SCIENCE & DEVELOPMENT

Even with Vaccines, It is a Long and Rocky Road to Immunity

AS the pandemic marches through the world, a number of countries seemed to have given up the fight against Covid-19, and are now waiting for a vaccine to stop the pandemic. With cases exceeding 32 million, and more than a million dead, the world economy has taken a bigger hit than at any other time in the last century.

Countries like the US and India are now showing the highest numbers in terms of total and new cases. They are not even talking about how to stop the pandemic, and are only focussing on re-opening; or as India calls it, ‘unlockdown’.

Harsh Vardhan Claims Empty Victories as India Becomes Epicentre of Covid-19 Pandemic

SPEAKING in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on September 15-16, Dr Harsh Vardhan, union health minister made a number of self-congratulatory claims regarding the “success” of the government’s lockdown and its Covid-19 policies. What was striking about his claims is its ostrich-like refusal to address the current reality of surging Covid-19 cases. He completely ducked the question why after a “successful” lockdown, India has currently the highest number of daily new cases, and is on course by October to overtake the US, the worst performing country in the world.

Worsening Epidemic and a Sinking Economy: Modi’s Mid-year Balance Sheet

TWO news items about India have figured prominently, one a nearly 24 per cent drop in India’s GDP  the previous quarter and the other that India has taken over as the new epicentre of the global pandemic with its figures for new cases crossing even the US numbers. The 24 per cent drop in GDP for the second quarter is the biggest drop of any major economy in the world for a quarter. The comparable US figures are 9.5 per cent and Japan’s 7.6 per cent drop in the same quarter.

Worsening Epidemic and a Sinking Economy: Modi’s Mid-year Balance Sheet

TWO news items about India have figured prominently, one a nearly 24 per cent drop in India’s GDP  the previous quarter and the other that India has taken over as the new epicentre of the global pandemic with its figures for new cases crossing even the US numbers. The 24 per cent drop in GDP for the second quarter is the biggest drop of any major economy in the world for a quarter. The comparable US figures are 9.5 per cent and Japan’s 7.6 per cent drop in the same quarter.

Worsening Epidemic and a Sinking Economy: Modi’s Mid-year Balance Sheet

TWO news items about India have figured prominently, one a nearly 24 per cent drop in India’s GDP  the previous quarter and the other that India has taken over as the new epicentre of the global pandemic with its figures for new cases crossing even the US numbers. The 24 per cent drop in GDP for the second quarter is the biggest drop of any major economy in the world for a quarter. The comparable US figures are 9.5 per cent and Japan’s 7.6 per cent drop in the same quarter.

Worsening Epidemic and a Sinking Economy: Modi’s Mid-year Balance Sheet

TWO news items about India have figured prominently, one a nearly 24 per cent drop in India’s GDP  the previous quarter and the other that India has taken over as the new epicentre of the global pandemic with its figures for new cases crossing even the US numbers. The 24 per cent drop in GDP for the second quarter is the biggest drop of any major economy in the world for a quarter. The comparable US figures are 9.5 per cent and Japan’s 7.6 per cent drop in the same quarter.

TikTok Ban and Trump’s Extortionist Policies

IN the United States of America, Trump administration has given a 90-day deadline to ByteDance, its Chinese owner, to sell its assets to a US company or shut shop. Microsoft, Oracle and a group including Twitter, are in negotiations with ByteDance for buying TikTok’s US business that also includes Canada, Australia and New Zealand.  ByteDance is valued between $100-200 billion, with its US business alone estimated to be in the range of $20-50 billion.

Can BJP’s Politics and Facebook’s Business Thrive without Hate?

THE Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article – Facebook’s Hate-Speech Rules Collide With Indian Politics – on August 14, has blown the lid off Facebook’s unholy alliance with the BJP. In this article, WSJ details how Ankhi Das, Facebook’s public policy director for India, South and Central Asia, opposed action against BJP leaders spreading hate on Facebook that were tagged internally as ‘hate speech’ and ‘dangerous’ with the potential of causing real world violence. The reason: such action would harm Facebook’s business in India, its largest user base in the world.

Air Crash in Kozhikode: Haunting Issues

AIR India Express ‘Vande Bharat’ Flight IX 1134 evacuating stranded Indians from Dubai to India, tragically crashed in rainy conditions on August 7, 2020 evening at Calicut International Airport in Karipur near Kozhikode, Kerala. The Boeing 737 NG aircraft overshot what is termed a ‘tabletop’ runway, went through the airport boundary wall, tipped over the edge to drop over 35 feet, and broke into three pieces, two large and one smaller, with the front portion damaged the most and having most of the deaths.

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