Amid all the hoopla over Dr. Ramakrishnan being the new “Indian” Nobel laureate, read Mohan Sinha’s very interesting and thought-provoking article about the false pride we take over people who win awards abroad and we sing and dance that they have an Indian gene somewhere:
And look at the way the Bongs and the Tams fighting [...]
Archive for the 'Science & Technology' Category
Heading west
Published by October 15th, 2009 in Education, Government, Indiaspora and Science & Technology. 0 CommentsLohia and the ‘People’s Movement Left’
Published by June 18th, 2009 in Activism, Capitalism, Caste, Democracy, Development, Economy, History, Politics, Science & Technology and Theory. 0 CommentsAmit Basole evaluates Lohia in a ‘time of crisis’ in the Indian left movements:
Along with the question of Eurocentrism, the question of the type of economic development was Lohia’s most fundamental theoretical challenge to Marxism. Marxists have been by and large unwilling to confront the possibility that industrialism and not capitalism may be the primary [...]
‘Council of Sons-in-law and Relatives’ and other dream teams
Published by June 3rd, 2009 in Corruption, Education, Environment, Government, Media, NDTV, Policy and Science & Technology. 1 CommentAnu fisks an NDTV article that sees bright days ahead for India science because a ‘dream team’ has now assumed office at the top of the ministry:
If there is to be team that dares to dream science for India, it will first question the way we raise our children, the way families answer their questions, [...]
Intelligent Design for Dummies
Published by May 28th, 2009 in Humour, Politics, Religion and Science & Technology. 0 CommentsJigar Patel explains Intelligent Design for dummies:
In the beginning, there was no life, and then;
POOF!
There it was.
Oops.. There was not a single poof. In fact, there were seven poofs spread over a period of seven days that created everything.
Creationism states that in 4004 B.C., God poofed everything into existence in a week using the highly [...]
Is this really a ‘reform’?
Published by April 13th, 2009 in Education, India, Policy, Science & Technology and Spotlight Series. 2 Comments[ This is Essay No. 36 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
Is this really a ‘reform’?
by T.A.Abinandanan
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Hemali Chhapia reports that the hub-and-spoke system of colleges being affiliated to universities may come to an end soon, at least in some Indian states. Under this move, universities will not have colleges affiliated to them; [...]
Physical structures– Mothers and Others
Published by April 6th, 2009 in Children, Gender & Sexuality, Human Rights, India, Indiaspora, Prejudice, Science & Technology, Society, Spotlight Series and Women. 9 Comments[ This is Essay No. 34 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
Physical structures– Mothers and Others
By Anu
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I have started to feel physical spaces change, ever since I became a mother a few years back. They appear changed in response to my changed status. Not in their form, function or appearance but in [...]
Undergraduate research in India
Published by March 31st, 2009 in Education and Science & Technology. 0 CommentsIf you are an undergraduate (in any discipline) in India (or even know any), I would say that Mekie’s post is a must read:
Such opportunities give you a taste of what a career in science might be like. If you are interested in going to graduate school, these experiences might give you an edge over [...]
Indians aren’t lab rats
Published by February 17th, 2009 in Activism, Announcement, Capitalism, Government, Health and Science & Technology. 3 CommentsSejal demands that the world should know this:
Three months ago, a nation-wide campaign opposing Genetically Modified (GM) crops, under the banner of ‘I am no lab rat‘, was launched. GM food is created by taking genes from organisms like bacteria, viruses, spiders, scorpions and forcibly inserting them into the genome of brinjals, potatoes, corn etc., [...]
No lap left behind
Published by February 6th, 2009 in Business, Development, Education, Government, IT, India and Science & Technology. 1 CommentGreatbong lampoons the announcement of the $10 laptop by the government, with some hilarious links:
So what if the $10 laptop is worth $30? So what if it is actually $100 and the concerned Indian official did not read one “zero” as it was mistyped —after all what’s a few zeroes between friends, especially when the [...]
FOSS and Metal Music
Published by February 4th, 2009 in IT, Music and Science & Technology. 0 CommentsAshik draws parallels between FOSS (Free and open source software) and Metal music. Very interesting points there. Check it out.
Both are creativity at work . People do make music and software for money. But the quality of something that they make for the sheer pleasure of creating something is so much more awesome !!
Crappy metal [...]
Three caveats
Published by November 18th, 2008 in Religion, Science & Technology and Secularism. 0 CommentsMeera Nanda tells you why she criticizes Hinduism:
Like Manoj and other Indian rationalists, I have often been chided by fellow Indians – fairly mainstream, middle-class bhadralok, most of them — for picking on Hinduism. I am asked if I am so concerned about irrationalities and pseudo-sciences, why don’t I take on Islam and Christianity? Aren’t [...]
Technology doesn’t breed stupidity, it makes you lazy, according to Kiran:
Sometime last year, I had been to a mall in Kuala Lumpur and enquired about the price of an iPod. The lady told me its 740 Malaysian Ringgit (RM). Now, obviously, I had to convert that to Indian Rupees, and 1 RM equals Rs. 12 [...]
Women outside science
Published by November 7th, 2008 in India, Science & Technology and Women. 0 CommentsSeema Singh, in this excellent post, opines that women continue to struggle as science falters and remains gendered:
Look at the numbers from UNESCO Institute of Statistics: The global average of women in science is 27%, for Asia it’s 15%. But India has just 10% women researchers; by contrast, in Latin America 46% of researchers are [...]
In rural Chhattisgarh, Shantanu doesn’t find the Chandrayaan swinging by:
But this is not a matter of expending money on what one might say are India’s chronically deprived underbelly. Even as I write, the press is reporting about hoe the soldiers in Siachen are being issued old and even torn clothing because new one’s haven’t been [...]
Chandrayaan in the west
Published by October 24th, 2008 in Poverty, Prejudice and Science & Technology. 1 CommentReactions in the western press anger Juggernaut:
It is beyond their primitive brains to understand what an investment in Science and Technology means in the long run. Every one of those scumbags had the standard question “Why waste 80 million $ on lofty moon missions when the money can be better spent feeding your poor?”. You [...]
Chandrayaan, in more detail
Published by October 23rd, 2008 in Blogging, India and Science & Technology. 0 CommentsThejesh has blogged live about the Chandrayaan launch:
7:25
Thejesh GN:
Link to C1XS Animations post by Doug Ellison.
C1XS technically comes in two halves – that half that monitors the Xrays as they reflect back off the surface of the moon, and an Xray Solar Monitor, to see how many Xrays are hitting the moon in the first [...]
Rakesh is among the first bloggers from India to write about the Chandrayaan:
Not only over a billion people in the country, but also millions across the world witnessed India’s entry into the elite club today. Chandrayaan 1 will take 11 days to reach the moon and it will spend around two years there. People of [...]
Free Software movement in Kerala
Published by September 10th, 2007 in India and Science & Technology. 2 CommentsIn the largest such simultaneous deployment of ‘free-and-open’ software in India, over 15 lakh Kerala school children on September 7th started taking their quarterly practical tests in Information Technology on personal computers using a special Linux version. Sasi Kumar writes a brief history of the intrepid free software movement in Kerala.
“Free software” is a matter [...]
Satellites will save the Tiger!
Published by September 5th, 2007 in Environment, India and Science & Technology. 0 CommentsPeter Foster writes on what might be a hope for conservationists.
Among the favourite channels for often-illiterate villagers, apparently, are National Geographic and Animal Planet which are always showing beautiful wildlife films.
You often hear discussions about how television is changing rural India, awakening the masses to the aspirational lives and luxuries of the urban middle classes.
But [...]
Novartis: would new patent claims result in increased medical bills?
Published by September 2nd, 2007 in Health, India, Policy, Regulation and Science & Technology. 1 CommentRamadoss Magesh, who has been diligently running a cancer support blog for more than two years now, linking to news, developments and useful information on the issue, writes on a recent ruling of the Madras HC on a petition filed by the pharma giant Novartis. Magesh looks at the larger issues of costly research on [...]
Orkut or Facebook?
Published by August 29th, 2007 in India, Media, Science & Technology and Women. 0 CommentsMahendra Palsule says Facebook is safer than Orkut, especially for women.
Well, we all know how Orkut is being misused, so why do Indians, especially women and girls, stick with it when there are better alternatives available? Facebook for example, offers some of the best privacy features among all the social networking sites.
Grameenphone
Published by August 28th, 2007 in Development, India, Science & Technology and Women. 0 CommentsBadri Seshadri examines the Grameenphone experiment in Bangladesh:
Grameen Telecom provided women (dubbed ‘phone ladies’) in Bangladesh villages with a mobile phone handset and a Grameenphone connection, funded by micro loans from Grameen Bank. In countries like India and Bangladesh landline penetration is low, and non-existent in rural areas. Rented mobile phones provided a great service [...]
Why Apple hates India
Published by August 27th, 2007 in Humour, India and Science & Technology. 0 CommentsHarkirat seems to be an earnest believer in the tranformative powers of Google, Apple and Linux (in reverse order) and his blog focusses on developments in those three domains. His latest post explores the reasons behind Apple’s apparent dislike for India:
Apple, on the other hand seems to dislike India. Many people would probably want to [...]
Digital Rights Management (DRM) Anyone?
Published by August 17th, 2007 in India, Music and Science & Technology. 0 CommentsProfessor Robert V. Kozinets writes about DRM in the music industry on his blog Brandthroposophy. He has many interesting tings to say but I quote just one-
The analogy I always used with my students for file-sharing services and for DRM hackers is the same. It’s the old carny game of Whack-a-Mole. One P2P service, [...]
Stop BIS from adapting proprietary Microsoft standards
Published by July 24th, 2007 in India and Science & Technology. 0 CommentsAnivar Arvind calls upon saner Indian community to write to Bureau of Indian Standards and ask them to stop adapting the proprietary standards of Microsoft. I agree with him. Open standards are the way to go. When the advanced countries are realizing the importance of open standards, we shouldn’t fall into the trap of proprietary [...]
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