December 2, 2023

Good morning. Every Saturday, we publish the results of polls from feature stories that were published the past week. We also give a brief overview of the topics that were discussed.

🗳️ POLL RESULTS – Week 153

🗓️ THE WEEK THAT WAS

Should adultery be made a criminal offence once again?

Daily | 27 November 2023

One law that has been in the news lately is Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) – the Adultery Law. The Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs has stated that adultery should be reinstated as a criminal offence since it was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2018. Is the House Panel right in wanting this back in the books, or is this a blatant step backwards? Read more on this here.

Should Mahabharata and Ramayana be included in school curriculums?

Daily | 28 November 2023

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) recently proposed including the Mahabharata and Ramayana in the school curriculum. The panel said it’s to inculcate a sense of patriotism and pride among students. Would teaching these mythological stories really accomplish that? Is this even the right way to go about it? We discuss it here.

Will Microsoft’s bet on OpenAI continue to pay dividends for both companies?

Daily | 29 November 2023

In the case of Altman and OpenAI, things happened quite quickly and abruptly. He left, joined Microsoft, and then returned. With the importance the OpenAI-Microsoft partnership has in the larger tech world, do they both come out of this unscathed? Given how much Microsoft is betting on AI and how much OpenAI is being relied upon, will this partnership continue to blossom? We unpack this here.

Would a permanent constitution bench help the Supreme Court of India?

Daily | 30 November 2023

A permanent constitutional bench could help the court better deal with the pendency of cases that the Indian judiciary is infamous for. On the other hand, some are worried about some unintended consequences of such a bench and whether it would actually spur people to approach the court. Find the debate here.

Does India need an All-India Judicial Service?

Daily | 1 December 2023

How exactly do you get diverse judges onto a court? One approach is an All-India Judicial Service (AIJS). While others, including the government, have proposed it in the past, it’s back in the news recently when President Droupadi Murmu spoke in favour of it. Having a merit-based pan-Indian test for judges could help broaden representation. However, some see this as a good intention not amounting to sound policy. More on this story here.