Author: Debobrat ghose
The month of November, in the past few years, has come to be very closely associated with the news on diabetes as 14 November is annually observed as the World Diabetes Day and India has a high incidence of this chronic disease. According to the estimates of a study published in 2023, a staggering 101 million people are suffering from diabetes in India, which is approximately 11.4% of the nation’s population (making us the second worst affected country in the world). But the most shocking revelation that is increasingly coming into spotlight is that our susceptibility to diabetes is closely…
Ahmedabad-based octogenarian architect Chandrakant B Sompura might have gained global traction for designing the architectural marvel of Ram Temple at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, but he is already an established name in the field of temple architecture in India. With many feathers in his cap, Sompura has a long list of aesthetically crafted temples to his credit in India and abroad. To name a few are Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar; Swaminarayan temple in Mumbai; Birla Mandir in Kolkata; Sun temple in Gwalior; BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in London; North American Hindu Union temple in Pittsburg, USA, and many more. He…
Image Courtesy: Flickr Delhi was listed as the most polluted capital in the world last year and the third most polluted city in the country. Though the World Air Quality Report 2023 had listed Delhi as the most polluted capital in terms of PM (Particulate Matter) 2.5 levels, the national capital suffers from other sources of pollution as well, which are no less dangerous than the air pollution. In fact, the other sources of pollution add to the air pollution. Adding to the woes due to the existing air pollution, the untreated municipal solid waste and landfills have emerged…
While the world’s most populous democracy, India conducts its biggest Lok Sabha election, the editorial piece in the reputed science journal Nature – ‘How India can become a science powerhouse’, means a lot for the current dispensation, the Narendra Modi government and its work. However, not delving into its political aspect, let’s see this headline through the prism of science. It is welcoming and satisfying that the international journal of science, Nature, has prognosticated in its edition of 18 April that India has the potential to become a leader in science. If we take a deep dive into our…
Prakritik Chikitsa, Yog aur Diabetes Dr Rajiv Rastogi Shivank Prakashan, 2023 Rs 295 Long years ago, people in India led far simpler lives than what is the norm in the country today. They ate simpler foods, their lifestyles were more in tune with the circadian rhythm, and ‘lifestyle disorder’ was a term that had not yet been applied to India. And then, economic liberalization took place, and the rest, as they say, is history. Of course, pinning every ill of the society today — including lifestyle disorders — on economic reforms of 1991 and their consequences, would not only be…
Within decades of the East India Company’s first decisive battle victory at Plassey in 1757 – which eventually paved way for the definitive growth of the British empire in India – Irish statesman, economist and philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-1797) had stated that the Company was the ‘state in the guise of the merchant’. It was, thus, clear, right from the start that the British rule in India would be designed to serve only British interests. Any ‘development’ that the colonial rulers brought about, had only British interests in mind and they employed every scientific tool within their means to exploit…
The ‘About’ tab of The Lancet magazine declares on its website: “The Lancet is an independent, international weekly general medical journal founded in 1823 by Thomas Wakley. Since its first issue (October 5, 1823), the journal has strived to make science widely available so that medicine can serve, and transform society, and positively impact the lives of people.” Unknown to the honourable and late Mr Wakley, however, The Lancet has turned a political leaf and is pursuing a geopolitical agenda beyond its scope. And to make matters more complex and egregious, it has ceased to be a fair platform, denying space to comments that point out…
At the helm of India’s nuclear research programme since its inception, Dr Anil Kakodkar, former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and former director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, has seen it grow despite infinite challenges to reach the present stage when India has a fleet of 22 operational nuclear power units with nine under construction and 12 more planned. Though nuclear energy production continues to contribute a meagre, less than 2% to the country’s total energy requirement, Dr Kakodkar feels that nuclear energy is the most feasible solution for India to achieve energy independence. He speaks to Science India at length about…
As majority global opinion takes a U-turn on the genesis of coronavirus – from natural origin to lab leak – we spotlight three Indians who contributed towards finding the answer. One question on the mind of everybody on the planet for the past year-and-a-half is: where and how did the lethal coronavirus originate? Even though major efforts of the entire world have been diverted to tackling the crisis, various theories have been doing the rounds on the possible origins of the deadly disease that has given rise to the unprecedented pandemic – having killed nearly 39 lakh people globally ever…
G Madhavan Nair, former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), first shot to national fame as Project Director of the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle), designed and operated by ISRO to launch the country’s remote sensing satellites into sun-synchronous orbits. Before the first successful launch of PSLV in 1994, this service was commercially available only from Russia. Still operational, PSLV has launched some of India’s most well-known payloads, such as the Chandrayaan, Mangalyaan and the country’s first space observatory, Astrosat. As the Chairman of ISRO (from 2003 to 2009) , Nair oversaw the launch of nearly 30 successful missions.…