Researched by: Nirmal Bhansali, Anannya Parekh & Rhea Saincher
The Russian mutiny aftermath: Prigozhin vs Putin
The context: Last weekend, an armed mutiny led by Vladimir Putin’s bestie Yevgeny Prigozhin started with a bang and ended in a whimper. Late Friday, Prigozhin accused the Russian military of launching airstrikes on a Wagner camp. So he along with 25,000 troops headed for Moscow—on what he called a “march for justice.” But just a few miles outside the capital Prigozhin brokered a deal with the Kremlin–where Prigozhin was allowed to leave for Belarus while his soldiers received amnesty. Our Big Story has lots more details on the failed mutiny.
What happened now: Prigozhin made his first statement after the end of the mutiny—via an audio message. He insisted that he had no intention of overthrowing Putin. In essence, his “protest” was an attempt to save the Wagner Group—which the Russian military was trying to dismantle. Also this: according to the deal, all charges against Prigozhin were dropped—but maybe not. Russian media reports claim that he is still being investigated. Oddly, no one knows where he is—and he may not have gone to Belarus. Many expect he will end up in Africa—where his mercenary troops have been helping local dictators crackdown on rebel forces. (Financial Times, paywall, New York Times)
Epic fail: The war on drugs
The UN World Drug Report shows the number of drug users rose by 23% to 296 million in 2021—from 240 million in 2011. Around 50% of these can be attributed to population growth. The number of people suffering from drug use-related disorders has skyrocketed by 45% over the same period. The global market for coke is surging, but in surprising places:
Although the global cocaine market continues to be concentrated in the Americas and in Western and Central Europe [with very high prevalence also in Australia], in relative terms it appears that the fastest growth, albeit building on very low initial levels, is occurring in developing markets found in Africa, Asia and South-Eastern Europe.
But when it comes to meth, 90% of all shipments seized were in just two regions—East and Southeast Asia and North America. And most of it is produced in Afghanistan—which marks a shift from opium. (Al Jazeera)
Moving on to other data: The government revealed that nearly 70,000 Indians gave up their citizenship between 2011 and 2022—surrendering their passports across the country. Oddly, almost 40% did so in Goa. The reason: Portugal offers residents born in Goa before 1961—when Goa got freedom from Portugal—and two future generations the option of citizenship. FYI: the actual number of people who gave up Indian citizenship will be higher—since this number does not include Indians living abroad. (Indian Express)
The bizarre case of the Chingari app
The short video platform has chosen the oddest kind of ‘pivot’ to profitability. It is offering users paid one-on-one calls with creators—as long as they are above the age of 18. This is what one of the ads for this new service looks like:
What the employees say:
Describing some of these calls as “soft-porn”, a former Chingari employee alleged, “If you check the 1-on-1 video calls around midnight, it would involve explicit content.” Another source alleged that post 9 PM “personal calls are predominantly filled with NSFW content.”
Also new: “Recruitment posts for creators with promises of big payouts”—but the call is mostly for women. Chingari’s gobsmackingly shameless response:
The platform has placed a particular emphasis on the recruitment of women creators in response to user demand and as part of a broader effort to promote gender diversity and inclusivity within the community. While plans are in place to expand the creator base to include males as well, the initial focus has been on developing a Creator On-boarding Program geared towards attracting female applicants.
FYI: The reason for this unseemly desperation: short videos apps are mostly dead in India—after a brief boom when TikTok was kicked out. You can read the rest in Inc42’s exclusive.
YouTube’s got a new game!
The company is testing a new product called Playables—that allows you to play simple and fun games with another. So no elaborate shoot-em-up RPGs. Example:
The games available for testing include titles such as Stack Bounce, an arcade game in which players attempt to smash layers of bricks with a bouncing ball, according to a screenshot of the product.
YouTube is already a destination for serious games—and now it is trying to tap into the larger time-pass gaming market. You can play on the browser or on the app. (Wall Street Journal, paywall, Reuters)
In other YouTube news: The company’s public service ad in Indian newspapers appears to endorse a certain influencer—saying “trust only the real experts.” What’s interesting, however, is the IT ministry and India G20 presidency logos at the bottom—which raises the question as to whether this influencer who offers investment advice is endorsed by the government. More embarrassingly, this comes at a time when stock market regulators have warned against spurious advice offered by social media influencers. The IT ministry now says it was all a giant miscommunication—and it won’t be lending its logo to such ads anymore. You can see the ad below. (Economic Times)
Harvard prof falsifies ‘honesty’ data
In news you can’t make up, a respected biz school professor Francesca Gino made up results in multiple studies—including one on how to elicit honest behaviour. Since she is an expert in the field of behavioural science—which has a great share of sceptics—this discovery will have a great impact on the field. Many have questioned its research methodology and conclusions:
In 2015, a team of scholars reported that they had tried to replicate the results of 100 studies published in prominent psychology journals and succeeded in fewer than half the cases. The behavioural studies proved especially hard to replicate.
New York Times has more on these specific studies—and how the data was faked.
Fly, GoFirst, fly!
The airline filed for bankruptcy last month—in seeming great haste—which made its investors a little suspicious. It has now secured a Rs 4.25 billion (425 crores) loan—and will soon be operating 22 aircrafts and 150 daily flights. But aviation authorities have to first approve the loan. Point to note: GoFirst already owes its creditors over Rs 65 billion (6,500 crores). But you can soon rush out and book your GoFirst flight—so yay? (Mint)
A ‘space’ tour for the world cup
The ODI World Cup trophy—the biggest in history—will go on a global tour of 18 countries before the tournament kicks off in India later this year. It headed out on its journey in a melodramatic fashion. The cup shot 120,000 feet up into space—attached to a special stratospheric balloon—and then landed in the Ahmedabad stadium. When others ask ‘Why’, our BCCI asks ‘Why not?’. See the vid shared by board secretary Jay Shah below. (The Hindu)
Moving on to F1: After introducing the obscure football club Wrexham to the world, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have now put in €200 million into a British Formula One team called Alpine Racing. Waiting for the Netflix series. (BBC News)
Two things to see
One: The Indian Army put out a video to prove that women in Manipur are blocking its operations. Its title: ‘Demystifying myth of peaceful blockade led by women in Manipur’. The footage claims to show women helping rioters flee—and accompanying carloads of them. Indian Express has more details.
Two: Bollywood can’t leave a good thing alone. Every hit—movie or song—has to be remade in its image and therefore ruined. The latest victim is Ali Sethi and Shae Gill’s ‘Pasoori’. The remake is sung by Arijit Singh for the upcoming film ‘Satyaprem Ki Katha'. Why not just feature the original? Maybe because the original singers are Pakistani—and could be “controversial”? These days anything is possible. In any case, since you must be curious, the vid is below. (Hindustan Times)
