Announcements almost every other day compel us to believe that India is now the fifth largest economy in the world; that India will be a $5 trillion economy very soon; that India will be the third largest economy of the world in 2027, and that India will become a developed nation in 2047.
Caste dynamics often play a pivotal role, especially in a state as politically significant as Uttar Pradesh.
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) refused to recognise the current geological time as the Anthropocene (Human) Epoch because adding an Anthropocene Epoch ~ and terminating the Holocene Epoch ~ was not supported by geological standards used to define epochs.
There is a raging memefest in the Arab world about the Jordanian King Abdullah II. One of the most caustic meme images is of the Arab King wearing an Israeli Military uniform.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has played to the Beijing gallery with an assurance that his government will support China’s enterprises in Pakistan on a priority basis. Deft in playing the diplomatic card, he has directed the authorities to resolve the issues related to road connectivity and the dearth of utilities being faced by investors from China.
In a crowded country such as ours, the sight of hordes of unmasked people - even though we had to pay a heavy price in terms of human lives - shows public apathy of gargantuan proportions. And the governments that turn a blind eye to it betray equal unconcern. The received wisdom is that masks are most useful in crowded and indoor spaces, and that it is important to wear well-fitted masks and to continue education efforts to increase adherence. Whether most people become law-abiding out of habit or fear of consequences, to avert chaos or all of them depends upon both a culture of discipline and consent. The disorderly urban chaos that defines us is due as much to the lack of civic discipline as to a state wary of imposing it
The man in question is self-proclaimed faith healer Mala Ali Kurdistani who has taken Pakistan by storm. There’s a mad scramble to get appointments with Kurdistani who claims to be able to cure anything from blindness to deafness to even cancer with the power of faith and his healing touch.
India faces two hostile neighbours, China and Pakistan, both of whom would seek to exploit weakness in Indian defence preparedness, while backing anti-national groups within, damaging national cohesion.
A fourth wave of infections has resulted in a national emergency in Germany, ironically Europe’s largest economy. The nation’s health minister, Jens Spahn, has urged people to curtail social contacts, a directive that has been clothed with the caveat that vaccinations alone will not reduce the number of cases.
