Editorials

Mr. P.K. Lakshmanan, District and Sessions Judge, to-day [February 4, Calicut] rejected the bail application filed on behalf of Miss Ajitha, said to be one of the top Naxalite leaders, now under remand in connection with the attack on Pulpally wireless station. The Judge, however, granted bail to another accused, …

Often people revisit traumatic memories only to tell journalists their stories As journalists, we are often guilty of behaving like an entitled bunch. We ask questions, demand answers, call people at odd hours with or without an apology, or trouble a friend for a phone number we have lost. It …

Rocked by protests against the Centre’s proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, Assam’s Bodo-populated areas were on edge for another reason last week. Over a decade after nine serial bombs ripped through four towns, the clamour for the death penalty to be awarded to the perpetrators had put the State on alert, …

The arrest of 129 Indians on the charge of wilfully violating immigration laws to stay and work in the United States sends a stark message to youth looking for better prospects abroad: their efforts should begin with due diligence and strictly follow the letter of the law. In the sting …

In Januarys, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called for a report from India on the deportation of a group of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar in October 2018. India’s repatriation of the refugees contravenes international principles on refugee law as well as domestic constitutional rights. Global framework Refugee law …

Interim Budget 2019 has sought to make amends for all the wrongs of almost five years of the Narendra Modi government. For example, the debilitating impact of demonetisation on the informal sector that employs nearly 90% of the workforce had long been suspected on the basis of anecdotal evidence. The …

The Remnants of an Army, a famous oil on canvas by Elizabeth Butler, is a lasting image of the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842). It depicts William Brydon, a medical officer in the British Indian Army, arriving in Jalalabad from Kabul on horseback in 1842. Both Brydon, who was wounded, and …

By requiring long-term residents of Assam to prove their citizenship by negotiating a thicket made up of bewildering and opaque rules and an uncaring bureaucracy, the Indian state has for the past two decades unleashed an unrelenting nightmare of wanton injustice on a massive swathe of its most vulnerable people. …

Several lakhs of grief-stricken men and women from all over the State to-day [February 3] made a pilgrimage to the Government Estate to pay their last respects to Mr. C.N. Annadurai. It was a vast surging humanity jampacking all the approach roads to the Government Estate, demonstrating the fact that …

A news ombudsman is in a bind when his criticism of journalism is proved right. While there is an element of personal satisfaction, there is also the pain of witnessing professional shortcomings. In my column, “Discussing an editorial” (Dec. 3, 2018), I had expressed my reservations about the editorial “Number …

Afghanistan is seeing growing national, regional and global attempts to seek a peaceful settlement to the conflict. The U.S. is desperate to extricate itself from the war, heightened by an unpredictable President and an ambitious negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad. This desperation is matched by growing fears in Afghanistan that the Taliban …

The caricaturing of scientific inquiry at the recent Indian Science Congress (ISC) is only symptomatic of the larger ideological thrust through which institutions of higher education in India are now sought to be governed. Further, the choice of venue for the ISC this year — a private university in Punjab …

The doctrine may be derived from the abstract. But it exists within the Constitution itself It has now been more than 45 years since the Supreme Court ruled in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala that Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution was not unlimited, that the Constitution’s basic structure …

If you want to form good habits — such as going to the gym and eating healthy — then you need to train your brain by repeating actions until they stick, says a study. Researchers created a model for the study, published in Psychological Review Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-life/train-your-brain-to-form-good-habits-through-repetition/article26170557.ece

The Hubble Space Telescope has made an unexpected discovery of a never-before-seen dwarf galaxy in our cosmic backyard, located just 30 million light-years away. An international team of astronomers used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study white dwarf stars within the globular cluster NGC 6752. Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-life/hubble-discovers-dwarf-galaxy-in-cosmic-neighbourhood/article26170555.ece

Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have identified a gene that makes a person sleepy when they are sick. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found that a single gene, called nemuri, fights germs with its inherent antimicrobial activity and drives prolonged, deep sleep after an infection. “Our study directly …

A German First World War hand grenade was found among a shipment of French potatoes imported for a Hong Kong crisp factory, police said. The grenade was safely destroyed after it was discovered at the Calbee snacks factory on Saturday. “The grenade was in an unstable condition because it has …

The Union government has projected over 18% growth in Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections in 2019-20 based on the rising trend in revenue mop-up witnessed during the three-month period ending January 2019, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said. “Last fiscal our average collection was Rs. 89,000 crore. This fiscal …

The Centre is aiming to install 300 more ambient air quality monitoring systems across the country by 2024 as the country battles deteriorating air quality. A senior official of the Union Environment Ministry said that 150 realtime and 731 manual stations are currently installed in 70 cities across the country. …

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 …