The Home Minister, Mr. Y.B. Chavan said in the Lok Sabha to-day [December 16, New Delhi] that they had the greatest respect for the decisions of the Speakers’ Conference, that when a Chief Minister’s majority was in doubt the Assembly must be convened within a week to decide the fate …

Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani’s decision to stay away from the December 9 Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Riyadh is the latest reminder of the growing disunity among the Gulf countries. Qatar, blockaded by three GCC countries, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, and their non-GCC allies, has …

Whether the Congress erred in privileging members of the old guard to lead the governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh has become a subject of debate. Those who argue that it missed a trick in not picking Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia as Chief Ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya …

A gathering of journalists, academics and the public at “Fourth Pillar: India Journalism Week” turned out to be another open house. This was an initiative by Academe India and the University of Chicago Center in Delhi to examine the role of journalism in democracies. Along with Pamela Philipose, Public Editor …

The last date for filing claims and objections for Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) has been extended by the Supreme Court to December 31, from December 15. This exercise of compiling the NRC in the first place has sparked a debate around its political, economic and humanitarian consequences, and …

India’s national income statistics are under a cloud. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has released official revisions of the GDP estimates for the years 2004-05 to 2013-14 in the Manmohan Singh-led government’s tenure. The revisions make the Narendra Modi government’s performance on the economic front appear better than that of …

New space has emerged for de-escalating Sri Lanka’s political crisis with the timely and judicious intervention by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court. Following the two rulings made by the top court, last Thursday and Friday, Ranil Wickremesinghe — the Prime Minister who was sacked on October 26 by Maithripala Sirisena, …

Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can successfully predict whether a patient is at risk of developing a serious, and possibly life-threatening infection after surgery. Staphylococcus epidermidis is an ubiquitous coloniser of healthy human skin, but it is also a notorious source of serious infections with indwelling …

Scientists have developed an ingestible capsule controlled using Bluetooth wireless technology, which can be customised to deliver drugs or monitor health over long periods of time. The capsule can reside in the stomach for at least a month, transmitting information and responding to instructions from a user’s smartphone. Source : …

Probiotics may help treat bipolar disorder and other psychiatric mood disorders, a study has found. Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric condition characterised by dramatic shifts in mood from depression to mania. Currently, the standard treatment includes a combination of psychotherapy and prescription medications. Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-life/probiotics-may-help-treat-bipolar-disorder/article25760057.ece