Category Archives: Op-eds
India can do it!
Against the background of the H5N1 pandemic in birds and an epidemic among cattle in the US, the Government of Victoria, in Australia, published a statement on May 21 that the province had recorded the country’s first human H5N1 case. … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged Australia, avian influenza, Government of Victoria, H5N1, infectious diseases, pathogen surveillance, Raima Sen, The Vaccine War
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Justice delayed but a ton of bricks await
From ‘SC declines Ramdev, Patanjali apology; expresses concern over FMCGs taking gullible consumers ‘up and down the garden path’’, The Hindu, April 10, 2024: The Supreme Court has refused to accept the unconditional apology from Patanjali co-founder Baba Ramdev and … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Op-eds, Science
Tagged Baba Ramdev, contempt of court, Coronil, COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Manmohan Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Patanjali Ayurved, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Supreme Court of India, Uttarakhand State Licensing Authority
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Cheers for everyone but the bustard
Behold, the legerdemain of spinning bad news into good: Setting aside the meaningless headline, we have a lede (and the rest of the article, for that matter) that claims the Supreme Court of India “struck” a fine balancing act between … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds
Tagged great Indian bustard, solar power, Supreme Court of India, Tushar Mehta, underground power cables
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Reassurance by electoral bond
The electoral bonds release has been reassuring on one count. For some time after the (new) BJP first rose to power in 2014, with a groundswell of support (but arguably also because of the ‘first past the post’ system) I … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Op-eds
Tagged Bharatiya Janata Party, electoral bonds, Indian National Congress, political financing
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Farce and friction over an Indian astronaut
When we met Mr [Morarji] Desai, he was totally relaxed even after the long journey from Delhi. Squatting on a carpet in the Kremlin and spinning his favourite charka, he received us very gracefully and congratulated us on the impressive … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Bhaskara I satellite, Indian Space Programme, Morarji Desai, Satish Dhawan, UR Rao, Vikram Sarabhai
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To the moon – or the stock market?
Now this is quite upsetting. I learn from Jatan Mehta’s Moon Monday #166 that Intuitive Machines – the maker of the Odysseus spacecraft that landed on the moon on February 22 – may have lied about the circumstances of the … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged 166, Commercial Lunar Payload Services, Intuitive Machines, Jatan Mehta, lunar landing, Moon Monday, NASA, NASA LiDAR, public communication
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Government by Supreme Court
On February 27, a bench of the Supreme Court upbraided Patanjali Ayurved and its chairman Acharya Balkrishna for continuing to disparage systems of medicine other than Ayurveda (technically, what it calls Ayurveda) and claiming its products offer “permanent relief” from … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Op-eds
Tagged Acharya Balkrishna, Advertising Standards Council of India, Ayurveda, Baba Ramdev, Indian Medical Association, Ministry of AYUSH, Patanjali Ayurved, pharmacovigilance, Pushpa Mitra Bhargava, Ritwick Dutta, Supreme Court of India, TN Godavarman
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A Q&A about philosophy in journalism
Earlier this year, Varun Bhatta, assistant professor of philosophy at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal, reached out to ask me some questions for something he was writing about the representation of philosophical ideas in journalism. He … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm
Tagged business model, Creative Commons, editorial independence, journalism, philosophy, public interest, science communication, science journalism, The Conversation, The Hindu, The Wire, Varun Bhatta
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Schrödinger’s temple
On January 22, in a ceremony led by Prime Minister and now high-priest Narendra Modi, priests and officials allegedly consecrated the idol of Lord Ram at the new temple in Ayodhya, with many celebrities in attendance. (‘Alleged’ because I don’t … Continue reading
Ram temple at science ‘festival’
The Surya Tilak project had courted controversy in the past with Trinamool Congress’s Mahua Moitra flagging it on social media in November 2021. The CSIR officials, however, defended the project arguing the scientific calculations that went into making the system. … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged Ayodhya, Bharatiya Janata Party, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Department of Science and Technology, India, India International Science Festival, Indian Science Congress, Ram temple, Ram temple consecration, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, religion, Surya Tilak, Vijnana Bharati
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