It’s a national embarrassment for both India and the US that they don't have a data privacy law  The Indian Prime minister Modi is in the US and amongst much fanfare a lot of joint initiatives are being announced. But one area which could have been a major bedrock for a global regulation has not even been touched. On the contrary, both governments are now engaged in regressive moves on this subject - the subject of Personal Data Protection. TikTok, the popular video-sharing app, has faced bans in several countries, including India, and now there are discussions about a potential ban in the United States as well. The concerns primarily revolve around data privacy and surveillance, with lawmakers pointing out the extensive collection of personal information by TikTok and its Chinese ownership. However, focusing solely on banning TikTok fails to address the broader issue of data privacy and government access to user information. Banning TikTok might seem like a straightforward soluti...

In a tragic incident that took place near the Bahanaga railway station in Odisha's Balasore district, a collision between the Coromandel Express and a goods train resulted in the deaths of 207 people, with over 900 others injured. The Bengaluru-Howrah superfast express was also involved in the accident. This devastating event serves as a stark reminder of the safety challenges faced by the Indian Railways.  While statistics may show a relatively low accident ratio per kilometer, it is crucial to consider the context: lower speeds, inadequate facilities, and a significantly higher passenger load compared to other parts of the world. Trains in India enjoy the same status as Airlines given the long distance travel is routinely popular. Given this scenario it is important that safety in rail travel is also given the same level of importance as in the airlines sector. The specifics of why this Accident happened such as technology or human failure may provide certain tactical cues but th...

Banksy Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash Justice BV Nagarathna of the Supreme Court of India was recently in the news for being the dissenting voice on two key judgments of the Supreme Court. The first was a verdict on whether Demonetization by the Modi Govt in 2016 was legally valid, and the second was about whether a Minister in the Government is (or not) entitled to 'Hate Speech' in the name of freedom of speech. Justice Nagarathna is, of course, no ordinary judge - she may go on to become the first female Chief Justice of India - and is the daughter of former CJI ES Venkataramiah. But this post is not about Justice Nagarathna, it is about dissent, and especially for the ilk who lament that small dissent in face a powerful lobby is useless. I've heard this often that dissent does not make a difference, especially from people do not wish to engage in socio-political debates; some well wishers also advise against making dissent publicly known for 'one's own safe...

It's easy nowadays to get offended - and it's also easy to offend someone. So when I read the news about some politician having made an 'indecent' remark about a Hindu goddess, I simply ignored it to be a political slugfest of trying to win the votes of one audience, by offending the other. It probably is indeed so - I honestly do not know.  However, as the news unravelled I came to know that the source was not this politician from the opposition parties but an Indian-origin film-maker based in Canada who apparently made a movie on Maa Kali and a poster of her film which created the waves. Apparently, the poster showed Kali smoking cigarettes - the filmmaker wanted to showcase Maa Kali as a badass hero and smoking was the way to show off the adjective! As I pondered over this, several thoughts ran into my mind - which the title of this post represents. But the very first image which flew across my mental retina was that of Gajanan Maharaj - a saint from the 19th centur...

  I am just back from a 24-hour trip to Bhopal, my hometown and my mind is full of several nostalgic moments I experienced in the last 48 hours. It started with a taking a red-eye flight alone - it's been some time since I've taken one of these red-eye ones alone; last few years I've either travelled with family or with some colleague in tow. As a solo traveler, there's that eerie botheration that I may take a nap and miss some important announcement like the Gate of my flight changing or boarding being announced. While I've never had any trouble like this, but the anxious botheration is a part of travelling solo and I experienced this anxiety after a long long time.    Then, of course, the emotional rush of being in your city of your birth and upbringing hit me as I took a taxi from the airport towards my destination. When the Taxi guy took a road different to what I'd usually take to get around, I gave him some instructions, only to realise that roads and land...

The making of the Indian union is a very interesting story. If the efforts of Sardar Patel and VP Menon in integrating princely states into India are the first chapters, the subsequent states (re)organization efforts and the pacts, impacts and outcomes of the States Reorganization Committee’s work were the later chapters which not only formed India as it is today but continue to impact how the relations between the Union and the States playout.  The impacts of the subsequent chapters are much long-drawn and persistent. They can be as severe as the persistent rise and ebb of violent separatist activities like in Naga, Bodo or Maoist districts or even as mundane as the impact on how Power Distribution companies in States get disciplined by the Union government schemes or how farm sector reforms percolate to the State level. One of the most important chapters in post-integration was Article 370, which after its abrogation on 5 August 2019, has gained a lot of media focus. It is argued...

Photo by Ben White   Do you remember when you last walked for the first time on your own?  Maybe you don't - probably a memory far too away for you to keep. I remember the first time I was able to sit cross-legged - had been trying for so long and my plump thighs won't allow me to. I remember I was around 4 and returning home with my mom after taking one of those vaccination shots, and as we reached the front door, my mom must have let me sit by the door, and lo, I sat cross-legged. That's my earliest memory of pure joy on having 'achieved' something I tried for. I also recollect the first few days of my daughter learning to walk - she was all joy, simply walking around. The joy of mobility on your own, the joy of being able to 'discover' the whole house on your own without needing anyone to carry you. Oh the joy! That joy defines for me what education should be like for all of us - joy! As I read this article , I realised that in today's world where we ...

Photo by Gabography When India went from being a British dominion to a Republic on its own, two parallel but interrelated events shaped its contours and personality. The first, was of course, the formulation of the Constitution of India - the first modern document which encapsulated the ethos, principles, and aspirations of Indians as a whole. And the second was the formal political unification of Indian territory from 600 plus splintered states and provinces into one nation. It is notable that India is one of the world's oldest republics - of the 16 Mahajanpads which formed India 2500+ years ago, two were Gantantra i.e. Republics. The world's oldest self-governing systems were in India (and not in Greece as is popularly believed). While little is known about the Indus Valley Civilization - it is very likely that this civilization also practised some form of the republican political system. Similarly, when it comes to a unified India, the earliest unification of the Indian subc...

This blog completed 17 years today -  started this blog online in 2004. But I've been writing since far before - I had a lot of my handwritten posts locked in my drawer, even one unfinished and one completed science fiction. I was 22 when I started blogging and had gained access to a computer with a 24x7 internet connection only a few months ago. The first version of my blog from 2004 Over the last 17 years, I've written on several topics and in the process discovered myself. My writing style has undergone changes, personal posts with memoirs got replaced by views and viewpoints. Off late a lot of my thoughts find their way to Facebook and Twitter rather than here. But writing in prose is still my preferred method when self-musing on a subject. Whenever I've felt to think deeply on a subject, I start researching about it and the researched material usually lends itself to a blog post. To me, 2006 to 2012 was the golden period for blogging - this was a time when blogging we...

We've evolved - from monkeys to Chimps to Neanderthals to Homo Sapiens and now to Homo Sapiens wearing masks!  Jokes apart, I am truly curious about ...  What would be the long term impact of the pandemic on mankind's evolutionary future?  To be sure, I am not claiming that two years of Covid-19 impacted lockdowns mean anything in the millennia-old human evolutionary chain. But as many experts are predicting, Covid-19 is one of the impacts of the combination of global warming, climate change, increased globalisation - as glaciers melt, several microbes and other viruses will start getting unlocked from them and increased globalisation would make the proliferation of these viruses ever faster. And hence Covid-19 is not the end, but the beginning of a long chain of pandemics which will continue to pervade mankind's destiny for the foreseeable future. Assuming the above is true, how would mankind evolve? We're observing different kinds of behavioural patterns among pop...