Blogs

From heatwaves and floods to cyclones and glacial risks, disasters are becoming routine. Artificial Intelligence offers India a chance to shift from reacting after losses occur to preventing them before they happen. “The real promise of AI is not faster response after disasters, but smarter decisions before losses occur.” Disasters no longer arrive as sudden…

Nasdaq, NYSE, LSE, all want to run round the clock. They may have much to gain, but what about retail investors? Nasdaq, America’s tech-heavy stock exchange, has made it official that it wants to remain open 23 hours a day, five days a week. New York and London exchanges are on the same page. US…

Explaining Goa to Ahmedabad When I returned from Goa on a transfer, my Ahmedabad colleagues looked like hungover partygoers denied water and aspirin. “Why would anyone leave Goa?” said one, eyes stuck in a dry state of disbelief. “Now you can’t do what Goans do daily,” said another.   Well, most Goans commute to work, then…

By Anil K Rajvanshi A new theory in Physics, as enunciated by Gunther Kletetschka, tries to unite quantum physics and gravity and has been creating waves in the scientific world. If proved correct, it will change the world as we understand it. In fact, this may be the elusive theory of everything that hopes to…

There have been very few happy-go-lucky characters in Indian cricket like Shikhar Dhawan . His uncomplicated outlook has stood him in good stead, on and off the field. He has also been extremely candid about his life in his recent autobiography The One. TOI’s Arani Basu spoke to Dhawan on his learnings from cricket, the baggage of a youngster,…

Every winter, Delhi’s air pollution debate follows a familiar script. We look for villains, argue over blame, ignore science and solutions. This year has been no different – except that it has bordered on the absurd. Pollution season opened with the Supreme Court allowing “green crackers”, followed by Delhi govt’s failed cloud-seeding experiment. Soon after…

The Election Commission (EC) makes a list of people who are allowed to vote. This list is called the voter roll. Recently, in West Bengal (and some other states), the EC made a new draft voter roll after a big checking exercise. In this new list, about 8 out of every 100 names from the…

Money pipelines (insurers, banks and asset managers) play a critical role in channelizing money. If we must decarbonise our planet, mitigate pollution and bio-diversity loss, these pipelines ought to be urgently re-laid. Let’s look at three recent stories: Bank of England (BoE) raises the bar for Climate Risk Management expectations from banks and insurers. Three…

Every major climate summit is announced as a turning point. Every few years, the language is reset: last chance, decisive decade, implementation COP, people’s summit. And yet, viewed from a distance, the arc of climate diplomacy since Copenhagen in 2009 looks less like progress than repetition—a cycle of inflated expectations, partial agreements, and carefully managed disappointment. COP30 in Belém…

Ancient Mithila is located in the districts of Darbhanga, Saharsa, Madhubani, and a few others in modern-day Bihar. Indian festivals typically have their origins in mythical, religious, or Puranic stories. The narrative of Sama Chakeva is mentioned in the Skand Puran and Padma Puran. Several accounts of the celebration’s origin can be found in popular…