Researched by: Aarthi Ramnath, Anannya Parekh & Aakriti Anand
Coming soon: India's new criminal laws
The context: In December, the Lok Sabha passed three criminal laws to replace the existing ones, i.e the British-era Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Indian Evidence Act. These bills were passed without discussion, during the session where 146 Opposition MPs were suspended, for reasons explained in this Big Story.
What happens now: The three new criminal laws will go into effect from July 1 and over 5.65 lakh police, judicial, and prosecution officials have been trained on the new laws. Also, 40 lakh grassroot-level functionaries have been set up to spread awareness, especially among women and children.
But, but, but: A petition was filed in the Supreme Court yesterday, seeking a stay on the enforcement of the new laws—citing the “irregular” circumstances under which they were passed.
[The petition] quoted representations from the Tamil Nadu and West Bengal Chief Ministers to the Home Minister, objecting to the new laws. It contended that the new laws were ambiguous, anti-bail, provided extensive powers to the police and even “inhumane” at some points like the revival of handcuffs during arrest.
Why this matters: The three crime laws are an overhaul of our existing penal system—and make it even more draconian in many ways (See: our Big Story on the sedition angle). There are a number of other key changes—including decriminalising homosexuality and adultery. Mint has the story on the groundwork while The Hindu has more on the petition. Indian Express and The Quint have the best breakdown of the three bills.
Alarming heat wave deaths in Pakistan
More than 500 people have died in Pakistan’s Karachi this week due to sweltering temperatures. Of these, 141 died on Tuesday alone. While the cause of death for every case is unknown—they seem to have been triggered by the high temperatures in the city.
[T]he rising numbers of dead came as temperatures in Karachi soared above 40C (104F), with the high humidity making it feel as hot as 49C, reports said…People have been heading to hospitals seeking help…“Most of the people who we saw coming into the hospital were in their 60s or 70s, although there were some around 45 and even a couple in their 20s”
The heat wave has also increased the load on the power grid of the country, with people experiencing outages that last several hours—making lives more difficult. (BBC News)
T20 World Cup: India in the finals!!
India’s run to victory: In a rain-affected match in Guyana, India won the semifinals against England, quite comfortably, by 68 runs. India batted first and scored 171 runs, but they bowled out England for just 103. In an incredible knock, Rohit Sharma scored 57 off 39 balls—his second consecutive half-century in the tournament. Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav ran through the English batting lineup, taking three wickets each. ESPNCricinfo has the match report. Here’s a clip of Rohit smashing his way to another half-century:
South Africa vs Afghanistan: After a dream run, Afghanistan lost their semifinals against South Africa in a low-scoring match. South Africans restricted the Afghans to a measly 56-run total, their lowest ever. South Africa’s top order knocked off the target quickly with more than 11 overs to spare, and will compete in their first ever Men’s T20 World Cup final. You can see Rabada literally destroying the wickets below. (Hindustan Times)
Indians lose millions to Schengen visa
A total of 1.6 million or 15.8%, Schengen visa applications were rejected in 2023 across the world. The application fees for these applications: a whopping €130 million ($139 million). India was among the top five rejected countries, and reportedly contributed €12.1 million ($12.9 million) to that tally, with 151,875 visa applications denied.
Data to note: Indians make up the third largest number of Schengen visa applicants, with 967,405 applications filed in 2023—a 43% increase from the previous year. Turks recorded the highest financial loss of €13.5 million ($14.4 million), followed by Algerians, Moroccans, and Chinese—who incidentally also had one of the highest approval rates.
Why this matters: Getting a Schengen visa is pricey, exhausting, and time-consuming. And it’s gotten worse over the past year—especially for Indians. Since June 11, the visa fee has increased from €80 to €90 for adult applicants, which is more than Rs 8,000 ($96). This Big Story looks at the ‘passport inequity’ and ‘travel apartheid’ involved in the Schengen visa. (Economic Times)
A new and faster Gemini
Say hello to Gemini 1.5 Flash—the newest version of Google’s AI chatbot that is now available for the general public to buy. The tech giant claims this version of the chatbot is faster than GPT-4o from OpenAI by at least 20%.
Google said the latest AI bot is also 40% faster than ChatGPT-3.5-turbo and has a higher capacity for information. In other words, users can include a lot more context — whether it’s audio, video, code, or text — in their questions for Gemini 1.5 Flash and, in return, apparently get more accurate answers.
Google’s new chatbot can reportedly analyse large chunks of data in a single query, without users having to feed the chatbot information in smaller chunks. Data point to note: Gemini 1.5 Flash can, in a single query, look at “one hour of video, 11 hours of audio, or more than 700,000 words in one query.” (Quartz)
Indians do not exercise enough
A recent Lancet study revealed that almost 50% of Indian adults performed insufficient levels of physical activity in 2022—and the number is projected to go up to 60% by 2030. The study also revealed that Indian women (57%) exercise less than men (42%), with experts suggesting that women “wrongly believe that household chores are a good form of physical exercise.”
FYI: The study defines insufficiency as not performing at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week. Globally, one-third of the adults were not active enough, and adults over 60 were far less active than other adults.
Why this matters: A lack of physical activity and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle actively contributes to a heightened risk of a variety of diseases such as diabetes, and heart disease. (The Hindu)
Do we need multivitamins?
According to a new study, daily intake of multivitamins do not help people live longer—and could even increase the risk of death. The study reported a 4% higher mortality risk among those who take these supplements. Experts say it could be due to what they contain. For instance:
While natural food sources of beta-carotene protect against cancer, for example, beta-carotene supplements can raise the risk of lung cancer and heart disease, suggesting the supplements are missing important ingredients. Meanwhile iron, which is added to many multivitamins, can lead to iron overload and raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia.
Why this matters: While supplements may work in some cases—they are largely not beneficial. According to a commentator on the study, “multivitamins overpromise and underdeliver… The main point is that multivitamins are not helping. The science is not there.” The key takeaway is that we should be eating healthier. FYI: Supplements have a global market worth tens of billions of dollars. (The Guardian)
The most liveable city of 2024 is…
Vienna—according to the Economist Intelligence Unit that ranked 173 cities across the world in categories like health care, culture and environment, stability, infrastructure, and education. The Austrian city won the title for the third year running. Indian cities didn’t hit a notable rank, with New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Bangalore scoring about 60 points each. Here’s why:
Each city is rated according to these factors as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable. The rating is provided for overall performance and according to performance across each category. None of the Indian cities could score enough to make it to the top 10 list.
As for the rest of the top 10, Copenhagen retained #2, while Zurich jumped from #6 last year to #3 this year. The only Asian representation came from Osaka in Japan, which took #9. War-torn Damascus placed last on the list. (CNN)
Three things to see
One: A portion of the roof collapsed at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on parked cars on Friday morning. The incident took place at the pick-up and drop area in Terminal 1, and three people are reportedly dead, while six were injured. (The Hindu)
Two: Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum has decided to return a Henri Matisse painting called ‘Odalisque’ to the heirs of its original owner. The painting has been in their collection since 1941, and the Museum thinks it’s “sufficiently plausible” that the painting was looted by Nazi soldiers, and that the Stern family, who originally owned the painting, gave it up under duress. You can see the restituted painting below. (ArtNews)
Three: Pepsi has launched a new line of cans that are basically billboards. Say hello to the smart cans or “CANvas” by Pepsi, unveiled at the Cannes Lions International Creativity Festival this week. The cans come with “a digital screen, movement sensors, and state-of-the-art sound technology”, but no Pepsi, of course, since the cans aren’t meant to get wet. Fast Company has more on the marketing gimmick. You can see the can in action in the vid below:
