really won.”
You can choose to watch the insanity here.
The great pandemic: a quick update
- Three former US presidents—Barack Obama, George Bush Jr, and Bill Clinton—will get their vaccines on camera to reassure everyone it is perfectly safe.
- The UK’s decision to quickly okay the Pfizer vaccine for wide use is not winning any friends. Now, the United States’ top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci says: “The U.K. did not do it as carefully. If you go quickly and you do it superficially, people are not going to want to get vaccinated.”
- India has pre-booked the most number of doses—a whopping 1.6 billion—in deals with various vaccine makers. EU is #2, followed by the US.
- Airlines in India will post crippling losses of Rs 210 billion this fiscal year.
RBI calls out HDFC’s digital disaster
The Reserve Bank of India has forbidden HDFC from launching new digital products and services—and from taking on new credit card customers. The reason: ongoing outages in its internet and mobile banking. The bank suffered a big power outage on November 21 that knocked out its online services for 12 hours. Why this matters:
“This is the first time that the RBI is cracking down on any bank for lapses in service and it does raise questions about whether the severity of the penalty is proportionate to the magnitude of the deficiency. One must wait to see whether this is a veiled warning to other banks that have also witnessed similar outages.”
A related must-read: Mint explains why there are increasing outages—which are affecting all digital financial services, especially unified payments interface (UPI). For a more nerdy policy take, check out Medianama’s report.
[Trigger warning: this item contains a very graphic description of sexual violence.]
A crime that deserves our attention
Brutal acts of sexual violence in the major metros—and more recently, in Hathras—occasionally receive national attention. But no one is talking about a horrific crime in Kashmir. A 21-year old was kidnapped, raped and mutilated. She struggled for her life for over a month at a hospital—and finally died on November 27. And yet, the case did not receive any attention in the national media—or even in the Valley. Her sister told Free Press Kashmir:
“We don’t know why the entire valley is silent over this issue. If today it was my sister tomorrow it can be anyone’s mother, daughter, sister or wife. A month has passed when this incident happened but the culprits are still enjoying a good meal inside the jail. Why is the government not punishing them?”
We offer her aunt’s description of the crime so the enormity of this indifference is painfully clear:
“They did not just rape her, she was also tortured and the torture marks were visible on her body. The skin around her eyes was cut down. Her eyes were bruised and bulged out. Blood was oozing from her eyes. She had ligature marks around her neck which means that they had tried to choke her breath. Her tongue was cut down. She was hit on her head. Her body was tortured black and blue.”
An IPL team for Adani?
The BCCI is considering a proposal to add two more IPL teams to the league at its next big meeting. The likely owners: Sanjiv Goenka and Gautam Adani—and one will definitely be based in Ahmedabad (Modi Super Emperors, perhaps?). Also on the agenda: picking the BCCI’s rep at global cricketing bodies like the ICC. The likely pick: Jay Shah. Move along, folks, nothing unexpected to see here. (Indian Express)
Speaking of fat cats: Roshni Nadar is India’s wealthiest woman with a net worth of Rs 54,850 crore. Right behind her: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw who is the richest self-made multi-crorepati on the Kotak Wealth Hurun Wealthy Women 2020 list. Also notable: the presence of six startup founders including Nykaa’s Falguni Nayar and Byju’s Divya Gokulnath. (Financial Express)
A beloved fat cat: MDH Spices owner Mahashay Dharampal Gulati passed away yesterday. He was 97-years old and leaves behind a Rs 20 billion empire. Indian Express and Forbes India have the best profiles of the Masala King.
Time magazine picks NRI kid
Gitanjali Rao—a 15-year old scientist and inventor—is Time magazine’s first ever Kid of the Year. She’s been honoured for “her astonishing work using technology to tackle issues ranging from contaminated drinking water to opioid addiction and cyberbullying .” Read the transcript of her convo with Angelina Jolie over at Time.
Two studies of note
One: A new study used bottles marked with GPS and satellite tags to show just how far plastic pollution can spread. The maximum distance traveled by one such bottle: 2,845 kilometres in 94 days. Business Insider has more.
Two: Another study found that vegans are at greater risk of broken bones—and 43% more likely to suffer fractures than meat eaters. Big Think reports.
About that moon landing...
Earlier this week, China successfully landed its unmanned spacecraft on the moon. The plan: to collect and send a sample of moon rocks back to Earth. Beijing has now released footage of its pitch-perfect landing.
Good read: Quartz explains how a robotic explorer is bringing home moon rocks and why the mission will ramp up pressure on the US to follow suit.
Six fun things
The great giraffe rescue: The population of giraffes in Africa is steadily declining—of these the Rothschild’s giraffe is the most threatened. Now, eight of them are stranded on an island that is shrinking. So a team of conservationists is executing a daring rescue plan that involves custom-made barges. Gizmodo has this awesome story. See the barge below:
A koala-sized Christmas surprise: What if Goldilocks was a young female koala who took a fancy to your family’s Christmas tree? This is the story of the McCormicks who found an unexpected guest when they returned home one day. And it has a happy ending—though a less-than-happy koala who didn’t really want to give up her tree.
Not another monolith! The latest one has popped up on a mountain in California. This one is 9-foot tall, made of stainless steel and is hollow on top. But it isn’t dug into the ground. (New York Post)
The perfect mango dress! Jessica Collins made a perfect princess ball gown out 1,400 mangoes. Her aim: to highlight the amount of fruit that is just thrown away on her parents’ farm.
An amazing landing: A single-engine plane crash-landed on a highway in Minnesota and crashed into an SUV in the process. Miraculously no one was hurt!
Match.com just owned Tinder with this perfect 'Match Made in Hell' ad—set to Taylor Swift's 'Love Story'. Satan and 2020 as lovebirds? Hell yeah!
