Ethanol from Rice: Let them Eat Cake!

A French princess sometime in the 17th or 18th century was told that the peasants were restless and complaining they had no bread. The princess was said to have uttered the legendary phrase, “well then, … Read more

Lockdown: Victory Declarations Premature In the Battle against Covid-19

THE prime minister has now extended the 21-day countrywide lockdown to 40 days, that is, till  May 3.. While doing this, no explanation has been given on what basis the lockdown has been extended, and … Read more

Indian Grid Survives a Modi 9*9 PM Emergency

THE Indian grid was tested as no grid in the world has ever been by PM’s 9-minute at 9 pm lights off call, on April 5. An unprecedented load reduction to the tune of 27 … Read more

India’s Testing Strategy Has to Change

AS I write this column (April 2), Covid-19 is crossing a million infected cases in the world and nearly 50,000 dead. In India, the total infected cases are more than 2,000, with 51 deaths. It … Read more

The National Coronavirus Lockdown

FOLLOWING the prime minister’s address to the nation on the evening of the March 24, the GOI strategy for dealing with the potential stage 2 to stage 3 transition of the covid-19 epidemic is now … Read more

Covid-19 Pandemic Poses Fundamental Challenges to all Societies

IT is now clear that Europe, particularly the core European Union countries – Italy, Spain, France, and Germany – is the new epicentre of the Covid-19 epidemic. China, followed by South Korea, managed to contain … Read more

Looking Behind CAA-NPR-NRC: Reason & Scientific Temper

THE unprecedented popular struggles all over the country against the CAA-NPR-NRC trio of adopted and proposed legislations and executive actions have gripped India. Protest actions have taken many forms such as rallies, human chains and … Read more

COVID-19: China Supercharged Conventional Epidemic Control With Modern Science and Technology

THE novel coronavirus or COVID-19 epidemic appears to be under control in China, but could create new epicentres in South Korea, Italy and Iran. If this happens and creates multiple countries acting as new centres … Read more

Paying Uncle Sam for Stealing Our Secrets

WASHINGTON Post, the German and Swiss broadcasters ZDF and SRF have revealed that German Federal intelligence Agency BND and NSA-CIA jointly owned a Swiss company called Crypto AG. Through Crypto AG, they hacked into encrypted … Read more

Defence Budget Allocations: Crunch Time

FOR a hyper-nationalistic government that boasts of a muscular military posture, the defence budget of 2020 strikes a discordant note. The finance minister, while presenting the union budget for the year in a dreary two-hour … Read more

The Novel Coronavirus and the Virus of New Cold War

FOR the first time, on two successive days, the number of new cases of the novel coronavirus (2019nCov) have dropped below 4,000 as against the earlier daily figures. The comprehensive measures the Chinese authorities have taken … Read more

2019-nCoV, a New Threat and Exemplary Action by the Chinese Authorities

IN two months, the novel coronavirus—or 2019-nCoV—has affected more people than the SARS virus had done in 2002-2003. While it is spreading faster, it is more infectious than SARS, the infections are less severe: the … Read more