Researched and collated by: Rachel John, Sara Varghese & Prerna Barooah
A date at Red Fort with splainer
A magical tour: We are absurdly excited about our first ever offline experience—created in collaboration with our partners Urbanaut and Cities of Dehli. This is a memorable event at one of India’s greatest architectural gems: the Red Fort. The event includes a unique immersive visit to the recently opened Dalmia Museum, an unforgettable after-hours viewing experience of the lit up Fort when the sun goes down. The icing on this cake: ending the evening at the rooftop of one of Chandni Chowk’s treasures, Gumbad Cafe—nibbling on appetisers as you admire its stunning views of the Jama Masjid. We have an extended description with lovely pictures, maps and photos right here.
Your erudite guides: for the Red Fort tour will be Shaleen Wadhwana—who is an independent researcher, art curator, and culture professional. She trained in Art History at SOAS, London—and in Cultural Heritage Law at the University of Geneva-UNESCO. Also: Akash Chattopadhyaya, a cultural maven who is well-versed in Farsi, Urdu, the Mughal dynasty and Medieval and Early-Modern South Asia. He has led many heritage walks in Delhi—and worked with the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library on the Prime Ministers’ Museum.
Where and when: November 26, 2022. We start the tour of the Fort at 4:30 pm—and find ourselves in Gumbad after about 2.5 hours.
What about tickets? The ticket price is Rs 2,000 which covers all tour costs, museum entry tickets and nibbles at Gumbad. You can buy them over here.
Big thing to remember: We are holding onto all 20 spots for you until November 19—of which a number have already been booked! After that, partners will open them up to their audiences.
Republicans recapture the House
The United States is headed for a long period of gridlock until the next presidential election in 2024. The Republicans have managed to wrest a narrow majority in the House—while Democrats retain control of the Senate. Also complicating matters: the Republicans themselves are split between the far-right Trumpistas and, well, the rest.
To get anything done, small majorities typically require the cooperation of the other side—which is anathema for the die-hard Trump posse. And any radical bill pushed through by the Republicans in the House is likely to die in the Dem-dominated Senate.
Why this matters: The rest of the world is watching what happens to the US' debt ceiling—which caps how much it can borrow by issuing Treasury bonds. If the House doesn’t raise it, there will be chaos in the global markets:
“Analysts expect the Treasury Department to run out of room to keep borrowing money by June, though the department could take emergency steps to push the date a bit later. Failure to lift the cap — or even come close — could spike fears of the first debt default in United States history, potentially crashing markets around the globe, sending already rising interest rates far higher and pushing the economy into a sharp recession.”
Politico has more on that angle. New York Times looks at what to expect from a Republican House.
Alarming revelations about Covaxin
A STAT News investigation based on internal documents shows that Bharat Biotech’s testing of its vaccine had all sorts of problems. To begin with, the number of participants in the phase 1/ 2 trials published in Lancet does not match the numbers in the documents. The discrepancy is worrying but not big enough to be serious. What is cause for concern:
- The company kept amending mandated protocols during the critical phase 2 trials—which is necessary to ensure safety and check for immune response.
- The phase 2 trial was allowed to go forward by Indian health authorities purely based on animal studies.
- There was no placebo group—which is absolutely necessary to test the efficacy of a brand new vaccine.
- Worst of all: “The decision to approve the Phase 3 protocol — including the selection of the vaccine candidate — while the Phase 2 stage of the trial was ongoing, and those results were not yet known.”
- Why this matters: “Phase 2 is a safety and effectiveness checkpoint for the Phase 3 participants and, therefore, is an important way to examine risks for those participants.”
When pressed on these issues, a Bharat Biotech director Krishna Mohan said:
“There was one continuum of trial results, one continuum of decision-making and one continuum of achieving end results. As we kept building data and gaining more confidence, we seemed to be on the right track. So we didn’t wait for Phase 2… We said, ‘Let’s start Phase 3. We can keep doing research, but we would be late… We were getting criticised for being late and there was pressure in the country. … Some of these were political and some of these were scientific.”
FYI: in April, the WHO suspended the supply of Covaxin through UN agencies—after a physical inspection of the factories in India revealed undisclosed problems. STAT News has lots more details.
Ukraine invasion: About that ‘Russian’ missile
In the midst of a Russian barrage of aerial strikes on Ukraine, a missile landed in Poland, a NATO country. Initial reports suggested the missile was “Russian-made”—sparking great diplomatic uproar. But Warsaw has now confirmed that it came from Ukraine: “Ukraine’s defence was launching their missiles in various directions, and it is highly probable that one of these missiles unfortunately fell on Polish territory.” President Zelensky strongly disagrees and wants an investigation, while Moscow smugly declared: “We have witnessed another hysterical, frenzied, Russo-phobic reaction that was not based on any real data.” (Associated Press)
NASA heads for the moon
After two failed attempts, the space agency finally launched its powerful unmanned rocket Artemis 1. The 100-metre spacecraft is the first giant step towards putting a human back on the moon’s surface after 50 years. This mission will release the space capsule Orion on a 26-day journey to the moon and back. It will carry three mannequins and a Snoopy soft toy. The next two missions, Artemis 2 and 3 will have crews—the first since Apollo 17 in December 1972. BBC News has the details on today’s launch and The Guardian ties in what is at stake. Our previous Big Story has lots more on the Artemis project—and its many stumbling blocks.
Two key Indian government moves
One: You no longer have to wear face masks on the plane—it is preferable but not required. And the civil aviation ministry has ordered airlines to no longer threaten a fine or any other punishment during inflight announcements. (India Today)
Two: There may be no such thing as an ‘unknown caller’ any more. Telecom authorities will make it mandatory that a person’s name flashes on the screen when they call you. The plan is to use the KYC IDs used to get a SIM to authenticate all callers—and reveal their identity. A similar plan is in the works for WhatsApp, as well. Privacy activists are not happy for obvious reasons. But it does come as a relief to everyone who has been relying on TrueCaller—which has nightmarish privacy issues of its own (RestOfWorld has the story). (Financial Express)
Indian passwords are lol!
NordPass looked at the top 200 most commonly used passwords around the world this year. Yes, ‘password’ is still on top of the global list. But what made us laugh: Bigbasket—which was #4 on the India list. Also popular at home: ‘anmol123’ and ‘googledummy’ (?!). Giggles aside, here’s what’s worrying about our behaviour: “73% of the 200 most common passwords used in 2022 are the same as last year. They also found that 83% of the passwords in the list can be cracked in under a second.” The full report is here. (Mint)
World Cup 2022: The latest update
Right now, football’s greatest event is mostly in the news for off-field controversies—all of them centring on the authoritarian rules of the host nation Qatar. Dozens of the biggest bars in Germany have decided to boycott the games. They will not hold any public viewings—which are wildly popular in the country. The reason offered by owners: “We would not feel good having fun watching the games when we know (it’s a place) where (a person’s) sexuality cannot be lived out freely.” Our Big Story has more on why human rights has become a bugbear for Doha and FIFA. (Agence France-Presse via NDTV)
Not helping Qatar’s image: Security officials threatened a Danish TV reporter during a live broadcast—threatening to break his camera. Authorities later apologised, claiming it was just a mistake. Watch the clip below. (The Guardian)
Also feeling dictatorial: Elon Musk. He shot off an email to employees in the middle of the night to inform them of a new workplace requirement. They must take an official pledge to work "long hours at high intensity" by Thursday—or leave the company. Experts aren’t sure this is legal: "Can you just send an email to staff who already work for you, and just unilaterally change their working contract? That remains to be seen."
There’s also another new criteria for firing employees. He has tasked management with the weighty mission of tracking down and sacking anyone who criticises him—either on Twitter or in internal Slack messages. The reason given to errant serfs: “Your recent behaviour has violated company policy.” Sigh. The Verge has more details. Our previous Big Story also explains the very pressing reasons for Musk’s cost-cutting frenzy.
Two beauty biz stories of note
Tatas vs Nykaa vs Reliance: The Tata Group is planning to launch 20 ‘beauty tech’ stores next year—equipped with virtual makeup kiosks and digital skin tests. It is an upmarket play targeting affluent shoppers between 18 and 45 who like to buy foreign brands such as Estee Lauder, M.A.C and Bobbi Brown. This will be the first big step towards “experiential retail” in India. This will pit the Tatas in direct competition with Nykaa which just opened its 100th store and plans 200 more. Also a big contender: Reliance’s Tira Beauty. The new beauty arm will launch its first store in Mumbai in January, and plans to acquire rights to Sephora India. (Reuters)
Estee Lauder X Tom Ford: The luxury cosmetic brand announced it will acquire the designer fashion house for $2.8 billion—which will be its biggest acquisition to date. Why the big move: the global luxury market is red hot. It is projected to grow by 21% and hit $1.46 trillion in 2022. The downside, according to pundits:
“The question becomes whether the Tom Ford name is worth $2.8 billion when he steps away and rides off into the sunset as a billionaire in 2023…Will Estee Lauder be able to sell his wares in his absence or be left holding the bag?”
One thing to see
At the recently concluded G-20 summit in Bali, Chinese President Xi Jinping was caught on video scolding Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau—accusing him of leaking to the media: “Everything we discussed has been leaked to the paper. That’s not appropriate.” OTOH, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s highly anticipated meeting with Xi was cancelled. The official line blamed it on “scheduling issues”—caused by emergency NATO meetings called to discuss the missile that landed on Poland. Watch the Xi-Trudeau exchange below: (The Telegraph)
