| | | Good morning! | | The FIFA World Cup is on – the first round of matches ended Friday; do watch for our analysis on Sunday – and while the football action has been, barring a few disappointments, outstanding, the telecast seems to have triggered an outpouring of resentment and disaffection in China over the country’s draconian Zero Covid policy. There have been sporadic protests on this policy over the past two years. At the first sign of a Covid-19 infestation in a city, China locks down, imposing military-style restrictions on movement and activities, and embarking on large-scale testing. I’ve previously written about why this may be necessary: ineffective vaccines; and vaccine hesitancy among tens of millions of Chinese older than 80. Dealing with Covid-19 the way the rest of the world now does – with a light touch, and almost no restrictions – would mean a spike in deaths. This was evident in Hong Kong in the March wave, when low vaccine coverage among the older population resulted in a spate of deaths.  Last month, the momentum of the protests seemed to be picking up. HT’s Beijing reporter Sutirtho Patranobis commented on the frequency and intensity of protests in his weekly column, Hutong Cat: “In a country that’s paranoid of protests and protesters – paranoid enough to even jail citizens keeping a count of public demonstrations – the frequency of anger and frustration fuelling public outbursts, even clashes, over stringent Covid-19 control rules is worth noting”. Then came the telecast of the FIFA World Cup, and the sight of tens of thousands of spectators crowding into stadiums, triggered another round of protests. It’s important to digress into a caveat here: as Patranobis explained in an Op-Ed this week, this is not a Tiananmen in the making. | | THINK  In many ways China’s Zero Covid policy is at once both inexplicable and understandable. It is inexplicable because it is irrational and unscientific, and not proportionate with the number of deaths China is seeing (even now). Yet, it is understandable given concerns over Chinese vaccines, and vaccine hesitancy among the older population. As HT’s Jamie Mullick wrote in a data journalism piece, the opacity surrounding China’s Covid-19 numbers (this isn’t new; it is inconceivable that cases and deaths are as low as the official data claims them to be in the birthplace of the virus) is only matched by the stringency of the country’s restrictions. After doubling down on them earlier this week, Beijing finally started easing some curbs, and its vice-premier acknowledged the level of vaccinations the country has reached, and the relatively lower pathogenicity of the Omicron variant fuelling the current wave of infections in the country meant a “new approach” was required. It remains to be seen whether this translates into more than the 20-point relaxation in the country’s Covid-19 policy announced by Xi Jinping earlier in November, well before the protests. That these relaxations, described by former Australian premier Kevin Ruud as “crab walking” were inadequate was proved by the intensity of the protests in late November. | | THINK MORE  Image source: AFP China’s Covid-19 woes are almost certain to have a negative impact on the country’s economy (which has been bruised already by a roiling in the real estate sector, and the cascading effect of this on banks). India, in contrast “sailed through 2022 relatively unscathed”, The Economist wrote in November, adding that it is likely to do so in 2023 as well. That was evident in GDP numbers for the second quarter (the three months ended September 30) that were released this week. The economy expanded by 6.3% in the quarter, taking the growth rate in the first half of the year to 9.7%, and while global headwinds pose a challenge, there is a near consensus that it will grow by 6.8-7% in 2022-23, and by 6-6.5% in 2023-24, a year when many of the world’s economies will be battling recession. The GDP data, when seen in consonance with other numbers, including high-frequency data such as the Purchase Managers Index or PMI, provides some interesting insights on the Indian economy. But as HT pointed out in an editorial, while the economic situation is healthy, and definitely not crisis-ridden, it continues to present its own challenges. “India’s policymakers deserve some credit for the country being where it is,” that piece said, but now "they need to look at finding the next big source of tailwinds to India’s growth story”. | | KNOW  Image source: AFP The real economic challenge for India is increasing mass incomes even as it transitions its economy into a low-emission one, given the reality of the climate crisis. Climate experts now say the 1.5 degree Celsius redline for global warming over pre-industrial levels, could be reached as early as 2030. “1.5°C global warming represents the transition into a high-risk future for humankind and nature. Every effort is justified to keep global warming below that limit. However, the required political effort and societal mobilisation becomes massive, due to delays caused by barriers and short-sighted resistance, such that scepticism concerning feasibility is on the rise,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, IPCC co-chair. | | LEARN  Image source: Shutterstock The government put out a new draft of the all-important data protection bill on November 18. The bill, HT reported, “will provide the legal framework for the fundamental right to privacy of Indian citizens with major implications for tech companies and digital businesses.” The bill has provoked a range of responses – including in the HT newsroom and in the paper’s Op-Ed page. Rahul Matthan appreciated the bill’s simplicity and clarity, but said it would have done well to include the concept of data portability. Gautam Bhatia asked for it to be reconsidered on grounds related to consent, the exemptions granted to governments and state agencies, and the independence of the data regulator the bill envisages. My colleagues and I sat down with IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to discuss these issues, and several others. | | READ MORE  Credit: ANI What was behind the relatively cleaner air in Delhi this November? Is hydrogen the future of aviation? A hate crime in the Capital Ronaldo’s redemption song | | OUTSIDE On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “250 grams of magic and perfection in our daily lives.” He was reacting to the announcement that the quintessential slice of French life, the Baguette, was granted world heritage status by UNESCO. The news reminded me of an article I read in The New Yorker years ago on Paris’ most famous bakery, and how it “almost single-handedly saved sourdough from obscurity” – one I remembered partly because I find it comforting to read about baking (and food), and partly because sourdough is my favourite bread. “On November 2, 2002, Apollonia Poilane sat down at her father’s desk and took over as the CEO of the company that for eight decades has made Paris’ most celebrated bread,” begins that article, titled Bread Winner. | | WHAT I'M READING The Emergence of Brand-Name Capitalism in Late Colonial India (Advertising and the Making of Modern Conjugality), by Douglas E. Haynes. Starting with the premise that India was largely a commodity-play before WW1, and that the interwar years saw the birth of brands and brand managers (as we recognise them) in the country, Haynes’ academically solid book looks at various aspects of the transition – from the advertising agencies to the consumers to the initial categories and products that adopted and benefited from advertising to the company that pretty much made the rule on how to advertise and sell in India (Lever Brothers, now HUL). The book’s cover refers to the country’s oldest soap brand, Sunlight, owned by Lever Brothers, and still available in some markets in the south and the east. | | WHAT I’M LISTENING TO Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, still the fastest-selling LP of all-time, the second album released by the band after its relocation (and re-formation) to the US, and a record that, along with Steely Dan’s Aja is widely used by audiophiles to test their new systems. I’m listening to it, the album that marked a genre-shift for what was once a great blues-rock band, because Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac’s most successful songwriter (and a singer and keys player) passed on this week. The band was in turmoil during the making of this album. Guitarist, singer and producer Lindsey Buckingham had broken up with singer Stevie Nicks and McVie herself was divorcing her husband, bassist Jon McVie, and while the songs reflect this, it is really the production that makes Rumours a pop classic. Neither Nicks nor McVie have sounded as good since. | Please share your feedback with us What do you think about this newsletter? | | Were you forwarded this email? Did you stumble upon it online? Sign up here. | | | | | | Get the Hindustan Times app and read premium stories | | | | | | View in Browser | Privacy Policy | Contact us You received this email because you signed up for HT Newsletters or because it is included in your subscription. 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