2021

by James M. Dorsey*
Oct 1, 2021
When Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed Abdulrahman Al-Thani this week described the Taliban’s repressive policies towards women and brutal administration of justice as “very disappointing” and taking Afghanistan “a step backwards,” he was doing more than holding Qatar up as a model of Islamic governance and offering the militants cover to moderate their ways.
Sheikh Al-Thani was seeking to shield the Gulf state from criticism should Qatari efforts (…)

“One of the reasons I started working in nanotechnology was so I could apply it to plants and create new technology solutions. Not just for food, but for high-value products as well, like pharmaceuticals.” So says the University of California Riverside’s Juan Pablo Giraldo, lead researcher vaccine-maker Moderna.
A GMO or genetically modified organism is considered one whose genetic material makeup does not occur in nature but has been produced by enhancing, altering, or knocking out (…)

reviewed by Twinkle Siwach
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Capital Cops:
The Unofficial Guide to Delhi Police
by Suvashis Choudhary
Har-Anand Publications Pvt Ltd
2021
Pages: 192
ISBN: 978-93-91504-01-4
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The essay begins with the context in which we are describing Delhi Police. The first part of the essay talks about the historically evolving nature of the Delhi Police. The second part presents a discussion of the book. The third part is an analysis of the functioning of the Delhi Police and (…)

The Psychology of a Patriot
Saket Suman
Rupa
10th August 2021
Pages: 240 pages; Price: Rs 295
ISBN: 978-93-91256-39-5
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A very superficial and outward idea of patriotism has been introduced into people’s lives and implanted in brains in India, so much so that gestures such as chanting anthems and waving flags are now used to define a patriot. This is how, author-journalist Saket Suman says, patriotism has historically been manipulated by political and vested interests and (…)

* USA’s Military Base in India: Security and Sovereignty issues | S G Vombatkere
* Capitalism From Below: Blending of Rice and Rum| Radhakanta Barik
* Remembering J Mohan | Sankar Ray
* Dialectic of Negativity & Chapter 6 of Marx’s Capital | Paresh Chattopadhyay
* Woman must work (1921) | Madeleine Pelletier

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, September 25, 2021
We have seen how the government or powerful interests are sensitive and nervous about data that shows them in poor light. Manipulation of statistics and numbers to manage and influence public perception is an old strategy. Data of famines or on election results in post-revolution Soviet Union or China was tightly controlled and held back. We saw the data scientists uncover large-scale fudging of data on the real numbers and estimates of (…)

by S.G.Vombatkere*
USA may operationalize the 2016 Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), by insisting on building a military base in India, for use as a staging area for beyond-the-horizon surveillance and “launching attacks on terrorists in and around Afghanistan”.
The US Administration is embarrassed by its capitulation to Taliban (signing a peace treaty with Taliban at Doha, February 2020, to allow withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan), the sudden collapse of the US (…)

by Prof Radhakanta Barik*
Rural Odisha is experiencing a new type of development which is missing from the research works by many. Here we are presenting a study of dynamics of rural economy in Odisha.
Many people raise a question that Naveen Patnaik has not done anything for industrialisation of Odisha. But they are not right as the state of Odisha was in first stage of economic growth after colonial rule of Maratha and Britishers who destroyed the economy including the ship building (…)

by Dr. Gyan Pathak
(India Press Agency, September 22, 2021)
The latest situation assessment of agricultural households and land and holdings of other households in rural India made by the NSS 77th round has revealed that per capita means of survival in rural India is dwindling fast and both farm and non-farm households are in great distress. It was the situation in 2019, which the COVID-19 induced lockdowns and containment measures further exacerbated.
For the last several decades (…)

Keeping in view the increasing problems, distress and discontent in the country, some big policy changes and course-corrections in India are really overdue now. To bring the kind of change that the country needs at this stage, the Modi government should announce at least seven key reforms which will provide significant relief to distressed people and also help to end the strong sense of injustice that prevails among vast sections of society, while also helping to revive economy and protect (…)