Sri Lankan leader plans to move the Supreme Court today against order Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal on Monday temporarily restrained controversially installed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Cabinet of Ministers from functioning in their respective offices. The interim order follows a quo warranto petition filed by 122 MPs …
Read More »Monthly Archives: December 2018
Naxalite leader’s wife arrested in jungle
Mandakini, wife of Mr. Kunnikkal Narayanan, Naxalite leader, was arrested in the Kumthala forest in Cannanore district this evening [December 2]. The Police denied that Ajitha, daughter of Mandakini, had been arrested. Earlier reports had said that khaki-clad Ajitha who was alleged to have played a prominent role in the …
Read More »Symbol of a lost order
The passing of George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States, from 1989 to 1993, is an occasion to contextualise the current turbulence in the world, especially in liberal democracies. Three events — the first Gulf War, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the …
Read More »Slowdown signals
The growth estimates for the July-September quarter from the Central Statistics Office show that the economy’s expansion predictably slowed. GDP growth weakened to 7.1%, from the robust 8.2% in April-June, as rising oil prices combined with a weakening rupee to dampen demand. Gross value added (GVA) data show five of …
Read More »Discussing an editorial
I generally refrain from commenting on editorials and opinion pieces. I recognise that there are points of convergence as much as there are points of divergence between the newspaper and its myriad readers, and even within the newspaper itself. These conversations lend plurality to the newspaper and they should not …
Read More »Job creation at the farmer’s doorstep’
The Telangana government’s recent announcement of the Rythu Bandhu scheme has spotlighted the policy of utilising cash transfer to assist land-owning farmers with a non-agricultural income — instead of the traditional policy measures of price interventions, trade restrictions and farm loan waivers. While the scheme is nominally intended as investment …
Read More »Sing like an Urban Naxal
I want to thank that nameless student whose body danced the language of freedom. He was singing bhajans of the mind. His song made sense and it also captured that sense that we often respond to dissent too seriously. We summon ideology to combat ideologically, reducing debate to the level …
Read More »Disability is not a defining feature
The first known movie to feature disability in a meaningful way in Hindi cinema was Jeevan Naiya (1936). In this movie, the lead character abandons his wife on learning that she belongs to a family of dancers. Later, he is blinded in an accident and is nursed by a woman …
Read More »NASA rocket to image Earth’s leaky atmosphere
NASA is set to launch a rocket to get a closer look at the how the earth’s atmosphere is leaking into space. Understanding atmospheric escape on earth has applications all over the Universe — from predicting which planets might be habitable, to piecing together how Mars became a desolate landscape. …
Read More »Jerusalem ring may bear name of Pontius Pilate
Israeli researchers say an inscription on an ancient ring discovered near Jerusalem may include the name of Pontius Pilate, the Roman official who Biblical accounts say sentenced Jesus to death.It would be a rare example still in existence of an inscription with the name of the man believed to have …
Read More »