2024

Binoy Viswam Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha)
116, North Avenue New Delhi - 110 001 Mob: 9605766702 E-mail: binoyviswam55[at]gmail.com
To, Respected Shri Ashwini Vaishnav ji,
Date: 19th May, 2024
Shri Ashwini Vaishnav, Minister for Railways, Government of India
I write to you to bring your notice towards a matter for importance concerning the safety and security of railway employees. People and organisations concerned with the developments have brought to my attention several (…)

May 16, 2024
Museums in former colonial powers face challenges in calls for decolonising their collections, but the issue acquires a different hue in India.
When India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, announced the building of the “largest museum in the world” in Delhi, the objective was to celebrate bharatiya sabhyata (Indian civilisation) and its 5,000-year existence.
This grand enterprise will be called, ‘Yugey Yugeen Bharat’, or, ‘Bharat, the epochal, the eternal’.
India already (…)

May 19, 2024
No magic bullet is in sight yet, but three vaccines for particular skin and lung cancer types have advanced to the last phase of clinical trials
A cure for cancer — which is second only to cardiovascular diseases in its contribution to the global burden of disease — has long been a dream.
While no magic bullet is yet in sight, three vaccines for particular skin and lung cancer types have advanced to the last stage of clinical trials in recent months.
If successful, these (…)

The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of India took place in the constitution Hall, New Delhi on Monday the 9th December, 1946 at eleven of the clock.
Acharya J.B. Kripalani has requested Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha to take the chair as temporary chairman. Perhaps he anticipated that a time may come when some elements might demand to change the constitution Dr. Sinha warned "my prayer is that the constitution that you are going to plan may similarly be reared for immortality if the (…)

Quite a while ago, just before the upheavals of the ’60s-shifts that have not ceased, but have been forced in less direct, less public directions — Marcuse in his One-Dimensional Man, described a populace characterized by flattened personality, satisfied and content. With the pervasive anguish of today, who could be so described? Therein lies a deep, if inchoate critique.
Much theorizing has announced the erosion of individuality’s last remnants; but if this were so, if society now (…)

National Alliance for Justice, Accountability & Rights (NAJAR)
ECI’s Affidavit before the Apex Court is misleading, legally untenable and violative of democratic principles!
NAJAR appeals for full and fair disclosure of voter turnout data by ECI and an end to secrecy, detrimental to our democracy!
23rd May, 2024: National Alliance for Justice, Accountability & Rights (NAJAR), as a collective of concerned legal professionals across India, strongly disagrees with and disapproves (…)

All India Trade Union Congress
Press release
The following press statement was issued on 23.05.2024 to the press by Amarjeet Kaur, General Secretary, AITUC
Today’s press reports say that the meeting of the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India has taken a decision to transfer Rs 2,10,874 crores as surplus to the Union Government for the accounting year 2023-24. This is a phenomenal amount, more than double the Rs87,416 crore transferred in FY23. Termed as a windfall (…)

National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) National Office: A/29, Haji Habib Bldg., Naigaon Cross Road, Dadar (E), Mumbai – 400014 Social Media: @napmindia | E-mail: napmindia[at]gmail.com | Blog: www.napmindia.wordpress.com | Web: www.napm-india.org
NAPM demands urgent government action to protect millions of outdoor workers from extreme heat and heatwaves, declaration of heatwaves as Climatic Disaster, and provision of disaster allowance to financially-affected workers Exclusion (…)

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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Reflections on Human Development Edited by Mahbub ul Haq
Oxford University Press Inc. UK
1996, 272 pages Price: 34 pounds
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The central theme of Mahbub ul Haq’s book, Reflections on Human Development, revolves around a novel development paradigm centered on human well-being. It argues that while income growth is important, it should not be seen as the sole indicator of development nor as the ultimate goal of human life. (…)

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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An Introduction to the History of Chronobiology, Volume 1: Biological Rhythms Emerge as a Subject of Scientific Research
by Jole Shackelford
University of Pittsburgh Press 2022. 332 pp. (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8229-4732-5
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Reviewed by Johanné Marais
If you are not yet thinking of the cyclical nature in everything, you may want to pick up Jole Shackelford’s An Introduction to the History of Chronobiology, Volume 1: Biological (…)