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Environment
Featured Stories
India
Understanding India’s ‘Anti-Conversion’ Laws
India is home to multiple religious beliefs and practices, including Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism. In the past, the country has been known for not only its diversity but also tolerance. It is widely believed that because of this tolerance, religions that originated in other countries/regions flourished in India. However, the use of religion in political[Read More…]
COVID Response Watch
Employees struggle while IT companies see record profits during Covid
Uncertainty continues for thousands of information technology sector employees in Bangalore over when they will be able to return to their offices. Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic early last year staff of major IT companies have been working from home, which has resulted in a whole host of problems particularly for younger, entry-level employees. The fluid situation has[Read More…]
World
WE Are Our Weather
This writer came across a theory while searching the web that relates to weather patterns: Weather Patterns Reflect Emotional States “In your terms consciousness is wedded with matter, and any of its experiences are physically materialized through that interaction. You do not simply react to the weather. You help form it, even as you breathe the air and then send[Read More…]
Globalisation
Time for India and other developing nations to quit WTO
The 12th ministerial conference (MC12) of the World Trade Organization will take place from November 30 to December 3, 2021 at Geneva, Switzerland. The negotiation note distributed on the different issues on the agenda shows that the WTO is a developed countries’ club. Developing and least developed countries will be the losers if they align with this organization. The WTO[Read More…]
Human Rights
Assange nullifies the “freedom” imperialism propagates
Julian Assange, a standard-bearer of freedom, has effectively nullified the “freedom” imperialist media propagates round the clock. Today, the imperialist “freedom” is on the dock. Voices across continents are calling to defend the freedom Assange stands for – the freedom to information, the freedom to know facts related to thousands of innocent civilian lives in countries, the freedom to present[Read More…]
Imperialism
Are We Forever Captives of America’s Forever Wars?
As August ended, American troops completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan almost 20 years after they first arrived. On the formal date of withdrawal, however, President Biden insisted that “over-the-horizon capabilities” (airpower and Special Operations forces, for example) would remain available for use anytime. “[W]e can strike terrorists and targets without American boots on the ground, very few if needed,” he explained, dispensing immediately with[Read More…]
Communal Harmony
On the origin of Indian Identity
In the beginning, it would seem Mankind knew a thing or two about anthropology. Then came religion to manipulate it. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has boasted of Hindutva (a concept of Hindu supremacy) as India’s national identity. This would seem convincing to a foreign tourist who visits Taj Mahal, photographs people on the Ganges, sun bathes on Goan beaches,[Read More…]
Climate Change
Parasitic Symbiotic Discordance
The framework of the economic thought that formed in the Western world during the Holocene Period, gained momentum during the Industrial Revolution and is now global has brought on a parasitic symbiotic discordance between our species and our host: Planet earth. It has become a threat to Homo sapiens continued existence on the planet. The hard fact is that if we continue this discordant relationship we face the possibility of extinction within the next[Read More…]
Environmental Protection
Rajasthan HC serves notice to officials over illegal mining in Barmer
On December 1, 2021, a bench of the Rajasthan High Court comprising Chief Justice Akil Qureshi and justice Sudesh Bansal ordered that notices be sent to the state government over rampant illegal mining of stone in the Thob village of Barmer district in Rajasthan. Over 20 letters have been written to local police, officials of the district administration and the[Read More…]
Counter Solutions
Can Green Revolution Belts Return to Ecologically Protective Farming?
From time to time there are disturbing reports of environmental ruin in various green revolution belts of the country. The most prominent such belt is that of Punjab-Haryana-Western UP and Terai belt. Here from time to time we hear of very serious reports of water depletion and pollution, serious harm to soil health, burning of crop residues and other forms[Read More…]
Resource Crisis
The Project of Capital and the Project of the Proletariat in a time of World Crisis
ABSTRACT This is a response to the two sets of articles written by Sajai Jose on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and on the world’s and India’s hunger crisis. It is in two parts. In the first part it lays the historical background of the response of capital in the face of periodic crises it faces and people’s response to it.[Read More…]
Patriarchy
‘Honour killings’ in the land of ‘self-respect movement’ (Part-1)
300 Dalits were murdered in Tamil Nadu between 2016 and 2020 This is a sad story on ‘Honour killings’ in Tamilnadu, the land of ‘self-respect movement,’ being published on December 6 to mark the death anniversary of BR Ambedkar. This is Part-1 of a two-part article. Honor killings, an euphemism for murder, is violence committed by a group of one[Read More…]
Palestine
On ‘Gassing the Arabs’ and Other Diseases: Is Israel a ‘Sick Society’?
For whatever reason, some mistakenly perceive the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, as liberal, progressive and even ‘pro-Palestinian’. Of course, none of this is true. This misconstrued depiction of an essentially Zionist and anti-Palestinian newspaper tells of a much bigger story of how confusing Israeli politics is, and how equally confused many of us are in understanding the Israeli political discourse. On[Read More…]
South Asia
United Kingdom Owes Remedial Justice To The Eelam Tamils
Before the colonial rule by the Portuguese, Dutch and British there were three sovereign regions in Sri Lanka [Ceylon] The Kingdom of Jaffna in the North [Tamil Kingdom] Kingdom of Kandy in the central highlands and Kotte in the Southwest [Sinhalese Kingdoms.] The Portuguese and Dutch ruled these regions as separate units, the British in 1833 for their easy administration[Read More…]
Annihilate Caste
Supreme Court Judge Gives Voice to Agony of Millions Belonging to Denotified and Nomadic Tribes
Supreme Court Judge Justice D.Y.Chandrachud recently gave voice to the suppressed agony of millions of members of denotified tribes when he clearly stated that injustice and discrimination was still being suffered by them over 7 decades after independence. Speaking on the occasion of the 13th B.R.Ambedkar Memorial Lecture on ‘Conceptualizing Marginalisation’ organized by the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies[Read More…]
Life/Philosophy
Stopping antimicrobial resistance is the bedrock for advancing universal health coverage
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day is 12 December Stopping antimicrobial resistance by promoting infection prevention, responsible and appropriate use of antimicrobial medicines in human health, livestock and food systems, is the bedrock for promoting universal health coverage. Failing this, the absence of efficacious antimicrobials will effectively return the world to the pre-antibiotic era before the 1920s when lives were lost[Read More…]
Arts/Literature
My Eco List
This is not lifeless Saturn or Jupiter, the Moon, Venus, or Mars. Because a neighboring planet is named for a Roman goddess does not mean that women originate there as if from an unearthly temple of extraterrestrial love. Because another is named for a Roman god does not prove that men are hard wired and destined for war. [Read More…]
Book Review
Sadat Hasan Manto: a craftsman of Short Story
I was getting anxious as the time of my departure from Mumbai was approaching. I vividly remember it was the last week of September 2016 and I wanted to spend my last week; eating, drinking, and visiting my favorite spots. I still remember every last day I spent in Mumbai except the day of my departure. Sadly, the thought of[Read More…]
