Blogs

Census authorities should explain the rationale of new entries in the questionnaire    India’s first census under the Raj asked 17 questions. The ongoing 16th Census will ask 40. That’s not a bad thing because data about people helps govt plan for the future – how many cities, schools, hospitals, airports, etc to build. It also…

It’s also a non-cooperation movement  Every night, I lie to the internet. I read about one thing, then deliberately look up another with nothing to do with it. I watch something and refuse to follow the recommendations trail that appears after. I search, browse and move on, leaving a history that must be terribly frustrating…

The Census should explain why it needs to ask for so much personal information India’s first census under British rule asked 17 questions. The ongoing 16th Census will ask 40. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Information about people helps the government plan for the future — how many schools, hospitals, cities and airports…

The applause was thunderous, the kind reserved for film stars, for the new star on the horizon. For those who haven’t heard of him, he is Tukaram Mundhe, Mumbai’s new FDA commissioner, who has struck fear in the hearts of Mumbai’s eateries by strictly enforcing hygiene norms that have always existed on paper but have…

With each passing day, Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha is sinking deeper and deeper into the hole he dug for himself. He doesn’t even realize that he is sinking into a quagmire. In the process, his behaviour is becoming extremely reckless and uncontrollable. From a psychological point of view,…

Both Iran and Ukraine show war is still old people talking & young men dying  The long time the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has spent at sea has shown not only how difficult it is to manage long wars, but also how hard war can be for the people fighting it. The Lincoln…

Both Iran and Ukraine show war is still old people talking & young men dying  The extended deployment at sea of American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has not just exposed the logistical challenges of US’s war against Iran, but ugly realities of war itself. The Lincoln has been almost nine months at sea, and…

Assam’s floods are often described as inevitable. From a civil engineer’s perspective, that is an incomplete diagnosis. Brahmaputra and its tributaries will overflow during extreme monsoon events, but flooding becomes a disaster when intense hydrological forces meet vulnerable settlements, ageing infra, inadequate drainage, and poorly planned development. This year’s floods have once again exposed this…

By Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Can you ever be alone when you have a guru? The moment a soul is born on this planet, relationships begin. Before birth, you are unmanifest. You are pure spirit. The moment you are born, you have a mother and a father. Then all the other relationships follow. Where does…

Assam’s floods are often described as inevitable. From a civil engineer’s perspective, that is an incomplete diagnosis. Brahmaputra and its tributaries will overflow during extreme monsoon events, but flooding becomes a disaster when intense hydrological forces meet vulnerable settlements, ageing infra, inadequate drainage, and poorly planned development. This year’s floods have once again exposed this…