Niti Aayog’s Plan to Privatise District Hospitals

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.

Cyber Peace Treaty or the Peace of the Hegemon?

AFTER WannaCry and (Not)Petya ransomware hitting global high profile organisations, there is a much greater awareness of the risks from cyber weapons. Both these ransomware used EternalBlue, the stolen NSA exploit of a Windows vulnerability. The call for a Geneva Convention for controlling cyber weapons – a cyber Geneva Convention – has therefore grown, with Microsoft, Deutsch Telekom and other big corporations now backing the call.

Flogging a Lie to Undermine Public Healthcare

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.

Solid Waste Incineration: Bad Technology Choice

MUNICIPAL solid waste (MSW) has become a massive problem in India’s cities and towns and poses huge problems for public health, the environment and urban living conditions in general. About 170,000 tonnes of MSW are generated per day in the over 8,000 urban centres in the country. Most municipal bodies focus their work and funds on collection and transportation of these wastes, but little effort is put into their proper treatment and disposal.

Artificial Intelligence and the Threat to Our Humanity

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.

Population Genetics Confirm Historians and Confound RSS Theories

A RECENT paper on a genome wide study of the South Asian population (A genetic chronology for the Indian Subcontinent points to heavily sex-biased dispersals: BMC Evolutionary Biology, March 2017) strikingly confirms the work of historians, archaeologists and historical linguists. Data shows that there were indeed significant migrations from Eurasian steppes into South Asia, starting from 3,500 years ago. The South Asian population – current Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepalese, and Sri Lankan population – have a significant central Asian component in their genetic make-up.

India Plans to Sell Only Electric Cars by 2030

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.

US Exits Paris Agreement

US President Donald Trump made the shocking, but not unexpected, announcement last week that the US is pulling out of the Paris Agreement (PA) on climate change. 195 countries had endorsed PA last December and 147 nations have since ratified it.

Microsoft President for Ban on Cyber Weapons But no Mention of its Responsibility

IN the wake of malware WannaCry infecting hundreds of thousands of computers using a stolen NSA hacking tool, Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft has blamed the nation-states in pursuit of cyber weapons, as a major danger to the people.

NSA's Hacking Tool in World's Biggest Malware Attack

LAST week, the world woke up to the largest cyber security threat ever, with a ransomware wannacry originating from NSA's cache of cyber weapons, infecting hundreds of thousands of computers. Computers in more than 150 countries have been infected by the ransomware, with the users locked out of their vital files and data. The criminal group behind wannacry want $300 in bitcoin as ransom, for releasing the files back to their users. The ransom note, displayed on the hacked machines, also say that the ransom will double if the victims do not pay up within three days.

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