Tag Archives: Prime Minister Narendra Modi
It’s great that the WHO isn’t just ‘not cutting corners’
Call me anti-national (and I’m sure many will) but I’m glad that the WHO isn’t just “not cutting corners” in the process of considering Bharat Biotech’s application for the UN body’s stamp of approval Covaxin but is also openly calling … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis
Tagged Bharat Biotech, Central Drug Standards Control Organisation, clinical trials, Covaxin, Drug Controller General of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Soumya Swaminathan
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The ‘one billion doses’ hype
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has addressed India’s people 10 times during the country’s COVID-19 epidemic. This is fairly regular but also not frequent – that is, Modi’s addresses are something of special occasions, especially since it’s one of the few … Continue reading
He is never wrong
Akshay Deshmane reported for The Morning Context on October 20 that the Union environment ministry has reversed two important decisions it made earlier this year: (a) to invite private law firms to help amend the Indian Forest Act 1927 and … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds
Tagged Bhupender Yadav, Delhi high court, draft EIA notification 2020, ex post facto, Harsh Vardhan, Indian Forest Act 1927, Mansukh Mandaviya, MoEFCC, Prakash Javadekar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
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Political merch from a newsroom
Shekhar Gupta, the editor of The Print, shared the following image on his Instagram profile a couple days ago: The post had the following note: Since we so love politics at ThePrint, we are developing a range of gifting merchandise. … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis
Tagged autocracy, Hindutva, journalism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, The Print, view from nowhere
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ISRO’s national interest bullshit
For data and other objects, like images and videos, it places in the public domain, the Indian government attaches the GODL license – short for ‘government open data license’. The terms of this license are fairly straightforward: that … all … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis
Tagged Chandrayaan 2, Chandrayaan 3, Government Open Data License, Indian Space Research Organisation, K Sivan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
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The problems with one-shot Covishield
NDTV quoted unnamed sources in the Indian government saying it will be conducting a study to assess the feasibility of deploying the Covishield vaccine in a single-dose regimen instead of continuing the extant double-dose regimen. At any other time, such … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Op-eds
Tagged B.1.1.7 variant, B.1.617.2 variant, COVID-19 pandemic, Covishield, Government of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Public Health England, Serum Institute of India, vaccine effectiveness, vaccine efficacy, Vishwaguru
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The political theatre of Vardhan v. Ramdev
Last week, Baba Ramdev made offensive remarks against allopathic medicine and against people desperately looking for oxygen for their loved ones hospitalised with COVID-19. On Sunday, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan sent a letter to Ramdev asking him to withdraw … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds
Tagged Baba Ramdev, Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, Harsh Vardhan, Indian Medical Association, Manmohan Singh, political theatre, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whataboutery
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Pandemic: Science > politics?
By Mukunth and Madhusudhan Raman Former Union health secretary K. Sujatha Rao had a great piece in The Indian Express on January 14, whose takeaway she summarised in the following line: Science, evidence and data analytics need to be the … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Op-eds, Science
Tagged Central Drug Standards Control Organisation, Covaxin, COVID-19 pandemic, Covishield, criminal negligence, democracy, middle class, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, scientism, Tamil Nadu elections, West Bengal elections
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Journalistic entropy
Say you need to store a square image 1,000 pixels wide to a side with the smallest filesize (setting aside compression techniques). The image begins with the colour #009900 on the left side and, as you move towards the right, … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm
Tagged conspiracy theories, coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, entropy, fact-checking, false balance, health journalism, image compression, Indian Council of Medical Research, information theory, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Priyanka Pulla, pseudoscience, science journalism, thermodynamics, Washington Post
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Nitin Gadkari, tomato chutney and blood
There is a famous comedy scene in Tamil cinema, starring the actors Vadivelu and ‘Bonda’ Mani. Those who understand Tamil should skip this awkward retelling – intended for non-Tamil speakers, to the video below and the post after. Vadivelu has … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged Bertrand Russell, Bonda Mani, coronavirus pandemic, false balance, journalism, nationalism, NDTV, Nitin Gadkari, novel coronavirus, Prakash Javadekar, press freedom, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pseudoscience, scientism, tomato chutney, Vadivelu, Western science
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