World

Recent Threatening Trends to Democracy

Democracy is all about access to resources, rights, participation in decisions, freedom and the ability to pursue choice. Democracy the world over has been under threat, in recent times. In fact, in India, increasingly dilution of democratic processes can be traced to chronology of globalisation of Indian economy. There is a perspective wherein globalisation is aligned with the democracy. Globalisation[Read More...]

Notwithstanding The Ban On Biological Weapons, Research and Experiments Continue

                  In the strategic planning for various forms of weapons and warfare an important place may be assigned to those weapons or agents  and forms of  warfare which can inflict very heavy damage on the perceived enemy  in such a way that the identity of the attacker  may be completely hidden or else at least is not revealed clearly.[Read More...]

The Gilt Comes Off: Singapore Goes Into Lockdown

A clean, technology driven dystopia.  A representation of our techno future.  These were the introductory descriptions to a piece by science fiction author William Gibson on Singapore for Wired in 1993.  “Imagine an Asian version of Zurich operating as an offshore capsule at the foot of Malaysia; an affluent microcosm whose citizens inhabit something that feels like well, Disneyland. Disneyland[Read More...]

How Serious Risks From Genetically Engineered Viruses Are Increasing?

In recent decades the serious risks of genetically engineered crops, foods, animals and mosquitoes have been widely discussed and thanks to the rich contribution by several senior scientists and groups of scientists also to this debate these  hazards are now recognized quite widely. It is time now to give equal attention to the very high risks of genetically engineered viruses[Read More...]

Endless, Unfulfilled Yearnings For Peace in Afghanistan

One of the  world’s most inspiring movements for peace involved the Pashtun community. It was led by Badshah Khan, and earned the highest praise from Mahatma Gandhi who visited the villages and towns of the movement almost as a pilgrimage site. From 1933 to 1973, when Zahir Shah was the king for 40 long years, Afghanistan had a long period[Read More...]

Increasing Need for Worldwide Peace Movement With Continuity

The increasing conflict in many parts of the world and the near ruin of several once prosperous and well-resourced countries in recent times due to war, invasion and civil strife has re-emphasized the need for a strong and effective world peace which is unbiased and independent and can work with continuity. This should be created from bottom to top and[Read More...]

China on the horizon as ‘world’s pharmacy’

Jospeh Stiglitz,  the Nobel laureate,  in an essay last week , with a startling title Will Corporate Greed Prolong the Pandemic? , wrote: “…Their goal is simple: to maintain as much market power as they can for as long as possible in order to maximise profits..” Now China has gatecrashed the aggressively-guarded orchard of powerful western pharmaceutical companies… The WHO approved[Read More...]

Elbowed and Hustled: Australia’s Yellow Peril Problem

With the babble about Cold War paranoia becoming a routine matter in Canberra, the treacherous ground for war with China is being bedded down and readied.  The Yellow Peril image never truly dissipated from Australia’s politics.  It was crucial in framing the first act of the newly born Commonwealth in 1901: the Immigration Restriction Act.  Even as China was being[Read More...]