Researched by: Rachel John, Aarthi Ramnath & Anannya Parekh
This week in ‘24 Questions: Whispers and WhatsApp waterfalls
In the third edition of our weekly election special, political consultant Ritwick Shrivastav reveals the secret of the BJP’s success—an army of panna pramukhs who win elections one booth at a time. In Eye Candy, the BJP's Google ad spends reveal a very surprising pattern. Plus an excellent round up of election stuff to read and watch.
Reminder: All through the election season, we will send you an exclusive election goodie bag right in your inbox each week—with deep dives that DECODE the important issues—without boring you to death; creative (and shareworthy) infographics that offer the perfect EYE CANDY; our pick of the best YouTube analysis in our WATCHLIST; and a weekly roundup of the most taaza election khabar plus the best reads of the season to understand the STATE OF PLAY.
There’s more! Join our new Whatsapp channel here—to get the best bits of the election coverage out there! Coming soon: A town-hall in Bangalore! More deets soon.
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As always, thank you for your continued support. With your help, we hope to kick ass this election season, splainer style!
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Electoral bonds: The latest update
The context: Following a Supreme Court order, the State Bank of India revealed details of the donors and recipients of the treasure trove of electoral bonds last week—sparking a frenzy of media coverage. Read our Big Story for more details and preliminary findings.
What happened now: New details are still emerging from SBI’s data dump. Here’s what we know now:
- Mint points to an intriguing anomaly: The books of the second highest donor—Megha Engineering—show that it bought Rs 2.8 billion (280 crore) worth of electoral bonds in FY 2023. But SBI records only show a total of Rs 1.9 billion (199 crore). No one knows why.
- Scroll revealed 35 pharmaceutical donors—including seven who were being investigated for safety issues.
- Indian Express identified 15 very wealthy individuals who made hefty donations—such as Lakshmi Mittal and IndiGo founder Rahul Bhatia.
Also noteworthy: The Supreme Court once again ordered SBI to make a complete disclosure of all details—including the unique numbers that reveal who bought which bond and gave it to whom. The new deadline is March 21.
But, but, but: The Hindu points out that the Court made an odd exception. It only demanded “full disclosure” on bonds bought after April 2019. The Justices dismissed a plea for similar details on bonds bought in the first year of the scheme—between March 1, 2018 and April 11, 2019. The reasoning offered is odd, as well:
Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud explained to the NGO that the February 15 judgement had explicitly sought publication of electoral bonds’ details only from April 12, 2019. Allowing the NGO’s application now would lead to a “substantive modification” of the February judgement.
So for about 10,000 bonds, we will never know exactly who gave Rs 40 billion (4,000 crore) to which party in the run up to the 2019 elections.
An Apple-Google hookup to scare OpenAI silly
According to Bloomberg News, the two tech giants are in “active negotiations” to power the new iPhone with Google’s AI model Gemini. We don’t know the details but Google will likely do “the heavy lifting of generative AI, including functions for creating images and writing essays based on simple prompts.”
This is big deal for Sundar Pichai—who has been in the hot seat ever since OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT:
A deal with Apple would be Google’s highest-profile partnership for Gemini to date and could be a major boon for the company’s AI efforts. Apple has more than 2 billion devices in active use that could potentially become home to Google Gemini later this year. In January, Samsung Electronics Co. rolled out new smartphones with AI features powered by Gemini.
Point to note: Apple is already in a years-long partnership—believed to be worth $18 billion annually—that makes Google the default search engine on its Safari web browser. So an Apple-Google deal for Gemini could attract antitrust scrutiny. (Bloomberg News, paywalled, The Verge)
Over at Nvidia: Its CEO unveiled a “very big” new chip: “The Blackwell chip is made up of 208 billion transistors, and will be able to handle AI models and queries more quickly than its predecessors.” Yeah, the speed of tech innovation is going to be kinda nuts in the coming years. (Quartz)
War on Gaza: Yet another hospital raid
Oops, the Israeli forces did it again. They raided and took control of the Al Shifa hospital. The military claims to have “killed or wounded an undisclosed number of Hamas militants, while also detaining 80 people.” It also forced thousands of people living in the area to evacuate to the south.
A reminder: The Israelis raided the same hospital—Gaza’s largest—in November (See: this Big Story). It caused great outrage as targeting hospitals is a crime under Geneva conventions—but the IDF has attacked many hospitals since… so there’s that. (The Guardian)
Genital mutilation: Gambia takes a big step backward
The context: Female “circumcision” in Gambia involves removing the clitoris and labia minora of girls between the ages of 10 and 15. This gruesome practice was banned in 2015—but the law was not enforced until last year—-when three practitioners were slapped with hefty fines. An imam took up their cause—leading a campaign against the ban. The argument: Mutilation is a religious duty:
Clerics in the Muslim world disagree on whether cutting is Islamic, but it is not in the Quran. The most vocal of the Gambian imams, Abdoulie Fatty, has argued that “circumcision makes you cleaner” and has said the husbands of women who have not been cut suffer because they cannot meet their wives’ sexual appetites
What happened now: Of the 47 lawmakers in the National Assembly, 42 voted in favour of revoking the ban. The bill will now go to committee for any amendments—and become law by the summer.
What’s even worse: Gambia is not an exception:
Worldwide, genital cutting is increasing despite campaigns to stop it — mainly because of population growth in the countries where it is common. More than 230 million women and girls have undergone it, according to UNICEF — an increase of 30 million people since the last time the agency made an estimate, in 2016.
New York Times (splainer gift link) has an important piece on the vote and rise of genital mutilation.
The next climate-friendly superfood: Snake meat!
The context: Many of the climate change jhagdas focus on food—between those who love their meat and those who shame them as planet killers. It is true that cattle are responsible for about 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions. It is also true that humans need protein in their diet—and meat is an excellent source for it.
What happened now: An Australian study has settled on a novel solution: Python meat. The study looked at 4,600 Burmese and reticulated pythons on commercial farms in Vietnam and Thailand—and compared their growth and nutritional value against the usual livestock. The conclusion:
Pythons meat is way better at turning food into body mass than your average cattle or chicken… Think about it: these slithery creatures can survive for months without eating and don’t waste energy staying warm as compared to other livestock.
The other upside: it is low in saturated fat. (Scientific American, paywall, Smithsonian Magazine)
Speaking of climate change: A new study has revealed that six major ski areas across the globe are likely to lose a substantial amount of snow cover within this century. In fact, snow cover in the Australian Alps has been projected to decline by a scary 78% in the next few decades. Others do not fare too well either: Southern Alps of New Zealand will probably see a 51% decline, followed by Japanese Alps at 50% and European Alps at 42%. (The Guardian)
NASA-Google Earth team up for tigers
There are less than 4,000 tigers in the wild—spread across ten countries. These solitary animals are very difficult to track and protect. NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and the Google Earth Engine have teamed up to build a real-time monitoring system called TCL 3.0. This open-source mapping system allows an unprecedented level of real-time tracking:
The map now shows in detail the expansion or regression of tiger territories, and exactly where has been surveyed when, instantly highlighting data gaps… “The GDP of your country tells you something at the time it’s measured, but what’s even more important is to see how GDP is changing over time — that’s how you see economic growth or recession,” [ecologist Eric Sanderson] says, adding: “We’re trying to do this for tigers in a way that’s never been done before, (for) any species.”
Why this matters: The study has already identified 226 “restoration landscapes”—which could host tigers and increase their numbers by 50%! (CNN)
Three things to see
One: Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new Banksy! The mural appeared overnight on the side of a building in London. This one is all about climate change. FYI: Banksy’s last confirmed creation called out military drones in December. (The Guardian)
Two: The RCB women’s team winning the IPL was pretty damn awesome. Even better: The ecstatic celebrations on the streets of Bangalore. Women’s cricket has truly come of age:) (Hindustan Times)
Three: Political dissent is alive and amusing in Tamil Nadu. This song was performed by folk singer Kovan—who has been arrested on sedition charges twice for his music. The lyrics read:
If you kill a chicken and eat it, it's a chicken party
If you kill a goat and eat it, it's a mutton party
If you cut a cake and eat it, it's a birthday party
If you loot a nation and eat it, it's a Bharatiya Janata Party
Yup, that’s funny.
