INDIA’S first indigenously built aircraft carrier, named INS Vikrant and assigned the same ensign number R-11 as its illustrious predecessor, was commissioned and joined service with the Indian Navy on September 2, 2022 at a ceremony in Kochi in the presence of the prime minister and defence minister. Every Indian must of course be proud of this achievement which, with all the many hurdles it has overcome, has taken 17 long years for fruition, spanning the terms of many governments. The PM, however, appeared to take special credit, especially for the self-reliance embodied in Vikrant.

THE Zaporozhye (also spelt as Zaporizhzhia) Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) has become a focal point in the Ukraine war, as any major nuclear incident there risks the release of radioactivity over a vast area. In such an accident, not only Ukraine but large parts of Europe could face radioactive contamination and much higher rates of cancer and other diseases. Russia has claimed that the Ukrainian side has shelled the Zaporozhye plant in July and in August and has submitted photographic and other documentary evidence to the UN Security Council on August 23, 2022 .

AS the tension between the US and China mounts as a fall-out of Nancy Pelosi's provocative Taiwan visit, the technology war between the two is also taking a new turn. Both houses in the US Congress have approved a $280 billion plan – The Chips and Science Act – to boost US chip manufacturing. Currently, 75 per cent of chip manufacturing in the world takes place in East Asia, centred around Taiwan, South Korea and China. The US aims to re-shore the semiconductor industry back to the US.

THE BJP government’s relentless assault on environmental regulations, and therefore on the environment itself, so as to serve the interests of corporates and their industrial, infrastructure and commercial projects, continues unabated. In a recent issue of this publication, readers would have seen a detailed critique of the atrocious amendments made by the union government to the Forest Conservation Act, giving free rein to the government to divert forest lands completely bypassing the rights of tribals, other forest-dwellers and their gram sabhas as enshrined in the Forest Rights Act.

WITH more than 4,000 cases (as on June 30, 2022), the recent outbreak of monkeypox in Europe and North America has become international news. World Health Organisation (WHO) has reacted by monitoring the progress of monkeypox globally and issuing guidelines regarding testing, and taking immediate measures. But WHO has not yet declared monkeypox a public health emergency.As long as monkeypox was confined to Africa, where similar outbreaks have been happening in Central and West Africa for years, it raised little concern.