The alarming case of Mahesh Langa

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Aakriti Anand & Raghav Bikhchandani

The alarming case of Mahesh Langa

The context: The senior assistant editor and Gujarat correspondent of The Hindu has been in custody since October 8. He was initially arrested for GST evasion—as part of an investigation into 220 fake firms that claim tax credit—by issuing dummy invoices.

About the case: Langa’s relative is allegedly the owner of such a firm. But he has been arrested—even though his name is not mentioned in the original FIR. Also: Langa is neither owner nor director of this company. However, his wife is indeed a silent partner—with “no rights to undertake any transaction or access bank accounts.” But the police insist Langa was secretly pulling the strings.

What happened now: The state government has now charged Langa with illegally possessing documents related to the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB). They were found in the course of the GST investigation. He is the only name on this FIR. The police are looking for the board employees who leaked the documents to him.

The far more dismal bit: We can’t tell you whether these documents relate to his reporting. But all we have is a single Indian Express report—with near-zero details. That’s apart from a slanderous OpIndia piece that claims he was peddling “private port information”—which suggests an Adani connection.

Key point to note: The Hindu has maintained a carefully neutral stance on the matter:

We would like to state at this time that we appreciate his professional work for The Hindu as the Gujarat correspondent based in Ahmedabad. We do hope that no journalist anywhere is targeted for their work, and we expect the investigation to be conducted fairly and quickly.

OTOH, the press associations have been far more vocal:

In a joint statement, the Press Club of India, Delhi Union of Journalists, Indian Women’s Press Corps, and the Press Association called Langa a “well-known and fearless” journalist. “His reports on developments related to Gujarat have been widely appreciated,” they said.

Quote to note: The Gujarat judge in the GST case scolded Langa’s lawyer for the “extra hue and cry” around the case—which is ironic given the skimpy reporting.

The main takeaway: is summed up in this must-read piece by Kalpana Sharma on press freedom in India—just this month: “[E]ven if you work for a leading national newspaper, you are not protected from the State if it wants to send a message.” NewsLaundry and The Hindu have the most on the GST case.

America rules the global economy

Despite all the fuss over emerging nations, a new IMF forecast underlines America’s rising dominance of the global economy. It is now #1 among the wealthiest nations—leaving the Europeans far behind. The key reason: a huge surge in investment in the US economy:

According to the IMF, U.S. gross fixed capital formation—a broad measure of investment—will rise 4.5% this year from 2023, more than triple the rate for all advanced economies. From 2016-2025, the IMF estimates U.S. investment will have grown an average 3.3% a year, versus 2.3% for all advanced economies. By comparison, investment spending is projected to fall 2.7% this year in Germany, previously the juggernaut of Europe, after falling 1.2% last year.

This is a huge shift—as the growth in US investment remained at par with Europe until around 2015.

Key takeaway: The IMF attributed US’ growing dominance to two reasons: Rise in “productivity” and—importantly for India—energy independence. America doesn’t have to spend great amounts of money on importing oil—unlike the rest of the advanced economies. So yeah, the IMF forecast for India’s GDP growth holds steady at 7%—which makes us the fastest growing economy in the world. But how far will that take us without finding alternatives to oil?

Reading list: Wall Street Journal (paywall) and EuroNews have more on the US angle—while Reuters has details on the IMF’s latest forecast.

Meanwhile, in Gaza: The UN warns that its economy has been left in “utter ruin” due to Israeli invasion—and will take 350 years to rebuild. (The Guardian)

Hyundai India’s thanda IPO debut

On Tuesday, Hyundai’s India subsidiary went public. It is now the second ‘pure play’ auto company—that solely manufactures cars—to be listed on the stock exchange. The other one is Maruti Suzuki. But individual investors seemed less than excited about that achievement. The stock debuted at Rs 1,934 on Tuesday—below its issue price of Rs 1,960—and ended the day at Rs 1,846. Most of the buyers were institutional investors—who remain enthusiastic about the Indian stock market.

The big picture: Despite the muted response, Hyundai India debuted at a sky-high valuation—which is still a win for its parent company. That’s why there is a long line of multinationals eager for IPOs in India:

According to an investment banker who spoke to Mint on the condition of anonymity, “Many MNCs are likely to pursue IPOs despite flat or negative listing performances, as they can still secure higher valuations for their stake during the listing process." Brands like LG and Whirlpool are speculated to be next in line.

Mint (paywall) has the best analysis of Hyundai’s IPO—while News18 has the details.

Desi double-standard on freebies

According to a new survey, 56% of respondents agreed that free goods and services are “unnecessary.” Also: 78% viewed them as a way to get votes—and another 61% said they could “hurt the country’s financial situation.” The most opposed: BJP voters (64%).

And yet 90% of those surveyed want these ‘freebies’ for themselves.

What is most notable: The desire for public benefits is far greater among higher income Indians—and those who live in the big cities: “Barring education and healthcare, for all other goods and services listed by the survey, those earning over Rs 50,000 a month were likely to express the view that they should be free.” And yet, the rich are the most opposed to ‘freebies’ (86%). (Mint, paywall)

Drastic cost-cutting at the Commonwealth Games

The context: In July 2023, the government of Victoria province in Australia backed out of its bid to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games—worried about costs ballooning into the billions. Glasgow stepped in as the new host last month—agreeing to hold a scaled-down version—with a little financial help from the Aussies.

What happened now: Scotland revealed what is essentially a mini CWG—with only 10 sports at four venues. Dropped from the roster: hockey, shooting, cricket, rugby, wrestling, and badminton—even though Glasgow has the stadiums and training facilities to organise these sports. Also missing from the plan: a dedicated Games village—instead, athletes will be provided with hotel accommodations. FYI: The 2014 Glasgow Games featured 18 sports with an athletes’ village.

Data point to note: FWIW, the Birmingham Games in 2022 contributed £1.2 billion ($1.55 billion) to the local economy. So there isn’t any justification for these drastic measures.

Why this matters to Indians: The decision to junk a great number of key sports is a huge blow for our medal prospects. For instance, we secured silver in both women’s cricket and men’s hockey at the last CWG, and bagged 12 medals in wrestling. In fact, badminton federation chief Sanjay Mishra claims it is a ‘conspiracy’ to bring Bharat down.

The greater tragedy: Glasgow’s willingness to gut the Games marks its shrinking importance—compared to the Olympics or even the Asian Games. Perhaps Ahmedabad can flex its financial muscle for the 2030 CWG—to strengthen its bid for the 2036 Olympics? BBC News and The Guardian report on the cutbacks. Indian Express has a good piece on the uncertain future of the Games.

Elon Musk has a ‘Blade Runner’ problem

The makers of ‘Blade Runner 2049’—Alcon Entertainment—have sued Tesla for copyright infringement. The reason: Musk used 11 seconds of imagery from the film to promote his robotaxis at the Hollywood-style promo event earlier this month. The offending imagery:

The most notable bit: Alcon refused permission to use this “an iconic still image”—so the Tesla folks went ahead and used an AI-generated version instead. Reminder: OpenAI used the same AI trick when Scarlett Johansson rejected its request to use her voice for their chatbot.

But the reason for Alcon’s decision to turn down is focused specifically on Elon:

“Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account,” states the complaint. “Alcon did not want BR2049 to be affiliated with Musk.”

Alcon is also worried about jeopardising future deals with automakers for an Amazon spin-off of the Blade Runner franchise. (New York Times, login required, Hollywood Reporter)

Meta’s facial recognition tech is baaack!

The company rolled out a facial recognition feature in 2021—to verify user identities. And then shut it down due to concerns regarding privacy. Also: no one trusts Zuck with their personal data. But Meta has once again changed its mind—this time to crack down on hacking and “celeb bait” scams. It will scan the profile pictures of 50,000 public figures—who will be notified beforehand and given the option of opting out. They will be compared to images used in suspect ads: “If the images match and Meta believes the ads are scams, it will block them.”

Why this matters: This is just a trial for a bigger move:

Meta said it also plans to test using facial recognition data to let non-celebrity users of Facebook and another one of its platforms, Instagram, regain access to accounts that have been compromised by a hacker or locked due to forgetting a password.

Reuters has more on the competing pressures on Meta.

what caught our eye

business & tech

Disney’s next chairman is…James P Gorman, a veteran Wall Street banker who will select a new CEO to replace Bob Iger in 2026.
Sticking with new hires, HSBC have announced their first ever female CFO—Pam Kaur, who is tasked with streamlining the bank into four distinct businesses.
Meta doesn’t like that accounts on its platforms are tracking private jet usage of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Taylor Swift—so they’ve gone and banned them.

sports & entertainment

It’s another productive Archery World Cup for Deepika Kumari, as she picked up a silver medal after reaching the final.
Mumbai’s Khar Gymkhana has cancelled the membership of cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues. The reason is unclear, ranging from allegations of religious conversion activities by her dad to good ol’ fashioned politicking surrounding club elections.
Netflix has a radical new release strategy—don’t make so many sucky movies! The PC version: quality over quantity, cutting 50 new films a year down to 30.

as for the rest

Another day, another lawsuit against Donald Trump—this time, members of the ‘Central Park Five’ have taken issue with remarks he made in last month’s presidential debate
After a public appeal, India’s Home ministry has extended the residency permit of exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen.
The series of feku bomb threats against airlines continues (see our Big Story)—Tuesday saw 50 flights get affected.
Brace yourselves for ‘New Noida’—a pair of significant urban development master plans approved by the UP government that will see mass expansion of the Delhi suburb.
India has launched its fourth nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), containing 75% Indian-made material and 3,500km range K-4 nuclear ballistic missiles—an upgrade from the first of its class, INS Arihant, which carries a 750 km range K-15 nuclear missile.
After a century of eradication efforts, Egypt has finally become malaria-free.
Since its signing in 1997, the India-US Extradition treaty has facilitated the extradition of… 11 fugitives to India from the US—Bhopal gas tragedy Warren Anderson and 26/11 attacks accused David Headley are some high profile rejected extradition requests.
A new study explains why ‘fear’-based memories are both hard to forget and hard to recall.
Dunedin Airport in New Zealand has banned farewell hugs that last more than three minutes—to avoid traffic jams at drop-off zones.
Economic Times has a must-read on the damaging effects of excess rains in India this year.
The Telegraph has a cool read on a radical approach to flooding in England—giving land back to the sea!

Five things to see

One: Passengers on the Saturday bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka experienced the “world’s first haunted house experience on a running shinkansen.” It was suitably awesome—and cheesy—just in time for Halloween. If you prefer your horror with a TikTok-ish soundtrack, here you go. (South China Morning Post)

Two: Researchers have captured the process of ovulation on video—for the very first time. They used ovarian tissue from mice, genetically engineered it to produce an egg, and triggered the process using hormones. You can see the fascinating moment below. Gizmodo has all the nerdy details, and why this is a landmark in fertility research.

Three: Say hello to Daze—the newest GenZ messaging app in town. It’s biggest selling point: It is powered by AI (quelle surprise!). It’s less text message, more Insta story—as you can see below. Coz Zoomer gifs speak louder than words? (TechCrunch)

Four: Social media is ablaze with wars over the hotel’s role in the death of One Direction singer Liam Payne—who was high on drugs when he fell/jumped off the balcony. In response, the Buenos Aires police released this audio of the emergency call made by the hotel manager—moments before his death. BBC News has a full transcript of the call.

Five: We love this hilarious ad from Swiggy Instamart for Dhanteras—with Karisma Kapoor dancing to her iconic hit song ‘Sona kitna sona hai’. (Hindustan Times)