A landmark Supreme Court ruling on caste in prison

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Aakriti Anand & Raghav Bikhchandani

The Big Q: Why did Kota Fall?

Welcome to our new news show titled ‘The Big Q’. In each episode, we take up one big question and look for answers. As with splainer, we try to understand the world a little bit better—and have a good laugh. In this episode of ‘The Big Q’, splainer Editor Lakshmi Chaudhry looks for answers for a mystery in Rajasthan: the sudden decline of India’s coaching mecca—Kota. Why is it haemorrhaging students? What does this say about the future of exam prep in India—the one dhanda guaranteed to make you moolah.

Watch the new episode below—and be sure to follow us on YouTube to catch the next instalment—which is on Rahul!! Also: check out the first episode on the US election—and the queen of memes: Kamala.

Middle East madness: The latest episode

One: The US and Israel are haggling over which Iranian targets it is ‘okay’ to bomb. You cannot make this up:

As Israel weighs its options after its arch-foe Iran launched its largest ever assault on Tuesday, Biden was asked whether he would support Israel striking Iran's oil facilities. We're discussing that," Biden told reporters.

Reuters via The Telegraph has more.

Two: None of this has disrupted Israel’s impressive focus to its many tasks at hand: bombing Lebanon—and West Bank—into pulp. Eighteen Palestinians were killed in an air strike on a West Bank refugee camp; 37 were killed in the suburbs of Beirut. To mix things up, the IDF launched a ground attack on three UN-run shelters in Gaza—killing 21. FYI: 50 paramedics have been killed in Lebanon over the past two weeks. Up next: hospitals? (Al Jazeera)

Meanwhile in Washington: Republicans are urging Biden to act asap: “I urge you to act today to ensure all weapons shipments to Israel, including 2,000-pound (907 kg) bombs, are expedited to support our ally.” (Reuters)

A landmark Supreme Court ruling on caste in prison

The Court has banned caste discrimination in jails—comparing the practices to “untouchability” and “forced labour.” The jails have three months to comply—and offer proof of having done so.

The context: Indian prison manuals reflect entrenched caste bigotry. Example:

High caste prisoners are kept segregated in separate barracks—and can refuse food cooked by lower caste inmates.
Only members of the lowest castes are forced to clean latrines, sweep—and other scavenging tasks.
“Habitual offenders” of denotified tribes are treated on par with rapists and murderers.

Quote to note: Here’s an excerpt from a prison manual in Uttar Pradesh:

A convict sentenced to simple imprisonment shall not be called upon to perform duties of a degrading or menial character unless he belongs to a class or community accustomed to perform such duties; but may be required to carry water for his own use provided he belongs to the class of society the members of which are accustomed to perform such duties in their own homes.”

What the Court said: The key part of the ruling was as follows:

Chief Justice Chandrachud, who authored the judgement, referred to Article 15(1) of the Constitution which enshrines the fundamental right against discrimination. “But if the state itself discriminates against a citizen, then it is discrimination of the highest form. After all, the state is expected to prevent discrimination, not perpetuate it,” the Chief Justice noted… The top court emphasised that “no prison authority enjoys amnesty for unconstitutionality”.

The Telegraph has the most details on this landmark ruling.

OpenAI’s $6.6 billion jackpot

OpenAI has raised a staggering $6.6 billion—the largest ever round for a private company—except for the $10 billion raised by… OpenAI in January 2023. The list of investors is long and impressive:

The round was led by venture-capital firm Thrive Capital—putting $1.25 billion into the pot.
Microsoft—which shelled out the big bucks in 2023—is investing a little less than $1 billion.
SoftBank is putting up $500 million, Tiger Global $350 million—and Nvidia is in for $100 million.
Other investors include Khosla Ventures, Fidelity Management, and Research Company and MGX.

Yup, it’s literally everybody with big bucks—except for Elon’s buddies. Musk raised $6 billion for his AI startup in May.

What’s interesting: This money comes with strings attached on both sides. The investors are not allowed to hedge their bets—i.e also fund rivals like Anthropic. OTOH, OpenAI has to shed its non-profit roots ekdum jaldi quick:

Investors in the new round will have the right to withdraw their money if OpenAI doesn’t complete its planned conversion to a for-profit company within two years. Currently it is a charitable nonprofit with a for-profit division through which investors can buy a share of its future profit.

Reminder: OpenAI was started as a non-profit to “be the first to create AGI—a machine with the learning and reasoning powers of a human mind. The purpose is not world domination; rather, the lab wants to ensure that the technology is developed safely and its benefits distributed evenly to the world.” (Wall Street Journal, paywall, Reuters)

Menopause pauses women’s careers

As we all know, a woman’s body is a hazard to professional success. Motherhood often forces women out of the workplace. Menstruation keeps them out of certain professions. Now, menopause is also becoming a reason to drop out.

The disheartening numbers: A US survey of working women found that 70% of millennial women—now entering their 40s—are planning to reduce their hours, shift to part-time roles, or give up work entirely. The reason: the onset of menopause symptoms like hot flashes, brain fog, and sleep disorders. A separate survey found that a third of millennials experiencing menopause symptoms said their work was impacted. Of them, 15% switched to a less demanding career—and 28% avoided taking on new projects.

Indian data point to note: Menopause can stretch over decades—from the 40s to the 60s. The average Indian woman experiences menopause when she is around 46 years old—nearly five years earlier than her Western peers.

The big picture: Menopause costs the US economy $26.6 billion every year. And it represents a huge loss to companies:

This is going to affect women who are in their 40s, 50s and 60s when those symptoms are very active and they may be at the height of their careers. Companies are going to lose more in the long run if they’re losing leadership and trying to rehire in those situations.

Bloomberg News via BNN Bloomberg has more on the surveys. Economic Times has more on what companies in India are doing to break the taboo around the subject.

The great port strike is over

The context: For weeks, there have been frantic headlines about a nationwide dock strike—which was expected to bring the US economy to its knees. The International Longshoremen’s Association—the largest dock worker union with 45,000 workers—went on strike on Tuesday. The demands: a big fat increase in wages—plus guaranteed job security—which is threatened by automation.

What happened now: Happily, this doomsday scenario has not come to pass. The union has “reached a tentative agreement on wages” and will “return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues.” This is a huge relief to both corporate America—and Wall Street.

Why this matters to you: The global supply chains have just about recovered from the pandemic. Experts had warned a US port strike would wreak chaos all over again:

If this strike goes on for a couple of days the implications are, well, rather short-lived, I’d say. If this drags on, it has cascading impacts throughout the global economy — not just the US economy. So, the unpredictability of this issue here is really in play and it has the magnitude to really throw a giant wrench in global supply chains.

New York Times (login required) has more on the end of the strike.

Beware of Meta’s smart Ray-Bans

New research has found that Meta’s smart Ray-Ban glasses can be misused to dox people (i.e. reveal their personal data without their consent). Two students linked the glasses with a creepy facial recognition tool called Pimeyes—a visual search engine: “After uploading a photo of someone’s face, Pimeyes provides a list of faces it believes are a match, and the URLs where those images came from.” The result:

They then used a large language model (LLM) to rapidly combine all that data, making it possible to dox someone in a glance or surface information to scam someone in seconds—or other nefarious uses, such as "some dude could just find some girl’s home address on the train and just follow them home,”

404 Media offers by far the most comprehensive reporting, but it’s paywalled—for a free substitute, check out ArsTechnica.

what caught our eye

business & tech

Bye bye, Hololens—Microsoft is calling quits on future production of the VR headset.
Prime Video users, brace yourselves to sit through more ads on the platform next year.
Starbucks is buying up coffee plantations to save its supply chain from climate change.
New York Times (splainer gift link) has a must-read on Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s troubled private life—which includes a criminal complaint of child abuse filed by the mother of his children. Check out our two-parter Big Story for more on Durov.

sports & entertainment

Two teams—including Michael Jordan’s 23XI—have filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR—due to a new controversial revenue sharing model. And Michael took that personally.
Formula One announced a landmark 10-year brand partnership with…every aunty’s fave luxury company LVMH—to offer “hospitality, bespoke activations, limited editions and outstanding content.” Go figure.
Speaking of massively lucrative deals, Pink Floyd have sold their music and image rights to Sony for $400 million.
Olivia Rodrigo fans, rejoice! Your fave is getting her own concert film on Netflix.

as for the rest

An update on the deadly man-made Hathras stampede in July—UP police have filed a 3,200-page chargesheet naming 11 accused. Check out our Big Story for more context.
India’s Union Cabinet on Thursday approved classical language status to Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Pali, and Prakrit. Note how Urdu is conspicuously absent from this list.
The raids on the Isha Foundation now include two psychiatrists, two drug inspectors, and a food safety officer.
India’s Enforcement Directorate confiscated a sprawling farmhouse from an alleged criminal—and is now using it as an office.
Around 53% of US millionaires are planning to leave the country no matter who wins. It’s not just Indian HNIs, people!
Drugmaker Gilead Sciences has announced a plan to allow six generic pharma companies to make and sell—at a lower price—its HIV drug for poorer countries.
Chinese researchers have found a possible cure for type 1 diabetes—which involves turning “a person’s stem cells into a steady supply of the pancreatic cells responsible for producing insulin.”

Three things to see

One: In a freak incident, a 500-pound undetonated US bomb from the World War II era exploded at the Miyazaki Airport in Japan on Wednesday. Buried near the tarmac, the bomb created a massive crater in the ground, causing 80 flights to be cancelled. Mercifully, no one was hurt. (CNN)

Two: A new study has found that bottlenose dolphins ‘smile’ when they play together. The team recorded 22 captive bottlenose dolphins making an “open mouth” gesture during play time—a gesture they believe evolved from the action of biting—think play bite gesture in dogs. Popular Science has all the nerdy details. More importantly, here is a video of two dolphins ‘smiling’ and playing together:

And here’s an adorable image of a dolphin from the study.

Three: We saved this for a fun Friday treat: the funniest pics shortlisted for Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards this year. We adore this dancing lemur titled ‘England Cricket’s Latest Secret Weapon’. You can see all the finalists here. (Gizmodo)

Also: This cheetah playing hide and seek—a game that likely wasn’t funny for the topi:)

Takshashila: A doorway to public policy

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