SEVENTY years of independence, in normal circumstances, should call for celebrations across the nation. Unfortunately these are not normal times. For once we hoped that even this government, hard wired to proclaim its nonexistent ‘achievements’ in strident tones accompanied by incessant jingoist chest thumping, would have considered shedding a few tears for the children of Gorakhpur who did not live to see their country celebrate its 70th year after independence.

THE current BJP led government spares no effort to seek new avenues that have the potential to contribute to the profits of private enterprises. To promote such efforts a recurring policy thrust has been on privatisation of public services.  Virtually all public services – energy and water supply, transport, roads and infrastructure, education, and healthcare – are being privatised. While the government argues that private providers will bring in new investments and provide services more efficiently, there is no evidence that this ever happens.

THREE seemingly unconnected developments in the past weeks are emblematic of the current approach to public services in general and healthcare services in particular.The first development pertains to the Institute for Liver and Biliary Services (ILBS), in Delhi, where workers, including nursing staff have been on agitation for better working conditions. Recently one of the leaders of the agitating workers has been handed a termination letter, and workers were forced to go on hunger strike.

STEPHEN Hawking had warned a few years back that Artificial Intelligence (AI) could spell the end of human race, a threat echoed by Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, Bill Gates, and many others. This is the apocalyptic vision that the robots we create, may decide we are an obsolete model deserving “retirement”. The truth, a more banal one, is that, are we letting machine algorithms take over what were human decisions earlier, decision making of the governments, the businesses and even ours.

INDIA recently announced a goal to produce and sell only electric cars (presumably including two and three wheelers) by 2030, chiefly aiming to reduce the petroleum import bill and running cost of vehicles, while simultaneously reducing air pollution with attendant health benefits and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.