SCIENCE & DEVELOPMENT

Excess Deaths for 2021: Six Times Higher than Official COVID Figures

IN the aftermath of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic – India finally confronts a harsh reality: the true toll of the pandemic was far greater than official counts ever recognised. Government figures now confirm what public health officials, data journalists, and international agencies had been warning all along – that COVID related deaths were greatly underestimated.India witnessed more than 21.5 lakh excess deaths in 2021 – nearly six times the official 2021 COVID-19 death toll of 3.3 lakh, according to a recent analysis published by The Hindu.

Trump Tariffs, Chinese Dark Factories and Make in India

THE Trump administration has launched an all-out trade war to isolate China and bring manufacturing, hollowed out through decades of outsourcing, and its associated jobs back to the US. While the Trump Tariffs and tantrums hog the headlines, China has quietly gone about implementing its long-term vision to transform its manufacturing sector and economy. Few narratives encapsulate global economic shifts like the story of China’s rapid automation revolution.

India’s Green Credit Rules and Carbon Conundrum

THE Government of India, in the last quarter of 2023, framed some controversial regulations called Green Credit Rules (GCR) under the Environment Protection Act (EPA) of 1986. Undoubtedly, at first glance, it appears to be a good initiative targeting crediting individuals or institutions imparting plantation activities across the country. The Government of India espouses these "climate positive actions" as part of its international commitment towards maintaining a clean atmosphere. The union government believes that, with the introduction of GCR, plantation activities will get a push.

Maritime Emissions Agreement: A Big Deal

TWO sectors, namely international aviation and international shipping, each representing around 3 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, have remained outside the purview of international negotiations and treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC, as well as negotiations and emissions control regimes under it, regulate actions by government parties as the only entities that can be held accountable under international treaties.

Trump’s Tariff War: After Me, the Deluge

THERE are many dimensions of Trump's trade war launched against all countries beginning of April, from the biggest countries, such as China, EU, Japan, and India, to the smallest, including Lesotho, one of the poorest countries in the world. Lesotho exports diamonds to the US, has a per capita income of approximately $3.3, and is in no position to buy US goods. The US imposed an import duty on Lesotho of 50 per cent, the highest tariff on any country. This is before China and US reciprocal tariffs tit for tat action reached minimum China’s tariff to 145 per cent.

Laws of Gravity Catching Up with Tesla

WE are not talking here about Nikolai Tesla, the genius who invented the AC motor and whose design is the basis for almost all electric motors today, including electric vehicles (EVs). This article is about Tesla, the car company that has become synonymous with Elon Musk. Tesla's share price, which defied the laws of gravity for years, is now on a steep downward trajectory in the last three months, losing about half its market value over the last three months. Statista notes that it has lost the title of being the world's leader in producing EVs to BYD, the Chinese EV maker.

Advancing the Boundaries of Science: From Oparin, Haldane, Bernal to Today

ONE of the arguments in favour of a divine power – or god – is that life could not have arisen naturally and needed a touch of the divine to come into being. While Oparin, Haldane and Bernal had argued how organic life forms can arise naturally, experimental proof that this is indeed the case was lacking, though the Urey-Miller experiments in 1953 came quite close to it.

Musk Enters India’s Telecom Market: A Shake-up or a Shake Down?

THE announcements of Musk's SpaceX-Starlink's tie-up with Jio Reliance (Jio is a trademark of Reliance Industries) and Bharti Airtel, the two dominant players, raise a number of questions. The two key questions are: i) Will it mean a greater monopolisation in telecom services? ii) Will satellite spectrum be given to Starlink without auction? It also raises questions about whether such satellite spectrum, a country's critical resource, should be given out for commercial operations in this way.Top 4 Telecom Companies Market Share

Trump 2.0: Tech Oligarchy driven US Revivalism

TRUMP 2.0 has got off to a tumultuous start. The early days of Donald Trump’s second term as US president have been marked by a whirlwind of policy shifts, diplomatic upheavals, and economic manoeuvres, leaving both domestic and international observers struggling to keep pace. While Trump has always been erratic and almost deliberately unpredictable, the scope and magnitude of changes being ushered in this Trump 2.0 administration is qualitatively different.

Exaggeration of Forest Cover in India

INDIA'S forest cover is on the decline. But government agencies consistently present data that support a false narrative of the country’s forests doing well with regard to both carbon sequestration and forest cover. Forest Survey of India (FSI) has the responsibility of publishing ‘India State of Forest Report (ISFR)’ every alternate year. The ISFR 2023 reported a 1,445 square kilometres (sq. kms) increase in total forest and tree cover compared to 2021, with 156 sq. kms attributed to natural forest cover and the remainder to tree cover outside forests.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - SCIENCE & DEVELOPMENT