Daily Archives: August 2, 2018

Following a Meteor.

An unusually bright meteor was seen at 7-15 P.M. yesterday [August 1, in Calcutta]. Its direction as observed from the eastern end of the Curzon Gardens was nearly S.S.W. and it appeared to fall vertically first coming into view at an altitude of about 50 degrees, increasing in brilliancy until …

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Reconsider the ban

A clampdown on the sale of oxytocin will have severe public health consequences The Union Health Ministry’s ban on the retail sale and private manufacture of oxytocin, expected to kick off on September 1, is an extremely ill-thought-out one. The drug, a synthetic version of a human hormone, is a …

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Prudent increase

The RBI’s decision to raise benchmark rates spotlights concerns about inflation The decision by the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee to raise benchmark interest rates again by 25 basis points is a prudent one. This is the second successive rate increase in as many months, a response to …

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Polio jitters

The polio endgame is proving to be challenging. On June 29, 28 children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were paralysed by the circulating vaccine-derived polio virus Type 2 (cVDPV). The World Health Organisation (WHO) has assessed the overall public health risk at the “national level to be …

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River of effluents

On why the Clean Ganga project has a long way to go It is a registered trust that runs the ‘Namami Gange’ mission — India’s most ambitious endeavour to clean the Ganga river. The NMCG has a Rs. 20,000-crore, centrally-funded, non-lapsable corpus and consists of nearly 288 projects. The NMCG’s …

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Misadventures in education

Two recent legislative interventions are short-sighted The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has attracted much attention in recent weeks for two reasons. First, it put out for public consultation the draft Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, which seeks to replace the University Grants Commission. In response, it …

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Scaled-up solutions for a future of water scarcity

Precious evolutionary living resources, natural infrastructure, are going extinct. While we thoughtlessly build artificial infrastructure, we forget that this kills natural infrastructure which took evolution aeons to create and cannot be engineered. We are missing the essential point that this is our lifeline on the planet. Forests, rivers, mountains, aquifers …

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To what end this exercise?

South Asia has seen many crises over citizenship. The Supreme Court must ensure there isn’t another one in Assam The ongoing crisis in Assam over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is largely the creation of the Supreme Court. The final draft list of citizens, published on July 30, leaves …

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Cabinet okays 51% stake for LIC in IDBI

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval to the government’s decision to reduce its stake in IDBI Bank below 50%, with Life Insurance Corporation raising stake in the bank to 51%. The boards of IDBI Bank and LIC have both given their approval for the deal. This policy will …

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RBI flags ‘currency war’ risk to stability

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel has flagged the risks to macroeconomic stability from a potential ‘currency war’ in the wake of rising global trade tensions and said the central bank’s decision on Wednesday to raise interest rates was aimed at firmly anchoring inflation expectations. “RBI’s statements on …

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Matuas in West Bengal up in arms

The Matua Mahasangha, a pressure group of the Namasudra caste, alleged that out of the about 40 lakh people who did not figure in the NRC, nearly 6 lakh were from the Matua sect. The Matua Mahasangha claimed about five crore Matuas, predominantly from Bangladesh, lived in West Bengal. 52 …

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Supreme Court begins hearing on adultery law

With this, a five-judge Constitution Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, began examining whether the pre-Independence provision of adultery (Section 497) treats a married woman as a commodity owned by her husband and violates the constitutional concepts of gender equality. The petition filed by Kerala-based Joseph Shine, …

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‘Lynchings a failure of rule of law’

Former Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur on Wednesday said people getting killed by lynch mobs is a “complete failure of the principle of rule of law” and an independent judiciary is essential to protect the Constitution and the rule of law. The former CJI also hinted at the churn …

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Gorkhas of Assam feel left out

While the focus of the NRC has been on the exclusion of Bengali Muslims and Hindus — two communities often suspected to be illegal migrants — an estimated 100,000 of some 2.5 million Gorkhas in Assam have not found their names in the updated draft. “Data collected from the districts …

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Reservation can’t be given in a hurryCM

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday that any reservation extended in a hurry to the Maratha community will not stand up in court, while the BJP ally Shiv Sena stirred the quota pot further by asking the State government to extend reservation to Dhangars and Kolis as well. …

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