THE Morbi pedestrian suspension bridge over the Machchhu River collapsed on October 30, leading to the confirmed death of 141 persons and injuries to more than 100. In this column, I will not repeat what is widely known regarding one of the worst bridge disasters in India. The question that needs to be raised is whose responsibility is such a bridge in India and whether the authorities carried out their responsibilities. This is more than simply filing police cases against lower-level staff in the company, Oreva, a manufacturer of electronic clocks, CFL bulbs and e-bikes.

THE images of women in Iran burning their hijabs has prompted the social media trolls of the BJP in India to taunt women activists who have opposed the Karnataka government’s ban on wearing the hijab to educational institutions. One of them said “show these (the photographs)  to shameless Indian women who want to cover girls in hijab”. As usual the trolls have got it wrong. In Iran the custodial death of Mahsa Amini, the 22 year old Kurdish woman in Teheran has led to a series of protests in Teheran and elsewhere.

A TWO-JUDGE bench of the Supreme Court, on August 18 afternoon, issued an order on the legal code for the marketing of medicines.The Federation of Medical and sales Representatives’ Associations of India (FMRAI), had filed a petition in the court urging the government to enforce a legal code for marketing of medicines.The Indian media, however, has distorted facts and misreported the issue by selectively highlighting the issue of perks given to doctors to improve the sales of one product, Dolo-650, an antipyretic drug.Dolo-650, produced and marketed by Micro Labs,  contains 650 mg of parace

THE Kerala Assembly has passed the Lok Ayukta Amendment Bill after detailed discussions. The assembly came to the general point of view that the bill has constitutional and legal validity. This bill has been formulated as per the provisions of the Central Lokpal Act and the State Lok Ayukta Model Bill by upholding the provisions of the constitution. As per the Lok Ayukta Act, this system will be responsible for investigations and inspections.

R KELLY, the now disgraced pop star, had famously sung, ‘I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky…spread my wings and fly away…’ That song, with the beautiful video of Michael Jordan dunking the ball in the basket was really fascinating. That was then, it was only a fascination. A fantasy. But these are the days when fantasies turn into realities and myths. From there, it is not a long flight to become part of our history syllabus. Let us see how it is done.A textbook for Class VIII students in Karnataka teaches us that one can easily fly.