“At a time when the world is facing a shortage of wheat, farmers of India have stepped forward to feed the world”. It was not even two weeks ago that Mr. Modi had made this statement in Berlin. Let us talk about wheat and our ambitions of feeding the world. Thread.👇1/n India is the world’s second largest producer of wheat. But as we are also world’s second largest consumer of wheat, bulk of the production goes towards feeding our own population. Less than 1% of the wheat consumed in the rest of the world comes from India. 2/n

Do you know how many foreign tourists visit India every year and which is top source country? There is a good reason why I’m asking this question. Read on. Thread 1/n 👇 In 2019, before the pandemic, India had 10.93 million tourist arrivals. Out of this 2.58m (23.6%) were from Bangladesh. In 2020, total tourist arrivals fell due to the pandemic but still 20% were from Bangladesh. 2/n

All reports and rankings are not perfect, but broadly this is how it works:

Negative = Flawed methodology, Anti-India conspiracy
Positive = Dynamic leadership

Thread 👇 1/n **World Press Freedom Index ranking - 150/180**

‘Govt rejects ranking on Press Freedom Index, attacks methodology’ (2021)

2/n

Here is a reality check jhatka to help to understand Halal better. Thread 1/n 👇 What is common between these random items? The packet of Atta, sugar and a 3-minute snack are all imported from India and they are all certified ‘Halal’. 2/n

“The world came to know about Gandhi after a film was made on his life by a foreigner in 1982”. Really? Thread👇 1/n In 1930 with the Dandi March, Gandhi’s popularity had surged the world over. 2/n

It’s time to compile the gems Indian TV debates in one thread. 1/n First, the Mr. MacAdams moment - The greatest video of all time is guaranteed to make you laugh no matter how many times you watch it 2/n

Several media outlets reported that a fourth wave of COVID-19 may hit India on June 22nd till Oct 24th. Did this precise prediction come from a published, peer reviewed, scientific study? Shouldn’t the media ask this question before reporting the study? Thread 1/n The paper by IIT-K researchers is available on Med Archive and is a preprint paper that has not been peer reviewed. The site explicitly cautions about reporting preprint papers in news media. medrxiv.org/content/10.110… 2/n

A narrative is being built that there were multiple advisories but the students did not leave Ukraine. Here is the timeline of what happened. Thread 👇1/n The first advisory issued on Feb 15 asked Indian nationals whose stay is ‘non-essential’ to ‘consider’ leaving Ukraine. 2/n

https://twitter.com/indiainukraine/status/1493578367714607112

What’s in a name? A look at the politics that is unfolding in India over the name of a COVID variant. Thread 👇1/n Learning from past experience, WHO’s 2015 guidelines warn against location based naming of new infectious diseases in order to avoid stigmatizing the communities involved and minimize negative effects on nations, economies and people. 2/n

This constant attempt to peddle hate and give a communal spin to everything.... It’s the same formula, same players. Here is yet another example 1/n In March 2020, to help the poor tide over the lockdown, govt announced that a sum of Rs 500/- per month will be credited into the accounts of Women Jan Dhan Yojana account holders for the next three months. 2/n

Remember British Herald? In 2019, an obscure website ran a poll and declared PM Modi as the most powerful person in the world. Thread👇 1/n Desperate for international endorsement for PM Modi, BJP leaders and supporters immediately lined up to congratulate each other for this ‘achievement’ 2/n

Let’s talk about vaccines and vaccine diplomacy. Thread 👇 1/n In Sept 2020, at the UN General Assembly, PM Modi spoke about how India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting this crisis. 2/n

Violence erupted in West Bengal soon results of the state election were declared. This thread documents how BJP supporting handles seized this as an opportunity to share misinformation and add fuel to the fire.👇 1/n Unrelated videos & images have been circulated with incendiary text and hashtags like #BengalBurning #PresidentsRuleinBengal. Several prominent handles including BJP leaders & supporters have been actively involved in sharing these misleading images and videos. 2/n

Social media and WhatsApp are replete with unscientific, non evidence-backed cures for prevention and treatment of COVID-19. This thread is about those unverified claims that were propagated and endorsed by the government, politicians or media. 1/n As early as January 2020, Government of India’s, Ministry of AYUSH released an advisory that prescribed Homoeopathy for Prevention of Coronavirus Infections and Ayurvedic and Unani medicines for symptomatic management 2/n pib.gov.in/PressReleasePa…

https://twitter.com/pib_india/status/1222385553892528128

There were few crucial weeks in Feb and March when cases were just starting to rise. Let’s zoom in on these four weeks and see how the early signals were missed, valuable time was lost and Indians were led to believe that they were immune to COVID. Thread 1/n First, the backdrop: PM Modi speaking at World Economic Forum on Jan 28, 2021 said that fears about a COVID Tsunami in India were unfounded as India had not only defeated COVID but it has also built adequate infrastructure to handle it. 2/n

There have been repeated instances where official BJP and government handles have wrongly used photographs to make or support their claims. Here are a few examples. Thread. 1/n The woman featured as a beneficiary of PMAY in BJP advertisement lives in a rented house and didn’t receive a house under the scheme. newslaundry.com/2021/03/22/thi… 2/n

Former FTII chairman,
Gajendra Chauhan has a history of problematic tweets that he later deletes. He had tweeted and deleted in support of Shringi Yadav, the man who was seen assaulting a child in a viral video. Link to the deleted tweet 👉

https://mobile.twitter.com/Gajjusay/status/1371720039074648066

1/n His tweet on Shringi Yadav was was widely called out. 2/n

My aunt passed away many years ago. Among her belongings was an old album that she was very fond of. The album remained lost for many years, buried somewhere in a storeroom in the basement. It was found again recently during a clean-up. 1/n As a young girl growing up in a small town in 1950s and 60s, she was completely enamored by movies. Much to the disapproval of her mother, she spent her free time writing fan mail to movie stars and over a time, built up quite a collection of autographed pictures and letters. 2/n

Someone must have thought that these coordinated tweets on #RelianceWithAnnaDatta are a great idea. 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️ 1/n The beauty of these campaigns is that you don’t have to bother about making sense. 2/n

It is so wonderful for a young poet to find that her work has been shared by a superstar but it’s unimaginable that he won’t give her credit even after she points it out to him. It has been nearly three days and @SrBachchan has not acknowledged @TishaAgarwal14’s poem. 1/n In 2017, Kumar Vishwas had made a tribute video on legendary poets in which he included Mr. Bachchan’s father’s poem. When it was shared with him, this was his response. 2/n👇

Merry Christmas! How’s your Christmas going? Here is a collection of random tweets from Indian Twitter that will do India proud. Thread 👇1/n The run up to Christmas started with Chavhanke running his Christmas special series on conversions. 2/n