Green Energy Plan for Indian Capital but not for its People

THE recent announcement of the Union Government of an Rs. 20,000 crore (Rs. 19,794 crore) National Green Hydrogen Mission has created two kinds of questions. The most common reaction is what is green hydrogen? And do we have a plan for a green hydrogen path for which Rs. 20,000 crore is being earmarked?Let us get one fact straight: all shades of hydrogen—green, blue or grey—are only on how hydrogen is produced, not the colour of the gas. Regardless of how hydrogen is generated, it remains the same colourless, odourless gas.

Of Covid Variants and Scariants

THE news of the opening up of China from the Covid-19 protocols and its current epidemic has overtaken the threat of two emerging SARS-CoV-2 lineages – XBB and BQ.1. China is seeing the spread of BF.7, which is much closer to the original Omicron strain. Our existing immunity, from either vaccines or infections, should therefore continue to protect us from infections partially and much better against serious infections.The threat of the Chinese variant, as the news media calls it, is much lower than that from the US and Europe.

US Patriot Missile System for Ukraine

DURING the much hyped visit of Ukraine’s President Zelensky to the US, the latter let it be known that, as part of its latest tranche of advanced weapons that Ukraine has been pleading for, the US would be supplying the Patriot anti-missile system to the US. A formal announcement will be made once some necessary procedures are completed.

Lasers for Fusion Breakthrough and Its Nuclear Bomb Connection

LAWRENCE Livermore Laboratory's advance in achieving fusion energy using lasers has been splashed worldwide as a huge success. So what was the success all about? The joint press release of the US Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration states that this experiment "...will pave the way for advancements in national defense and the future of clean power." In other words, there was also a weapons component to the fusion experiment.

Two Contrasting Trends in Military Aircraft Development

AIRBORNE platforms are arguably among the most technologically advanced and impactful military equipment, considered by many to have shifted paradigms of warfare over recent different historical periods. During the First World War, it took time for combatant nations to figure out how to use aircraft in battle, from dropping crude bombs on enemy targets to working out how to fire bullets through the front-mounted propeller!

Hypocrisy of the Rich Countries and the Green Energy’s Storage Problem

THE crux of the issue is that non-fossil, or even a low fossil fuel path, will need grid-level storage costs to drop by a factor of 10 times what they are today! If they don't, then the grid supply will become unreliable, with cascading costs for the people and the economy.That green energy has a storage problem did not bother us earlier. Coal or gas-fired plants on the grid can be used to meet the shortfall due to the variable supply from renewables. The shortage of renewables is not a problem as long as renewables are not the major source of supply for the grid.

The 2022 Data Privacy Bill: A New Version or the Charter of Surveillance Capitalism?

THE new avatar of the Indian Data Protection Bill 2022 is not simply the rebirth of the earlier 2019 one. The objective of the earlier Data Protection Bill 2019 was to give a legal framework for the Supreme Court's Puttuswamy judgement of privacy as a fundamental right. The 2022 Bill has a different purpose. This version proclaims the citizen's right to privacy but allows the government to override this right at its will. The other objective of the new Bill is to enable big business—Indian and foreign—to use our data for their benefit.

COP27: More Loss and Damage Ahead

THE mild applause that greeted the Egyptian Chair gaveling through the Agreement reached at the end of COP27, after almost two full sleepless days of last-minute extensions, probably best captured the spirit at Sharm el-Sheikh. The delegates and all the observers were not just tired, they were simply relieved that the Summit was finally over, with some or other agreement.

Symposium on Self-Reliance: Report

THE symposium on ‘Self-Reliance in Science & Technology (S&T) and Development’, organised by the Delhi Science Forum (DSF) is association with the All India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN) and held in P Ramamurti Bhavan in Delhi on November12-13, was an eye-opener in more ways than one.

Challenges in COP 27: Private Greed of Capital vs Society’s Survival

COP 27 is underway in Sharm el-Sheikh. Although the Ukraine War and the US mid-term elections have shifted our immediate focus away from how we are faring in our battle against global warming, it still remains a central concern of our epoch. Reports indicate not only are we failing to meet our climate change goals, but we are also failing them by a large margin.

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