Problem of plenty

What’s in plenty in Maharashtra polls are the number of aspirants. It’s a jobs crisis  Mind the numbers – 288 contests, almost 8,000 candidates and 10,905 nominations. Job fair? Not unlike one, but ahead of...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/OU2K8zA

All about Cola wars!

So, there’s some exciting stuff happening in the world of colas in India! You know how Coca-Cola and Pepsi are the two big names that everyone knows? Well, there’s a new competition heating up, and...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/J46s5TL

How a right is wronged

Citizens’ privacy is not an issue that bothers the Indian state overmuch. Violation is rampant  Puttaswamy’s passing is a reminder of his landmark battle that led to a Supreme Court ruling making right to privacy...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/6V95B3g

Faith and the American promise

Growing up as a devout Jain in America, I experienced the beauty of being an American born citizen raised in a minority faith while respecting others who walked different paths. Jainism, a religion rooted in...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/g54IQFz

Teacups & bedsheets

Truly special ones stay parked in the cabinets Most families in the armed forces have a sterling silver tea set named after some British monarch like George or Anne. It is that three-piece thing on...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/ZzPIiWy

If India wants to build infrastructure, AI-driven labor data-dashboard is a must

It is great that we have learnt from China (and early days of USA) that building infrastructure is a smart way to grow rapidly, as it pumps money into the economy and facilitates growth. But,...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/n8Vvau1

Delhi’s dirty air: Why it’s a big problem and what’s being done

Delhi’s air has become dangerously dirty, and it’s making people sick. Imagine walking outside and feeling like you’re breathing in smoke! This is happening every year, and it’s so bad that people’s eyes burn, their...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/hYI259m

Love your AI

Artificial intelligence assistants are improving every day, from basic Siri and Alexa to the next generation of full-time life partners. Your personal assistant will analyze all of your emails, texts, and photographs. It will understand...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/ALth1jw

Bias in medical & nutritional research

We often assume that conclusions about foods and medications from research studies are honest and accurate. Historically, most nutrition research was government-funded, with key organizations like the NIH in the US and NIN in India....

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/GH41VAE

Sports Bill no silver bullet but strikes a balance on autonomy

While we wouldn’t exempt self-driving cars from the rules of the road, the way we govern them must leave space for innovation, exploration and growth in the sector. The state’s regulatory relationship with sports federations...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/kuTrzMC

Phulmoni Dossee & the 135-yr-long argument against marital rape

Case CXXIV: In 1890 in the Calcutta High Court a fully developed Bengali, aged 35, was charged with causing the death as above of his child-wife, a girl aged 11 years and 3 1/2 months…The...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/DGOg5oC

A very unusual idea from Trump

Should the U.S. Get Rid of Income Tax? Imagine the government getting rid of the income tax, which is the tax people pay based on how much money they earn. That’s exactly what Trump wants...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/l7soSk6

Time difference

Indians & Italians have freed themselves from the protocol of punctuality but their good-day greetings aren’t the same Among the several things that Indians and Italians have in common is their fine disregard for the...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/gi03SXs

‘Megamammalomania’

‘Value bigger picture beyond Big 5.’ Says who? ‘Tiger Man’!  The advice came at a litfest named after Khushwant Singh, a passionate champion of ecology long before it became fashionate. The apt venue was Kasauli, which...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/6fMRyUN

Majority claptrap

All democracies, and not just Canada or India, must rely on ‘vote bank’ politics The diplomatic tiff between India and Canada, which last year accused agents of New Delhi of having had a hand in...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/Z3pDEId

Id and vote

Musk dances dangerously on the campaign trail Elon Musk is now on the campaign trail. He’s dancing on the Pennsylvania stage. He may be doing this one better than Trump because he can jump higher...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/6Yf2CXx

Major mess for minors

Child marriage is a sad and serious problem in India. Even though fewer child marriages happen today, about one in four girls are still married before they are old enough to consent. This is not...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/KI4J9Yb

Birth of modern medicine & nutrition science

During the early 20th century, several significant developments led to the emergence of what we now call modern medicine: 1. The overhaul of medical education, initiated by the Flexner Report in 1910, commissioned at the...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/RcfXBJN

#23: How our habits are impacting us long-term (Hint: They are modifying our epigenetics)

In today’s post (#23), I attempt to explain observations that I have seen in my health data as well as in that of others, through the lens of epigenetics, a less discussed but equally important...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/jAk8hYP

NOne direction

On famous boys who don’t grow up when they become men  Were The Beatles the first boy band? The term didn’t take until the eighties. But if boy bands mean masses of teenaged female fans,...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/tWOa0BR

The road more travelled

Laddu Pinto, a well-known musician from Kolkata, was used to playing with harmonies, but today was not about music. Laddu had an urgent reason to travel to Delhi. Unfortunately, no flights were available on short...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/DOgHeVL

Many Maharashtras

Nov 20’s election will be fought on every conceivable identity & ideology Maharashtra is getting ready for a big election, and it’s going to be quite complicated. There are 288 areas, called constituencies, and each...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/l0Az1qJ

Bringing up husband

High marriage penalty robs countless young Indian women of economic independence  Woman and man get married, she pays a penalty. They have a child, she pays a penalty. These marriage and motherhood penalties refer to...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/0ytQmde

Now is the time

“Happy is the person who is truly present for an hour in the course of his entire life”, said Sufi mystic Junayd al-Baghdadī, one of the most famous of the early Islamic saints and a...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/reUDA7v

The digital dilemma: How excessive screen time is impacting our children’s health

Australia’s recent proposal to introduce a minimum age limit for social media use has ignited global conversations about the impact of screen time on children’s mental and physical health. While some may view the move...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/1z8fDuM

India and Pakistan: not ready to be friends yet

India and Pakistan, two neighboring countries, are not really on speaking terms right now, and things don’t seem to be changing anytime soon. India’s foreign minister, Jaishankar, recently visited Pakistan for an important meeting (the...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/UPWg8Rz

Shootout in Bandra

A senior politician gunned down pre-poll in Mumbai revives memories of earlier, deadlier times in the city In Mumbai, just before the important state elections, a senior politician named Baba Siddique was killed on the...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/0Iyfcso

Politics of health

Having covered the five pillars of health, we will now discuss chronic diseases. But before we delve into that, I want to address various factors that influence our understanding of health. These factors are shaped...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/THjrUdg

What India can do to end science Nobel drought

It’s Nobel Prize season. Since their inception in 1901, only 12 individuals of Indian origin have been awarded the Prize, with just five being Indian citizens. Among them, Dr C V Raman remains the sole Indian to...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/8KMGaxU

Ola-la la! Why jokers win Oscars and Twitter wars

Joker: Folie à Deux’, with its fiery mix of song and dance, hit the cinemas recently and rekindled memories of how Batman and the Joker’s legendary feud began. It starts in the story ‘Batman: The...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/ndcbSAu

**Chaos in Multan: Pakistani Sports Reflecting a Bigger Crisis**

Something unbelievable happened in Multan on Friday. Pakistan did something that no other team in the 147-year history of Test cricket has done: they scored over 550 runs in the first innings, but still lost...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/MiYPXcR

Thought For Food

Meat production on the scale humans demand is unsustainable. Technology has a solution. Go for it Global food systems are unsustainable, we know. But it’s still shocking to find that food production is a major...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/k1zfb4u

Elephant whispers

Jumbos have as much of a right to walk the earth as humans. India must do a better job of conserving them Elephants are amazing animals with many similarities to humans. They have great memories...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/u2ojGqx

The Sun of love shines on

Within the larger context of Islamic culture, Sufis have had a profound impact on the social structures in Asia. The ethical and aesthetic concepts of Sufism have found their expression in the worldview of many...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/1VPpICl

An antiquity which is 5000 years old: The Mother Goddess worship in India

The divinity of mother goddess worship is ages old and we have been taught about the sanctity of the same since childhood. However, how old is this practice, and since when did this practice become...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/ZeSd1Lh

Voters’ country

Haryana, J&K showed how people can keep parties guessing till the end  That elections are first and foremost about voters becomes sharply obvious with some results – case in point, the verdicts in Haryana and...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/o9bexLq

Chennai’s plane truth

TN govt, police should have anticipated crowd size at airshow. Five died thanks to basic rules not being followed   Chennai recently held a big airshow, and sadly, five people died because of poor planning. The...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/0ZyvLS6

High on failure

No major party has dared call out Nitish’s prohibition policy. Will Prashant Kishor’s critique matter?   Pundits are debating whether Prashant Kishor’s claim that his party will lift the ban on alcohol in Bihar within an...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/QSeO0d3

High on failure

Bihar’s Alcohol Ban and Prashant Kishor’s Bold Idea In Bihar, the government banned all kinds of alcohol, but it hasn’t gone as planned. Even though the ban was meant to stop people from drinking, it...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/n85qkGm

From divine maladies to modern-day triumph: India’s grand odyssey in vanquishing Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB), once enshrined in the annals of ancient Indian mysticism, has evolved into one of the most profound public health battles of the modern era. India’s relentless confrontation with this insidious disease spans millennia—from...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/EFCe8qr

Durga Arrives, Smeared in Shame

I could have written Durga arrives smeared in blood. But blood doesn’t flow forever. I could have written Durga arrives wearing sandals. But then sandals run the risk of being torn. I could have even...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/oEYP6OD

Will Haryana, J&K polls break bipolar pattern?

With polling for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and Haryana over, the key question on counting day, besides who will form the govt of course, will be whether it is going to be...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/amLc7Ff

Empathy vs Xenophobia: Warring children of Oxytocin

From the oxytocin perspective, human world gets divided into “us-and-them” that scientists refer to as in-group and out-group model. This model gets extended to deal with everything that we interact with ranging from in-group of...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/C0viBEN

Interest rate cut looks imminent in October Monetary Policy Review

All macroeconomic indicators show that a repo rate cut is in the offing in the upcoming monetary policy review on October 7-9, 2024. With the identification of new external members of the Monetary Policy Committee...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/ScWw1FK

Nonsensical sense

Common sayings in one language baffle people who speak a different language Why does it rain cats and dogs? Why doesn’t it rain toads and spiders? Or snakes and rats? Why is a rare occurrence...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/UoOhrSy

Safety, but how?

Implementing security checks for masses of Chinese electronic products will be a tough ask Imagine you’re playing a game on your tablet, and someone sneaks in and changes the rules without you knowing. This could...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/VIhAgPm

Veer-Zaara of 1971 war

And an endless wait for reunion. The movie Veer Zaara is in news these days as it is re-released after 20 years. When I first watched Veer-Zaara 20 years ago, it felt like a dream—an...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/21qjJFd

Gandhi : A powerhouse for all ages

In a journalism school where I teach, I typically take a session on development journalism. Thanks to the shrinkage of real issues in the media, this generation has not heard of development journalism. They are...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/RoJX1F7

Terms of war

Dehumanising conflict jargon seeps into language, normalising and justifying horrors In its assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Israeli air force reportedly dropped 80 bombs – including US-made 2,000-pound bunker busters – that flattened at...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/HWDm1TN

America at a crossroads: Guns, rhetoric, and the 2024 election battle between Harris and Trump

The second failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has once again thrust the volatile issues of gun control, political violence, and incendiary rhetoric into the national spotlight. This alarming incident underscores the dangerous...

from Times of India Opinion https://ift.tt/268uRnC