WITH an eighth of the world’s population, the rich countries – the US, Canada, UK and the EU – have received more than 50 per cent of the world’s vaccine doses. The US alone has received 147 million vaccine jabs (see Table 1). This is more than 14 times what the entire continent of Africa – with four times the population of the US – has received. And if we do not count the vaccine doses that Morocco, truly an outlier in Africa, has received, the US has received 60 times the vaccine doses that Africa has!

TWO major hacks – SolarWind and Microsoft Exchange server hacks – have affected a whole range of computer systems. Both are supply-chain hacks, meaning what appeared to be a routine software upgrade to a particular component in the system instead inserted malicious code.

THE Texas grid failure impacted millions with no electricity and no heating in sub-zero temperatures for days. It has not only caused scores of deaths and injuries, but also economic havoc in the state. Even after two weeks of the blackouts, life is far from normal as the citizens deal with frozen and burst pipes, denying people access to safe water and causing extensive damages to the houses.

THERE is plenty to be depressed about these days. The year-long Covid-19 pandemic continues to plague people in India and around the world, the government obstinately refuses to engage with the existential issues raised by farmers, and freedom of speech and everyone expressing critical opinions face continued assault. In the midst of these dark clouds, recent space expeditions to Mars by the UAE and China, and especially the dramatic soft landing of NASA’s Perseverance Rover on the red planet streamed live at 2:30 am on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, came as welcome rays of light.

THEgovernment has released a Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2020 (STIP 2020) and invited responses by January 31, 2021. The Department of Science & Technology and the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government did conduct a series of consultations with some scientists and other experts to seek, albeit prior to the actual formulation and release of the policy document leading to considerable disgruntlement in this community.