This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Anand Vardhan are joined by Supreme Court advocate Mihira Sood and journalist Govindraj Ethiraj.

The panel discusses the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand. Mihira says, “There are many peculiarities of the law, but the strangest is that registration of live-in relationships is more cumbersome than a marriage…The penalty for not registering a marriage is nothing, but the penalty for not registering a live-in relationship can be imprisonment.” 

Commenting on the backlash to inter-faith relationships in the state in the recent past, Manisha adds, “What we know from newspaper reports is that registrations will be scrutinised by the Bajrang Dal…What the Uttarakhand government wants to do here is just police people who are living together.”

On the new budget announced for 2025-26, Govindraj says there’s “nothing really landmark” in the budget but the “benefits offered to the middle class are a good thing”. “It is correcting a problem of the recent past – the pressure of inflation on households and incomes not growing as they did before,” he says.

The panel also discusses the continuing depreciation of the rupee against the dollar, and the ‘unease’ of doing business in India. 

This and a lot more. Tune in!

Hafta letters: Trump’s promises, understanding spirituality, India’s middle class

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Song: Happy birthday 

Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introductions and announcements

00:02:12 - Headlines

00:13:37 - Uniform Civil Code

00:44:08 - ‘Unease’ of doing business

00:49:57 - Budget

01:11:05 - Depreciation of the Rupee

01:23:27- Letters

01:45:00 - Recommendations 

References 

Delhi Polls | NL Sena

NL@13 birthday offer 

Sanitary Panels comic

What Uttarakhand's uniform civil code gets wrong 

Live in fear : Uniform Patriarchal Code 

The Core Report podcast 

Jailed for doing business by ORF   

Recommendations

Mihira 

Wellness by Nathan Hill

Govindraj 

Sacred Waters by Stephen Alter 

Manisha 

Basant Kumar’s video report on Mahakumbh deaths

Exclusive: Hospital, police records suggest at least 79 deaths in Kumbh stampede

The Sympathizer 

Raman 

Basant Kumar’s video report on Mahakumbh deaths

Exclusive: Hospital, police records suggest at least 79 deaths in Kumbh stampede

Trump wants to show the world who is boss by Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Budget 2025’s tax cuts for middle class will boost consumption many times over

Budget tax cuts won’t cut it. It’s majority’s real incomes that drive consumption

Anand     

Overdeveloped State by Hamza Alavi

Nehru's First Recruits: The Diplomats Who Built Independent India's Foreign Policy

Abhinandan 

NPR Newsletter on why the AI world is suddenly obsessed with the one sixty year old economics paradox

Amicus with Dhalia Litwick

Thin Skin Seal Lips  

Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters 

Produced and recorded by Priyali Dhingra and Ashish Anand, edited by Hassan Bilal. 

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