Questions Gujarat Government Must Answer on Morbi Bridge Collapse

The Morbi pedestrian suspension bridge over the Machchu River collapsed on 30 October, leading to the confirmed death of 141 persons, primarily children and women. I will not repeat what is widely known regarding one … Read more

Chip War v2: US Decoupling from China or Declaring War by Other Means?

The United States has gambled big in its latest across-the-board sanctions on Chinese semiconductor companies, believing it can kneecap China and retain its global dominance. From the globalisation and “free trade” slogans of the neo-liberal … Read more

Don’t Just Fix Prices, Treat Drug Regulation as Basic Public Good: Health Expert on Cough Syrup Deaths

The World Health Organisation recently said the death of 66 children in the Gambia was linked to their consuming cough syrups made in India. When officials of the central and State-level drug regulators inspected the … Read more

DART Moves Target

One of the more striking of recent space projects proved to be a smashing success (pardon the puns) when data compiled by the US National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) showed on October 11, 2022, … Read more

India’s Combat Helicopter: Re-discovering Self-reliance?

On October 3, 2022, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL)’s indigenously designed and produced Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) was formally inducted into the Indian Air Force in Jodhpur in the presence of the Defence Minister, who named … Read more

Draft Telecom Bill: Surveillance Paradise and Gift to Telecom Monopolies

The government recently released a draft Indian Telecommunication Bill 2022 for public comment. It follows the withdrawal of the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill, which had been in the making for five years. The PDP … Read more

Queen Elizabeth II: The Apology that Never Came

How should we remember Queen Elizabeth II and her seventy years on the British throne? Many people have reacted to the glorification of her rule, pointing out the British Royals’ direct connection to the slave … Read more

When Market Fundamentalism Overcomes Common Sense: Myth of Electricity Markets

The price of electricity has risen astronomically in Europe over the last two years: by four times over the previous year and ten times over the last two years. The European Union has claimed that … Read more

Game of Nuclear Chicken in Zaporozhye

The Zaporozhye (also spelt Zaporizhzhia) Nuclear Power Plant has become a focal point in the Ukraine war, as any major nuclear incident risks radioactivity release over a vast area. In such an accident, not only … Read more

Where are Science and Development After 75 Years of the Indian Independence?

A scientific vision—conceived to encompass the social and the natural sciences—was profoundly a part of the Indian national movement. India’s struggle for independence was not simply to free itself from British rule. It was also … Read more

United States Ratchets up Chip War Against China

With tensions between the United States and China mounting as a fallout of Nancy Pelosi’s provocative Taiwan visit, the technology war between them is also taking a new turn. Both houses of Congress have approved … Read more

Mendel’s Genetic Revolution and the Legacy of Scientific Racism

In July this year, the world is celebrating 200 years of Gregor Mendel’s birth, widely accepted as the father of genetics for his discovery of the laws of inheritance. His experiments with peas, published in … Read more