Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Aug 26 & Sept 2, 2023

  25 August 2023

  Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Aug 26 & Sept 2, 2023
  The successful landing on the moon of the space probe Chandrayaan 3 is a great moment for India and we must celebrate this collective achievement of our scientists and engineers whose work made this possible. It was odd that the live TV feed of the final moments of Chandrayan 3’s landing as broadcast on TV or YouTube had the TV screen split into two on one half the face of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and on the other half the (…)

• An Anatomy of Research | Arup Maharatna

  25 August 2023, by Arup Maharatna

  The term, research, has of late come in tremendous vogue globally. Even a ninth standard school-goer nowadays refers pretty confidently to research as a distinct activity or pursuit. Indeed, it would hardly be possible to find a single literate person who has never used this term in day-to-day conversations and even casual gossips. A staunch admirer of the present times would surely view this as a clear testimony in support of the populist branding of the current age as ‘knowledge society’. (…)

• Revisiting Nehru’s Larger Vision on Space Exploration Assumes Greater Significance When India Leads the World in Placing Chandryan III on the South Pole of the Moon | S N Sahu

  25 August 2023

  On 23rd August 2023 India became the first country in the world after the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) ensured the soft landing of Chandrayan-3, on the south pole of the moon. No other country ever did so. Earlier the USA, Russia, and China had achieved the distinction of carrying out soft landing only on the north pole of the moon. So the soft landing of Chandrayan-3 makes India the fourth country to get the enviable distinction of reaching the moon very successfully for a (…)

• Nuh Violence and its Aftermath | Arup Kumar Sen

  25 August 2023, by Arup Kumar Sen

  On 31st July, 2023, Nuh, the Muslim-majority district of Haryana, witnessed communal violence. A recent field report published by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) on ‘Nuh Violence’ tried to unearth the roots of such violence. The Report observed: “In the days leading up to the tumultuous events in the town of Nuh, signs of unrest began to emerge. Videos featuring Hindutva sanghis like Monu Manesar and Bittu Bajrangi making hate speeches circulated on social media, (…)

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  National trade Unions stand up for PSU communications & engineering workers who made India’s space programme possible

  25 August 2023

  28th August 2023
  Press Release
  The Platform of Central Trade Unions and Independent Sectoral Federations/Associations salutes the team of Engineers, Scientists, Communications Experts and so on, who made Chandrayaan-3 possible. Their undaunted work has opened up myriad possibilities for India to forge ahead in many fields.
  As the story of Chandrayaan-3 unfolds, heart-rending stories of those who worked selflessly for the project emerge: Thousands of Engineers and Workers of Heavy (…)

• The Environmental Holocaust In India | Kobad Ghandy

  25 August 2023, by Kobad Ghandy

  The media in the last month have been full of the havoc caused due to excessive rain, flooding, landslides, etc In fact as Modi was delivering his address from the ramparts of the Red Fort a cloud burst washed away the Shiv Rawadi temple in Shimla — in an upmarket area — taking the lives of at least 12 people including children On that day Shimla witnessed landslides at two places — the other at Fagli, in which too at least 5 lives were lost.
  Meanwhile the Indian Express (Aug 16) reported (…)

• Unveiling the Dark Side of the Belt and Road Initiative: A Global Environmental Crisis | Megan Rodrigues, Karamala Areesh Kumar

  25 August 2023

  In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping presented the world with his ambitious brainchild, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Hailed as a modern-day ’silk road,’ this monumental infrastructure project aims to connect nations through a vast network of high-speed railways, power plants, ports, roads, bridges, airports, and tourism developments. While the media has extensively covered the BRI’s geopolitical impact and China’s rising dominance, the equally pressing concern of its environmental (…)

• Appointment of VCs in Karnataka: Options before the Government | P. S. Jayaramu

  25 August 2023

  With the suggestion by former minister and senior Congressman Prof. B. K. Chandrashekar recently for a Standing Committee consisting of heads of premier institutions like the IISC, the IIM, Bangalore, and the National Law School of India University for the selection of Vice Chancellors to the public universities in the State, the debate over the issue of appointment of VCs should acquire prominence again. It is highly desirable that the Government of Karnataka takes a serious look at the (…)

• How India can counter religion in politics | Rahul Mukherji

  25 August 2023

  August 20, 2023
  Six clear pathways to help India become more democratic and secular and counter the religious polarisation of politics.
  Less than a year out from a general election, India is in a political flux.
  The nation is dominated by populist, religiously polarised communal politics instead of being the secular, democratic and inclusive republic imagined in its constitution.
  Indian society is governed in a largely majoritarian way — where there is little room for minority needs (…)

• The bogey of BJP’s new constituency: Pasmanda and Muslim women | Faraz Ahmad

  25 August 2023, by Faraz Ahmad

  In the run up to the next round of assembly elections followed immediately thereafter by the countrywide Lok Sabha polls, scheduled for early next year, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) taking a cue from its unchallenged supremo, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started drumming up the bogey of wooing Pasmanda Muslims and Muslim women.
  Some time back addressing a rally in Bhopal Modi publicly beat his breast on the “exploitation of Pasmanda Muslims” by the upper caste Muslims and (…)