CRISPR: Good Science or Evil Science?

A three-year old technology of gene editing called CRISPR is now the focus of two major disputes. The disputes are: who (or which team) will get the Nobel prize for this discovery, and the other, … Read more

Urban Air Pollution: Will Delhi Even Out the Odds?

The short and temporary experiment in Delhi to combat severe air pollution by rationing road-use by personal 4-wheeled vehicles on alternate days, corresponding to odd or even numbered dates and license plates, is to end … Read more

If Cities have to Breathe, Diesel Cars Need to Go

After Delhi hit the news becoming the most polluted city in the world, the Supreme Court, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Delhi government have all got into the act. Diesel vehicles are the … Read more

Paris Climate Agreement: US has its Way

The apparently smooth approval and adoption on December 12th night of the Paris Agreement to control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the resultant climate crisis was greeted all over the world with huge relief and, … Read more

Hindutva, Mathematics, Pythagoras and Zero

The Hindutva brigade have been continuously proclaiming that the Greeks learnt Pythagoras from India. This is what Harsh Vardhan, the BJP Science and Technology Minister, claimed in the Indian Science Congress last year; that “we” … Read more

Vimanas, Rockets, and Tipu Sultan

THE RSS and its camp followers have a strange relationship to imagination. They take the imagination of the mythology, and present it as matter of fact history. When it comes to the scientific imagination – … Read more

Orchestrated Attack on India’s Research System

“There will always be circumstances when private investment lags – when the innovation creates a public good, such as clean air, for which an investor can’t capture the value, or when the risk is too … Read more

Modi’s India: Holy Cows, Unholy People

In a meeting which I attended recently, a senior retired Air Force officer talked about the protest of the writers as a ray of hope in an otherwise bleak landscape. He was referring to writers … Read more

India’s INDC for Paris Climate Summit

India finally announced its mitigation pledge last week, its so-called Intended Nationally Determined Contribution or INDC for the approaching Climate Summit in Paris in December this year which is expected to conclude an international agreement … Read more

Software Patents Refuse to Die

Software patents are like zombies in the zombie film genre that Hollywood has made popular. They just refuse to die. As many time you kill them, they revive again and keep coming back. In India, … Read more

The Dengue Epidemic and Demise of Public Healthcare

The tragic events culminating in the suicide of the parents of Avinash, a seven year old child who had succumbed to dengue fever, largely due to the apathy of a number of private hospitals, have … Read more

The Bankruptcy of Power Sector Reforms

The CAG Draft Report on Delhi’s Distcoms describing the Rs. 8,000 crore loot of consumers, follows on the heels of the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (OERC) order, cancelling the licenses of the three Anil Ambani … Read more