Two specialists from the Tata Memorial Cancer Institute, Bombay, Dr. Paymaster and Dr. Jussawalla, arrived in the City [Madras] this morning [Jan. 21] and examined the Chief Minister, Mr. C.N. Annadurai, who has been admitted in the Cancer Institute, Adyar. The specialists studied the X-ray pictures of Mr. Annadurai and …

Contrary to many of the stories that appeared about him after his brutal death in 2011, Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad had always played it safe. A journalist at the Asia Times , Shahzad wrote about jihadi groups, and was among the few who had met Osama bin Laden, Mullah …

In situations involving humans and animals, Murphy’s law takes a strong hold: if things can go wrong, they most likely will. Jallikattu may have drawn the attention of animal rights activists for the innumerable accounts of cruelty to bulls, but the deaths fall mostly on the human side of the …

Even though there was little progress in achieving the goals set in the historic meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un of North Korea in June 2018, the announcement of a second summit next month is a step in the right direction. The fact that Pyongyang has …

Since the 1991 economic reforms, India has improved tremendously in almost all economic indicators, and is now one of the fastest growing nations in the world. Various economic policies of the current government have enabled the economy to move faster than ever before. These include tax reforms leading to the …

One of the world’s largest telecom companies, Huawei, is at war with a few powerful western nations led by the United States. This is not a new spat. The conflict, which has been simmering for quite a few years, reached its crescendo on December 1, 2018 with the detention and …

The recent Assembly elections — the last major polling exercise before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls — were not devoid of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) malfunctions. Though the discourse at present makes no distinction between a ‘malfunction’ (which suggests a technical defect) and ‘tampering’ (manipulation aimed at fraud), there were …

The 103rd Constitution Amendment Act introducing special measures and reservations for ‘economically weaker sections’ (EWS) has been perceived as being obviously unconstitutional. This article is sceptical of such a reading and takes the view that a constitutional challenge to the amendment will take us into unclear constitutional territories. The strongest …

By tweaking the recipe for coaxing human stem cells into insulin-secreting beta cells, researchers have found that the resulting cells are more responsive to fluctuating glucose levels in the blood. The study, published in the journal Stem Cell Reports , showed that transplanted cells produced insulin at levels that effectively …

Future generations face an environmental “time bomb” as the world’s groundwater systems take decades to respond to the present day impact of climate change, scientists warned on Monday. Groundwater is the largest useable source of freshwater on the planet and more than two billion people rely on it to drink …

After experiencing homelessness in 2011, Sarah Eby found herself constantly collecting things so she would never again feel she had nothing to call her own. “When I moved into my apartment, it just felt empty,” the mother-of-one from Arvada, Colorado, said. “I got everything I could to try and make …

An updated list of Indian amphibians was released on the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) website last week, with 19 species being treated as critically endangered and 33 species as endangered. Nirmal U. Kulkarni, a herpetologist and conservationist from Mhadei Reseach Centre said, “Since 2009, the scientists of the ZSI …

A researcher who claimed to have created the world’s first genetically-edited babies will face a Chinese police investigation, State media said on Monday, as authorities confirmed that a second woman fell pregnant during the experiment. He Jiankui shocked the scientific community last year after announcing he had successfully altered the …

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday proposed to relax norms for entry of new players in retail payment systems with a view to give a boost to innovation and competition. At the end of 2018, there were 89 authorised non-bank Payment System Operators. The RBI’s policy paper on …

India would soon start exporting casual shoes with a ‘Made in India’ tag in massive numbers to international markets such as the U.S and the Europe to meet global demand, said a top industry official. “Worldwide, the demand for formal shoes is dying and the customers have started moving towards …

Germany said on Monday that it had banned Iranian airline Mahan Air from its airports, in an escalation of sanctions adopted by the European Union (EU) against Tehran over attacks on opponents in the bloc. The move was necessary to protect Germany’s “foreign and security policy interests”, Foreign Ministry spokesman …

France’s data watchdog on Monday announced a fine of €50 million ($57 million) on U.S. search giant Google, using the EU’s strict General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the first time. Google was handed the record fine from the CNIL regulator for failing to provide transparent and easily accessible information …

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris announced on Monday that she is running for President, joining an already-crowded field of Democrats who are making or considering bids to take on Donald Trump. “The future of our country depends on you and millions of others lifting our voices to fight for our American …

The Border Security Force (BSF) has said they were taking care of the daily necessities of 31 Rohingya who have been stranded along the Bangladesh-Tripura border for the past three days. The Rohingya are holed up behind the barbed wire fencing at Rayermura in west Tripura. It is not clear …

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said the 10% reservation for the economically weaker sections will be implemented in the State even as he called for enhanced quota for the Other Backward Classes. He demanded that the census in 2021 should be caste-based to enable proportional representation of various …