Blogs

Invented in 18th century, bicerin is a specialty of Turin It’s a unique drink in that you eat it. It’s bicerin (bich to rhyme with rich, and reen) and was invented in 18th-century Turin, which was once the centre for the production of Fiat cars. Torino means Little Bull, and Turin has always been bullish…

For more than 80 years, antibiotics have helped save millions of lives. Ever since penicillin began being made on a large scale, these medicines have helped people recover from dangerous infections. Because of antibiotics, people today live about 23 years longer on average than they did before. But there is a problem. Many antibiotics have…

Just the other day, as fate still hung over whether India would watch this World Cup or not, a couple of us old colleagues – proud, foolish sports nuts, and football tragics – furiously engaged in debate over a useless piece of information from 40 years ago.Which was that World Cup match from Mexico’86 that…

In a small office in South Block, in the summer of 1948, a Cambridge-trained physicist told India’s prime minister that the new country needed an atomic energy programme, and that the Indian Civil Service, designed for revenue collection and famine relief, could not run one. Nehru had nothing to gain politically from agreeing. He agreed…

By Jwalant Swaroop Spiritual traditions have long viewed humanity as participants in a shared field of consciousness. When violence erupts on a massive scale, that collective field is disturbed. Ancient Indian thought described this disruption as adharm, a disturbance in the moral and cosmic balance of existence. Violent acts affect not only societies and nations…

More women in STEM is great news. But policy has to look at why most of them don’t make it to the top  That over 10,000 girls have cracked JEE Advanced exam to study in IITs, NITs or IIITs, is no ordinary milestone. It demonstrates – more than any hifalutin platitudes – the impact of…

It’s wonderful news that more than 10,000 girls have cleared the JEE Advanced exam this year and can study at top engineering colleges like the IITs, NITs and IIITs. This did not happen by chance. It shows how good policies can help talented students get opportunities. One important policy was started by the IITs in…

India’s cultural resurgence is no longer confined to symbolism or ceremonial diplomacy. It is increasingly becoming an instrument of national strategy combining heritage, soft power, tourism, philanthropy, and creative industries into a new grammar of nation-building. Three recent developments capture this transformation vividly: India’s participation at the Venice Biennale, the return of the sacred Buddha…

There is a particular kind of disappointment that only middle age, airline loyalty programmes and a modest amount of disposable income can produce. It usually arrives somewhere around Row 6. Not Row 1, where people are drinking juice from proper glasses and discussing board meetings they may or may not actually have attended. Nor Row…

SC did well to liberate voluntary adult sex workers. They’re neither victim nor offender In an excellent judgment, Supreme Court has centred on ‘individual agency’ to decide on a framework for rescue & rehab of adult sex workers. It raised the key question the law skipped: why rescue adult women who are sex workers voluntarily,…